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Christina loves raw oysters, so I took her to a good little market so she could pick out "small" oysters for sampling at home.
Here are the two sisters near the top of Blackcomb Mountain in Whistler, BC. We love Canada! We spent the day taking in the sunshine at the base where it was hot....and then we took chairlifts to the almost top of the mountain where we hung out in the snow and watched skiers and riders play in the big sno-park. I couldn't believe how different the top looked compared to the area we skied in this February. The spot we loved to ski in was a massive playground for people that love going off jumps and landing on soft giant pillows! It was super fun to watch!
I love this photo of Christina because you can tell that she wasn't so sure about the whole Peak 2 Peak gondola experience. It is pretty nutty when you start to learn all the crazy facts about the gondola....like it has the largest unsupported span of cable in the world...ya know. Stuff like that. In either case, we survived the trip and made it over to Whistler mountain from Blackcomb. We promptly got beer or wine and sat outside to take in the view and the sun.
The last day that Christina was here was also the start of a very important and special week at the Swinomish Indian Tribe (where I work as a shellfish biologist). Each year a different tribe in the Puget Sound region hosts all the other tribes throughout the Pacific Northwest - but they don't arrive by car. They arrive by traditional canoe. It is a really unique experience to be able to see the arrival of all the canoes. Throughout the rest of the week each tribe performs songs and dances to the other tribes. It basically is a way for tribes to bond with one another and reinforce their unique and wonderful culture. Christina was here for the first day when all the canoes arrived, so she was able to take in some of the sights.
All employees of the tribe were gathered up to work the various jobs of the Canoe Journey week, regardless of our "real" job for the tribe. I signed up to work for the recycling group that was trying to make the huge event (hosting and feeding more than 10,000 people) a reduced-waste event. Right up my alley! Well, I spent the week happily dumpster diving with a few other hardy souls to sort lazy people's trash for them. That's right. I pulled recyclables and compostables out of dumpsters to keep the stuff out of landfills. My boss took a photo of me and a few other hard core women in the dumpsters. I'll post it if I ever get my hands on it. After last week I'm convinced there is no hope for the human race. But aside from that everything is fine, just fine. I will say that it was fun to dumpster dive but I'm glad that it isn't my full time job.
We didn't go away this past weekend - we were content to chill in Anacortes on Saturday. We rode our bikes to town on Saturday and had a warm, sunny breakfast at our favorite restaurant, Adrift. Then we bought out the local farmer's market (berries are so good in Skagit County). We spent the rest of the day doing who knows what around the house - but mostly we sat outside in the sun. After five months of March, we did have summer this week. On Sunday we finally did a day hike that we have heard about for ages. You can see the image of Jay above on Sauk Mountain, along the Skagit River Valley.
Sauk Mountain
Julie at the top of Sauk Mountain. You can tell that it was a huge snow year for the Cascades and many of the hikes we would like to do are not possible to hike yet because of all the snow!
Avalanche lilies pushing up through the snowMy photos of the month of July are here: https://picasaweb.google.com/julie.barber1/July2011Washington
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