The rest of September and all of October 2015!!

I love writing the blog but sometimes life wins out over the blog! Here is all of October plus the remainder of September in one photo blog! I'll hopefully get a chance to cover November before we head off to Papua for our vacation in December.

 

Late September and early October was the time for catching up with dear friends from my Glacier Bay days. Jenni came to visit and brought along her two kiddos - Finn and Keegan. Look at us in the old days in Glacier Bay versus now! I'm fairly certain we have grown up a bit....but I'd still wear that outfit for Halloween any day.

Ahhhhh more entertainment from looking back on the old Glacier Bay days. Fifteen years ago to be exact! Whoa. Mike stalking brown bears, Paul working the limbo, and me doing who knows what in my drysuit after a dive. Mike is still an Alaskan and Paul and I probably both dream of being Alaskans. I keep inching closer and closer with each move. =)

The woman who had the Our World-Underwater Scholarship the year after me (I was the 1999 Scholar and Ali was the 2000 Scholar) has also remained a great friend. For a while Ali and her partner, Bob, lived in Sidney, BC a short ferry ride away from us. That was awesome! Alas, they have since moved to D.C. but we managed to score on a weekend visit with Ali when she was out west for work. We took her on a hike in the Anacortes Community Forest Lands and walked out with a buttload of parasol mushrooms. We ate well that night and Ali is going to move back west as a result. Right?

We spent a long weekend in California at Yosemite National Park for Jay's cousin Phil's wonderful wedding. What a place for a wedding! I wish Jay and I had the extra time to go for a backpacking trip to get away from all the crowds, but we were very content to spend the weekend soaking up as much family time as possible. Look at this view combined with the family! I love these people....

Phil and Maia had a wonderful dinner for guests the night before the wedding that ended with hot chocolate spiked with chambord and stargazing behind the Wawona Hotel. Awesome evening!

The morning of the wedding all the cousins plus Allison went for a hike up to Vernal Falls. That was fun. I couldn't believe how many people were visiting the park and hiking. But better here than a mall right?

 

The beautiful and happy couple, Maia and Phil. We loved their vows.....given in the presence of mountains, trees, birds, family, and friends.... who needs a cathedral when you have natural landscapes?

 The Ahwahnee Hotel in the background

Happy cousins

This was supposed to be an awesome shot of Lee, Jay, and Allison - but it is even more entertaining with the cousin David photobomb.

I was so excited to wear this dress! I had a tailor in Anacortes take my Burmese silk longyi (think of something like a sorong) that I never wore in the USA and turn it into a halter dress. Now I can wear Burmese silk to fancy events instead of always looking at it in my closet. Here is a photo of the two women I bought the longyi from in central Burma. She is actually sewing a longyi together for my mother in this photograph. There was a lot of giggling and laughter - I think it was fun for me and them to have this transaction and interaction. Aren't they gorgeous? I wonder all the time about people who I have crossed paths with for short periods of time - how are they? Are they excited about the promising (fingers crossed) changes that appear to be happening in their country??

After the wedding we flew back to Washington with Allison! She spent the remainder of the week and following weekend with us. Orcas Island is a favorite place for all of us, so for our birthday gifts Allison rented a sweet little cabin for a night and took us out to dinner at an up-and-coming restaurant called Hogstone's Wood Oven. It was amazing food, but nothing could beat the company!

View from Orcas Island looking south to the Wasp Islands

Hike up Turtleback Mountain

My job continues to stink - I'm forced to spend days on the boat in the islands diving. The morning light on Mt. Baker was a particular treat right before this geoduck survey dive.

We hired a new diver at Swinomish and I wanted to take her on some more challenging dives to make sure she was a solid diver (she is great)....so we headed to Long Island where there is a crazy wall and strong currents. One treat with this dive is a wall of Corynactis californica or the strawberry anemone, seen here next to a Solaster.

 Metridium on the wall

 HUGE and seriously cute Cryotolithodies - umbrella crab

 Juvenile Lopholithodes mandtii - Puget Sound king crab

We spent the second to last weekend in October on Orcas Island again - but this time we met up with our friends Andy and Jen who live in Victoria, B.C. Jen had always wanted to go to the Doe Bay Resort, so we reserved a yurt and spent the weekend shivering in it since the "heater" was not meant to heat as much as keep the yurt from being damp. Who knew? Anyway, that is our yurt....what a spot! 

Andy found a single bolete on our hike in Moran State Park. We think it might have been a queen bolete. It ended up in our bellies.

We had wine, cheese, and crackers on the top of Mt. Constitution and watched the stormy light move in over Lummi Island and the almost snow-free Mt. Baker.

 Doe Bay at night

Birder friends - is this a juvenile northern goshawk? He/she hung out in our backyard for a while trying to hunt squirrels. Totally awkward and funny. We think it is a goshawk because of the uneven tail stripes....but it could be a juvenile Cooper's hawk. Man. We are not awesome at juvenile hawk ID.

September photos are here: https://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/September2015?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIekwdnM6fzhIw&feat=directlink

October photos are here: https://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/October2015?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLbWz_XB9MXyAg&feat=directlink