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Tag: Washington

A Taste of Baker Lake

Posted on October 11, 2017February 8, 2020 By Tom 1 Comment on A Taste of Baker Lake
Paddling, Photography, Washington Sabbatical

Baker Lake Paddling-67

NOTE: I’m about a week behind in my blogging. I’ll try to catch up on several posts over the next couple of days.

It’s been a week of tragedy. The Las Vegas shooting and the disasters in Puerto Rico weighed heavily on my mind, as well as the ineptitude of the current administration’s dealings with these. Then there were the closer, more personal tragedies. Two friends lost their spouses suddenly – one younger and one older, but age has no bearing on grief. There was the passing of a Facebook acquaintance and classmate and another friend lost her close sister. I learned that a respected colleague and mentor was quite ill and had entered hospice care. To top all of that off, we were still dealing with Laura’s mom’s estate. It seemed that death was all around us. If ever I was in need of some quiet respite in a kayak, this was that time. This was one of those days where the weather was perfect, but the tides were not cooperating. I decided to head into the mountains and explore Baker Lake.

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Searching for Skagit City

Posted on October 9, 2017 By Tom 1 Comment on Searching for Skagit City
Photography, Rambling, Washington Sabbatical

Skagit City

Ghost towns in Washington State? Yes, please! With all of the settling in and touristy stuff we’ve been doing I had not taken time for a good photo ramble. Laura had some Furman work to do, the weather was perfect, so I decided that I head off in search of the ghost town of Skagit City.

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Punkin’ Chunkin’

Posted on October 6, 2017 By Tom 2 Comments on Punkin’ Chunkin’
Photography, Science, Washington Sabbatical

Burlington Harvest Festival and Pumpkin Pitch-097

Laura and I used to love watching the World Championship Punkin Chunkin each year on the Science Channel. The show was hosted by Mythbusters Cari Byron and Grant Imahara and featured some amazing catapults and trebuchets. Sadly, the event has been cancelled because of an accident in 2016 involving one of the producers of the show.

Fast forward to this year…

We were delighted to see that a “Pumpkin Pitch” would be part of the 2017 Burlington Harvest Festival. We knew we HAD to see it, so last Saturday we headed over to the Skagit River Park in Burlington to watch the festivities.

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The Stars Come Out at Night

Posted on September 28, 2017October 4, 2017 By Tom No Comments on The Stars Come Out at Night
Miscellaneous, Photography, Washington Sabbatical

Night Photography on Samish Island-3

It’s been a long time since I’ve lived in a place where I can look up and see the Milky Way. Our home in Greenville is in the heart of the city and light pollution is terribly. Up here on Samish Island I can step out the back door and have a clear view of our galaxy, weather permitting. With the recent clear skies I’ve been tempted each night to head out with a camera to do some night photography. The other night I gave into that urge.

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Foggy Samish Island Paddle

Posted on September 27, 2017October 4, 2017 By Tom No Comments on Foggy Samish Island Paddle
Paddling, Photography, Washington Sabbatical

Samish Island Paddling in Fog-43

I mentioned this in a previous post. Kayaking at Samish island can be tricky. Tide and weather have to be in agreement. Tuesday morning the tides were perfect, with high tide at 11:30 am. However, the weather wasn’t so great. A heavy fog had rolled in. I was seeing patches of blue overhead and knew that it would burn off eventually, so I loaded up the boat and headed over to Duff’s beach cabin for a foggy paddling trip.

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Bring Your Own Guitar

Posted on September 21, 2017October 4, 2017 By Tom 2 Comments on Bring Your Own Guitar
Music, Washington Sabbatical

Bring Your Own Guitar-4

We’ve been looking for groups and outlets with which to get involved while here in Washington. I’ve been looking for musicians circles, drum circles, and other groups similar to those I’ve found in Greenville. No such luck. I haven’t even found a kayaking group. Then, I came across a listing for a Bring Your Own Guitar event on Facebook. The description sounded interesting, so I decided to check them out.

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Kayaking on Bellingham Bay

Posted on September 18, 2017 By Tom 3 Comments on Kayaking on Bellingham Bay
Paddling, Photography

Kayaking Bellingham Bay-81

It’s been over a month since I’ve had a boat in the water and things just didn’t seem…right. On the trek across country I had two kayaks on top of the car and we crossed many bodies of water that looked ripe for paddling. However, the rest of my paddling gear was in a shipping box making its own way across country. Plus, we had two cats with us and were on a time crunch, so stopping to paddle wasn’t an option. Finally everything aligned – the paddling gear had arrived, the weather was good, tides were favorable, and we weren’t having major appliances or septic systems installed. It was time to paddle.

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Settling In, Part 2

Posted on September 15, 2017October 4, 2017 By Tom 1 Comment on Settling In, Part 2
Miscellaneous, Travel, Washington Sabbatical

Skagit Morning

Life on our island is still an odd dichotomy of frenzy and relaxation. It’s incredibly peaceful, but we still have so much to do. Similar to the stages of grief, there seem to be stages of settling in. We hit the tourist stage while Glynda was here, and seem to be in the midst of the “dealing with stuff” stage. I’m ready to get to the “normal life on the island” stage, whenever that might come.

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