Currently, if I were on the west coast, I think I might likely be heading to the state I was born in, to go to the biggest town in that state, Portland, to join those trying to protect the lawful protesters from Trump's thuggish Storm Troopers.
Back to what made me homesick today, well, actually this arrived last night, via email. Photos from Washington's Harstine Island.
For those living in Fort Worth who know not of such things, Harstine Island is an actual island, a chunk of land totally surrounded by actual water. In this case the saltwater of Puget Sound. Harstine Island can be accessed by boat, float plane or the bridge which connects the actual island to the mainland. That bridge was built in less than a year, over actual water, the depth of which varies due to this thing called tidal action.
The photos from Harstine Island came in two separate emails.
The text in the first email said "Some Tacoma friends came to the island on their boat, Theo as sandcastle, and the mountain framed between trees."
Which would make that Theo being an integral part of a sandcastle, in the picture you see above. That is Theo's sister, Ruby, to the right of the castle. But, the kid on the left is not brother David, unless David is nowadays coloring his redhead hair a new color.
That would be the Tacoma friend's boat on the right side of the below photo. That white thing you see on the horizon, in the distance, is Mount Rainier, known in Washington simply as The Mountain.
Also, in the above photo, if you look on the left side of the picture you will see some swimmers swimming. Their identity was not part of the information in the email, so I don't know if it is David, Theo and Ruby in the water.
Yes, for those who have not had the pleasure, the saltwater of Puget Sound can get warm enough to pleasantly swim in. That and at most locations the water is crystal clear, with the not crystal clear locations being where rivers drain into Puget Sound, with that river water made silty due to much of the water being from melting glaciers and snowpacks.
Continuing on we come to the photo with the mountain framed between trees.
That appears to be Mama Kristin in the kayak, floating under Mount Rainier.
Now we come to the second email, with the explanatory text of "While waiting to see the comet, Theo tossed some rocks in the water and it lit up! I told them you tried to show them bioluminescence at birch bay but they didn’t remember."
Above you are see the blue bioluminescent glow that lit up when Theo threw a rock in the water. There were two other blue glow photos, with the above one being my favorite. It sort of looks like a blue alligator.
I did try to get the kids to experience bioluminescence when we were at Birch Bay, summer of 2017. It was a Sunday night, August 13, to be precise. The tide was all the way in. It was dark. The Uncle Mooch entourage had departed. I had earlier that day told the Tacoma Trio that if we went in the Bay after dark the water would glow.
So, we went to the water's edge, tested the water. It was cold, way too cold to get wet in. We should have tried soon after dark, before the tide was all the way in, and while the water was still warm from being heated from rolling in across the HOT sandy tidal flats.
If all had gone according to the plan, I would be in Washington right now. I think the Birch Bay part of being there would have happened more towards the end of July.
I have yet to remember to go out after dark to look north at the Big Dipper to see the comet. Maybe I will remember tonight.
And that is the final photo, the aforementioned comet, far above Harstine Island.
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