Back in Friday Harbor

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

     We are now back in Friday Harbor and off to the wedding of my oldest brother’s youngest son, in Casper, Wyoming. I am so looking forward to it because I am craving seeing family again. A couple of my four sisters will be in attendance, my niece who lives next door to us in New Mexico, Kiera Rose, who I haven’t seen since Christmas, will be there, as well as my two youngest children, Arianna and Kieran. I am going to savor this celebration especially because we’ve been gone for the last two and half months.  It is my nephew, Peter Lang who is marrying Whitney, a very wonderful young woman.

     On our way here we spent a couple nights in Fulford Harbor, off of Salt Spring Island. It is the first place we stayed and anchored at the beginning of our sailing this summer. It was nice to be back there again after all the many places we’ve anchored throughout the summer. There is a mountain at the head of the harbor with unique features which helped us find our way in the beginning of this adventure. Now we know it’s name, Mount Maxwell.  We went into the little town this time, looking for some rye whiskey, Alberta Springs, to take to my brother Chris at the wedding. We asked this kindly old man for directions. He told us we would have to hitch hike or take the local bus over to Ganges Harbor, fifteen minutes away by automobile. The bus was just getting ready to go so we hopped on. We drove through a countryside with little farms, orchards, sheep and cows. It was late afternoon /early evening and the light was soft and mellow with long shadows starting. I felt like weeping at the beauty of it all. This old woman flagged the bus down and climbed up into the front seat. She started chatting with the bus driver about the rain they had had, how wonderful it was to have some rain (it has been a relatively dry summer up here in the northwest this year), and even if you have drip irrigation there is no comparing the two. Rain is definitely the better, the best. I wanted to add my agreement to her statement but I felt shy and too much of an outsider to join the conversation. The bus driver let her off right next to her destination, not an “official” bus stop. It felt very homey and small town. We found the whiskey at a “government” liquor store, (this is Canada) and had time to sit at an outdoor restaurant /bar and drink a beer in the warm sun before catching the bus back to Fulford Harbor.

      The following morning dawned pristine. Mike slept in and I caught up with my journal and read. In the early afternoon we took the dinghy, our “donkey” and went to visit this little island near by, now a public monument. It was once the home of a couple, he was Anglo Canadian and she was half Hawaiian and half First Nation. Her father was one of the Hawaiians that the Hudsons Bay Company brought to Canada to work for them! Amazingly some of the Hawaiians opted to stay and homestead in the northwest! The island was a wonder. All the farm land that this woman’s father homesteaded/cleared is taken over again by Douglas Firs. He’d cleared a hunk of the island at the beginning of the twentieth century.The government keeps the home with it’s gardens and orchard clear for tourists to visit. I was in awe of all the hard physical work that people had to do in those days. Of course there are places in the world still like that today. The daughter/mother/wife had thirteen children and was renowned among the local people as being a very free spirit who was very hospitable to all and on top of that she loved to sail! She would whistle for the wind to blow! Visiting these places makes the area come so much more alive for me.

      Two days ago we were in another state park but within the U.S. We were anchored in Reid Harbor on Stuart Island. We had a wonderful five mile walk to the old light house on the point, now automated. Along the way we visited the old one room school house and the teacher’s quarters, now both a museum and library. It was so interesting! back then people made a living off the land and ocean in a very basic way. They fished, some raised geese and turkeys, others cut down forest and sold the wood to a limestone mine on another island, others cleared land to grow fodder for their cows and horses. So much hard physical work but they didn’t know any other way and I think they were happy for the most part. It must have been grueling and exhausting at times, I’m sure. Now we have so much that we just take for granted! How will it all end, I often wonder.

      Well we are off to Caspar, Wyoming now, the final leg. 

Until the next post, hope you are all well,

            Tina