Sequestered in Seattle, Day 437

Saturday morning I woke up at 5:55. I had predicted to Rachel that it would be before six. I went back to sleep. Still, Rachel and I were out of the house around 7:30 to go get pastries from the bakery formerly known as Le Rêve. As promised, they have kept the same menu, and if you arrive early enough, they have some of everything.

Rachel ate her pastries, did her reading for the week, and then met with Maëva. Then we all got ready for the day's excursion. We were contemplating putting it off until Sunday, but Lydia has a birthday party to go to then.

We left the house around ten thirty and drove south and across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge to the end of Hood Canal to walk on the Theler wetlands trail. At the start of the trail we found a garden full of labeled native plants, which was unexpected. On the trails, which included a boardwalk, we saw many more plants, lots of birds, and not many people.

Interesting plants included Pacific crabapple, Nootka rose, and Pacific ninebark. Birds included swallows, redwing blackbirds, cedar waxwings, and what might have been a pheasant.

It was mid-afternoon by the time we had lunch at a picnic table back by the car. Colin and Eric played on the playground a little. Then, over the protests of some children, we drove a few miles along Hood Canal to Twanoh State Park for a short hike. The trail went from the beach up into the woods to the top of a bluff. It was steeper than the description led me to expect, but still not too strenuous. I thought we'd find a clearing with wildflowers, too, but we never did.

We didn't see many birds, but Lydia spotted a shrew or something of that sort, and we watched it moving along the edge of the trail. It seemed completely unconcerned at our proximity. The plant highlights were flowering rhododendrons, Pacific dogwood, devil's club, and vanilla leaf. And several others really, some of which we haven't identified yet.

The day started out heavily overcast, but gradually lightened and warmed up. However, on the drive home through Tacoma, the whole sky seemed filled with gray again. We passed through it, though.

Back home about seven thirty, we had to park on the street due to the alley being blocked at both ends. Eventually it cleared up. During our hike, Nicole was distracted because we got messages that our alarm had gone off. I saw the mail inside the door and wondered if the mail slot had set of the glass break sensor. Nicole performed an experiment, and confirmed. We'll see about insulating that a bit before we leave the alarm on again.

We cobbled together a dinner, took some showers, and watched two more episodes of Merlin before calling it a day. There's just one more in season three.

This morning I read an article in the Washington Post about five Oregon counties voting to become part of Idaho instead. The map in the article wasn't very helpful, so I had to look one up. What the article failed to say, somehow, is that the five counties aren't contiguous. Three of them could plausibly expand southwest Idaho, but Sherman and Lake Counties would be islands of Idaho in Oregon. This isn't very consequential since, as the article says, the steps to see this through aren't likely, but it seemed to me like the most amazing part was left as an exercise for the reader. Did the writer even check? I'll never know.