Our Annual Migration South 2024

 September 5 through 15, 2024

Day 1 – 5 Sept – 58 miles – Bellingham, WA to Marysville, WA – We opted to make it an easy day.  I’m still a bit sick with whatever I developed from the cruise or the forest fire smoke, and it took a while to pack the car, so we got a later-than-anticipated start to our drive.  Richard and I like the Village Inn in Marysville, which my family still calls the Pie Place because the original building had a giant slice of pie billboard on their roof when we arrived in 1968.  You know a car full of kids will notice a giant pie in the sky!  We we’re spending our first night here, and will get an earlier start tomorrow.

 

Day 2 – 6 Sept – 284 miles – Marysville to Hermiston, OR – We drove through Snoqualmie Pass, which was somewhat clear but hazy due to all the forest fire smoke in the region.  It’s always dramatic with the tall evergreen trees, rocky cliffs, and soaring mountains.  No animals other than other drivers in cars, all with our windows rolled up to keep out that smoke.  (My smoke and fire map shows medium to heavy density smoke throughout the region, and most of the mountains are in the red flag warning stage.  Not a good time to be doing this drive!)  Then across central Washington with the rolling gold-beige hills, across the mighty Columbia River, and on into north-central Oregon for the night.

 

We stopped for coffee at a little drive-through shop, and the baristas were in bikinis.  Rather surprised the two of us, and I blurted out “oh, I didn’t know you’d be in a bikini!”  Yeah, we live such sophisticated lives.

 

Day 3 – 7 Sept – 335 miles – Hermiston to Bliss, ID – We were planning to get as far as Twin Falls, then turn south into Nevada.  Didn’t quite get that far, but it was a good long day of driving.  Nothing major, just lots of rest stops.  Some repeating places we’ve been before, some new stops.

 

Day 4 – 8 Sept – 87.3 miles – Bliss to Jackpot, NV – We like this quirky little town.  Plus it’s a long drive to go from north NV to south NV, so we like to break it up.  Still a lot of smoke in the air, so we opted to stop at our favorite Jackpot hotel, the Four Jacks.  I played my friendly slot machine Zeus Unleashed – he’s almost always good to me, and has all sorts of flashing lights and thunderous exploding sounds.  We had fun.

 

Day 5 – 9 Sept – 204 miles – Jackpot to Ely, NV – We stayed at the Copper Queen Hotel last time we passed through Ely several years ago.  We’re now staying at their second property across the street, in a quieter and more modern space.  The Copper Queen is definitely an old school bar/restaurant/hotel/casino, not quite of Miss Kitty’s era but about as close as one can find in the 21^st century.

 

It's funny, we’ve been on this route before.  We stopped at the rest area dedicated to the Pony Express riders, I remembered the sculpture immediately!  But the scenery is pretty, the road (Highway 93) less travelled, and we both prefer to be off the beaten path.

 

Day 6 & 7 – 10 & 11 Sept – 215 miles – Ely to St. George, UT – Sort of a winding route through The Great Basin, and a corner of the Humboldt National Forest.  Plus I was stopped by either a state trooper or local police for speeding.  He let me off with a warning (and I told him he was a sweetheart) – but it was a little bit hairy for several minutes there!

 

We spent a second night in St. George – we found an inexpensive hotel that was comfortable, included breakfast, was walking distance to somewhere for lunch, and we were just tired.  So sure, a second night.

 

Day 8 – 12 Sept – 266 miles – St. George to Flagstaff, AZ – We swung around the north side of the Grand Canyon today, and had lunch at Jacob Lake, a place we stayed several years ago.  Good lunch and phenomenal cookies!  Then we continued south on US highway 89, through desert, hills, mountains, national forest, and along the Vermillion Mountains – such an incredible red!  Really a gorgeous drive, though it did make for a rather long day.

 

Day 9 – 13 Sept – 56.8 miles – Flagstaff to Camp Verde, AZ – We have favorite hotels and casinos in various places around the world, and one of those is the Cliff Castle Hotel and Casino in Camp Verde, Arizona.  We booked a room in their less fancy property, The Lodge, which is quite comfortable even if it isn’t in the posh hotel attached to the casino.  But we both had fun (and luck) in the casino, and we’ll enjoy a leisurely breakfast there in the morning before continuing southward.

 

Day 10 – 14 Sept – 143 miles – Camp Verde to Casa Grande, AZ – We tried driving on state roads today, but got hopelessly lost.  Greta the Garmin stopped speaking to us, so we had no idea where we were supposed to go.  Our maps didn’t show what we needed, and driving without any direction in the middle of Arizona is just not a good idea.  We finally went back to the interstates, and braved the highway traffic through Phoenix.  That included a detour off the highway and then back on, which took about an hour.  It looked as if there was some maintenance on an overpass, so, well, yes, if a bridge on the interstate needs repairs, sure, we'll take the detour.

 

Day 11 – 15 Sept – 69.5 miles – Casa Grande to Tucson, AZ – We’re finally here!  Long drive from Bellingham, but we managed to drive about 1576 miles in eleven days, with one rest day along the way.  Not too bad!  Though Google maps says our whole drive was closer to 1695 miles, but I did track our miles each day so who knows.  Somewhere between 1600 and 1700 miles.  At least we weren’t walking that!

Summer in Bellingham

June 1 to September 4, 2024

 

We spent our summer in Bellingham doing our normal medical stuff - the general doctor.  Specialists.  Dentists.  Eye doctors.  Lab tests.  Imaging stuff.  All kinds of doctors.  It gets the job done, and we both feel better seeing people who have become our medical team, who can see changes as we age and new body parts get used up or worn down.  Just kind of easier to see the same people who can see those changes, rather than always seeing someone new who says "hey, you're in great shape for a 70 year old."

Yes, I also turned 70!  Yikes, the first time I wrote that on a form was a bit frightening.  It's such a big number!  When we were 25 or so, did any of us think about what our lives would like at age 70?  No, of course we didn't!  We were too busy being young, exploring the world, figuring out who we were and how we fit into the greater scheme of things.

Now, at 70, well, some of us are still exploring the world.  We're pretty sure we know who we are by now.  And most of us have figured out that we're just one tiny dot in the world, and a tinier dot in the universe.  Maybe we've made the world a little better for having been here, maybe we haven't.  Hopefully we haven't made it any worse.  I like to think I've made it a little better for the people I've been close to: family, friends, colleagues, students.  But we really never know, we can only hope.

So with this momentous birthday, as my brother called it, I told Richard that what I really wanted to do was to go on another whale watch cruise.  I didn't want a big party, I didn't want anything fancy, I didn't even need a gift.  Just wanted to go out on the water and see whatever wildlife was around.

I didn't take any photos of whales, because then I end up focusing on the photos and not on what I'm seeing so I just enjoyed the whales.  So, photos of the ship, our great seat on the bow, islands, water, Mount Baker looming in the distance.

We encountered two young humpbacks.  Now, humpback whales are common in the Pacific, and they've started coming into the Salish Sea in recent years.  (The Salish Sea is used to describe the various straits and sounds and inlets that were originally named things like Puget Sound and the Straits of Juan de Fuca.  But they're all attached and connected, so the name the Salish Sea covers the combined waterways.)

Okay, back to our whales.  Humpbacks are called that because when they do a deep dive to hunt for food, they bend forward and arch their backs, hence the hump.  They dive down, and much of the time their tail comes up to help propel them deeper.

Now, the underside of the tail, called the fluke, is used to identify each humpback.  And, it seems that these two particular humpbacks had not yet been identified and named by the whale researchers!  Our naturalist onboard our ship went to the humpback ID website, and there were no matches - wow, new unidentified juvenile whales!  Exciting!

The naturalist contacted the researches nearby, and they said they'd come out and meet us.  She told the captain, and so our ship followed the two young humpbacks for probably a full hour, maybe more.  The two would surface, and breathe out, creating that typical puff of condensation.  They'd do a shallow dive.  Come back up, puff, dive again.  They'd do this maybe four to six times - and then they'd hunch their backs, flip their tales and do a deep dive!  SO exciting!

Sometimes the whales would surface way ahead of us, and the captain would speed the ship up so we could follow them.  Sometimes they'd head in a different direction, so we would too.  Regulations (or laws) state that boats need to stay 200 feet from sea mammals - but the whales don't know that, so occasionally they'd surface really close to the ship, so close we could hear them exhale in a loud whoosh!  WHOA!

It really was thrilling!  After roughly an hour of following the whales, the research vessel came up, and we let them take over.  It also was about time to head back to Bellingham.  But wow, what a great way to celebrate my birthday!

We also saw harbor seals, and stellar sea lions which are the really big sea lions that like to sit on buoys.  Seals and sea lions need to get out of the water after several hours and warm up in the sun, so buoys are very handy.  (Sea lions are larger, and have a different skeletal structure that allows them greater range of motion than seals - so seals can't get up on the buoys the way the sea lions can.)

We rented a house for the summer, which turned out to be in a wonderful part of Bellingham.  We were located across the street from a 70 acre park, and right by a designated green space that protects one of the small rivers or creeks in the area.  So we had deer walking through the yard on a regular basis.  Bunnies hanging out in the garden.  Hummingbirds in the trees, with the parents hovering overhead like drones, trying to get me to not sit outside and read so close to their nests.  I could hear the babies in the nest, making little ticking sounds!

Our landpeople lived in another house on the property, and kept a gorgeous garden!  They shared their bountiful harvest with us - zucchini, radishes, corn, eggplant, artichokes!!  I would periodically chase the deer out of the garden, or away from the rose bush.  And I shared the zucchini bread I made.

So it was a wonderfully relaxing summer.  Lots of reading outside, watching the gang of stags come through.  Really, grandpa stag was majestic - probably eight or ten points on his antlers!  A bit thick in the torso, so we could tell he was the oldest male in the posse.  He absolutely owned the neighborhood - he'd march down the street, and no one challenged him.  Every other deer either moved out of his way, or followed him down the street.  SO much attitude!  He knew he was all that!

One evening, Mr. Stag Sr and his gang decided to visit the neighbor's back yard.  I grabbed my camera, but by the time I went back outside, the three main stags were all sitting or lying down, eating all the dandelions they could reach.  I guess standing and eating dandelions was just too difficult, or they were too low, or hey, it had been a hard day.  It was funny to watch these magnificent and majestic animals lazily lying around and eating flowers from that position.

I did manage to meet up with most of my Seattle friends, and spend some time with my brother and sister-in-law.  Capped off the summer with the cruise to Alaska with another sister-in-law (the five previous blogs).  

 

And then we began our trip south to warmer climes.  But that will be another blog.

The Sister-In-Law Cruise Event - Days 6 & 7

29 August 2024 – Day 6 – Ketchikan  

30 August 2024 – Day 7 – Victoria, British Columbia

31 August 2024 – Disembarkation – Seattle

 

Ketchikan is an interesting mix of old commercialism and new commercialism.  Right off the cruise ship docks there are umpteem new stores full of things Alaskan, such as seed of indigenous flowers, smoked salmon, and various animal fur items.  (I buy the flower seeds for friends – they grow well in the Pacific Northwest.)  And there are the pseudo-Alaskan things made in China.  Tons of gold, possibly mined in Alaska and fabricated elsewhere.  That area is always interesting and always bustling!

 

One place even has a life-size female orca, just in case you didn’t see one while cruising!

 

And then, if one walked inland toward the hills and to the right of the super tall totem pole with a soaring eagle on top, you can reach the old part of town.  This area along “Creek Street” (because there’s a creek, not a road) was, once upon a time, the red light district.  Bars, brawls, and women.  The stores are now upscale and artsy, although one place does advertise itself as having been one of the larger brothels back in the late 1800s or so.

 

The buildings are as colorful as this neighborhood’s past, with wooden walkways over the creek and various treasures tucked away along the route. 

 

People gather to watch the salmon swimming upstream to spawn, and back downstream to, sadly, die.  As one little girl very solemnly told me, this is part of their life cycle.  (Seriously, we were watching the salmon and looking for seals, and she explained the life of the salmon to me.  I think she was all of five or six.  She really was so serious about it, this upcoming marine biologist.)

 

We did see an adult seal in the creek, periodically bobbing up to look around before diving down to eat more salmon.  We also see one young seal, just a splash and a glimpse of a short seal still with his baby spotted fur, practicing its salmon hunting skill right below the small bridge where we stood!  SO exciting!

 

Ketchikan, like most of the Alaskan panhandle, has a somewhat mild but wet climate – rarely freezing but often cloudy-foggy-drizzly-misty-raining-or-pouring.  Grey and wet.  This creates very lush vegetation, with the evergreen tree filled forests and the berry bushes and huge ferns growing below.  Gorgeous and very very green.

 

I love the stories of the totem poles.  So here’s the description from the sign about the totem pole entitled “Raven Stealing the Sun,” a Tlingit legend.

 

“The Raven Stealing the Sun kootéeyaa (totem pole), commissioned by the City of Ketchikan, honors the Taant’a ­­Kwáan Tlingit who have inhabited the local area since time immemorial.  Tahltan/Tlingit master carver Dempsey Bob and his nephew apprentice Stanley Bevan (Tsimshian/Tlingit) designed and carved the pole, which was raised in 1983.

 

“The totem pole tells of a time when the world had no light.  Raven discovered that the sun, moon, and stars were hoarded by a powerful chief.  Raven changed form, appearing as the Chief’s grandson, and cried until his grandfather gave him the boxes containing the heavenly bodies.  Then Raven, with his trickery, opened the boxes, bringing light in the form of the stars, moon, and sun to the earth.”

 

Isn’t that a wonderful story?  In Tlingit lore, Raven often helps humans, although Raven is decidedly tricky and not always to be trusted.  On the totem pole, Raven is the top figure, holding the Sun in his claws.  Below the Sun is the Chief’s daughter, sitting, and the bottom figure is the Chief, wearing a tall hat.  According to the signage, “Baby’s face in the hat suggests Chief’s Raven-ness.”  So I guess this Chief was somehow related to Raven.

 

Anyway, that was our exciting morning in Ketchikan.  We only had a short morning in port due to our ship’s schedule and itinerary.  But we hit the town’s highlights, two species of animals, and enjoyed our final stop in Alaska.

 

On our last full day, we spent most of our time at sea, sailing along the west coast of Vancouver Island, which meant we really were on the Pacific Ocean.  SO many whales!  We didn't see much of each whale, just their puff cloud as they exhaled, and maybe a bit of back and dorsal fin as they dove back down.  Very few tail flaps.  Very few spy hopping moves (when they pop straight up out of the water and look around).  Only one whale, in the distance, slapping one fin on the surface of the water, repeatedly!  We could barely see the whale, but the splash was large enough to see that.  Over and over again!  Marine biologists say this is one way humpbacks communicate with each other.  Possibly because the females don't have the loud "singing" voice that male humpbacks have, so they slap the water.  Fascinating to see!  We spent our afternoon up in the buffet area because that really does provide a great view across the water - we lost count of how many whales we saw!

 

That evening we stopped in Victoria for several hours.  It was after sunset, so it didn't look like there was much open.  Normally I'd go to the provincial museum, a wonderful place.  But walking around a quiet city after dark, when there aren't many people to ask for directions - nah, I can give that a miss.  I did go up to the "crow's nest" area of our ship, on deck 11, and had a great view of the capitol building all lit up.

We arrived in Seattle, and went through the disembarkation process.  This included going through Customs and Immigration because we were returning to the US, but it was minimal.

Sister-in-law headed to the airport for her evening flight home.  I dropped by to visit a friend who had been ill part of the summer, so that was our yearly meet-up.  Then drove on home to Bellingham, to finish packing for our annual migration southward.

One more blog about Bellingham, and then I'll post the southern trip blog.

And here's the map of our cruise, plus large photos of the amazing totem poles: