Out and about in the wilderness of Life

So today in DC I find myself where I often find myself, in a line.

Today is the National Book Festival on the mall. This event slipped up on me this year, typically I have this planned out well ahead of time, but I seem to have been distracted the last couple of weekends.

Still, I am happy to be down here. Its a fine fall day here is DC so I count myself lucky to be out in the sun rather than back home cleaning the house for my guests arrival next week.

I find myself in line for the author Terry Pratchett. After this I am off to get Harry Turtledoves signature. And that’s it for me, not because I don’t want more things signed, but because if you want to buy something out here you had better plan on an hour in line. That is my only complaint about the event, the sales booth is horribly small compared to the volume they do.

Oh well, maybe I will prepare better next year.

As I follow the giant star in the sky, I find myself in Bethlehem.

Okay, actually the giant star was the Sun and it was behind me, but I still found myself in Bethlehem. In fact I found myself at the historic Hotel Bethlehem. Lovely place, great room and with all the simple but good amenities that make it a classic hotel. Free bottled water in the room, a small bowl of hard candies, and a great big sunken tub.

As I venture out to find food I stumble upon an Irish musical group jamming downtown.

No, that is not a sports players number, that is our plane number in line for take off. Well at least they held it after my Seattle was late taking off by over an hour.

So, for some reason the plane that is taking me from Seattle to JFK has a delay. Apparently there are to many Jetblue planes currently at JFK so we cannot get there till another takes off, or something like that.

Anyway, enough time to be late and make me worry about the connector to DC from there. Blah!

Here are some pictures my dad took yesterday during the cruise.

Well the days adventures are winding down. We walked around town for a bit and got a bite to eat (fish & chips for with, with fresh garlic and capers). Friday Harbor is a fairly small town, lots of tourist traps and bars, but that is about it.

It will be good to get back on the water toward Seattle. And it will be good to get back to DC. I have enjoyed my long (both time and distance) vacation, but normalcy actually sounds appealing at the moment. I am sure that will change soon enough.

First rule in whale watching…be on the correct side of the boat.

Yeah, that part was not good, but seeing that i am part Sasquach it was pretty easy to stand over people and take some pictures. Unfortunately it was not quite that easy for my dad. He got to see a few of the Orcas but Didn’t get many decent photos.
it was exciting to see them in the wild though, hope my photos come out okay. We were not to close, law dictates 100 meters, but saw plenty of dorsal action and a couple of jumps.

Frankly it is just beautiful out here on the sound if real estate wasn’t so high i would consider moving here.

Well the cruise over was enjoyable and it certainly got warmer as the morning passed on. We arrived in Friday Harbor to drop some people off and pick a few up. Next up is the search for whales (wasn’t that a Star Trek movie)?

Whew…Well after spending over an hour on the top deck we finally got cold enough to come inside for a bit. The ride to Friday Harbor takes about 3 hours so we are half way to our first stop.
There we will drop people off and pick a few up before our whale watching cruise. That will last a couple of hours before heading back to FH. Then a couple of hours in town and then back to Seattle.

So for the past few days I have been enjoying a visit with my relatives, the Samuelsons. They are both in their late 80s, but quite spry and a delight to spend time with.

This morning my father and I are taking a cruise through the San Juan Islands, whale watching. Hope to report back later with some sightings!