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09-28-02, 12:54 AM
After a good night’s sleep on cushy couch pillows, a nice productive morning followed. I made a trip down to the water at low tide and picked a couple buckets of oysters. It felt good to be down by the water, collecting this great gift from the Cortes Bay. I managed to get some nice cuts and scrapes on my hands from the sharp barnacles on the oysters. I guess that’s the price you pay for not being smart enough to bring gloves! I ate a few right on the water and they were delicious. I slowly carried the heavy buckets back to Julia’s and we put them in the refrigerator to keep them fresh for tonight’s salmon back at Kim and Joel’s. I made some phone calls to family which kept me busy for a couple hours and then Julia and I went over to Alois’ to say hi. He was in his shop making a wind vein. We went down to the Gallery and I met his wife Anna. She was very nice and invited us to take out their rowboat into Cortes Bay. We took her up on the offer and took turns clumsily paddling out across the bay. We docked at the Seattle Yacht Club, got out and took a walk to the water outside of the bay. We watched some cool water birds dance around. They seemed to be feeding on some small fish in the shallows. We were also lucky enough to catch a few splashes from what appeared to be dolphins, possibly Pacific White-sided. We returned to our tiny craft and checked out a massive jellyfish swimming below the dock. We made our way back across the bay and thanked Anna for letting us use the boat on such a nice day. We walked back up and spent some more time with Alois who offered up some tasty local brew and some great herb. We chatted about his work in the movie business as well as this great island of Cortes. We had to end the visit eventually so we could get back to Julia’s to cook up some rice for the salmon BBQ. We thanked Alois and told him we might be back later for a dip in his wood stove heated hot tub. After Julia whipped up some curried rice with apples, we headed over to Kim and Joel’s. Joel had the outside fire going, ready for the oysters. We served them up nice and steaming hot with soy sauce, homemade hot sauce, and ginger and garlic butter. Koji and I ate a few raw ones that were great. Next up was the salmon that Joel flavored with a nice smoke from Alder branches. We filled our plates with the delicious food. After dinner, we had a smoke and took a walk down to a nice lake and had a moment checking out the stars, moon, and dark shadows of the tall trees around us. We then headed for a large fir tree that must be over 500 years old. It was massive. The bark was over a foot thick and there was a hole at its base big enough to fit into crouched down. We all put our backs against its trunk and just barely touched all our hands around it. Having my back on such a big tree gave me a nice feeling inside. We headed back to the tee-pee and Joel played his drum as we sat by the fire. We finished off the night with Tiramisu, a great Italian dessert that Kim made. Julia and I returned to her place and called it a night.
Peace
Dave
Pic: Manzanita Bush
Peace
Dave
Pic: Manzanita Bush