Teaching the kid to fly

Last weekend my husband took a brief vacation and left the kid behind. Sure, we've been away from him before overnight. He's been to sleepovers and sleep away camp. When he was younger we even occasionally left him with a sitter and went away for an anniversary or birthday weekend. But this felt different.

This time we told our 14 year old that we wanted to go camping without him and he needed to call a friend and get himself invited over to spend the night. And he did. Friday he rode his bike to school with his pannier packed with pajamas and toothbrush, because his sleepover friend commuted by bike. He would bike home the next morning (from Phinney Ridge! Crossing Aurora by himself!) then leave to spend the day with another friend. He could then come home, make himself dinner and keep himself occupied (that's what the internet and video games are for, right?) until we got home Saturday evening. We had the cell phone and alerted several neighbors who were happy to be available in case he needed assistance. And we were off. Did I worry? Of course! Independence is a long and gradual process, a process we have to encourage, even if it's scary. (More scary for me than the kid, actually.)



We went to the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge in the Channeled Scablands. Eastern Washington has the wildest geologic history I can imagine. No recent natural event has come close to the forces that have shaped that landscape. First, the earth opened and lava flooded the land, hundreds of miles covered fifty feet thick. Over about a million years, this happened over and over again. Enough lava in total to cover the entire continental US 39 feet deep. Then, some time elapsed and the world went into an ice age. Eastern Washington was not covered by the continental ice shelf, but Northeast of there, a finger of the continental glacier formed a dam in the mountains of Montana, creating a massive lake behind. The dam failed in a cataclysmic flood where all the water drained from Montana through Eastern Washington to the Columbia River and to the sea. Took less than a week and estimates say that the flow was more than the combined flow of all rivers in the world combined. This happened again and again, perhaps once every 50 years for a couple thousand years. The flooding tore up the land, eroding the basalt layers into a complex of channels and potholes. Giant ripple marks that are only recognizable as such from airplanes. Gravel bars the size of small mountain ranges.



The Columbia National Wildlife Refuge was formed because the Potholes Reservoir dam created by The Project in the 1940s raised the water table nearby. So the desert south of the reservoir now held water in the potholes and the lowest parts of the channels, water that attracts and aids wildlife of all sorts.



We hiked in the refuge and in the neighboring Drumheller Channels. Although we didn't time our hikes to optimize wildlife viewing --- the crepuscular hours are ideal for that --- we did see quite a variety. Birds, bugs, frogs, even a couple coyotes, but fortunately no snakes.

Saturday's hike we were treated to the sound of ravens making a fuss. We stopped and observed an adult pair and a juvenile pair up on the edge of a mesa. The adult pair each flew off the mesa, around the corner and perched back up top aways off. Then they called and called. Eventually the juveniles followed, but instead of flying out and around, they took the shorter path across the top, flying inexpertly no more than a few feet off the ground. Well, the parents did not sound too pleased about that and cawed up a storm.

That was the coolest thing we saw until lunchtime we were sitting in the shade under a cliff and noticed that a coyote was watching us from across the channel. Just standing on the edge of the opposite mesa and staring. He looked just like a large dog, but with the binoculars we could see the distinctive fur patterns and scrabbier body of a wild coyote.

That was the coolest thing until we were walking back in the bottom of a channel when we suddenly saw a huge bird flying away from us along the top of the mesa to our right. It stopped and looked back and had the unmistakable face of an owl! I've never seen an owl in the wild and what is it doing out in the day?

Right then another huge bird flew in front of us from the right cliff to the taller left cliff. We stopped and got out the binoculars and saw that the bird on the right was a juvenile, still fluffy and downy while the bird now on the left was an adult Great Horned Owl. Parent number two soon made its presence known and was also above us on the higher cliffs on our left. Unlike the ravens, these birds were not ignoring us and getting on with their teaching. We were being watched. Franz also got the impression that if we kept walking the trajectory we were going, we'd be pretty close to the fledgling and perhaps attacked by the parents. So after watching through the binoculars for a while, we continued on, passing much closer to the left side than the right. After we were through, I looked back and saw that the juvenile was now down in the channel, practicing flying maneuvers near the ground.

Our fledgling? Well, he managed just fine without us.

Still knitting

So, what do you think the odds are that in Tokyo I can find Cascade 220 in the same dyelot of the yarn I purchased two years ago at the Fiber Gallery in Seattle?

That's what I think, too.

I may have to shorten sleeve one to finish sleeve two, but I do not know for sure yet. Will try to keep you posted. But tomorrow we leave Tokyo for Takayama, a small town in the mountains and I doubt we will have internet access. And it will be cooler in Takayama. I plan to finish knitting on the train en route.

Lots of pictures to share, but they will all have to wait until we are home.

Sukoshi kanko-ga shitai-desu.

We interrupt blog silence to say so long, we are off to Japan. We have passports, rail passes, hotel reservations, two cameras --- but no laptop or cables, so photos when we return --- and the list of things to do includes at least one yarn store.

I did finish the Victorian Lace Today Large Rectangle and it is large. I didn't block it to its extreme, but to the extreme of my blocking board at 32x82 inches. I could probably have gotten a couple more inches in both dimensions. I love it anyway. And as for running out of yarn, I had 300 grams and used 286 grams. The calculator on ravelry says that is 1359 yards. I am too lazy to double check or to double check my calculations from when I worried about running out. The pattern calls for 1200 yards? I used the same weight of yarn as called for, I knit on similar needle sizes, but my finished dimensions are larger. So whatever, I had enough yarn.

Here's a photo of me trying to get all arty. I am imagining being lost out on the moors in winter with nothing but the pile of shawls I grabbed as I ran away. Would Jane's have been lace?



My latest knitting is a sweater that I really want to wear in Japan. However, it's not quite finished yet. Using Forecast, from Knitty 2005, I did some modifications which I am liking. Details on my ravelry page. Body is finished, button band done, buttons sewed on, ends are woven in, but the sleeves aren't going to knit themselves, so I better keep this post short. We leave in about 36 hours.

Backpack part 1: When a tree falls in a forest...

A couple weeks ago my family took a hike. A three day hike. It was supposed to be a four day hike, but we'll get to that later. We like to backpack, but don't actually do it that often. Before the kid, Franz and I maintained about a 50-50 ratio of car camping and backpacking. Well, maybe not 50-50, you know how memory is. Next I will be saying I walked 6 miles every day to school, uphill in both directions. After child, we continued the occasional backpack (starting when Zach was 10 months) but mostly turned to car camping.

So anyway, back to this trip. We hiked a popular loop in the Olympic National Park called The High Divide, although that name more accurately refers to just one section. Starting at the Sol Duc Hot Springs trailhead, the trail follows a river valley up through the forest. Our first day and night we remained in the forest. We have big trees here. Big trees. The day was overcast and damp. Rain was predicted but didn't fall. In the past, such a walk through the damp dark forest with the sound of the river nearby has felt peaceful. But this trip...



Try this experiment. Get a piece of paper and cover up the right side of that photo. Doesn't that look lovely? Peaceful, serene, green and full of oxygen producing old-growth forest? Now remove the paper. Newly shattered stump. Yes, shattered. What kind of force could do that? Just another tree falling over. And trees fall. We like it when trees fall, it is part of the circle, the cycle, nature at its finest. See the foreground. Trees fell years ago and are turning back into soil. Take your paper and cover up the top of the photo. Don't the logs turning back into soil look peaceful and quiet? Then take the paper away again. Does that look quiet? Do you wish you were witness to that event?

Here's another view. The tree that fell which shattered the other tree was at least 100 feet tall.



Nurse logs, fungus, termites, worms, all seem such a beautiful serene, slow part of nature. I never really concentrated on the dramatic events that start the process. But this hike, as I walked through the woods, every tree reminded me that behind their quiet beauty lies the capability for extreme violence.

I wasn't worried. I didn't expect something to fall on us. It was more a sense of power and darkness, the unknown and unknowable that fueled awareness and anxiety. I was glad to climb above treeline. More about that part of the trip later.

Some Summer Fun

Our two weeks with a Japanese Home Stay guest flew by. I had been so anxious, but Hitomi turned out to be a wonderful guest and is now a friend. She was able to relax and feel right at home, fulfilling the philosphy of a foreign exchange program. Of course she was the tour coordinator and seasoned traveler, not a high school student on her first overseas trip, so it was easier for her. I heard that the high school students all had great homestays as well. We met one of the two teachers whom we took to Stitch & Pitch. This was her first trip outside Japan and she was having a blast. However, I heard that the other teacher was finding the whole trip kind of stressful. We taught Hitomi an American idiom to describe that sort of person: High Maintenance. She laughed and agreed.

Hitomi likes to hike, so what better way to show her around than to take her to the mountains. We did the easy Barclay Lake hike, with its dramatic view of Mt Baring looming 3000 feet over the lake. I didn't get any photos. Before coming home we detoured a bit on Route 2 to Skykomish, a small town with a big problem. For about 100 years, the railroad has dumped or leaked or spilled fuel and who knows what else onto and into the ground. In order to clean it up, just about every building in town is being picked up, the contaminated dirt dug out and hauled away, then clean fill poured in and the building restored.

Our second weekend we had more adventures. Saturday we hiked to Snow Lake, a popular hike with an easy access trailhead at Snoqualmie Pass. The parking lot (a large lot for the Alpental ski resort) was quite full and we had to wait in line at the trailhead at the self-register station (because we were bozos and didn't notice that there were two(!) registration stations) but the trail did not seem crowded and the lake front was even less so.

The Japanese student group had been to Snoqualmie Falls, but a local bus driver who got lost (argg) meant that they hadn't had much time to walk around. So we took Hitomi back, on the way home from Snow Lake. No pictures, but if you ever watched Twin Peaks, you've seen the Falls.

Sunday, our last day to be tour guides, we took a quintessential Seattle trip on a ferry boat. We took Metro downtown and walked on the Bremerton Ferry. Not that we wanted to do anything in Bremerton, we just grabbed lunch and came home, but because it's a pretty ride. This was the last day of the airshow and the Blue Angels buzzed the ferry as they were playing around getting ready for the show.

The water was full of jellyfish, more than I had ever seen. The view of Seattle was clear and pretty (yes, that's the space needle above Hitomi's head) but we didn't see any orcas. I don't think I have ever seen them from the ferry though.







Our tour-guide hikes with Hitomi served a second purpose. With an upcoming backpack, we especially need to get some hiking in for conditioning purposes.

Our family vacation will occur at the end of August, a 4 day loop of the High Divide in the Olympic Mountains. This area is popular, so to keep it from being overrun, the National Parks requires reservations and permit. Franz called and got our campsite reservations, plus information on the bear can requirements. Bears? Yes, checking the trip reports of the Washington Trails Association, black bears are common.

Yesterday, I took Zach to REI for new boots.
clerk: NOLS trip?
me: No, we're going to do the High Divide.
clerk: You mean in the Olympics?
me: Yes.
clerk: Awesome. I was just there in June. In one afternoon we saw 7 bears and some cubs. They were having so much fun, eating berries and glissading on the snow.
me: Seven Bears! I'd heard they were around. Now I am really worried about getting eaten.
clerk. Nah, black bears don't eat people, they just maul.

My kid, now a high schooler

Zach finished middle school sans pomp and circumstance. He could have gone to graduation and played Pomp & Circumstance, but he didn't really feel like an 8th grader, nor, as a part-time student, did he feel the need for the ritual. Seating is limited so we were altruistic in not attending, gave up our tickets so some other student with more than two relatives could force them to sit in a hot, crowded auditorium for a tedious ceremony invite them.

Friday he biked up to Matthews Beach to meet with a group of kids for their own end of school celebration. Candy and Capture the Flag. Coming home on the Burke-Gilman trail, he took a tumble when he let his front wheel drift off the pavement. Nothing serious, just got some ugly road rash on his elbow and a scrape on his rib and hip. (In addition to helmet, he wears biking gloves. I don't know if his hand hit the pavement too, but gloves are great for avoiding road rash on one's hands. I never bike without them myself.)

We cleaned him up and he seemed fine. Even played some DDR Friday evening. Saturday we went to Icicle Creek Canyon to go camping, hiking and drop him off at music camp. Well, he ended up sleeping the entire three hour drive, then continued to nap on and off most of the afternoon while we set up camp and hung around. No wonder. I am sure he didn't break a rib or get a concussion, but he must have slammed pretty hard on the pavement and was feeling pretty sore. So instead of anything ambitious, late Saturday afternoon when he perked up we took a short hike, then Sunday did another short hike. The area is beautiful.

By Sunday his elbow was scabbed over with no sign of infection. We dropped him off at camp with strict instructions though, if it starts to look bad, streaky red or hot he is to alert the staff and make sure it gets looked at. His main question was ought he put a bandage on it, so as not to gross out the girls. Nah, I said. Just tell them he fell off his bike to avoid hitting a kitten.

Virtual Vacation Swap Questionnaire

Well, I am lame and haven't posted anything in a couple weeks, but have been taking photos and thinking about blogging while knitting, gardening, reading, cleaning, cooking, chauffeuring etc.

Meanwhile, I got the travel itch. Had to run to catch the bus; it almost was too full to let me on, but they squeezed a bit and gave me room. Woo! Now I am going on a Virtual Vacation!

And here's my questionnaire. The answers of which will determine where I'll visit and who I'll get to show around Seattle.

1. If you could visit any state in the US, which would it be and why?

Maine, because it is far away and I have never been there. It seems wild and beautiful with big trees and a rugged coast and probably not too hot. And there's lobster.

If I had to choose a city to visit, I would choose San Francisco. Hard to believe I have been on the West Coast for almost 20 years and still haven't been there.

2. If you could visit any country in the world, other than your own, which would it be and why?

I fell in love with Australia back while watching Picnic at Hanging Rock, Walkabout, The Last Wave and Breaker Morant. So am not sure my sense of the place is accurate, but would love to find out. The number of poisonous critters gives me pause, but it still seems like a wonderful place to visit.

3. Have you ever driven across several states/provinces/countries?

Yes, I have driven USA from coast to coast twice and driven to Oregon, Utah, California, Yellowstone and more.

4. Have you ever visited someplace you consider exotic? Where was it?

Utah.

5. What was your favorite "travel" vacation? Why?

Hard to choose a favorite. Christmas week at Big Bend National Park in Texas as newlyweds was special, lechuguilla (which deserves the nickname shin-daggers) notwithstanding. Our trips to Utah have mostly been great, especially the first time we took Zach and he lost (and swallowed!) his first tooth. Miraculously the tooth fairy found him, even though we were in a tent in the middle of nowhere. Our only overseas trip, to France, was good but stressful and would have been better if the flipping museums hadn't been on strike the entire flipping week we were in Paris.

6. Have you ever played tourist in your own home city/state (if international, country)? Explain.

I've played tourist/tour guide in Washington DC (where I grew up), Chicago (where I used to live) and here in Seattle. Lots of our family travel involves acting like tourists, especially educational activities, national and state parks, etc. My son wrote up our latest such trip on his blog.

7. Are you a museum visitor, beachcomber or an amusement seeker?

Museums, yes. Beaches, yes, but I get bored quickly and hate getting sand in my food. I love to sleep close enough to hear the ocean though. Deserts, yes, mind the snakes. Amusement parks, maybe. Only if they aren't crowded or out of the way and only on rides that don't spin.

8. What's your favorite type of yarn?

Almost any natural fiber.

9. What's your least favorite type of yarn?

Angora makes me itch. Acrylic makes me sad.

10. What items do you like to knit/crochet?

Sweaters, Socks and Shawls; the big three, eh? So far I have been more interested in lace than cables, but would like to find a cable pattern that would draw me in.

11. What do you pack, knit/crochet wise when you go on vacation?

I've been knitting for only a couple years and I do not crochet. We travel pretty light for the most part, that means sock knitting. Here's a sock touring Sam Hill's Stonehenge.


12. What other crafts do you do/would like to do other than Knit?

I like to cook and garden. I am hoping to start sewing more, having only made a few things like curtains, halloween costumes and a dress or two, years ago.

13. Are you allergic to anything? (Yarn wise or treat wise)

I don't eat soy products. Don't know if I am allergic, but Zach is definitely allergic to soy and I think I feel better avoiding it also. Otherwise, no allergies.

14. What is your favorite color? Least Favorite?

I'm partial to rich dark colors such as eggplant, pine, burgundy, and don't love pastels, especially the mint greens and powder blues.

15. Sweet or Savory (Treat not personality)?

Both.

16. Anything else we are forgetting to ask that you think your partner desperately needs to know?

Can't think of anything. Go ahead and ask.