goin’ south again

Tomorrow morning at about 5:30, Jude, her son Nathan, my grandson Sean and I will head

out for Seattle so the guys can catch their flights home.  Although it’s only 225 miles from

the farm to SeaTac Airport as the bald eagle flies, it’s a two-day round trip when you factor

in traffic, four ferry rides, two international border crossings, and at least one stop at the

giant gnome.

It’s been a wonderful visit.  It started with a bit of a bummer when Nathan, Sean and I got

flagged at the border and had to go to the office.  At first I thought it might have been be-

cause I jokingly (HUGE mistake) offered some Popeye’s chicken to the kiosk officer.  But it

ony took a few minutes to convince them that none of us were Taliban, Arabic or even

political.

The rest of the stay has been gravy, save for the death of Dang.  We’ve feasted like royalty and

shown Sean how gorgeous our little island is.  The guys have been doing a lot of heavy lifting

for us.  Both of them have shown remarkable skill at digging 30″ post holes.  My spine will be

forever grateful for that.

When we aren’t working, we’re playing.  Our marquee event was kayaking in Granite Bay.

Slinkee was humiliated by her life jacket at first . . .

. . . but eventually adjusted.

It was too windy to go into the main channel, so we explored the shoreline.  Here Jude takes

on a sizeable hill while Nathan doesn’t.

Sean does some beachcombing.

Nathan joins him.

This is one of their finds.

We even had fun with the bear situation.  This is the gang on the hunt, joined by Lee.

So I’m off to wring a little more work from our young family members.  There’s just one more

thing I need to do to make Sean’s first visit to Canada official: show him some episodes of

Trailer Park Boys.