"It is time for new leadership that understands the way to win a debate with John McCain or any Republican who is nominated is not by nominating someone who agreed with him on voting for the war in Iraq,"
Barack Obama, January 11, 2008
Funny, I don't remember Obama going on about Biden's "judgement" during the primary campaign.
I know they'll say anything to get elected. Really, what kind of politician are you if you won't? It's just so much more cathartic to take the piss out of Obama. Partly because he won, and partly because he can be so sanctimonious.
He's like the Doors. I don't give a rip about most terrible bands, but Barack Obama and the Doors give "overrated" new meaning. Therefore I'm justified in holding my grudge.
Actually, our anniversary isn't for a couple of weeks, but last weekend was good weather for a day trip, and I've been plotting this for a while. Jenny knew that Saturday was a surprise day-trip, but otherwise I played my cards close to the vest.
Me: You should wear long pants, and bring a raincoat. It might be cold. Bring your camera. It's not dress up, but there is a meal involved. Oh, and it might be slippery. And we're not going to exercise at all. Oh no--I've said too much!
Jenny: ??
Luckily that was not enough information to go on, and my secret was safe until we rolled up to the Kenmore Air terminal at South Lake Union. Needless to say, the flight was amazing. We were about a hundred feet off the water the whole time.
Below is the route we took. The squiggle out by Friday Harbor is our jaunt in the whale-watching ship.
That picture pretty much sums up why I love the Northwest. We are surrounded by mountains.
Right when we got to Friday Harbor we passed the Ferry from Anacortes and I caught the fly-by on video.
We had a nice brunch in town, sipped mimosas by the water, and then headed back out on the water. We caught up with L pod, one of three resident pods, on the other side of San Juan Island. The whales were very close at times, and we saw several of them breach.
While we were checking them out, L pod headed offshore to meet up with K pod. (The naturalist thought there may have been some inter-pod mating going on.) Based on the sizes of the pods, there may have been more than 60 animals in the water. They put a hydrophone in to listen and it sounded like an Orca cocktail party.
Apparently pods don't meet up all that much, so we were really lucky to see that. The flight back was at higher elevation so not as thrilling, but we had great views of Mt. Baker and Mt. Rainier. Like any good Seattlite I salivate at the sight of Rainier, so this more or less put me in a Northwest-loving coma. A perfect sight to come home to.
All told, it was a perfect day. I can't think of a better way to celebrate a great two years together, or a better person to spend it with.
Memorial-day weekend Bob, Joy, John, Jenny and I hit up the Olympic Peninsula for some beach camping.
Three months later, I uploaded the pictures:
It's a short hike, but when we got there a ranger hassled us about not having a bear barrel. (He also carded us because we brought wine.) John volunteered to go back to town and get one as long as someone came with him, so we did the hike three times that day. We're basically world-experts on the Shi Shi Beach trail now. (It's pronounced shy shy.)
So that was an important lesson, bring something to keep out bears, like this fine TrueValue paint bucket, pictured here.
I think the bucket would have slowed the bear down by maybe two minutes, but it seemed to make the ranger happy.
The other thing we learned was that Bob hasn't figured out s'mores yet:
Hang in there, buddy!
On our way out we went to Cape Flattery, one of the Northwesternmost points of the continental U.S. It's about a 10-minute "hike," and very pretty. If you're in the neighborhood, definitely check it out.
Urobori is the plural of Uroborus, the demon that eats its own tail. But don't let it fool you--this blog has nothing to do with duality, infinity, or snakes. It's just my place on the web to go on about whatever. Cheers --J.
