Thu 21 Sept

I BART to SFO and take Alaska to SeaTac. Everything is fine until I get to the car rental facility, where there's a huge line - hundreds of people - for Thrifty. Apparently only one agent is working. I stand in line for 2 hours and 15 minutes, during which time I finish reading An Ocean of Air.

Fortunately my schedule has some cushion, and I make it to the Cider Bar in plenty of time for Dave Gedye's Epic Poetry Reading. I chat briefly with Elizabeth from Austin, and meet Weston Gaylord, the other featured poet. I have an IPA and a forgettable fish sandwich on crumbly gluten-free 'bread'.

I navigate (thank heavens for GPS) to my motel in Lynnwood, which is spartan but fine.

Fri 22 Sept

Bad sleep night due to hard bed. I have the motel 'breakfast' (meh) and then go to Henry's Donuts, up the road a bit, also meh.

I visit the Boeing 'Future of Flight' museum at Paine Field, near one of their assembly plants. Some brand-new 777s are parked around the field.

The museum is a big ad for Boeing; disappointing.

I continue to the Whidbey Island ferry, which is super easy and fast.

I'm meeting Laurel and Ken at the DjangoFest music festival in Langley, a few miles from the ferry. I drive there, arriving ~1 hour early, walk around, and eat a slice of very garlicky pizza.

Langley is small and quaint/chichi, with a lot of art galleries. A couple of guitarists are playing Django-style music in a park.

I go to the venue (a very nice community art/music center) and listen to a band, with a great female vocalist, playing outside. Laurel and Ken arrive. We attend the 2:00 show, in a very nice small-ish theater. The first act is some old-ish guys, bass/violin/cello. They're not real tight; Laurel withholds applause.

But the 2nd group ('Pino Noir' with guitarist Luca Pino) is fabulous: Guitar/bass/drums, and Eric Vanderbilt-Mathews, a mind-boggling reed player (clarinet/sax). Note: both guys are way better live than anything they have on the web. The crowd goes nuts and demands an encore.

We go to the 'merch room', where CDs, T-shirts, and guitars are for sale. Guitarists are jamming in the middle of the room. Laurel talks with Luca, who's very approachable and nice.

Laurel drives back with me. We visit a rocky beach on the W side of the island, with a great view of the Olympics, where she did a lot of recuperative walking over the last couple of years. She and Hunter (Matt's son) call if Feather Beach because of a particular eagle feather. She and Ken considered getting a house in that area, but didn't because of a noise issue involving navy fighter planes.

We end up at Laurel and Ken's house, near Coupeville. They moved there a couple of years ago and are happy with that decision. Laurel tells me about the history of area and gives me a tour of their house and gardens. Dozens of deer populate the neighborhood. Ken makes delicious teriyaki salmon.

Sat 23 Sept

Another bad sleep night. We go for a hike along the ocean. Laurel does a shorter route; Ken and I do a longer one along the bluffs.

We encounter a unique guy who does photography, mostly wildlife, often waiting for hours to get the perfect picture. Ken (who's getting back into photography) chats with him.

On the way back we find a trail through the forest, which is beautiful but doesn't exactly lead back to the car.

We pass by some houses, one of which has some vintage cars.

We reach highway 20 and call Laurel, who comes and picks us up.

We go to Coupeville, which is sort of like Langley but smaller and less chichi. We walk out on the pier, visit an art gallery, and get ice cream.

We return to the house. I want to read them an epic poem or two. The Comcast phone/Internet abruptly fail, so I read them Benjamin Blue, which is on my laptop.

Ken (who's a great cook) makes pasta Puttanesca and Caprese salad.

We return to Langley for the 7:30 DjangoFest show. This features Paulus Schafer, a gypsy guitarist, and Tim Kliphuis, a violinist who's a jazz-playing reincarnation of Paganini. They're great but they play too fast - non-stop explosions of 64th notes. Ken and I agree that our brains simply can't process much of what they're playing.

Sun 24 Sept

A little sleep (2-3 hours). Ken makes an excellent frittata. We listen to some Joni Mitchell. Laurel appears, and we visit the nearby sculpture forest, which is great.

This one was my fave

Icarus

A couple of young women have installed the app for the 'augmented reality' exhibit. It's actually pretty good. You scan QR codes, and virtual sculptures appear in the middle of the circle.

I take my leave and drive via the ferry (where I enjoy a bowl of Ivar's clam chowder) to Kenny's house in Seattle. (Note: he's actually Ken, but we call him Kenny to disambiguate). Kenny is getting in shape for Mt. St. Helens in a week, so we go for a long walk with his son Ari (~2) in a backpack. A light rain is falling - apparently the first of the season. We return home; Kristen takes over Ari, and Kenny and I talk a while longer, covering some important family ground.

I leave at 6, drive to SeaTac, fill up the car and return it, catch my flight, and BART home, all fairly smoothly. The BART train has the usual smattering of sleeping bums and Mad Max type weirdos.

Summary: great trip. Reconnecting with Laurel, Ken, and Kenny was huge for me.