Hi there! Not having posted since September, and then only to complain (about software upgrades), I thought I should come back around and say hello. This post may not be all about travel but just some random stuff. I will put a subhead on each subject so feel free to skip the ones you might not be interested in or that are too controversial for you.

Upcoming Travel

We actually have some travel coming up! YEAH! It won’t be far but we are going to Washington’s gorgeous San Juan Islands the last week of October to celebrate Kathleen’s birthday. We have rented a really cool condo right in downtown Friday Harbor on San Juan Island itself. We are staying at The Web Suites. The owners had commented on one of my photos on Instagram and I went to look at what the heck The Web Suites was and discovered they were in Friday Harbor. We haven’t been there in something like 10 years so we are really looking forward to it.

We are also thrilled that my brother and sister-in-law are going to join us. We were telling them about it and, as they have become our travel buddies on many of our cruises and they have as bad a case of cabin fever as we do they said, “Can we come too?” We were thrilled and would have asked them first but we never thought they would join us this far from home as they live in Southern Cal and not sure they wanted to fly. We were right about one thing; they don’t want to fly. They are driving all the way from beautiful San Juan Capistrano to our place here in Redmond. Then after the weekend of hanging out here we will head to the San Juans via a Washington State ferry leaving from Anacortes.

If you have never gone to the San Juans, you first drive (from our place about an hour and a half) to the city of Anacortes and board a ferry (so in a way, we are going on a cruise). The ferries stop at four of the islands. There are more than 400 San Juan Islands but many are just large rocks jutting out of Puget Sound but 128 of them are named and you can actually walk on them. If you want to go to any of them other than those four that have ferry stops you have to do it on a private boat. Lots of people do that to camp and a few of the smaller islands have vacation homes as well. One thing different for us (since the last time we were in the islands) is that it is advised to make reservations for the ferry sailing you want. I made sure to get up and be online on the day we could reserve for our dates. Snagged us exactly the times we wanted both coming and going. Our ferry trip is just about an hour and 15 minutes but it could have been much longer. We did our best to get the one ferry (both going and coming) that doesn’t stop at any of the other islands. So we get a straight shot from Anacortes to Friday Harbor.

Social Media

I have now been off all social media for more than a month other than Instagram where I post travel photos. It has really made me a lot less tense to not have to read all the election vitriol and the sniping. I will probably go back on Facebook after November 3rd and maybe a little more on Twitter but for now I need to stay off.

The Election

I know. I should stay away from politics on this blog but just a couple of quick things. First, everyone needs to vote. I can’t believe how low a percentage of people exercise their right to vote. But in some places it can be just too difficult. Right now I am reading a biography (not something I normally read) of Ulysses S. Grant, our 18th president, and it is really interesting the parallels between then and now. Grant followed an impeached president, there was a lot of voter suppression (much more violently) as the southerners tried to disenfranchise the freed slaves. From my viewpoint many states are still doing that.

The second thing I have not been able to do is to sit down with a true Trump supporter and have a discussion to find out how they can continue to support him after everything he has done and is. I don’t want to talk to someone who just blindly follows him and actually rejects science and believes the fake news stuff. I want to know what issue is so big that it outweighs (I guess I could have said trumps) all the bad. Someone intelligent so I can understand.

And I am scared to death what is going to happen if he loses and it’s close. After the kidnapping plot in Michigan, I can honestly see a huge rise in domestic terrorism. People who would never have considered it before are buying guns and ammo. This is sad.

Television

During this pandemic, so much of our time is spent either watching TV or planning on what to watch. We have been very lucky so far but our luck is starting to run out. Since this started we have been lucky enough to find some multi-year, multi-episode programs that somehow we hadn’t seen. Since March our favorite long term shows have included Younger, Damages and lately Friday Night Lights on Hulu, Parks and Rec on Netflix. There have been other things mixed in but these occupied us for quite a while. We are out of these now but some other shows are coming back. The new season of Fargo is outstanding, we have some favorites that have come back on PBS (Last Tango in Halifax, Endeavor) and some new ones on PBS (COBRA, Van Der Valk) and even a couple of network shows including a really good hospital drama out of Canada—Transplant.

This month promises to be much better in the coming weeks. Must-sees for us are the West Wing “reunion” on HBO Max, The Mandelorian on Disney+ and the only reality show we watch starts soon—Amazing Race…cause it’s all about travel.

By the way, best show of the whole summer? Hands down it was Yellowstone, Kevin Costner’s modern-day western. Those 10 shows were the best thing we saw and we can’t wait for the start of the 4th season next year. Sadly, it is on the Paramount network which our cable company does not carry so that means I have to purchase the season every year from Apple. But that’s OK because we get a bunch of outstanding and often hilarious extra films as background. If you haven’t seen Yellowstone, hopefully it will find its way to a streaming service you subscribe to. If not, you can always buy it from the iTunes Store. If you find a way to get it, watch it from the very beginning. There are three seasons of 10 shows each and they get better and better each year.

Walking

The one thing that has been my constant during our pandemic lockdown is walking. (I detailed one of my walks here.) Except for the 9 days of horrid smoke, I have been able to average just over 30 miles per week while walking six days a week. Now my problem isn’t smoke but rain, although I will usually grab an umbrella or put on my Gore-tex and go out anyway. My routes are getting a little boring and I do have a couple of alternatives but they take me through some fairly dense forested areas where all summer there have been wildcat, cougar and bear sightings—staying away from those. Since I am still working out an hour for six mornings as well, Kathleen’s daughter Michelle said, “You are exercising 18 hours a week? That’s a part-time job!”

One final (HORRIBLE) thought

The most amazing (and very sad) factoid I have heard in months is this: The number of people who have died from Covid-related illness in the USA since the day of the first death from Covid back in February is equivalent of 8 (yes EIGHT) Boeing 737s with 168 people on board each one, crashing every single day since then. Can you even imagine? I can’t. Please stay safe.