I found it a bit odd that when we arrived home this evening, Mr. Cat was completely calm. We had been out all day, walking the city, househunting, checking out some strategic open houses. He was relaxing, sprawled out, not at all clambering for supper. 

It turned out that he had broken into the cat food supplies. He had shamelessly torn a huge hole into the 17 pound bag. He was lounging about completely satiated. Meanwhile, we arrived home exhausted and hungry after walking nearly ten miles. 

Very resourceful Mr. Cat!

Lake rolled over today and gave himself a three hour nap. Face down on the bed. He was breathing the whole time, I checked. 

Michael loved his birthday present! On his birthday Saturday we had the great unveiling of my Bad Art painting. It’s a custom piece commemorating his feline pride and joy: The Majestic Mr. Cat!

He loves his other pride and joys too!

The three of us, Michael, Lake and I, went to a cinematic dissection today at the SIFF headquarters in the Seattle Center. It was a six hour treatment of Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom in the theme of Roger Ebert’s Cinema Interruptus. Lake was quite the devoted scholar throughout the entire duration. His manner was complimented by many. I find his sage behavior particularly notable given his current teething status. 

It was pretty absorbing to dive so completely and thoroughly into the film. No stone was left unturned as we collectively went through the scenes frame by frame with a fine tooth comb. Moonrise Kingdom happens to be one of my favorite films so it wasn’t as excruciating as it may sound. We covered many themes as we explored the film together. We drew comparisons of cinematic reference to other landmark films such as Walkabout, Star Trek and others. We admired the brilliance of the framework established by Wes Anderson. We appreciated that this allows that the actors may truly shine. We analyzed the symbolism and technical aspects of the richness of  the sets, as well as the multifaceted story of the characters and how all this together saturates the senses. We felt that the meticulous orderliness and visual symmetry of the film balanced the chaos of the family dynamics and characters’ minds. 

Primarily I reveled in the purity with which the characters Sam and Suzy fall in love. This is in sharp contrast to the juvenile behaviors of the film’s adult characters. The children’s  wisdom and maturity shines as they model a genuine love affair.

I enjoyed describing how meaningful these characters are to me. It especially meant a lot to share this when the audience pedantically disparaged their relationship odyssey. Sam and Suzy are an unlikely pair, to be fair. They are both lonely and misunderstood for different reasons, yet what they find in each other is a friend who accepts them wholly and then also continuously seeks to understand them. I find this simple act of acceptance to be incredibly powerful. This anecdote illustrates the profundity when Suzy catches a fish that Sam then cooks over the fire for their dinner. Sam goes on to suggest her kitten might like the fish scraps. She says that her kitten only eats kitten food. Screen shot of fish derived kitten food cans. Instead of arguing the inanity of her statement he nods and moves on to suggest they make an inventory of their travel items. To me, the acts of curiosity and kindness they show each other give Moonrise Kingdom it’s heart. 

So after our six hours of scolarly dissection I’m left with this: Suzy and Sam are inspirational in the decency of their regard for each other and their aligned purpose. Sure, it’s whimsical and campy and fantastical. It’s also a richly woven epic love story. 

Our children have so much to teach us. If we choose to listen. Lake endorses it!

Lake is an intrepid hiker and explorer. He has just bagged his inaugural two fire lookouts. We’ve practically joined the ranks of avid Lookout seekers. 

“Lookouts” are basically what they sound like, a promontory from which someone could be stationed to keep an eye out for smoke in the hills. Smoke would be the earliest indication of forest fire and in National Forest lands the goal was to fight the fires and preserve the timber for sale. Now the policies tend to favor “let it burn” and the forests are now monitored via satellite. This leaves a legacy of abandoned Fire Lookout sites. Some are maintained and open to the public for recreation, and all that’s left of others may be a metal footing or marker. It can be fun to camp overnight in a maintaintained lookout or to find some of the lesser visited sites and hunt around for artifacts. Either way, you’re pretty much guaranteed a grand territorial view. 

Lakes first historical fire lookout site was yesterday on Striped Peak near Salt Creek. It is located at the top of a pretty hike up the hillside overlooking the Straight of Juan de Fuca through magestic second growth. 

We refreshed briefly in the Straight at Salt Creek Recreation Area before setting out again. It really doesn’t take much as the water is brisk! So magnificent and lots of fun. Daddy says we look like we are dancing with the ocean. 

The next lookout was one of the Lost Lookouts our new friend Leslie Romer is researching for her book on the subject. It is somewhat elusively located on one of the beautiful ridges above Lake Dawn. We had some vague instructions and set out on reconnaissance as our second hike of the day!

Leslie led us to the site fairly expertly and we were rewarded by this gorgeous late afternoon view. 

Lake is looking forward to checking out your book, Leslie. In the meantime we are always game to aid you on any necessary research missions. We’re acquiring quite an unquenchable appetite for adventure!

We are back in Seattle and there are plenty of settling in chores to do… cleaning, laundry, and chores. Who am I kidding, mostly I fret about all the cleaning chores that do need doing while I’m playing with, changing or feeding Lake.  We decided to take a pause in the middle of it all and recharge with yoga. 

We phoned first to make sure it would be okay (I’m learning) and then walked over to Aditi Yoga & Bodywork for the Friday noon class. Jenny Rhodes, the delightful instructor, was kind to include Lake as a special guest for her vinyasa class today. Look at the littlest yogi!

Chore day was blessed with the good fortune of my helper angels. Firstly Jenny, who sweetly held Lake for the substantial part of the flow class, to very good effect, leaving me just the mat portion of the class to breastfeed Lake while participating. Secondly Nana who made the laundry happen while intermittently popping in for Lake care and building him a new bed for his room!

Passing by Lake Crescent in the morning on our way out to the Sol Duc. This is one gorgeous river valley. We went for one last hiking trip during Lake’s sojourn of the north Olympic Peninsula. I couldn’t get enough really. And Lake loved it, too. His first prize blueberry eyes wide with wonderment, taking it all in. The gentle sounds of the river, the zillion shades of green, the towering giant conifers, the rush of the waterfall, and the stillness. 

We hiked six miles from the Sol Duc Resort to the Sol Duc Falls and back. Guess what the trail is called? Lover’s Lane. Here I am happy on Lover’s Lane with the little man of my life. 

Taking in the views from the falls with Nana. 

And to cap off our Olympic holidays with Nana and the Tuesday Trotters we had an amazing alpenglow amphitheater this evening. We rode the ferry back to Seattle under the rising plump moon and sunsets on mountains in every direction that just wouldn’t quit. Thank you for the amazing week of rich sensory experiences Nana! It was special to share our love of the Olympics together with Lake. He was duly impressed. 

Following the removal of both dams on the Elwha River (2011-2014) the river, watershed, estuary and delta are in the process of being freed and restored. This comes after 100 years of being a dammed watershed, and decades of dedicated and relentless work to remove the dams. I myself had worked on the project for six months during the summer season of 2001, mapping non-native populations of plant species along the Elwha River banks and lake shores. It was really special to be able to walk out on the newly reborn Elwha delta today with tribal member Robert Elofson as our guide this morning. 

In the afternoon Rob took us to visit the canyon of the old Lower Elwha Dam. The remaining work on site currently includes removing some dangerous remaining rebar projections. Afterwards we went down into the old lake bed of what was Lake Aldwell. There was evidence of 19th century logged old growth trees, as well as the new native vegetation restoration efforts. It’s going well: the salmon are returning and the populations are swelling; the link between marine nutrients flowing up into the mountains and the sediment of the mountains returning the favor is being restored. 

The river is free!

Lake’s first national park: Olympic National Park. How fitting since both Mummy and Daddy herald from the Olympic Peninsula. He did an amazing job traveling across on the Bremerton ferry and then up to Hurricane Ridge. We felt the chilly late Summer mountain wind, the bright intense sunlight, smelled the fresh pine air and saw the requisite deer. We offered Lake the full Hurricane Ridge experience. We are here with Nana’s ladies’ hiking group, so tonight Lake had 35 ladies doting on him during the group’s dinner. 

More adventures on the agenda for the next few days!