The month of August took me from one corner of Washington to another, to places familiar and non, topping off the Summer of Seattle.

A Week In Deception Pass

Leaving the Silves family reunion in Bellingham, I headed a short distance south to Deception Pass State Park. When I lived in Everett working as a law clerk all those years ago, I often took out-of-town visitors to Deception Pass for the beautiful scenery, but never camped there.

Deception Pass is actually located on two islands — Fidalgo and Whidbey. The Deception Pass Bridge and the Canoe Bridge connect the two islands, and they are stunning. The pass was named by explorer George Vancouver, who thought he was looking at a peninsula, “deceived” by the passage.

Sue & Gerry from Vancouver, BC camped next door for a few days,and Kathy came for a day visit, hopping the ferry to Whidbey Island from her new home in Port Townsend.

Together we took a jet boat tour around the straits and bays that lead to the Pacific Ocean.

We all tried kelp for the first time, which tasted very salty and fresh and green.

Dave and Teresa from Sequim inherited the next-door camping spot when Sue & Gerry went home to Canada,

Marsha visited for the day,

then John and Julius, who live in nearby in Mount Vernon, pitched a tent for the night,

and we took a day trip to sleepy Oak Harbor before they went home.

One More Week In Seattle

I swung back into Kay’s driveway in Burien for a week, which was a whirlwind. I took Julian and Kay out for dinner to thank them for their generous hospitality.

Along with a new tattoo by the fabulous Vyvyn, Madame Lazonga (a Number Seven, my life number),

there was Hall & Oates with Helen Anne at Key Arena,

the Gipsy Kings with Allison at Chateau St. Michele,

and Erasure with Lydia at the Moore Theater (Blossom and Lexi from Austin stopped by Belltown for pre-func cocktails).

There was also wine tasting with Kathy in Woodinville, made even more special because she was recently certified as a sommelier,

and happy hour at Jak’s in West Seattle with blog follower and fellow attorney, Michael, whom I met for the first time.

There was time to squeeze in one more museum – the Burke – when I met with my gastroenterologist on the University of Washington campus. (The new Burke is opening next year, and it’s a good thing; this old natural history museum has certainly seen better days.)

New Medical Adventures

It’s official: My doctor and I have decided to switch from Entyvio infusions to Stelara, which I will administer myself with a shot to the abdomen. In the short run this change will not reduce my trips to Seattle, as the induction of Stelara is done by infusion, which will occur in October when I fly back from Albuquerque. The doctor also wants to see me in person to assess how the new drug is working, so I will fly back from Palm Springs in December.

With healthcare, especially with aging, everything becomes a Hobson’s Choice. I could stay on Entyvio, which has given me imperfect improvement, and return to Seattle every two months for therapy at great expense on a limited budget. Or, I could switch to self-administered Stelara, which may or may not work at all, and return to taking methotrexate (chemotherapy) to avoid building up antibodies to Entyvio, in case I need to go back to it.

I asked Dr. Zisman the Big What If: What if I switch to Stelara, it is ineffective, I return to Entyvio, and it no longer works? Entyvio and Stelara are the last two drugs on the market approved by the FDA, and I’ve tried every other drug available. His reply: I would need to be in Seattle full-time to participate in clinical trials.

Wish me luck. Lots and lots and heaps and gobs of it.

So Long, Seattle

“So many places in and out of my life
Some will last
Some will just be now and then.

Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes
I’m afraid
It’s time for goodbye again.”

Billy Joel, “Say Goodbye to Hollywood”

A few days before I set out for the Washington/Oregon coast, I began to feel that familiar push/pull when it’s time to mosey on down the trail. On one hand, I am happy and having a good time and don’t want to go. But on the other hand, I know that new adventures await, and more fun is already on the itinerary, so I am ready to leave. Pushing me forward this time was the smoke that hung like a smothering, gray blanket over the whole city from the wildfires in Canada.

Cape Disappointment And Long Beach

While this was not my first visit to the Long Beach/Ilwaco area on the Southwest Washington coast, it was my first visit to Cape Disappointment State Park, a 1,182-acre park at the confluence of the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean. The early 1900s jetty separating the two bodies of water was closed for repairs, and it was fascinating to see seemingly endless 18-wheelers in the park, delivering huge boulders for the reconstruction.

I arrived on a Saturday to smoke-choked skies, more fallout from the wildfires burning in Canada.

I thought surely the smoke would dissipate by the time Trudy and Izzy and their family arrived to camp on Monday. I was wrong. Certainly the skies would clear by Wednesday, when Annmarie arrived. No such luck. I felt claustrophobic, depressed, and fidgety. There seemed to be no escape from the oppressive, heavy lid slammed over us.

Finally, on Thursday, a little bit of blue sky peeked through, and by Friday it was absolutely beautiful.

My primary reason for visiting Long Beach this time was the Washington State International Kite Festival, held August 20-26, 2018.

Long Beach is home to the only kite museum in the Western Hemisphere. The festival is known for skies ablaze with color, kite fighting, and choreographed movement. Unfortunately, the smoke hampered the festivities for the first few days,

followed by lack of wind for the remainder. Still, we saw some beautiful kites, including some night flyers with Paul and Natalie.

Cape Disappointment, named by British Sea Captain John Meares in 1778, is where Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery finally encountered the Pacific Ocean in November 1805 after their 4,000-mile trek across the newly-acquired Louisiana territory.

I have followed the trail of the Corps of Discovery from St. Louis to Idaho, but Cape Disappointment is particularly special as the realization of the Corps’s mandate from President Jefferson.

The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center sits 160 feet above the mouth of the Columbia River and chronicles the entire trip. Did you know that one of the 33 members, York, was a slave? I didn’t know that Sacajawea, the only woman among them, was not compensated, although I’m not surprised. I still find it so sad that Lewis later committed suicide.

Cape Disappointment is home to two working lighthouses.

The black-and-white striped Cape Disappointment lighthouse was built in 1856.

North Head Lighthouse dates to 1898. Both are beacons in the “Graveyard of the Pacific,” where more than 2,000 ships and 700 lives have been lost since the late 1700s.

We camped adjacent to Benson Beach, the sandy stretch between the north jetty and the north head. At night we could hear the waves crashing on the shore to the right, and the rush of forced air from the hand dryers in the bathrooms to the left.

My campsite for 10 days had no hookups of any kind, and I forgot how stressful it can be in a motorhome with no access to water or electricity (there was a water spigot in the loop). I kept the rig water pump off, storing a gallon next to the toilet for flushing to conserve water for dishwashing and showers. Guests were asked to use the campground toilets. I ran the generator three hours a day minimum at various intervals to keep the batteries charged, and my friends next-door in a trailer plugged into me. We made it work, but I am not eager to do that again. The experience prompted me to write the Camping Proverbs.

Long Beach is a turn of the century resort town on a 28-mile-long peninsula, founded in 1880 by Henry Harrison Tinker from Maine. It is chock-full of Pac Northwest seaside kitsch; when Margot & Barry from Vermont visited for the day after a business trip in Portland, they met Jake the Alligator Man and other Long Beach wonders, including the self-proclaimed “World’s Largest Frying Pan,” and the spitting razor clam, which spits on the hour, or on-demand for $.25.

The Port of Ilwaco is always fun for a visit – a working port of commercial fishermen, fishing charters for hire, seafood shacks, and art galleries – and I showed Margot & Barry around the Saturday market.

Annmarie and I headed out to Oysterville one afternoon to grab some bivalves for dinner.

One of the earliest founded towns on the West Coast, Oysterville dates to the 1850s, when the first white settlers visited a local native American chief.

John Douglas, who married a local Chinook woman, was the first white settler. In its heyday, its population was about 800. The entire 80-acre village is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Oysterville oysters help feed the San Francisco gold rush, and that evening we enjoyed some gems from Willapa Bay.

Onward To Oregon

It’s already the beginning of September, and I’m now in Astoria, Oregon; thus ends the Summer of Seattle. As I checked into the Lewis and Clark Golf Course and RV Park, the clerk warned to keep the dogs away from the water’s edge. “We have minks here, and they can kill a dog. If your dog chases or grabs one of them, the entire family will attack the dog and bite it. They sometimes even hold it down in the water until it drowns.”

Wow! Welcome to Oregon! In a town founded by fur traders, I guess the minks are finally getting their revenge.

You just can’t make this stuff up.