On Friday morning we got up late (our Everett alarm is not as dependable lately) and went into town. Everett went to school while Cress wandered around town for the first half of the day. The three adults met for lunch at the house, then worked a bit more, and finally picked up Everett early from school for an afternoon outing. First stop: Westcott Bay Sea Farm. This is one of the places where Chris used to hunt for nudibranchs back in the day. At that time there was quite a congenial relationship between the farm and FHL – they allowed researchers unfettered access to the docks. More recently it sounds like they have scaled back operations and are not operating at the same capacity. We weren’t able to get any more details, but when we arrived there on Friday afternoon the tanks were empty and the whole place looked deserted. We were able to observe some cormorants drying their wings on the buoys.

Next stop: Roche Harbor. This place has been here for some time in different forms. There are still remnants of the lime kilns that once operated and the nearby quarries where it was mined. The Hotel de Haro has been here for well over 100 years and has been restored, along with the garden in front.

Returned to FH and got a view of our destination for the next morning: Mt. Constitution on Orcas Island.

Went to Downriggers for a delicious dinner…apparently it takes three iphones to entertain a three year old.

The next morning we got up a bit early to get on the 8:30 ferry to Orcas Island. We knew that the return trips were at 12:25 followed by 4:30 and no one wanted to spend the entire day there (and risk Everett missing a nap) so we decided to make it a three hour trip. Got off the Chetzemoka and drove straight to Mt. Constitution. It was a beautiful day for it and we had a great view of Mt. Baker from the top.

Everett fell asleep in the car on the way back to the ferry, yet (thankfully) still took another nap when we got home. During the trips to and from Orcas Island the family behind us in line for the ferry was one of the girls that Everett goes to preschool with. During the ferry ride home Melissa spotted an eagle at Shaw Island:

That evening we had a meat and cheese plate for dinner, then went to the dock for Friday Harbor Television. We found one Pycnopodia attached to a chain right partially above the surface, and another on the bottom in about 15 feet of water. Pycnopodia are soft and need to stay submerged for support, so it seemed unusual to see one slightly above the water.

The days have now become even more full, so much so that it’s difficult to find time to keep up the blog. This has been for two primary reasons. First, the weather has improved a lot so we have been spending a lot more time on outside adventures (Chris got up at dawn today to photograph the sunrise):

The second reason is that Cress arrived this afternoon!

Other recent events: Everett and his class went to a pumpkin patch

After Grandaddy arrived we went to Lime Kiln State Park to watch for orcas. We didn’t see any, but Everett put Grandaddy in timeout at one point (we aren’t exactly sure why).

Next we went to Eagle Cove and saw a seal pup on the shore while at least a half dozen adults were hunting offshore.

Finally came home to eat dinner we bought from the fish market on the dock. Chris had salmon while Melissa and Cress had crabs.

We started our family website in earnest around the time Everett was born. The original purpose was to have a corner of the internet where family and friends could keep up do date with where we are and what we are up to. But it quickly grew to be more than that: the website and photography became two new hobbies for Chris, the combined effect of which was to chronicle the life of our family. A couple days ago Melissa called the website “a love letter to me and Everett”, which is the highest compliment I can imagine receiving.

On a distantly related subject, Flight of the Conchords is a sitcom about two kiwis who move to New York City to start a band. They have a single fan, Mel, who constitutes their “fan base”. For some time we have joked about our website and our small “fan base” which is mainly composed of a couple family members who watch the website so carefully that we receive feedback within an hour or two of posting new material. It is important to keep such dedicated fans happy, and one request we have received is for Melissa and Everett to write a blog entry now and then. We will try to do so in the near future, keeping in mind that Everett doesn’t write yet and Melissa doesn’t seem to have a lot of extra energy for creative writing, which is most likely a result of the little paper she is working on this semester (i.e. dissertation).

On Monday morning Chris awoke to the sight of Everett’s face about two inches away. “Dada, today I didn’t say ‘Momma, Dada, I’m awaaaake.’ I just came in!” Like most days he wakes up at 11 (on a scale of 1 to 10, re: Spinal Tap). It was a great day to work in the same way that Sunday was a great day to play: it rained off and on all day. Everett got to school without drama. Melissa and Chris worked through the morning, then had a quick lunch at the dining hall and then back to work. In the evening we picked Everett up from school and drove to Cattle Point to look around on the beach in a light rain. On the way home we saw our first fox of the trip:

which means that we have now seen almost every animal we came to see except an Orca.

The day we arrived at Friday Harbor was in the midst of a large storm that lasted a couple days. We think that as a result of the storm the turbidity of the water increased quite a bit but it seems to have settled down since then. The water around the dock and shore appears to be much clearer, which is great for creature hunting! On Tuesday morning (today) there were a lot of interesting creatures on the dock. First, there were two nudibranch sightings! The first was a Dirona pellucida and the second was a Triopha catalinae. The biodiversity and coloring of these creatures is fascinating. Finding a nudibranch is often like finding a living jewel in the sea. Chris also captured a Solaster “swimming” on video along with a few other creatures. One lively debate Chris got to witness when he was here in 2004 was about whether different species of nudibranchs can “swim”. They can all certainly scoot around on hard surfaces with the appearance of a magic carpet, and some can use the surface tension of the water to float upside down at the surface, but do they have the ability to swim freely in the water? Opinions and observations vary. In the course of this discussion someone mentioned that a Tritonia diomedea will break into a gallop if you brush it with the arm of a Pycnopodia. It’s an interesting image to think about. Also, Galloping Nudibranchs would be a good name for a rock band (for nerds and/or electrophysiologists). One final thought: interestingly it has been reported that Pycnopodia will eat tritonia diomedea once, but only once and never again.

All of these movies were made with a waterproof camera attached to a boom which is lowered into the water while Chris stands on the dock. It is remarkably difficult to make movies this way. In particular, it’s difficult to know whether the creature you see from the dock is within view of the camera. Many times he has been on the dock bubbling with excitement about the footage he is getting only to find recordings of an empty piling.

This evening we picked up E from school, picked a bunch of blackberries and then went to 4th of July Beach to tromp around for a while and watch the sunset.

Melissa and I have become accustomed to our lives moving along in a fast, efficient and logical manner. However, our life here at Friday Harbor seems to have none of these characteristics. Island life does not have the same buzz as mainland life and that is actually one of the reasons we came here. With regard to logic, we yearn for it but this seems incompatible with raising a toddler whose main priority is control. So our days are filled with work/school/adventures that are interspersed with temper tantrums. Interestingly, despite the fact that Everett seems completely overwhelmed during a tantrum he remembers everything we say and usually acts it out a day or two later in a scenario where he is the parent and something else is the child. A few nights ago he wouldn’t stay in bed after bedtime and instead kept coming out of his room and asking for different things like another hat or keychain that was necessary for him to fall asleep. The evening did not go well and as a result he lost iPad privileges for a day (he gets to watch 30 minutes each day). Tonight he put the iPad in a timeout in his room at bedtime, then informed us that it still was not behaving and finally that it had thrown up. He has also started mimicking Chris from time to time, saying things like “Son, I’m not kidding” in a deep voice, which is what I say to him when he is about to get in trouble. It’s hard not to laugh when he does this.

Saturday morning we went to the Friday Harbor Farmer’s Market, then a bookstore, then the Happy Clam for lunch and finally a used bookstore called “Serendipity, The Used Book Place”. This place is, in a word, fantastic! Imagine a small victorian house where every square foot of wall space is covered with rickety bookshelves, including above the doors. The drawers in the built in cabinets are filled with books as well. Everett settled into the reading nook in the Children’s area:

This is a dangerous place for people like us – Melissa and I reminded ourselves repeatedly that we did not have extra space or weight to take things home, especially heavy items like books, so we only bought a few for Everett.

Everett’s nap ran long so we hung out at the house in the afternoon and then went to the 17th annual Oktoberfest celebration at the County Fairgrounds. Chris wore his Rohloff t-shirt that Bryon sent him from New Zealand, which was the most German piece of clothing we brought on the trip. It was fun and we’re glad we went. It was also an instance where the expectations I mentioned at the beginning of this blog entry don’t apply. The event ran from 5:30 to 9:30. We bought our dinner at about 6:30 (kielbasa for Everett and Melissa, spaetzle for Chris), which was fortunate for us because by 7pm they were out of kielbasa and forks (?).

Today (Sunday) was an exceptional day. Everett woke up at 7:40 and got in bed with us. We let him watch Wallace and Gromit on the iPad, which provided us with about another 50 minutes of sleep (yahoo!). Over the last year he has started to quote movies, and at random times he has started whipping out quotes from Wallace and Gromit such as: “I’d like something a bit more cheesy,” or “rabbit rehabilitation”. This behavior of fearlessly adopting new words into his vocabulary is not new. In the summer of 2010 a neighbor was looking at Melissa’s spice garden when Everett informed her that “The cilantro is bolting”. We are used to it but it causes some confusion among people who feel certain they misunderstood him.

We had breakfast burritos along with quiche made by my frontier wife and were out the door by 10am. It is astonishing how long it takes to get ready with small children. In a 90 minute period all we did was eat breakfast and get dressed, and even that felt rushed. We drove to False Bay at low tide to walk around in the muck with the birds and other creatures. It was fantastic! It is amazing to see the biodiversity in tidal regions and watch how quickly the tide comes in here.

After lunch and nap we went for a hike north from FHL labs (only one tantrum on the hike!) and saw several ground slugs. Everett picked one up and said “That slug sucked onto me!” Pad thai for dinner and then an early bedtime for Everett. Oh, we also visited Chris’ former hut from his days here back in 2004, and we explained to Everett that he might not be here if it weren’t for that hut.

What made the day exceptional was the warm, sunny weather and the outdoor time we were able to spend together as a result.

From time to time Melissa says things that Chris isn’t exactly sure how to interpret, but rather than ask questions he takes a wait-and-see attitude. Anyway, a couple days ago Melissa announced that she was a “frontier wife”. This could be interpreted in a variety of ways. Does this mean gingham dresses, skipping through fields of wildflowers while The Sound of Music plays in the background? Or denim overalls, a rifle and squirrel stew for dinner that evening? Not sure where this is headed in the long run, but tonight we had homemade pie with blackberries that she handpicked on the island.

And it was extremely delicious. So far, so good! It turns out that Himalayan blackberries are not native to the island but are plentiful this time of year. Also tonight we finished the puzzle! While putting it away we noticed that it was made the year Chris was born, so it is remarkable that it still has all the pieces. The age of the puzzle is reflective of most things about this place: it feels old and well-used, which is appropriate considering the labs have been here for over 100 years. A couple days ago when Chris was working in the Whiteley Center he noticed the cracks at the bottom of his coffee mug

and immediately figured out what this place reminds me of: Grandma’s house (Josephine Donnelly, Chris’ maternal grandmother).

Since we arrived here we have noted that the low tides differ quite a bit from each other and the lower of the two daily low tides has been in the middle of the night. Fortunately the low low tide is now in the morning and this provides the best animal viewing from the dock for two reasons: the crabs and starfish that live on the dock pilings must move into a smaller volume; we are much closer to subtidal creatures like nudibranchs. Here is some footage from today preceded by Everett doing the Pycnopodia dance:

We returned to the dock tonight to watch the sunset from the rowboat and stayed out until well after dark to watch Friday Harbor television and see the bioluminescent algae. We asked Everett if he wanted to see the algae glow but he misunderstood us and now proclaims that “we are going to see the allergy grow!” We even managed to capture some on the video camera after heavy post-processing:

A couple nights ago Chris borrowed a puzzle from the game area of the dining hall. It’s an old puzzle, judging from the faded picture on the box with women wearing 1960s clothing in a Tudor town in England. Melissa and I have no time for such things at home – we have never worked on a puzzle together and can’t even remember the last time either of us worked on one before we knew each other (working on Everett’s puzzles doesn’t count) so we didn’t think we would get very interested, but this has become somewhat of an obsession. After 3 nights we are about 75% done. Everett helps us put in pieces from time to time and follows up by pounding his hand on the table and saying “Boom! That just happened”, which undoes the piece he helped put in and a few others around it, providing an added level of difficulty.

This morning Chris got up around dawn and went to the dock to experiment with raw photography like this (I’ll put more on the website gallery soon).

Then off to school. After saying goodbye to Chris, Everett turned and engaged with his new friends, resulting in the lowest drama dropoff since we arrived.

There are two people named Mark Billington on the island and during his previous visit in 2004 Chris got to know both of them. He met the first Mark Billington at the ferry terminal in Anacortes, and the second at Wescott Bay Sea Farms on the north end of the island when they graciously allowed us to hunt for nudibranchs from their docks. Of the two Chris got to know the former a lot better and the two of them met for coffee today at The Doctor’s Office. Mark spends a lot of energy writing about various things: the island and its history, lunar calendars, children’s games, unification theory. He gave Chris a copy of his book in 2004, and during this visit he provided an updated version along with a book he wrote in both Spanish and English on the history of the island. He also gave Chris a copy of a lunar calendar. Recently he has started submitting some of his writing to the Friday Harbor Now website.

After work we drove to the southern tip of the island to hike on the beach.

On the way home we were about a half mile from the house when a deer ran right in front of the car. We were going about 20 mph and Chris hit the brakes fast but we still made contact and knocked it off its feet, after which he jumped up and ran into the woods. It was upsetting but not terribly surprising – as we mentioned a few days ago the deer on the island are plentiful and fearless. We didn’t think Everett saw and quickly decided not to tell him about it but within a couple minutes he was asking questions like “Was there an animal in front of the car? Did it have horns?”. There seems to be little that escapes his notice.

Yesterday was a pretty full day so we ran out of time for the daily blog post. Last night they had all faculty and academic visitors give a two minute talk after dinner on their research. This went pretty well, though a few people were off by about a factor of 10 with regard to the length of their presentation, so it ended up taking about two hours in all. Chris presented the following slide to summarize how Friday Harbor has affected his life:

Everett REALLY wanted to hear Daddy talk and was a trooper, staying until the end. He passed the time by playing with his new friend Tessa at the train table in the dining hall, then leaving for the playground for a while and finally investigating the game collection. He seemed very engaged when Chris gave his short presentation. Afterward on the dock we found about five or six Pycnopodia in a short period of time.

This morning we went for a walk to the beach, stopping at the playground on the way at Everett’s request.

During the talks someone mentioned that there are 50 (or 150, I can’t remember) different species of jellyfish in the area that seem to appear at different times of year. There is one species that we have been seeing a lot of around the dock and on the beach. I took a photo of one a few days ago. Here is another of the same species but has probably dried out since the last high tide about 10 hours ago and the different directions of the connective tissue are quite visible:

We picked Everett up at about 5:15 and then hung around the house the rest of the evening. We talked about going to the dock, but he didn’t seem too interested and we didn’t want to push it. Somehow it was still well after 9pm until he went to sleep. He has become better and better at procrastinating, thinking of innovative new reasons why he needs to get up, stand in the hallway outside his room and either talk to us or make loud sighing noises. This is usually because he needs water, needs to go the bathroom, needs a spoonful of honey (for his cough), saw a bug on the wall, etc. The other night after he reminded us about honey and water he said “You guys are forgetting lots of things.” Another way that he has started chastising us from time to time is when we talk to him at an inopportune moment and he informs us “I’m doing an experiment!” In that regard, we hope this place makes a lasting impression.

This morning we had no plans other than Sunday brunch in the dining hall at 10am. Even though we have a cottage with a kitchen, as residents of the research community we are required to eat a certain number of meals each week with everyone else in the common dining area. This is most certainly done to foster the spirit of collaboration that is a guiding principle of FHL. We awoke about 7:30am (sleeping a little later each day!), lazed around the house for a while and then walked to the rock beach to see what creatures had arrived overnight. Next, brunch was quite delicious with a variety of sweet and savory dishes. Afterward we drove to Lime Kiln State Park to hike along the water and watch for orcas. We were once again reminded that Everett’s physical abilities have expanded much more rapidly than common sense. We had several talks with him and delivered a couple ultimatums about the need to hold Mom’s or Dad’s hand when walking on rocky paths above the water. At times like this the best response is when he says “I understand you. I will cooperate.” A close second is like today when he (mostly) cooperates and entertains us with other comments, such as when we pointed out a bright yellow flower and he said “That makes my feelings happy!”. Next we saw a seal,

and then spent some time near the lighthouse waiting for orcas, which we weren’t able to find today.

Then headed north to Roche Harbor and hiked around for a while,

until realizing we had waited just a little too long to head home for Everett’s nap so headed home. When Melissa and Chris were on the island in 2004 we saw a werewolf standing on the side of the road in a rainstorm. Today we saw something almost as surprising on the side of the road:

Like most people we were surprised to see a camel on the island. Later in the evening when Everett told Gabby and Grandaddy they assumed they had misunderstood him. It turns out her name is Mona and she has been on the island for a few years.

Today was the first day that Everett decided to sleep late. On any regular Saturday this would be great, but this morning we had plans to be out the door by 7:45 for the 8:30am ferry to Lopez island to visit Peter and his wife Ann.

Peter was chairman of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Cleveland Clinic where Chris worked for a few years as a post-doc and research scientist. The San Juan Islands always came up as a discussion topic between them because of Chris’ previous trip to Friday Harbor and Peter’s desire to build a house on Orcas island. Fortuitously, we are at FHL just a few months after Peter and Ann bought a lovely house on Lopez Island, decorated with artwork from Ann’s studio. They invited us to visit and during the three hours from 10am to 1pm we managed to do quite a bit: see their house; locate and photograph a golden eagle; visit Watmough Bay for a hike; eat a delicious pizza cooked by Ann.

They were gracious hosts for all of us, especially Everett. As self-described kid people (and grandparents of four) they had a great supply of toys and interesting things to investigate. It was great to get to know Ann and catch up with Peter. The time spent with him was just as interesting and exciting as Chris remembers. With regard to the former he is working on a new book, and with regard to the latter he never seems rushed but likes to make good use of the time available. He got us back to the ferry terminal with approximately 7 seconds to spare before we had to board the boat.

After returning home Everett and Melissa rested while Chris went for a hike. He found a pole to use as a camera boom for underwater movies, then stopped by the library and confirmed the identity of the nudibranch that he saw the day before: Dendronotus rufus (note that this animal was Nudi of the Week in December 1998, which sounds a little risque and tempts me to make some really bad jokes, but I will resist).

After nap we went for a rowboat ride, then home for dinner, and then off to the dining hall to investigate the games and toys available for grownups and kids. Chris and Melissa played games and worked on a puzzle while Everett played at the train table. Our last stop for the day was back at the dock for our first bioluminescent algae sighting! Chris took an oar and dragged it through the water while standing on the dock, resulting in a wave of bright green sparkles. We need to investigate what purpose this serves.

We are starting to get into a routine. Everett awakens around 7, followed by breakfast, some kind of mini adventure and then off to preschool. Today he wanted to combine the latter two, so after breakfast we went to the dock and rowed to school (stopping at the rope swing on the way):

One interesting thing about becoming a parent is the sense of mortality that comes with it. This is partly in the sense that the universe has entrusted us to bring a new life into the world, and those are pretty big shoes to fill. Parents seem to have an endless supply of potential worries and are forced to take calculated risks in order to encourage exploration while keeping everyone safe. The most concise explanation we have ever heard for this was from one of the Tosa Spokesmen that Chris rides with who is a father of four: Mom’s think about possibilities, Dad’s think about probabilities. This accounts for why Everett is in the rowboat with Dad instead of Mom.

Today at lunch was pretty sunny and Melissa wasn’t feeling well, so Chris went to the dock to look for creatures and practice underwater photography, which is more difficult than it appears. The primary challenge in this case is filming from the dock and figuring out from above water which creatures are within range of the camera lens below water. We now have several pieces of footage showing dock pilings with the extremities of some very interesting animals just peeking into the edge of the picture. Fortunately Chris was able to get some decent shots today in the bright sunlight, including the first nudibranch sighting of the trip! We think this is some variety of Dendronotus. But in the mayhem and exhaustion of the days leading up to this trip Chris forgot to pack his copy of Pacific Coast Nudibranchs. Fortunately we are at a marine biology laboratory, and if memory serves correctly the library is open 24 hours a day, so a midnight trip to sort this out might be necessary. In any case, this is what we captured today on video:

One final note: a few nights ago we mentioned a flashlight that was our first equipment loss to the sea. At the time I didn’t mention who lost the flashlight because it didn’t seem important, and because the person who lost it probably feels badly enough anyway, but apparently the word is out in town. When we picked Everett up from school today a girl his age walked up to Melissa and asked “Did you, um, did you drop the flashlight?”

Curiously, we noted its exact location and Chris returned to the dock at low tide (around midnight) to retrieve it but it was gone. Leading theories about where it went: someone else found it first; it rolled away in the current; a crab or some other animal took it. All of these seem unlikely for different reasons.