What I did last weekend/What's yet to come
So last Saturday, after a small celebratory birthday brunch, jackwilliambell and I went to the Skagit Valley Highland Games in Mount Vernon. As previously mentioned, we met paulcarp, mcjulie, jkling, and Ivy there, watched sheep herding and caber tossing, poked around the vendor booths, and listened to and watched the pipe and drum bands. Somehow, as interesting and fun as the caber tossing was, I found the bands just thrilling. I may not be an especial fan of bagpipes, but all of these bands were so good. I really enjoyed the music.
On Sunday, we took advantage of the lowest tides of the year to go tidepooling at Golden Gardens park and beach. It was an overcast day, cooler than I expected, but the silvery light made for interesting photography conditions, and made colors pop everywhere. I had a wonderful time poking around the tidepools, seeing anemones, seastars, crabs, and fish. This particular crab, which was about the size of my whole hand, when I approached it, reared up on its back legs and snapped its claws at me! Twice! Raaarrr! I'd never seen that before. I burst into laughter, which I'm sure was not the intended effect. When it realized that I wasn't going to leave it alone, it began to burrow into the sand; that's when I decided to stop harassing the poor little guy. Just a few steps later, a fountain of water about four feet tall shot up out of the goo; I'd been spat at by a geoduck buried beneath the surface! (Actually, it was probably just being a geoduck and its fountaining had nothing to do with me, but it's fun to think of it that way.) Later on, I turned around to discover a great blue heron standing about ten feet away from me, surveying the shallows for snacks. It was a wonderful morning (see the Flickr set here). We then spent the rest of the day sitting on the beach relaxing, and watching a man get his beached sailboat back into the water.
I came out of it all sunburned for the first time in years. While I regretted the burn, I didn't regret the day. It was perfectly lovely.
Today I'm going to take advantage of the fact that I don't have to be anywhere and go to the zoo to finally visit the new meerkat exhibit. I'm so looking forward to it! Then this weekend, it's parties and Foolscap stuff. Busy busy busy!