Hilary and Theresa's Road to Nowhere: S'cuse Me While I Kiss The Sky

We made it back into the US last week without incident. Some countries are happy to see us. Before heading for Seattle to pay homage to Hilary's Guitar God, we spent a couple of days with a friend in Friday Harbor, the only real town on San Juan Island, Washington. We took the ferry from Sidney, B.C. while reading the brochures that told us to get ready for "island time." I thought that only applied in tropical climates but I was wrong.  On any island, you can't just get up and go - at a minimum, you have to wait for some way to get off of an island. So you are almost forced to relax a bit. That was fine with us - we've been on "island time" this whole trip.

San Juan Island is the second largest and most populous of the San Juan Islands with about 6800 people in an area of about 55 square miles. It seems to be a fairly upscale community, although we did see a smattering of single-wides with confederate flags covering the windows as we drove around the island. And our friend Bill told he thought he saw a homeless person once (he has lived there for about seven years.)  As we chatted with the islanders, I sensed what seemed to be a bit of an independent, pioneer spirit. These are, after all, people who have chosen to live a little off the grid. And apparently you get to do stuff here that's not allowed on the mainland - like running around and shooting deer with bow and arrows. Sadly, Bill reported finding a victim on his front lawn last week. So we were cautious as we toured the rest of the island.  It was fun to hook up with another rabid Giants fan while on the island; we watched the Giants beat Arizona and the Cubs beat the Padres on Bill's satellite TV while we were there. And by the way, how fun is it to be a Giants fan right now? I can't wait to watch them in the playoffs on a 60" screen in some bar in Rapid City South Dakota.

Next it was on to Seattle where the big event was going to be the Jimi Hendrix Museum. Only there wasn't a Jimi Hendrix Museum. But there is something called the Experience Music Project, which does contain the largest collection of JH memorabilia in the world. That would have to do. We made the best of it, but I have to say we were disappointed. There were a few great film clips but it's not like we learned anything new. But we did get to see the butterfly outfit from his last concert on the Isle of Wight and the white stratocaster that he played at Woodstock. And then we played around in these simulated sound studios for a while. Oh well, you can't hit a home run at every at-bat.

I have to say that I loved Seattle though. Maybe it wouldn't have looked as spectacular without the perfect 75 degree weather. But it just had a great vibe to it. In fact, it felt a lot like San Francisco. And although I haven't been away long enough to get homesick, I felt the strong attachment I have to my own very cool city. We are heading for Yellowstone now - straight into an oncoming thunderstorm actually.  But we don't care; we seem to have excellent wildlife luck in bad weather.