Oh, Canada!

My wife and I fly off tomorrow for a few days of a retreat in Vancouver, BC, Canada. We need the rest and rejuvenation. I like Vancouver. This time we will get to take the ferry across to Victoria. That will be special for me. I grew up on the ocean. My family still does commercial salmon fishing. I have memories of riding the ferry to Bainbridge Island from Seattle to visit my grandfather when he was in a nursing home there. I was two years old. The ferry, the smell of the creosote on its heavy beams, the sound of the water splashing against the ferry, the narrow stairs to the upper deck where, if Dad thought we boys had been good, we got a cup of hot chocolate, strong memories! I remember walking down the gangplank when we arrived at the island, with beautiful fall-colored trees bordering the road we walked on to get to where grandpa was staying. I love fall leaves and later in life I wrote about them:

Curtain Fall

Flaming orange, yellow, red
leaves of forest arms outspread
applaud the music of fall,
the year's final curtain call:
Summer's act is done,
Winter's almost come.

Anyway, that is all to say that I'll be gone until Sunday evening. But the other contributors to this blog will continue posting.