Chips and Cake: Reflections on the summer

We have been back from our kayaking trip for a few months and are living in an apartment building a couple blocks away from the college campus in Bellingham. It is a strange feeling to have signed a year lease and to just be working a job and living. For the past 4 1/2 years Kelly and I have been moving and changing jobs every 3-6 months. We have always had something to plan and work towards whether that was going to do a ski season in Colorado, move to the east coast for the spring, travel in Ecuador and Peru, build a kayak, or paddle for three months from Alaska to Washington. But currently we don't have a next adventure, we are in this apartment until next September, maybe longer. We have been spending time with good friends, and reading and watching movies in our warm apartment while winter settles in outside. I have been running again and we have gone on a hike or two but something definitely feels missing. That feeling of working towards something outside the boundary of our normal life, something bigger and grander, something new, I miss that feeling.

I think the fact that we aren't working towards some new adventure amplifies the feeling of not being on our last adventure. I miss waking up outside in the predawn everyday, packing up my stuff and paddling to a new island. I miss worrying about bears and listening to the weather report on the VHF every night. I miss unfolding the chart, calculating mileage and trying to predict what the tides will do (even though they never do what you think). Speaking of tides, I miss blaming or thanking the kelp for the currents. Anytime I saw the kelp flowing against me I knew the tides were going against me as well and for some reason it seemed like the kelp's fault, like all the kelp in the ocean somehow dictated the tides and currents. Most of all I miss getting to see humpback whales, seals and all the other wildlife everyday.

While I do miss all of these things about our trip, I am loving Bellingham. To fill some of the void of not planning, Kelly and I are creating a trip log with pictures and GPS locations of our campsites in the hopes that it will help other people like us who want to do the trip. I love that we have a warm little coffee shop where we can work on that trip log. I love that I can still say hello to the seals and shore birds when I go on runs through Boulevard Park. I loved watching the leaves blow in the wind and fall off the Alders that frame our windows. Now I love watching the rain drops linger and freeze on their naked branches. I love being so close to friends and family and spending time with visiting ones. I love having options on a Saturday night, being able to see the Cave Singers at the Buffalo or go to the Banff Film Festival at the Mount Baker Theater. Most of all I love that since we live in Bellingham we definitely don't have to give up getting to kayak. There are only more options of things to do outdoors and soon our Pygmys will be back on the water, the rivers will be running, and the wildflowers blooming in the high alpine.

Hopefully we will have more reflections and mini adventures to report about this winter as well as our trip log. Stay tuned. Here are some pictures of our fall so far: