Gulf Island Kayaking

We got an afternoon ferry (so could be leisurely and shop for groceries in Canada) and are loading our boat at the Montague Harbor Marina around 6PM.    This is a humungous group of folks getting BASIC instructions on how to kayak.  I count 13 singles.   the doubles will be in the next group.   the smoke from the wildfires is much worse here than in Seattle.  this is how it looks…it’s very hot and muggy. and very still.   It’s 10-15 minutes to our place in our boat thru the cut you can barely see a quarter of the way in from the right.   I expect to see this group on or near our northwest facing beach for the sunset tonight (Not that there’s going to be one …Might be an orange globe. )  the weather report is for some marine air from the Pacific late tomorrow to hopefully send this smoke away (but where? back to the interior?) and POSSIBLE rain on sunday.  fingers crossed.

Going to put this in the blip cultural thing.   (but I can't locate it to see what the labels should be!  Can anyone tell me?) If someone came to visit us here in the gulf Islands and wanted to kayak and our kid kayaks or rowing boats weren’t enuf, I’d send them to this fine nearby group… We’ve done it…. there’s lots of great nearby exploring of islands. 


And if anyone is interested, (or else just stop here) a word about last night’s opera Madame Butterfly in Seattle.  We’ve seen it many times but this was memorable.   Not only was the Armenian soprano,  Butterfly,  exquisite  (the Japanese geisha’s were dressed traditionally but not made up like Asians. Called "yellow face" not respectfully) )with Puccini’s music to die for,  (just close your eyes…it’s pure bliss))  but…. there has been an ongoing discussion about stereotypes in the Asian community which in the Pacific Northwest constitutes 18% but only 4% are represented in the arts, in  any capacity.  There was a display in the lobby about the history of local attitudes toward immigrants and of course the shame of interring the Japanese during WWll.  Seattle opera will bring back “An American Dream” that touches on this very issue in Sept. (more about that then)   Puccini and his librettist portrayed this 15 year old Butterfly as a Geisha to be sold for sex to the American naval officer without understanding that culture.   The Asian community is going to try to change that.  Some original parts of the opera were put back in this production, original from New Zealand.   Very interesting.  But I’ll stop.    I’m happy we saw it.