6/21, Saturday.
Solstice Parade.
I was late arriving.
It was still full of people. Difficult to move around with my bike.
A lot of colors. A lot of vendors (weekly market).
Many were lining up for the pink slide. $5/ride.
I didn't expect to, but saw 3 naked people.
6/20, Friday. Duel Reality.
Another acrobatic production of 7 Fingers.
I was so impressed last time with their Passengers, so eager to see this one. It was fun, but it didn't live up to my high expectation.
WSU Master Gardener's Demo Garden in west Mount Vernon.
Right by the parking lot is a large area of roses, now in a rainbow of colors.
Many sections, each with a theme (ground cover, good for polinator, heather family, ...).
Many plants have tags (thanks), but still quite a lot don't.
Their website offers plant lists.
In the garden, there are QR codes in various spots to link to the plant list.
There's also an area for vegetable garden, and compost process.
I definitely enjoyed seeing the bright Siskiyou Lewisia (maybe some day, I'll see them in the wild).
Some very funny looking flowers are Turkey Sage, Love-in-a-mist, Gold Cotula, all non-native.
Pitcher plants are always cool to see.
Fragrance Garden next to Tennant Lake in Ferndale (north of Bellingham).
The garden is very small, but is nice with benches and an educaton center (closed).
I like the observation tower.
Its ground floor has a display with photos and illustration of the reconstruction of this new tower and the demolition of the original (build in 1978).
From the top, great view of the lake (otherwise, you don't see the lake at all), and how small the garden is.
Should come at dusk or dawn and bring a binocular to view wildlife, dusk for a better color of Mt. Baker.
Now at 2:30pm, sun is beating on us, all animals are in hiding.
There're boardwalks leading to the lake, now choked with waterlilies.
Flowers are big, but few and far between.
The right-most one ends in rotten board that needs repair. The left-most one is the best.
The next door is Hovander Homestead Park.
Different parking lot, about 0.5 mile east.
It has a nice cottage (old home, closed this day), and a lovely small garden.
The interesting one is the small display area of "native weed", with description of each one.
So many of them I would happily (and regret later) to plant in my garden if I had a garden.
There's a self-service plant sale here this week.
On this large property, there's a barn with old farming equipment, an area with some animals (I only saw ducks and geese), a small maze, many picnic tables.
A lookout, with very very steep stairs, where I took this photo. Too bad, you cannot see Mt. Baker from here.
I saw quite a few families here with little kids.
Evergreen Arboretum and Garden is a small garden in Everett, next to a baseball field and a golf course.
Narrow property. Very well designed with some sculptures. The planting extends to the parking lot, so making your walk to the garden more pleasant.
Maybe half of the plants have labels. Many flowering nicely.
On this day, there was a game going on, so I parked below on Alverson Blvd.
A neighborhood gem.
The west of Alberson Blvd is a large green area with picnic tables, named Hibolt Lookout.
View of Snohomish River going to the Sound.
Can see Mt Baker. Too industrial-looking.
Rhody Ridge Arboretum in Bothel, is a too late now.
Most flowers are gone.
Very obscured entrance. Yes, with a sign. Parking in front of neighboring homes.
It connects seamlessly (going slowly downhill) to a community park.
It's very small, but pleasant. On this early evening (~6pm), I saw 2 people.
6/15 Sunday. Went to Teanaway area for spring flowers. Very pleased to see quite a few endemic species. Especially Snow Douglasia, which was beginning to bloom, and the abundance of Scarlet Gilia and shooting stars.
We timed this outing to shooting stars, because we loved our last trip here.
It's a 2+ hour drive. The last mile is rough, but brings you to elevation ~3600'.
The trail starts along the east slope of Bean Creek. Quite lush first half mile with many flowering plants.
As the trail goes higher, even though not far from the creek, but above creek, it was getting drier and drier.
Gilia, arnica was abundant in the next mile.
As the trail cross Bean Creek, we found the first batch of shooting stars.
A few butterflies gathered right at the path crossing the creek.
Here is a trail junction.
I headed towards Earl Peak first, which has a well-established trail (even though on Gaia and Caltopo, it's marked as dot-dot).
In fact, the dot-dot part is just a normal trail, easy to follow.
Not noon yet, this western slope still had shade.
As I went higher, started to see many Anemone in prestine condition, even a couple of glacier lilies on baldy parts of the slope.
Some Pine Voilet in flowers.
At the saddle (many trees, plenty shade), you can see a peak looming to the north.
It's a false summit.
The trail continues down to Standup Creek, where you can connect to Stafford Creek (and ultimately to Navaho Pass).
Now heading to the false summit, starting to see a lot of Snow Douglasia, buckwheat, phlox, tuft saxifrage.
View opens to the south, could see Rainier, all the way to Adams.
View to the west is closer: Stuart stands tall.
Can see the green Bean Creek Basin, Bean Peak, ...
Finally, at ~7000', the view is excellent. Found a couple sitting here enjoying the view.
They came here from Standup Creek, east of my route, more elevation gain.
They are the first people I met since I left the junction.
On my way down, met a backpacker couple, who plan to go camping below Navaho Pass.
Last, went to Bean Creek basin for lunch. The shooting stars are as good as I remembered.
Swaves of pink. Just lovely.
6/14, Saturday. My driver bailed Friday evening, so I took a bus to Kenmore Camera for a series of photography talks during this weekend's summer sale.
I went to these 4 talks. Here are some notes, not that I'll pursue any.
6/13, Friday. 7pm.
Walked up to Elliott Bay Book for an author reading event.
Jess Walter is in town promoting his new book So Far Gone.
My bad of arriving late. Thankfully there were still a couple of seats left.
I really enjoy listen to Jess Walter. During Q&A, he talked about arranging short stories into a collection, his growing up in rural WA, his father, his brother.
He also mentioned that his books are more hopeful as he gets older and sees more ugly truths, or rather he tries to be more hopeful.
This is the 3rd time (all in this year) I hear him talking. Will go again.
The stupid reason of being late, is that before the book talk, I went to an open house of COVE, a waterfront restaurant and bar. They do catering.
Free food and drink (nothing extraordinary). Good view.
I over-estimated my speed for eating and walking!
6/10, Tuesday, 4-7pm. Gates Foundation's Discovery Center hosted AI for Good - the future of health, with a distinguished panel:
6/8, Sunday. The 3 of us met at 6am to catch the 7:10 Edmonds-Kingston ferry.
Seems on Sunday, no need to get there so early. The 7:10 ferry was only ~60% full.
Turn right before entering the national park gate on Hurricane Ridge road, soon it's the trailhead for Lake Angeles.
Found forget-me-not next to the parking lot, and a fairy-slipper at the begining of the trail.
The trail is well-maintained with gentle but steady incline.
A nice one-log bridge near the beginning.
Large trees. Plenty shade along the way. Not as hot as I dreaded. Seattle today hit about 88°F.
The lake is good size, with nice camp sites. However, the view is a bit disappointing.
Yes, good view of the Klahhane Ridge. Almost all melt out.
There's a trail going from this lake up to the ridge. Another ~2000' gain.
We didn't bother. Too hot.
Lots of pollen and quite some logs floating on the water.
Found a log to sit on for lunch.
Return as we came.
Back to the car, we drove up to Hurricane Ridge. It's always spectacular. Quite some tourists.
Some deer munching the grass without any care of the human.
We walked a little bit, soaking in the view, also catching some view to the north and the Sound.
The northern slope still had a bit of snow left.
The nice wooden visitor center building was burned last year. Now two tin sheds.
Driving down the road, we stopped at this pullover (the first real pullover with parking spots).
To the left, quite a lot flowers growing on the cliff side. Now I was able to stop and investigate.
A lot sedum, tufted saxifrage, some wall flowers and vetch.
Found a some Lomatium Martindalei (new to me).
Once we parked in the sun baked parking lot.
We walked into the town. 88°F now.
S. queued in front of the first shop, a creperie. It was slow moving.
I walked further, got a scoup of ice cream.
When I was back, S. was still in the queue. S.C. also decided to queue up.
I finished my ice cream, the ferry arrived, cars drove past ours.
The two of them finnaly got their order, we ran back to the car, while they balancing their crepe in one hand.
We got on the ferry. ~5pm.