Weekend on Guemes Island

What could be more idyllic than spending a weekend playing string quartets in a room with a beautiful view across the waters of Puget Sound towards Bellingham and snow-capped Mount Baker beyond? Pam and I drove up early on Saturday morning to Anacortes where we'd arranged to meet Becky and Sam at the cinema to watch the live in HD broadcast of Cavalliera Rusticana and Pagliacci from the Met Opera in New York. It's only the second time I've watched one of these broadcasts and it was fabulous - close up and personal.

After the curtain went down, we headed across to the car ferry for the five minute crossing to Guemes, where Becky has a home and her violin making studio.  The rain that dogged the drive up had cleared and while we waited we took a walk on the beach, which was strewn with pink, purple and green kelp.  The water didn't feel that cold when I dipped a finger in but apparently it's a chilly 45 degrees Fahrenheit so is not suitable for swimming.

Guemes Island is very rural, roughly kite shaped and seven miles at its greatest length with Mount Guemes rising about 1000 feet at its north east corner.  About 350 families or roughly 1000 people live on the island, although many only come for the summer.  Becky showed us several log cabins built by the first homesteaders who settled there in the 1860's, which were just like the ones the Ingalls family built in 'Little House on the Prairie'. During the weekend we spotted deer, a sea otter, bald eagles and red winged blackbirds as well as Anna's and rufous hummingbirds which Becky's sister Holiday feeds no less that 10lb of sugar each week, refilling the feeders twice a day.  It's so cold there that the birds have to guzzle nectar constantly to keep warm; in the winter they can freeze to death.

As we played string quartets I was mesmerized watching the perfect plane waves come lapping up to the beach below.  Thank you Becky for your wonderful hospitality! I brought some rhododendron blooms back to Seattle with me and their fragrance is a lingering souvenir of a memorable weekend of music and friendship.