… the love is. And if that’s true, I am feeling to be a bit of a vagabond, this past week. Following the love around, stopping at moments to wrap myself in it. Contemplate, wonder.

(It’s time for a travel post.)

So much has happened, in the last few years. It’s easy to let my attention settle on the loss, the people missing, hearts broken, a void where something once was.

And yet there’s the new. Joy, discovery.

Lots of change. Most of it still changing. There is opportunity. I’m a little fearful, and a lot hopeful.

We have just returned from a week in the Pacific Northwest! Visiting and reminiscing with family in Victoria, some who came from about as far away as we did (from Montreal), all to celebrate on the important date of July 1, when my aunt Joanne departed this earthly life in 2018.

Part of the week was in Tacoma, visiting with different parts of that family:

There were also a few adventures with friends…

… including a wee kayak trip and oyster hunting (selecting) lesson:

It’s hard to pick a favorite part, but I was so happy to finally enjoy a ride in Robbi’s new C Dory fishing boat! The weather and tides were amenable, midweek. She took us on a smooth, cooling, and scenic trip around Anderson Island, checking out the Nisqually Delta and enjoying a picnic dinner on the boat. We’d heard rumors of an orca sighting here, recently but we only saw porpoises, a seal, lots of jellies, more than a few crested cormorants and a guillemot or two. Countless gulls because: sea.

Steve and I are finding ourselves contemplating “home” a lot these days, largely because we are in the surprising, sorrowful, kind of bewildering position of not having aging parents to care-give for, any longer. What do we need? Want? Desire?

The departure of parents, uncles and aunts seems to have lain some glue to our remaining family and also cured the already-laid cement of longtime and even not-so-longtime friendships. I’m glad we made this trip and we are already planning the next one to this area, probably in exactly one year.

At one point, Robbi noticed that Steve and I were still sussing out where to place ourselves in the boat, so that it was balanced evenly on the water. It was clear that we don’t spend a lot of time on water. Regardless of the pangs of guilt or denial I was feeling, this is a truth for 2 people who live in Minnesota (or New Mexico, where we spend some of our time) and don’t spend much time on crafts on any body of water.

And yet I love time on water, especially water with movement like tides. That rocking action that the ocean and ocean waters usually have … it grounds me. It’s the reason I loved my surfing lesson so much, a few years ago, as well as some time on a paddleboard on an ocean beach, elsewhere in Mexico!

So, while I research ways to rent a kayak on a nearby lake or river… I know I’ll need to make sure to be on ocean, regularly. Yearly, maybe more often. I’ll be back in the PNW in a month for a kayak excursion!

I was recently asked if I’d choose mountains or beach/ocean, for my “happy place.” I answered “both” – or the one I hadn’t visited in awhile, which would have been beach. I suppose this speaks to “Adventure” being one of my core values, identified in the personal (needs, goals, fulfillment, etc.) work I’ve been doing over the last few years.

But then there is Joy, Curiosity and Independence, which rank bit higher than Adventure, albeit on a list of 7, which originally counted 30 (this is not easy work! If you haven’t tried it, here’s one way). The rest? Connection, Make a Difference.

And PLAY.

It makes a lot of sense that I don’t want to live in (my hometown of) Tacoma. It’s certainly changed since I left it, so many years ago and there are things to explore there. And yet I’d never feel like I was choosing it, having chosen to leave it, so long ago for a college in the cold northern plains, of all places.

This is getting way too journally for a sunny Sunday morning, so I’ll leave it here. (I’ll figure it out.) I hope you enjoyed my photos and travel story. Here are a few more pics: