Anybody there?

 Clallam Bay is tiny. We drove by without seeing a grocery store or a restaurant. Then we drove back to find our B&B, but no body was there. The notice board on the side tell you to call who & who, but there was no cell signal. Finally, the neighbor showed up and let us in. Owner wasn't home, we got the whole house to ourselves .

 And the whole back porch. BTW, the neighbor did come back the next morning to make us a big  nice breakfast.

Nobody on Rialto Beach. In fact, for most of the beach we went along the coast, there were hardly anybody there. If you don't mind the chill, beginning of the season is the time to be there.

Same thing here in Forks - Wood Street guest house. We got the secret code (I think it might not be that secret) from the confirmation email, let ourselves in and out, without seeing another soul.

 I would like to believe the guest house owner is a designer. The setting is very cozy, comfortable and clean. I would recommend this place to small family who would like to cook, or eat in.

 Ruby Beach from up the hill. For the week we were in Olympic Peninsula going anti clockwise (first week of April), the weather was kind to us, other than some serious snow up the mountain, other than some light shower in the late afternoons, other than the hours of rain the day we decided to do our longest boardwalk hike in Ozette. Overall, we're thankful.

Another Ruby Beach to show how blue the sky could be. BTW, there are always signs to tell you those drift logs could be very dangerous, especially when the tide is high. 

Photos of myself

I was told that people are not interested in photo without familiar face. So, here you go. The only few pics with my face in the Olympic Peninsula trip. Please let me know if you think otherwise.

 Found a matching color float...... match to my outfit. 

 We spent a night in 'Forks', where the twilight series based. You can see how "Vampire tourism" breathes new life into the small town.

 I want to talk about my shoes and outfit. I got to confess that it is the first time in my life, I was able to stay totally dry after hiking in the rain for hours. Shoes were always the weakest link. We both had Vasque this time and couldn't be more happy about them.

Sol Duc or Sole Duck

I hope I had a lens wide enough to show the whole length of Dungeness spit. I also hope I had a lens long enough to shoot the sea otter who swam along. However, I'm glad that I didn't have either with me that morning. From now on, that spit is the longest, and that otter is the cutest, in my mind. 

Went up Sol Duc hot springs road, and seeing Sol Duc river in it's winter from.

 Sol Duc or Sole Duck, it means sparkling water. It is so true.

The hot spring has only been open for a week. They only do 6 months of business in a year. I guess it's the kind of place you cannot get in or out, once there is thick snow on the mountain. Remind me of "尋羊的冒險".

They have different pools' temperature 100F to 108F.

Further up is Sol Duc Falls. I don't recall seeing big water falls with snow background before.  Strangely beautiful and dangerous. The cross bridge with 2 feet of snow make the railing knee high. If anyone slip, no one will hear the scream over the falls.

 Lucky or Not? Extremely lucky to be able to hike up without snowshoe, and without sinking, as long as we stay in the middle of the hard packed trail.

 Lucky to see the lime green with white background.

Next morning, lucky to get out before getting So Stuck. In fact, it wouldn't be a bad place to get stuck in, with no internet, no cell, no TV. As long as the hot spring got enough food for everyone, your mind will be sparkling clear, body sparkling clean after a couple of days.

Olympic Peninsula

It was a 3 hours drive from Seattle (including the 30 mins ferry ride to Bainbridge Island), to Port Angeles (only 90 mins to ride a ferry from Victoria, BC, Canada). I love to ride on train and ferry, the kind that you can stick your head out the window. I guess for one thing you can feel the wind, breathe fresh air, another thing is you can escape if anything happened. Yes, I do have experience of exiting through a train window.

It's was a bright warm morning when we try to get up to Hurricane Ridge. Only found the road was blocked by lock gate. The ranger in visitor center showed us these pictures taken that morning up the mountain. The National Park map show "Road may be closed weekdays in winter.", but being a Sunday in the 1st of April doesn't help. What a fool! ;->

The ranger gave us a hiking trail list of the National Park. So, we headed west to a 600ft deep turquoise crystal Lake Crescent. It's amazing that a relatively small lake can be so deep. Of course, it has it's spooky stories, including soap people. 

For the rest of the week, we had seen a lot of lime green moss on big spruce, maple and cedar, which  make up the largest old-growth rain forest in the Pacific Northwest. 

With up to 240 inches of moisture annually and almost 8,000 feet snow cap mountain, there are no lack of interesting landscape.  I like taking photo of waterfalls - this one is Marymere Falls. But, I hope, someday I can learn how to do it without getting the lens wet.

Fallen trunks everywhere along rivers.

Lunch (twice) in Blackberry cafe, trying to have blackberry smoothie twice, but they ran out of ice-cream.

Head back east to Dungeness wildlife refuge. 

Shy little Bambi

5 miles of drift wood along the longest spit on earth.

It was almost 8pm when we decided we like this little cottages enough to drop in and try our luck. They were very nice, cozy and clean. They even mailed back the power supply we left on the wall.

Undamming

It was another odd job brought us to Olympic Peninsula, Wa; cameras maintenance for the largest dam removal project (two Elwha Dams) in history. The Elwha Ecosystem restoration project is also the second largest restoration project the National Park Service has ever attempted, after the Everglades (right here in Florida). PBS made a very nice documentary broadcasting tonight. It shows how the dams had impacted people, salmon and the environment for the last century , and how the undamming will change the future. It is heart broken to see salmon trying to go upstream, but was blocked by the dam. What intrigue me the most is the process of the undamming (physically, not talking about it took the government 20 years to get it's acts together). You cannot just blow it up. Remember all the slit - (a hundred year of heavy sediment behind the dams) and people live downstream. It's three long year slow process, and got to ensure there is no slit go down the river while salmon are spawning downstream.

It's not easy to undo a century of regret. It's still uncertain that after all, different salmon will come back upstream to make Elwha its home again.

Sushi Master

Through the Hasegawa family warm hospitality in Seattle through out the years, I got to know more about sushi and an old family friend - Shiro Kashiba. The family have been eating Shiro's sushi for more than forty years. Shiro operated the first full-service sushi bar restaurant in Seattle. He was also the first chief to serve geoduck, smelt, and other local exotics as sushi.

At Shiro's sushi bar, I don't order. I just sit, and the chef will decide what to offer.And the chef will watch the way you eat, and your reaction to decide what to offer next. He sometimes explains to you what is the seafood, and how to eat it (one bite, no soy sauce.......). I was never disappointed. Also learned that really fresh seafood and good cut melts in the month like ice-cream. Next time you're in the area, you know what not to miss. It's in Belltown, not far from down town.At his 70, he has this new book to review his life around making/ serving sushi. Shop, prepare and cook is what he does best and he has no plan to retire. The book is to thanks the people of Washington state, for allowing him to cook for them for forty-five years. Nothing makes him happier. I believe he is speaking from the bottom of his heart. BTW, you might notice a recent movie "Jiro Dreams of Sushi". Jiro Ono was Shiro's mentor back in Ginza, Tokyo. Still making sushi at age 86.

Seattle NCECA 2012

This year NCECA has a few new things worth mentioning. New record of over 4000 attendants as a large portion came across the border just the north. And the co-operation with Seattle design center is a huge success, as we can see over 30 different shows, hundreds of works in one location. No wonder we ran into Ellen there, early in the morning of the gallery hopping day.

Kathleen Skeels's works. Unaffiliated and self taught. Watch her.Yes, those are clay. but still no touch.New found friend in Bellingham workshop; Vipoo from Melbourne. Good news: All panda sold out before opening. Bad news: greyhound got cancel, stuck with two crazy women in a car, who wouldn't stop talking cantonese for 2 hours, then got drop in the wrong place in Seattle downtown. Sorry!I did miss the closing of the conference this time, as I planned to catch the noon ferry over to Bainbridge Island, then Olympic Peninsula (that would be another post). However, remember the master who gave the closing speech two years ago - Malcolm Davis. He is no longer with us. I hope potters will always remember what he valued; "the making of pots as a way to celebrate the mundane rituals of life and to make them holy."

10 Years

10 years ago, Lily and I met in a ceramic conference in China, and quickly became best friend. Even we never live in the same town, we always manage to get together to do workshop or conference here/ there almost every year. This year we managed to join 2 x 2 days workshops before NCECA in Seattle. She also managed to let John take care of the kids for the whole time.

Beside new technique/ skill, you always learn something unique from a workshop. Gail Nichols is a perfect example of how her environment shapes her and her work. She might be born wild and independent, but I don't believe she would make what she make without moving to Australia. She wouldn't have her unique sense of space, and her way of being innovative, if there are lots of people around her doing soda fire.

Beth's animals with human complex personality always intrigue me. Complex - I mean layers of emotions and/or motives, which sometimes contradict. Her excellent story telling along with the demonstration, open up the core of the heart. We mostly responded with a good laugh, even to a very dark story........ strange animal!Walter Keeler, a British gentleman could have pretended trained in Yixing, even he had never been there or seen a Yixing teapot master make a teapot. My heart always has a special place for this kind of men; with engineering mind, craftsman's hands, artist's eye, and poet's heart.This is not all the people in Pottery Northwest's workshop. Some were still outside firing.

To me: Jason Walker is a quiet painter more than a potter. He's one of the star in this NCECA; being one of the demonstrator and having a big show in town. Unfortunately, he had to leave the conference early since his dad passed away the day after his show opening.

What brought me to Whatcome College's workshop, is this simple twist handle of Jose Deweese. I had seen it done many years ago. Try it many times myself.... always too careful, too much worries, too much clay, too wet, too me me me ....

Here's Rob's thank you note from Bellingham, Washington, which is a fine town. Our wonderful host 'Marilyn and Tom' (who open their house for strangers like us) move thousands of mile there base on a few criteria; small college town, sea (sailing), mountain (hiking and skiing), and a well knitted art community. I think they chose well.

Snow, Snow, Snow

We postponed our family visit/ snowboarding trip in Vancouver from Chinese new year to mid-March. It turned out to be one of the best snow trip. Fresh snow almost everyday, not too cold, and with relatively less people on the slope.

We got the end of season passes for Mount Seymour and tired ourselves out for a week.

流水，行雲，滑雪板.......

A family visit is not completed without some sort of back-yard project. Two dead trees were gone now. Here are some after thoughts ;

1) If you need to take on something bigger than you are, make sure you're not in the way when it fall.

2) If you cannot make sure which way it will fall, make sure you and/or your partner have more than one escape route.

3) If you think you can make sure which way it will fall, you and/or you partner still need more than one escape route.