Once again, summer has slipped away and I ignored the advice of my Labrador Retrievers.  I didn’t do the things they told me to do: stop, sit, look, enjoy.  What was it that I was doing instead? Silly stuff I suppose…

If you aren’t from the Glorious Pacific Northwest,  you probably can’t appreciate how stunningly beautiful it is where we live.  We have the best of many worlds: temperate bodies of water, stunning mountains, lush forests.  Summers are truly stupendous.  Previously, I lived in sunny Southern California.  Summers there pale in comparison to what we have going on here.

I was reminded of that last week when I accompanied my Beloved to an Autumnal Equinox celebration at Taylor’s Shellfish in Bow.  To get there you leisurely amble down Chuckanut Drive, a scenic and historic byway that hugs the coastline, presenting jaw dropping views of the Salish Sea and the islands that live there. 

When we first arrived in Bellingham in 2005, my husband and I would often make that drive during the weekend, just for fun.   We’d motor down into the Skagit Valley to buy strawberries and eat ice cream at Sakuma Brothers.  From there we might detour to Edison to get fresh bread at Bread Farm, then stop at Samish Bay Cheese on the way out of town.  We’d point the car back home, stopping at Taylor’s for oysters.  Did I mention that we live in a beautiful bountiful place?

Last week we got into the car, put the top down and drove off into the last hurrah of Summer.  It was a stunner of a day.  When you travel down Chuckanut Drive you glide through towering forests of Douglas Fir and Big Leaf Maples.  The road was dappled in late afternoon sunshine with stretches of deep cool shade.

Taylor’s sits at the bottom of the cliffs, on the edge of the water.  It might as well be at the end of the world, but in the good way.  We sat outside on the dock. You could smell the sea, the breeze was warm and gentle, the vibe was relaxed.  Looking back up at the cliffs, a wall of Douglas Fir cascades down, erect and proud, defying the laws of gravity.  Eagle nests are visible in the crowns of the trees.  (Cue: deep breath of contentment.) 

The worries and trivialities of the “real” world slipped away and I was focused on what’s really important: the person in front of me.

Something funny happened since the pandemic.  For some reason I’ve been less inclined to do things like this and I would make vague excuses that I needed to do something more “important”.

But of course, nothing is more important than spending time with someone you love.

Never forget that.