The tranquil fog shown here is at the confluence of Joe Creek and Pacific Beach. We were just a short distance away from the ocean. The weekend had record high temps in the 80's, creating this kind of fog in the morning. Inland, on Van Winkle Creek, we began a canoe paddle that started out great, with water flowing upriver due to the tide. (And, I apologize for photos that are mid-day, with poor light.)
It carried us inland, as the stream narrowed and got more complex. Snags were underwater and overhead.... not the best conditions for a paddle. In any kind of current the canoe can be sideswiped when turning it around, causing capsizing. And, the debris in the water can snag a life-jacket, pinning a person underwater. So, we turned the canoe in a shallow spot, and headed back down-river.
When we first started canoeing about 7 years ago, we came across logs jutting out in the stream that hosted whole communities of plant life, holding on, packed tightly. Some of them hosted landings for geese, resting places and nesting places. I call them 'little meditations', because each one holds a story.
This one just had lovely grasses waving in the breeze, and a promise of huckleberries on the other side.We drove over to Lake Aberdeen where there is a public beach, and paddled around the lake.
There were a lot of swimmers and sunbathers, but we left them behind, and paddled up Van Winkle Creek. We've done this paddle before in the wintertime, but we didn't recognize the little stream that trickled into the lake. We paddled upstream, against the current, and then floated back down, without paddling, just letting the current pull us along. This is when the languid pleasure of a summer day really takes hold. We watched salamanders floating along, nests of killdeer in the sand, and enjoyed the wave patterns in the sandy bottom.
Aberdeen Lake has two distinctly different types of water lily in bloom, the yellow and the white. The yellow ones were filled with little black insects, and floated in brilliant sunshine. None of my photos turned out - too much glare.
I caught this photo because the plants were in the shade. We were gone about 9 hours, and got home just in time to clean up, put our gear away, and go to Feast, one of the devotional activities of our faith.
There, we announced that Taraz and Megan were to be married in September, and we had a chance to celebrate that news with our Baha'i friends. It was a special feast, held in the home of Megan's parents.
I'll post a few photos below, just to share the images of a very special evening, with some of our closest friends.
