It's been a beautiful summer in the Northwest, so far. One day we took advantage of the lovely weather to fly by float plane to Salt Spring Island BC to celebrate J's birthday. The island, which is on the "Inside Passage" between Vancouver Island and the mainland, is famous for its resident artists. J bought some ceramics, but mostly we were there to enjoy a celebratory lunch al fresco at a charming Italian café.

A safe return in the four-seat flying boat

News & Notes

• The flight originated at the Coal Harbour waterfront in downtown Vancouver, where Harbour Air has a fleet of about a dozen float planes. Our destination was Ganges Harbour at Salt Spring Island. Ganges is a tiny port with charming views in every direction. The flight took only thirty-five minutes. From the low altitude at which these small planes fly, the coastal scenery is spectacular, as are the views of Vancouver from above Stanley Park.

  

  Looking north up Howe Sound at Mt. Tantalus

• Earlier, we spent a relaxing ten days in Vancouver to attend the annual Festival of Light, their summer international fireworks competition. This year teams came from Finland, Australia and the US, the last being curated by Disney. The competitors put on spectacular shows, and we enjoyed each with friends.
  
  

  

  Vancouver's Festival of Light

  Melissa and Brendan came by to visit us for the elegant Finnish fireworks. Beforehand we snapped this charming picture of the charming couple on the False Creek Ferry.
  
  Carolyn and Art were in town for the technical razzle-dazzle of Australia's fireworks. They also steered us to a traditional Japanese kaiseki restaurant, Guu Garlic, where we snapped this inviting picture of tuna razzle-dazzle.
  
  Shelley and Ken drove up for the US's Disney extravaganza. While roaming through downtown, we snapped this picture of the two under the 'whale vertebra' roof of the plaza at the new Telus building.

• August is an ideal month to visit Montana, so we dropped in on Jim and Julie. (For the record the first fawn from last time is struggling, but many of the other fawns are thriving.) In addition to visiting with friends, this time we wandered the mountains. The country is so huge and the visitors so few that when we went huckleberry picking, we just stopped the truck in the middle of the road and headed into the woods. An hour later we'd collected a nice batch despite the local opinion that it was a "bad year for huckleberries". Another day Jim and Larry pitted their angling skills against the kokanee of Lake Kookanusa. Oh, yes. We saw two black bears, both of which were very plump with shiny black coats.

  

  Huckleberry pickers lunch at the top of the mountain

• Speaking of large black mammals, it has been a good summer for whales. About a dozen orcas cruised by right off shore this week. They were undoubtedly members of the J, K or L pods, but it's hard to tell which from our balcony. (We're pretty sure they must be from J and L!) Last month, a humpback whale cavorted in our bay for about twenty minutes.