A Day by Birch Bay

Ann's daughter, Devan, had made arrangements to stay at her boyfriend's house—I gather this was not considered a major hardship—so that I could have her room. Once I had gotten settled, Ann and I hoped into my rental Kia and drove to visit her friends, James and John, who are artists who own a farm (or, possibly, farmers who create art).

Their property is so peaceful, it's easy to see how they fell in love with it, and why (besides her friendship with its owners) Ann loves to come here.

Yes, that's a real turkey strutting about the property.

Usually farms and ranches are given a name, and then a sign is created to celebrate that name. However, in addition to being farmers and artists, James and John are also scavengers who manage to find discarded articles and given them a new life. For example, the day I visited, James had bought a sailboat hull. The hull was cracked and could never again be used as a boat. But James planned to clean it up, hoist it in the air, fill it with ice and use it as a bar!

So it won't surprise you to learn that "the boys", as Ann calls them, had purchased an sign from a defunct amusement park and it was now lending its name to their farm, as well as to the community theatre they were building in one of the barns. Thus, we were visiting the FunLand Farm.

After saying goodbye to the guys, whom I will see again tomorrow night, Ann and I returned to her house, from which we walked to the beach with one of her dogs, Sammy.

I came at just the right time to avoid a crowded beach. Next weekend is Memorial Day weekend, the official gateway to summer here just as it is home in Arizona. With Memorial Day will come a flock of tourists to fill up the condos, apartments, and trailers which lie in wait for them.

Ann took a break for moment, which gave me the chance to get a photo of her and Sammy.

After dinner, we decided to take advantage of the late-setting sun and drive to Birch Bay State Park to see the sunset. This park combines grand old trees with a spectacular sky.

And even after the sun set, it was still too beautiful to go home and we remained talking until it just got too chilly to stay. Devan and their other dog, Sparky, had come to the park with us.

Finally, as we were about to leave to watch a couple of DVDs at Ann's (with Devan's company while she waited for her boyfriend, Brandon, to get off work), I snapped one more shot of the moon overhead.

I can easily see why Ann remained here after her husband died.

Which brings us, tomorrow, to the reason for my visit.