4 Time Zones

Friday night I had some beers with Joe and John at the Jackson Square Tavern, then met up with Jerry, Alison, and Doug at Sweet Lemons. This is the first time I ever remember having Thai food that didn't fill me up (temporarily). We then met with a gaggle of folks at the Brewhouse in Weymouth for my final night in town. It was fun... too much fun as the next morning would show.

Alison drove me to the Harbor Express ferry in Hingham at about 9am, so I could get one more look at the harbor before leaving town. There had been lots of talk of a super-rare ARCTIC LOON seen this week, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to give it a try. It did hurt, because this was very early in a looong day. The boat went pretty fast (a 30 minute ride to Rowe's Wharf in Boston). I only got a look at about 4 duck species, and no loons or alcids.

I got to the airport at about 10:30, and then caught my flight to Chicago, stopped over in Denver, and then landed in Seattle at about 9pm local time, where Clara was with my car to drive me down to Olympia. So, all told, I had been traveling for 16 hours, stopping in all four continental U.S. time zones.


Yesterday I spent most of the day getting settled back in here. I cleaned out my car (which was easy, thanks to how Clara and Devin had taken care of it), and arranged things or my trip out of town early this week. I also went food shopping at the Grocery Outlet (GrossOut) and stopped by Capitol Lake to see how the duck scene was. In the afternoon, I played wiffleball with Clara and Devin's daughter Stasha. Last night, their friend Amy Jane came over with her daughter and we had an awesome vegan lasagna for dinner.

This morning, I got up at about 7 and headed to the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge near Tacoma. It was pretty birdy there compared to how I remembered it from 2 months ago. An incredible showing of BALD EAGLEs were present, as well as the most cooperatively close AMERICAN BITTERN. The wetlands were dominated by CACKLING and CANADA GEESE, and the woods with BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES and GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS. I also got great looks at BEWICK'S and WINTER WREN. After an hour of walking in the calm, mild weather, the rain started. I didn't get a chance to get to the newly opened trail before I decided to turn back to the car.