Escaping from the aliens in a kayak

We just had a little heat wave in Washington state, with temperatures in the eighties and nineties. The Seattle Times prints a color weather map of the state on the back page of the local section, and ever since we got here, the usual pattern going west to east has been: a vertical stripe of dark green on the coast, then a vertical stripe of lighter green over Puget Sound, then another vertical stripe of dark green over the Cascades, then more light green and occasionally, lately, yellow over the rest of the state to the east. But one day toward the end of last week, the whole state was covered in yellow and orange. The sight disturbed me; it looked wrong; it suggested that an extraterrestrial invasion had taken place. (I realized later that sunshine could actually qualify as that around here.)

We took advantage of the weather by going kayaking on Lake Union on Saturday. Unfortunately, everyone and his uncle with a motorboat had the same idea, and the lake was crowded with yahoos and yachts, not to mention the commercial floatplanes, which were constantly landing and taking off. The fumes were overpowering at times, until most everyone had motored out of Lake Union to much bigger waters in Lake Washington to the east or the Sound to the west. Then it was relaxing and fun. We paddled past the houseboats on the east side of the lake, many of which had been fixed up nicely and had extensive displays of sculptures and paintings outside facing the water. We then paddled under a pedestrian bridge to a tiny bay on the south end of the lake where there were a number of Canada geese and a few goslings milling about on the lawn. One goose (or gander — I can’t tell them apart) noticed us drifting closer and exclaiming over the goslings; the bird rose up and raised its wings threateningly, and we paddled off. Scared by a goose — well, they are pretty big birds. We finished up with an afternoon snack of sushi and beer on a restaurant’s shaded patio by the lake’s edge.

No pictures — I didn’t want to risk getting my camera wet. Just take my word for it; it was actually sunny and hot here, for once.