Leylee and I took a week at the end of August and flew out to Washington, (one of Daddy's old stomping grounds). An Outdoor Education class reunion in Olympia created the initial impetus - but the maturity and self assurance of Leylee at 11 months created the confidence to attempt this road/camping trip, sans Mommy! Not-so-little anymore =( Leybones McGuirk and I pulled into Seattle, rented a car, and had an incredibly well-needed and relaxing week circumnavigating the Sound, rejuvenating on killer blackberries, the late summer air and reconnecting sweetly with several dozen dear friends from Willi Unsoeld's "Outdoor Ed" program (Evergreen College, '78-79). After the reunion, Ley and I also had a handful of kind, sunny days and and gorgeous, chill nights visiting, feasting and partying with Brother (Jeffrey) Dog, the other Dawg Brothers, David Heller, Eric and Sharon Kessler, Holly Hill, Bradley Wade and Wanda Gayle and Howard Berkes -- and so many others... (and this doesn't even mention the awesome places where we played, like Mt. Ranier, Skagit Valley and The San Juan Islands!)
Particulary special was renewing the lifelong connection I share with "Brother Dog", Jeff Casebolt who recently returned to his roots in the Puget Sound after a decade or so hiatus in Colorado. Life is such that we've been mostly out of touch. Yet we are still of the same mold. Sometimes we share parallel existences. It's quite uncanny. We are even the same age - exactly! Jeff is doing well, living out of his van, building his life, persuing his muse, leading kayak trips and crafting a sanctuary in a tree.
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The OE reunion was extremely sweet -- full of kids, families and babies, birth and nursing stories, lovely spouses, scads of catching up, renewing and initiating new relationship, laughing and fooling around, sharing news, of success, of happiness, achievement, as well as stories of disillusionment, hard times and heartbreak accrued by our collective selves over these circuitous 20 years. We laughed and cried and 
reminisced intensely about the unique learning episode we shared and share still. We held each others' kids and processed feelings, many still intense, as if from just hours ago. 
Feelings about the formative power of relationship, about the infamous Ranier climb, about Willi and Janie and how their lives affected us. ...Feelings about choice and faith and heartbreak. And feelings about risk, about longing and about destiny.
The reunion was awesome. It touched me. Thank you one and all. **And thank you especially to the Unsoeld and Diepenbrock families for showing up and continuing to share this powerful legacy so generously with us!**
After the "main" reunion at Evergreen, several carloads of friends went up to camp at Cougar Rocks, at the base of Mt. Ranier. My cool OE compadres even graciously welcomed my old friends Kevin Murray, Molly and baby Nevin, (not alums of OE) who joined us there for the night and following morning. After a dubious, drippy start, Kev and I got a roaring fire going, I set up our (thank you Sheri!) tent and we 15 odd folks had a marvelous night all together in the woods. Thanks Kev and Molly for making the trip! 
I may not have gotten to see these dear, (ex-Montague, MA) friends had they not spontaneously jumped in their van and driven three hours+ from Portland to Ranier to join me and a dozen intimate strangers. It was a damp, but very hale and heartful, overnight.
The following day the sun came out unexpectedly on Ranier, so Leylee and I drove around the south and east sides of the mountain before meandering back down through Seattle and north along the rich coastal flats to Anacortes, where we caught the late afternoon ferry to Friday Harbor. 
There we hung three nights with Eric and Sharon Kessler, excellent friends who also became parents last year. 
Their awesome place, Sunset Point, perched on the Sound facing southwest, is one of my favorite spots in the PNW, or anywhere... Eric showed off some of his awesome professional photography as well as the house he "dumpstered" for $10. Sharon and I talked curriculum, kids, sewing tehniques and, of course, babies!
We also took advantage of some of the kindest bounty and constructed and demolished several blackberry pies, a salmon, some barbequed oysters... On my last morning we watched a bald eagle casually perched in a nearby snag out over the point. Best of all, we got to hang out and become great friends with the swimmingly sweet homeboy, Max Ian Kessler.
On our last day in the west we took the glorious return ferry trip back across the Sound and drove back into Seattle. There we squeezed in yet another excellent visit with yet another long lost, recently found, "Greener" friend, Bill Ferris, his lovely wife Marsha Donaldson (and their girl Maggie whose nose I apologize for severing here). Amazing how much catching up you can fit in one brief evening, supper, walk, pie and stories with fond, faraway friends! From Bill and Marsha's living room, it was a mere 4:30 AM wakeup run to Seatac and a long, yet smooth ride home for these well seasoned, blackberry-brimming travelers of fortune.
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