Around Friday Harbor

Good Evening ZigZags, Around noon we got the hotel to send the shuttle to take us downtown. While waiting I decided to take some pix of the lobby. The " aquarium " is filled with mouth-blown crystal fish and shells and bottom organisms as well as kelp etc. Reminds me of the super-expensive fish in the pediatrics ward of Dartmouth-Hitchcock. Wandered down the street, window shopping after being dropped off at the top of the hill. Headed into an arcade to the jerky store that Barb had visited on our last trip. Price for jerky ridiculous but did buy some meat sticks for the car to go with our crackers, cheese and fruit that we munch on as we drive. I did take pix of the various quilted wall hangings that decorated the arcade walls for my sister-in-law, Sally, to enjoy. Continued on to the Whale Museum which was very interesting--how I wish I'd had a huge whale skeleton in my classroom when doing the skeletal systems of mammals. Just look at the fin of the whale--the fan shaped scapular connected to the ball topped humerous. That topping the ulna and radius forming a safety pin. A few metacarpals and carpal block topping the phalanges of three fingers. All hidden inside a huge flipper and yet so similar to the structure of our arms and hands. Amazing. We also watched a movie--1 hour long! We didn't think we'd watch the whole thing but it was amazing.--called the Sonic Sea. All about the noise in the ocean caused by undersea drilling with air guns, the use of sonar and the sounds of the engines etc of ships. The noise has increased so much it has interfered with the ability of whales and other creatures to locate food, mates and each other. It is thought that some of the beaching and stranding of whales etc is the result of their attempts to escape the confusing and deafening sounds. There has been evidence of bleeding in their brains and ears. Just a fascinating and sad movie. After the museum we wandered to the Lookout Park that overlooks the ferry landing and marina of the harbor. Then down First Street to Spring Street once more. In one window was a huge painting of a Seagoing Crow and since crows always find me whenever I travel, I was compelled to enter RooksCroft. OMG--Look at the website www.RooksCroft.com What a delightful place and what a lovely British lady artist. We chatted so much I had to ask how much I owed her, since she'd packaged my purchases and handed them to me without stating the cost. I think I could have walked out and neither of us would have realized until later that I hadn't paid! But I left with a small oil of Mordecai the crow and a lovely little book about some of her animal characters. It was hard to choose what to buy but he brought me in so he had to escort me out. We reached the corner of Spring and First and while Barb called for a cab, a crow called down to me from the roof above my head. How appropriate that he was above the Crow's Nest Café. While we sat on a bench waiting for the cab, people watching, it also became clear that my crow had a girlfriend up there with him and they were playing whoopee as they say. Got back, cold and damp, around 4 30 --went down to the restaurant only to find it closed on Sundays so back to the room for last night's leftovers. Also arranged for a 6 am wake-up call tomorrow since we hope to catch the 8:30 ferry to Orcas tomorrow. Pray for sunshine, Please. Will fill you in tomorrow night on our day on the largest of th San Juans. Now to Sunday on PBS--goodnight BarbZig and Katzag