What an amazing day. I've been part of the Swarthmore alumni Seattle book club for four years now. They are a lovely group of people, and in addition to getting together for a once a month book discussion, we have a party in the summer. This year one of our members invited us to his vacation home on Decater island in the San Juans. It made for a fourteen hour day, but it was worth it.

The San Juans are just far enough away that I forget how gorgeous they are. The rolling hills, the huge swaths of green forests, the long views of water. . .it's a comfort to the soul.

Thirty of us went ranging in age from 3 to 80. Many were, in fact, in the 70-80 range. This was a combination of two groups, so I didn't know everyone well, but I fell into many fun conversations.

We had to leave our house at 7:30 in the morning, which lead to some grumpiness on all our parts. On the boat, we immediately broke out our games. Over the course of the day we played Rat a tat Cat, Hello My Name is Inego Montoya, Laser Tag, and Professor Noggin Body, Earth Science, and Famous Women. (I totally kill at famous women.)

There are almost no cars on the island. We loaded all the supplies into a van and hiked to the picnic area. Credit where credit is due, the Swarthmore alumni Seattle book club puts on a good pot luck spread. John made asparagus, Chinese noodles, and banana cake with a chocolate ganache. People started calling him the chef and raving about his food. That was nice.

After lunch, we hiked to a gorgeous view spot. The kids were not thrilled to be going on the hike and then had a fabulous time. They had no trouble chatting with the adults and then made friends with a college first year. There are wild sheep on the island which we spotted and baahed at. We also saw vultures and a bald eagle. The hike was longer and steeper than advertised and not completely safe for all our hikers, but we made it.

Back at their house we played games, chatted, and admired the view before breaking out the food for potluck take two. On the way home we saw a rainbow through a sunset. As I was tucking David in I said, "Thank you for a lovely day." He said, "Thank you for letting me come."