• Tide and Current Taxi: 2014

Growing up with a Marine Corps dad and an adventuresome mom, I was put to work at an early age.

These are some images that my dad scanned recently from his wealth of 35 mm slides.

Now my parents live in Tacoma, Washington,

and on a trip to see them in June, we took the ferry out to our friend Stuart Hennessey’s cabin on Vashon Island.

The Chetzemoka is a beautiful new ferry that connects Vashon to Point Defiance. It was designed to travel a busier route, “but sea trials revealed excessive vibrations in the vessel’s propulsion system.”

The Chetzemoka was almost completely empty when we crossed the bay,

but she seemed to be working just fine,

and I started to get excited about what could be waiting for us on Vashon Island.

There are no roads to the Hennessey’s house, just a pretty walking trail.

Of course, you could always get there by boat. The house is on Dolphin Point,

originally serviced by Puget Sound’s ‘Mosquito Fleet‘in the 1920’s.

The Hennessey’s have a pair of sturdy ocean kayaks,

and the first thing we did was paddle out into the sound.

We were treated to a perfect view of Mt. Rainier – elevation 14,411 feet.

The next morning, we went out again with my mom.

“This is my kind of boating.” she said.

I agree.

It’s not common to get such a clear, sunny day in the Seattle area, and it was mesmerizing to drift along.

There were eagles perched in the treetops,

and, as promised by the poster back on the Chetzemoka, seals poked their heads curiously out of the water.

The water was as still as glass,

and I stopped to admire the hundreds of jellyfish.

I thought they might have been laying eggs.

The water around them was filled with tiny bits of something.

My parents had moved on, and I paddled to catch up.

There are jellyfish to bother back home in New York City,

but just another week with my parents this summer,

and lunch was waiting back on shore.