Book Club

The Light Between Oceans

I’ve been wanting to visit a lighthouse with the book club for a while now, so in April we finally did it. We didn’t go to just any lighthouse, but particularly one on an island. Our book pick was The Light Between Oceans about a young couple who lives in a lighthouse on an island all to themselves. We ferried our way north to San Juan Island for a weekend of exploring, camping, and lighthouse visiting.

I brought my husband and daughter this time and Evie relished in the cold, salty wind of the Salish Sea on the deck of the ferry boat. She ran circles around the inside passenger area and made some new pint-sized friends. I was happy to greet some of the book club members and we got caught up as we soaked up the views.

Upon landing in Friday Harbor, we decided to head directly to the charming little Griffin Bay Bookstore. We could have spent all day in there browsing the books, but we tore ourselves away to visit the Farmers Market and get some grub. We packed up our food and books and headed out to English Camp for a picnic. It was a perfectly comfortable spring day and after our lunch we all unceremoniously lined up and laid down in the grass.

We lounged and chatted for a long while and then decided to head to the campground to get set up for the night. While we drove, we found an adorable alpaca farm and just had to stop. Evie loved the alpacas and we touched everything in the gift store with an “ahhh.” We met the rest of our group at the San Juan County Campground and lingered on the shoreline nearby after setting up camp. We made sweet potato tacos from the Feast by Firelight camp cookbook. They were SO GOOD. They were also super easy and this is definitely my new go-to camp recipe.

Rebecca brought her daughter who is seven years old. She shared her fuzzy slippers with Evie rendering the two girls inseparable. After dinner, we headed back down towards the shore for sunset. Evie painted watercolors with her new BFF and I brought out a special dessert surprise. It was an applesauce cake, an old favorite family recipe of mine, glazed and lit up with candles for my BFF, Laura’s, birthday. We sang to her and indulged in the cake while sipping wine and watching the gorgeous sunset.

Soon the darkness brought a chill to the air and we snuggled up with blankets around the campfire for our book chat. In the book, the lightkeeper and his wife find a washed up boat with a man and a baby inside. They discovered the man was dead, but the baby was still alive. After a recent miscarriage that was preceded by many before, the young woman decides to keep the baby as their own without telling anyone. Her husband, a law-abiding man, was deeply conflicted with the decision his wife made.

As you can imagine, there is little room for this story to end well. While the plot is heartbreaking, I really enjoyed the sense of living on a secluded island as a lightkeeper. San Juan Island is tiny, but it still holds the largest town of all the San Juans with enough to easily fill up our day with activities. It was hard to imagine being in their shoes, the only people for miles and miles.

For the first time he took in the scale of the view. Hundreds of feet above sea level, he was mesmerized by the drop to the ocean crashing against the cliffs directly below. The water sloshed like white paint, milky-thick, the foam occasionally scraped off long enough to reveal a deep blue undercoat. At the other end of the island, a row of immense boulders created a break against the surf and left the water inside it as calm as a bath. He had the impression he was hanging from the sky, not rising from the earth. Very slowly, he turned a full circle, taking in the nothingness of it all. It seemed his lungs could never be large enough to breathe in this much air, his eyes could never see this much space, nor could he hear the full extent of the rolling, roaring ocean. For the briefest moment, he had no edges.

M.L. Stedman, The Light Between Oceans

The next day we headed to Lime Kiln State Park to visit its lighthouse which dates back to 1919. A short loop trail takes you up to several old and deteriorating lime kilns from the 1920’s. This must have been a busy place back in the day. Evie picked up the green rocks and inspected them as we explored the kilns.

Evie walked all by herself most of the way with her new friend. When she tired and wanted me to hold her, fellow book club member Mala carefully chose a stick and gave it to her to use as a walking stick. Evie’s face lit up and she charged down the trail with her new stick. Mala’s wise motherly gesture was greatly appreciated. Evie even acquired a second stick that transformed her into a little hiking machine.

The trail traversed a spectacular forest with massive old growth madrona trees, the largest I’ve ever seen. The girls climbed on them and posed for pictures, happy as little clams. Soon we were at the end of the loop trail and near the lighthouse. It wasn’t open that day (tours run from mid-May to mid-September) but we poked around a bit.

We wandered along the shore and found a nice spot to share lunch. We lingered lazily and spotted a sea otter and a seal. Rebecca and I picked our way down the rocks to some tide pools with our girls. They loved bending over and getting their faces down close to the water. The longer we looked, the more life we found: anemones, urchins, hermit crabs, gooseneck mussels.

After much exploration we headed back to Friday Harbor to get our spots for the ferry boats. We met one last time for coffee (or tea), a bite, and one last little pop-in to the bookstore before making the long journey home.

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

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Shell Games

It was hard not to wonder what was out there, or even who was out there. The book club met on a cool February morning at Bowman Bay, a wide, protected and inviting bay, a place that seemed to beg for underwater exploration. We watched some folks out in a boat and couldn’t help but be a little suspicious. What exactly were they up to?

Our sudden skepticism stemmed from reading our February book club pick, Shell Games. The author, Craig Welch, is a journalist who took a deep dive into the underworld of the seafood industry of the Puget Sound. For two years, he followed the local wildlife police as they pursued poachers of a funny little (or maybe I should say not so little) mollusk, the geoduck.

When I announced Shell Games as our February pick, I asked in our Facebook group if anyone had ever eaten geoduck. I learned that most of the locals in the group never had it. Some said they never would, most said they would try it if they had the chance. I also learned that Speedy the geoduck is the Evergreen State College mascot which has got to be up there with the strangest school mascots.

The sheltered marine waters of the Pacific Northwest are the only place on earth where wild geoducks grow in great size and quantity. And the mollusk was riding a tidal wave of globalization. The geoduck’s escalating popularity abroad tracked the rise of a new wildlife underground- and an evolution in mankind’s ability to exploit nature. In the booming international market for fresh seafood the geoduck had become a path to quick profits. And smart smugglers always followed the money.

Craig Welch, Shell Games

The group skirted the bay on the way to Rosario Head. The trail was lined in mossy green and madrona trees until we reached the headlands. There, the way opened up with views of the Puget Sound all around. We paused at the gorgeous wooden carving of “The Maiden of Deception Pass” and read her story.

The Samish people once lived where we stood. They gathered shellfish on the water’s edge, fished from their wooden boats, and pulled camas bulbs for eating. One day, the maiden and her sister were gathering chitons. She was startled and dropped a chiton in the water. When she went to reach for it, a hand grabbed her and she heard a man’s voice telling her about his house in the water filled with food and about life with the sea people.

This happened again and again until the maiden pulled her hand away and asked to see the man. He emerged from the water and joined her for dinner with her father (like ya do). He told her father that his daughter was beautiful and he wanted to take her back to live with him. He was hesitant about the stranger and was sure the maiden would not survive in the sea. He challenged the sea man and refused to let his daughter go.

The sea man finally relented, but not without warning. He said his people have always been kind to them, but if he went home alone, the tide would no longer go out, they will find nothing on the beach, and the springs will run dry. Eventually, after a long, hard, and fruitless time, she goes to him. Once the sacrifice is made, the sea people continue to provide for the Samish people. The maiden returns bearing gifts of shellfish of all kinds. Each time her hair gets a little longer and resembles seaweed.

This story of mutual respect between the Samish and the sea reflects how we should be living: not taking more than we need, always giving back and taking care of our home waters. The stories told in Shell Games reflect a different culture, one of cheating the land and taking as much as possible. Reading this book was a great reminder that we should be more like the Samish.

We ate our lunch and then wandered the shoreline investigating the life on the rocks. We even found a chiton thanks to Jamie, our very own marine biologist. They completely blended into the surroundings. I wondered how they tasted…

Photo courtesy of Mala Giri

Shell Games by Craig Welch

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