[Adapted from email travelogue, sent Sunday, June 1 at 8:35 p.m.]

Friday, May 30

Before heading on to Fox Island, the bridge to which is about six miles southwest of here, Gabriel, his brother Garret, and I all met at this place in Gig Harbor called 7 Seas Brewing for a drink. There was this sea lion on this dock down on the water—Garret arrived first and texted Gabriel and me after taking a zoom shot. (You can very barely see the sea lion right next to the boat shown in this photo.) It was down there most of our time at the brewery, but then some dipshit young guy walked about halfway down the gangway toward it, clearly breaking the recommended 100-yard distance and soon thereafter spooking the poor animal back into the water. So, we all agreed that young man was Gig Harbor's Asshole of the Day.

I got this beautiful shot from our seats at the brewery, of Mt. Rainier and the Gig Harbor Lighthouse. I'd have wanted to go down and check out the lighthouse had there been more time.

Approaching the Fox Island Bridge. Gabriel had no idea I was right behind him, let alone taking photos of his car with both his kayak and his bicycle tied to the top of his car. (My phone was already set into its dash mount, it was easy to just click the button.)

Gabriel, Garret and I check out the beach at low tide, in front of the 3-bedroom AirBmB we rented, in the middle of the southwest side of the long, narrow island (about 5 miles long and about a mile wide).

A neighborhood cat with beautiful blue eyes that was totally in love with me. To be fair, initially it was apparently in love with Gabriel, rubbing all over his legs, but he's significantly allergic and so he suggested I go give the cat some attention. The cat didn't seem to discriminate as to who it got attention from.

Gabriel built us a fire to sit around during Friday's beautiful sunset. Garret took this shot of Gabriel expressing his pride in his work, while I chilled off to the side drinking whiskey.

Saturday, May 31

My favorite shot, of many, that I took of McNeil Island two miles to the southwest across Carr Inlet from the house we stayed at.

The house, by the way, has three bedrooms, but sleeps eight: the bedroom upstairs has a bed that sleeps two; one bedroom downstairs has one bed that sleeps two and also two bunk beds; the second bedroom downstairs has two bunk beds. The original plan was for this weekend to be this year's new weekend trip with Gabriel and his four groomsmen for the wedding of Gabriel and Lea, which occurred about a month after our trip to Lopez Island in early April 2024. At least two of us would have had to share a room, which would have been fine. But then, circumstances prevented Gabriel's two other friends from being able to come and stay overnight, which was disappointing—but, the one slight consolation was that the three of us actually staying overnight wound up with our own rooms.

It took some effort because of the three lenses on my phone, which prevented me from getting a clear shot, but I got this shot of the north shore of McNeil Island through the telescope that Gabriel brought and set on a tripod at the living room window.

McNeil Island is a peculiar and fascinating island in the Puget Sound—something I had also mentioned in my Birth Week 2024 travelogue, when I went to Anderson Island, itself to the south of McNeil Island, for a bike ride with my dad. From that side of the island, on the south side of McNeil could be seen the prison building, which was closed in 2011, after 136 years. I had thought was the "special commitment center," where the island's only residents are a couple hundred dangerous sex offenders, but then it turns out that center is on the north side of the island. You can't see any building in this shot, but you can see buses, which must be used to transport the sex offenders to wherever the presumably nearby facility is.

I experienced something for the first time ever this weekend! I actually went out in a kayak. Gabriel was the only one who brought his own, but there were several types of vessels available for use at the house, including two of these blue kayaks.

I was a little fearful of it at first, afraid of the possibility of falling in the water. These things are incredibly buoyant, however, and it was far easier to paddle than I expected. I was even surprised by how little fear I had once relatively far out on the water, as in really none at all. I'm really glad I did it.

Gabriel took this group selfie of the three of us, all in our respective kayaks. The taller island in the background to the right is McNeil Island. The mainland seen beyond, I'm guessing, is Steilacoom, WA.

Weather over the weekend really kind of ran the gamut. We had warm, mostly sunny weather on both Friday and Sunday, highs in the seventies. Saturday was a bit more mixed, highs in the upper sixties, and periods of light rain. This shot is one of the resulting photos I got, a particular favorite of mine.

Fox Island has a local history museum, open only Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. I was, of course, the nerd who wanted to go check it out. I really thought it would be something super, let's say, "modest." It turned out to be much more intricately organized than I expected, with a far more extensive collection than anyone would ever expect of a community of roughly 4,000 people.

My favorite item was this steering wheel for the vessel, built in 1909, called the U.S.S. Beaver. It was first a passenger liner and later used as a sub tender in WWI and then a supply ship in WWII. But I just wanted a photo of me steering a Beaver so I could make my lesbian friends jealous!

The weirdest display at the Fox Island Museum is a mannequin in the ladies' room, taking a fake bubble bath. It was a startling thing to notice through the open door when walking by.

Outside the Fox Island museum, there was this section of picnic tables, clearly not used in a while, with forest debris all over the tabletops. It really made me think of something out of The Last of Us.

Of the two friends who could not come and stay overnight, Brian (second from left) still came out to spend the afternoon and early evening on Saturday. He brought his 9-year-old daughter, Nora (far left), with him, and she was particularly interested in all the low-tide beach wildlife Gabriel had much to share about.

Once Garret, Brian, and Nora herself got hit by surprisingly far-flung squirting water from clams and/or geoducks in the sand, though, I kept quite the distance for this little excursion. No clam saltwater squirts for me, thank you!

Obligatory group selfie on the house's back deck, with four fifths of last year's groom-side wedding party! And with young Nora added, we still had a Party of Five.

Sunday, June 1

Gabriel, Garret and I all brought our bikes. We had done the same at Lopez Island last year, but never did go on a bike ride. I had been leaning toward not bringing my bike at all this year for that very reason, but then Garret said he was up for a bike ride if I was—and I always am!

We were going to do the bike ride on Saturday, but Brian wasn't able to bring his, so we barely made use of time we had before needing to check out at 11 a.m.

This shot is just one small portion of the insanely steep, shockingly narrow driveway from the main road down to the house. We could only walk our bikes up this driveway to the road, which is about a half-mile stretch.

We rode the roughly two miles from there to the south end of Fox Island Bridge. There's a small area where people can park and take in the views from the northside of the island. Gabriel immediately threw a piece of wood into the water and then threw small rocks at it, which he said boys always do. This was the first I ever heard of it!

We also rode across the bridge and back, where I got some nice photos.

One more group selfie, us three cyclists riding back down the driveway to the house. It was a hell of a lot easier to navigate in this direction.

Fox Island 2025

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