Eileen Garvins debut novel captivated me from the very first page. Here is my book review The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin.
Life is a rollercoaster even during the best of times. But during the worst of times, it often seems like the hits just keep coming. And that is the case for the three main characters in this beautiful and uplifting novel.
First we meet Alice, a beekeeper in Hood River Oregon prone to panic attacks. She has endured the loss of her husband, her parents and the orchard she grew up on. She is a loaner who finds interacting with people stressful, and so has created “Alice Island” where she lives a nearly solitary beekeeper life. That is until the day she hits a boy in a wheelchair with her truck.
Here we meet Jake. A teenage paraplegic, whose bad decision showing off for a girl has put him in a wheelchair for life. His future is bleak as he navigates being stuck in the chair, in his childhood home with his loving but timid mom and bully father, and in a life with few options. That is until Alice nearly runs him over with her truck.
Then we meet Harry. A twenty-something year old, recently out of jail for playing a role in a crazy prank. Harry is a drift and comes to Hood River to live with his elderly and poverty stricken uncle in a dilapidated trailer in the woods. That is until the uncle passes away and Harry takes a job helping with the bees.
These three become unlikely friends, and even family, as they each navigate their individual grief and loneliness, together overcoming adversity, harassment, fear, and broken hearts.
It’s a beautiful story that includes fascinating insight into beekeeping as well as potential environmental chemical issues in today’s society. A great debut novel by local Oregon author. I hope you enjoyed my book review The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin.
*****Five Stars for The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin
A thirty-minute ferry ride from Seattle, or a thirty-minute drive from Bremerton, Beautiful Bainbridge Island Washington is a well kept secret.
Home to 25,000 full-time residents, the island is one of several that call the Puget Sound home, and is one of the most populated. Only ten miles long and five miles wide, Bainbridge is connected to the Kitsap Peninsula by a bridge over Agate Pass and to Seattle and King County by Washington State Ferry.
History of Beautiful Bainbridge Island Washington
For thousands of years the island was home to the Suquamish people who lived in nine separate villages around the island. The Vancouver expedition visited the island in 1792 and the Wilkes expedition in 1841. It was Wilkes who named the island after Commodore William Bainbridge.
Bainbridge Island Historical Museum
In 1855 the Suquamish relinquished their claim to the island to the US government in exchange for reservation and fishing rights at Port Madison.
Japanese immigrants made their way to the island starting in 1888 and began much of the agriculture of the island, some of which remains today. But the Japanese were removed to internment camps during WWII…many never returned. A very beautiful Japanese American Exclusion Memorial is located just outside of the town of Winslow.
Japanese American Exclusion Memorial
In 1991 the entire island was named the City of Bainbridge Island.
A Perfect Day Trip
Spending more than one day on beautiful Bainbridge Island Washington would be amazing, but if you only can get here for a day trip there is plenty you can do. We offer up some suggestions below. If you are walking from the ferry the village of Winslow has much to offer. And if you have a car there is even more to see and do further afield. Here are our suggestions:
Close to the Ferry
Marina and Ferry Terminal with Seattle Skyline in the distance
If you are driving, parking is usually available either on the main street called Winslow Way or on one of the side streets. But if you are walking from the ferry it’s a short five minute walk to the area known as Winslow.
SHOPPING
The Winslow area offers a wonderful variety of shops and restaurants including clothing and outdoor wear, jewelry and decorative finds, wine and tea and more. Two of my favorite shops are the incomparable Eagle Harbor Books and Town & Country Market. On my most recent trip I discovered Bainbridge Apothecary and Tea Shop. I loved it!
Eagle Harbor Books
Bainbridge Apothecary & Tea
DINING
You will never go hungry on Bainbridge Island. So many wonderful places to eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Photo below is dinner at Restaurant Marche, one of my favorite restaurants in Kitsap County. We also love both Cafe Hitchcock and their new sister restaurant Burgerhaus. Streamline Diner is great for breakfast, Blackbird Bakery has the best lemon blueberry scones and San Carlos is one of the best Mexican/Southwest Restaurants in the state of Washington.
Marche Restaurant
Burgerhaus
Blackbird Bakery
WATERFRONT TRAIL
It’s not a long walk but the Bainbridge Waterfront Trail is a beautiful walk along both a paved path and a raised boardwalk. Definitely worth a few minutes of your time to enjoy the wind and salt in your hair, the thousands of masts and to hear the horn of the ferry in the distance.
MUSEUMS
Unfortunately the day we were on Bainbridge the Bainbridge Historical Museum was closed, currently having limited hours due to the PanDamit. I do encourage you to check it out though when you visit. Learn more about it here.
We were, however extremely surprised and impressed with the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. What a revelation to find such an outstanding museum in this small town. And it was FREE!! We spent about an hour here, enjoying both the permanent and temporary exhibits as well as marveling at the beautiful architecture of the building. A must visit when on the island. Learn more here.
Bainbridge Island Museum of Art
Further Afield
Beautiful Bainbridge Island Washington is home to many, many parks including the beautiful Fay Bainbridge waterfront park and camp ground. See a full list of parks here. With a vehicle we also recommend;
GRAND FOREST PARK – an astonishing variety of trails offered in this park located in the forested interior of the island. A beautiful spot.
The Grand Forest Park
BLOEDEL RESERVE – not to be missed. This 150 acre reserve is located on the historic property of Virginia and Prentice Bloedel. Today the spectacular gardens are astonishing to say the least and open to the public by timed tickets available online. Adults $20. Worth every penny.
Bloedel Reserve
LYNNWOOD CENTER– is a small neighborhood village with a handful of shops and restaurant worth a drive to enjoy. We recommend The Treehouse Cafe.
BAINBRIDGE BREWING – always in search of microbrew, we found it on Bainbridge. Bainbridge Brewing has it’s brewing headquarters and a tasting room on the interior of island and also has a tasting room in Winslow.
Bainbridge Brewing
Worth a day or a weekend, beautiful Bainbridge Island Washington will sooth your senses – forest bathe in the green forests, inhale the salty air from the multiple waterfront locations, relax. Experience a friendly neighborhood island of socially active residents who make nature, art and sustainability a priority on their island. Take it down a notch on beautiful Bainbridge Island Washington. I’ll see you there.
In her debut novel, Vanderah creates a story of life’s most difficult trials, many unimaginable to most of us. But her characters and their difficulties will pull the reader into this story, even when it sometimes feels raw and violent and a bit unbelievable. Here is my book review Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah.
Jo Teale is an ornithologist trying to finish her Phd after taking two years off to deal with both the death of her mother and her own breast cancer. Determined to get back on track to what she loves after such a heart wrenching couple of years, JoAnna moves to a cabin in the woods to study nesting birds in rural Illinois.
The peaceful, idyllic life, combined with hard work, is just the therapy Jo needs, until a tiny pajama clad and barefoot little girl shows up claiming to be from another planet. She calls herself Ursa.
Jo can’t shake the little girl, who comes back each day, and so she begins to research missing children, calls the sheriff and enlists the help of her reclusive and mysterious neighbor Gabe. But slowly Gabe and Jo begin to realize what a special child Ursa is, brilliant in fact, and the three begin to live happily together after a few weeks… neglecting the missing child websites.
Until a very violent act, dangerous perpetrators and the truth catch up with Ursa and her newly adopted friends. Who will survive the battery of gunfire and can this story possibly have a happy ending? I hope you enjoyed by book review Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah.
****Four stars for Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah
My second time reading Fiona Davis. Several years ago I read The Dollhouse, like The Lions of Fifth Avenue a historical novel based in New York City. The Lions of Fifth Avenue also is similar in that it runs two parallel timelines; New York in 1913 and New York in 1993. Here is my book review The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis.
Two protagonists share the spotlight in this novel. Laura Lyon, wife of the New York Public Library superintendent in 1913, and Sadie Donovan, her granddaughter. Sadie is a curator at the New York Public Library in 1993.
Sadie knows little about her grandmother, only that later in her life she became a well-known writer whose works have recently come back into fashion. Much of Laura’s life has been hidden from Sadie and she doesn’t know that Laura was part of a radical, all female club in Greenwich Village – a place for women’s rights, suffrage, birth control and lesbians. A place where women felt comfortable to be themselves – and Laura found her purpose and love of her life.
When rare books begin disappearing from the high-security research library, Sadie becomes a suspect and she has to work fast to clear her name. With the help of a local detective, Sadie will embark on a dangerous game of cat and mouse to save the library, her reputation and learn the long hidden truth and tragedy of her own family tree. I hope you enjoyed my book review The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis.
****Four stars for The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis
I recently downloaded a new app to my phone that tracks National Parks in the USA. I didn’t know exactly how many I had been to, and wanted to know. Over the PanDamit year we did several road trips and I added a few to the list. So today I thought I would share my favorite USA National Parks.
USA National Parks
This list below of my favorite USA National Parks is parks only. It does not include National Monuments or National Forests. Maybe I’ll blog about that in the future. The majority of National Parks are located in the more rural western half of the USA – while the eastern half of the USA is home to more of the nation’s National Monuments.
Glacier National Park
Lucky me to have visited all 50 states and 36 USA National Parks. There are a total of 60 USA National Parks from Alaska to Florida and even one in the Virgin Islands. So of the 36 today I want to share with you my top ten…even though I still have a few I need to see. But this might give you some ideas of great places to visit in the USA. I hope you have a future post-PanDamit road trip in your future in the USA. Here are my favorite USA National Parks.
In no particular order;
ARIZONA
The beautiful state of Arizona is home to three national parks, and two of them make my list today;
SAGUARO – we visited this small but amazing park this past year on one of our PanDamit road trips. And I fell hard for the unique beauty of this park. Much less busy than many of my favorite USA National Parks, Saguaro is a great place for hiking, bird watching and enjoying the unique desert flora.
Saguaro National Park
2. GRAND CANYON – the grand-daddy of all national parks in the USA, as well as one of the most remarkable places in the entire world. I have visited this gem three times, and we have it on our destination list again coming up next fall. I absolutely love the Grand Canyon National Park.
Grand Canyon National Park
CALIFORNIA
The diverse state of California is home to a whopping eight national parks, and I have been to all of them. Although only one made my favorites list….but several get an honorable mention including Yosemite, Death Valley and Redwoods.
3. CHANNEL ISLANDS – it’s not easy to get to the Channel Islands, one of my favorite USA National Parks located between 12 and 70 miles off the coast of California depending on where you start. We took a boat from Ventura about an hour and spent the whole day hiking this dry and hilly island. What a special day that was.
Channel Islands National Park (image Canva)
FLORIDA
4. EVERGLADES – This park eluded me for many years, until we did a fabulous Florida trip in 2019, spending time in Miami, Key West and of course, the Everglades. When I was a little girl I loved the show ‘Flipper” and always wanted to go to the Everglades where the boy Sandy lived with his ranger dad. So, I finally got there and it did not disappoint. So many alligators!
Everglades National Park
HAWAII
Hawaii is home to two national parks both focused on Hawaii volcanoes. I have been to both and both are fantastic. But only one is my favorite;
5. HALEAKALA – I’ve lost track how many times I have visited my favorite Hawaiian Island of Maui, home to Haleakala National Park. Every time we go to Maui, we visit Haleakala to hike. Twice we have gone up for sunrise too, but mostly we just love to hike into the spectacular crater.
Haleakala National Park
MONTANA
The state of Montana is home to two very important and beautiful National Parks; Yellowstone and Glacier. Now it’s hard to rival Yellowstone…and most would argue it should be in my top ten list. And perhaps it should, but I find it just too crowded for my liking. So my favorite USA National Park in Montana is Glacier.
6. GLACIER – this beauty in the Rocky Mountains can also be very crowded at times. But play your cards right, come in the Spring or Fall and midweek and you will find the most jaw dropping scenery and wildlife spotting. I adore Glacier National Park.
Glacier National Park
UTAH
Five amazing National Parks call Utah home and I love all five of them. But this magnificent state gets two of my favorite USA National Park votes.
7. ARCHES – the first time I went to Arches I had never seen anything like it. The Hoodoos and rock formations and of course the arches…astonishing. I love the dry weather and it’s such a beautiful place to hike year around.
Arches National Park (image Canva)
8. BRYCE CANYON – the first time I went to Bryce Canyon we arrive after dark and went straight to our hotel. It was April and we got up and found a dusting of snow on the ground. I really didn’t know too much about Bryce, but we drove to the park and walked up the hill to the edge of the canyon. OMG. To this day I will never forget how that view literally took my breath away. I have been there two more times and I love it so much.
Bryce Canyon National Park
WASHINGTON
Growing up in the state of Washington I had no idea what a treasure it was. It was just where I lived and I rarely gave it much thought. Today I know…Washington State is one of the most beautiful places in the world, and home to three national parks. Two of those make my favorite USA National Parks list.
9. OLYMPIC – as a kid we hiked and camped every summer in Olympic National Park. The Rainforest, rivers and ocean were a big part of my growing up years. Back in the 60’s and 70’s you could always find a campsite without a reservation, but today that is not the case. It is popular and it’s easy to see why.
Olympic National Park
10. MOUNT RAINIER – from my window as a child we could see Mount Rainier off in the distance and we took that view for granted. Locals refer to it as “the mountain” and the national park that surrounds it provides visitors a never ending list of hikes. Camping, history, rivers, wildlife and the most incredible views you could ask for are what you will find in Mount Rainier National Park. Read about all my other favorite things to do in Washington State here.
Mount Rainier National Park
These are my favorite USA National Parks. What an amazing thing it is to have access to all of these unique and varied parks within the borders of my diverse country. I hope to visit them all in the next few years. Thanks for reading about my favorite USA National Parks.
This book. Lovely. One of my top reads of the year. Unexpectedly beautiful twist on an old story. Here is my book review Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell.
So little is known about the real life of William Shakespeare. Many before have tried to piece it together. But here is a story, so honest and sincere, so loving and beautiful, you can’t help but want it to be the truth.
Maggie O’Farrell’s talent brings us this fictional tale of England in the 1580’s, when plague envelopes the nation. And yet, a wild bewitching young girl, captures the heart of a Latin tutor who is tormented by his father – and true love blooms.
Never once in this book is the Latin tutor referred to as Shakespeare, but throughout the book we know. We know when the Latin tutor becomes more than a glove makers son…more than a husband of a gifted healer and nature nymph…more than a father of three. He becomes a respected and wealthy playwright and actor, but at a cost to family and marriage.
It’s well documented that Shakespeare’s only son, Hamnet, died at a young age. And it is this telling of that tragedy that O’Farrell turns the misfortune around, explaining in such beautiful prose how the torment of a father leads to one of the greatest works of literature of all time – Hamlet.
This book was lyrical…like reading poetry. I loved it from the very first page and did not want it to end. I highly recommend it. I hope you enjoyed my book review Hamnet by Maggie O’Farell.
Not everyone is ready yet to travel….and not every country is ready to accept international travelers. But after 13 and a half months stuck in the USA, we are ready to go. So many of you have been asking about our plans, so today I thought I would share with you how we are restarting the Grand Adventure.
The Grand Adventure which began in 2016 has evolved over time and will continue to evolve as we mitigate a new world. We may never again be able to flit from country to country the way we did before, but with planning, caution and ingenuity we think we can have a travel life full of adventure and intrigue.
Restarting The Grand Adventure
After abandoning our travels mid-itinerary in spring 2020, this week we embark on our first international trip. During our time in the USA we have done a lot of travel to eight different states. But this will be our first trip out of the USA since April 30, 2020.
We fly this week to Iceland for a two-week adventure. No tour, just on our own, using the Rick Steves Iceland Guide. Our visit includes three days in Reykjavik, then nine days in a camper van exploring the island. We have visited Iceland before, but only for two short days so we have always wanted to go back. Iceland seems like a safe place for restarting the Grand Adventure.
Summer and Fall
After two weeks in Iceland we will return to Washington State for the rest of the summer, as summer is the best time of year to be here in the Pacific Northwest. We have a couple of short excursions planned within the state as well as a trip to Maine in early September.
On September 20th we fly back to Maui where we will stay in the apartment of a friend who will be off island for six weeks and then two additional weeks in an Airbnb. Then we fly to Los Angeles before heading on to Arizona and the Grand Canyon. Next we have a trip to Mexico City for a Taco Tour (no joke, a whole week of eating tacos with a guide) and on to Oaxaca before returning to Washington to spend Christmas with our family.
2022 Away We Go
January and February will be spent in French Polynesia. OMG yes it will. First time there so I’m really excited. We will spend two months on the island of Moorea as a big step towards restarting the Grand Adventure.
March is still unplanned but we tentatively hope to fly back to Washington, say hi to the fam, repack and reorganize and then, embark to Israel and restart the itinerary we abandoned, almost two years to the day in March 2020. We have not booked that yet…we will wait and watch and keep our fingers crossed that the world will find its way and we can find our way back to the retirement life we were living and had always dreamed of.
Follow Along
I plan to continue to blog until its not fun anymore so keep following and we will tell you what we are doing. Finding us on Instagram is a great way to get daily updates and beautiful and fun photos and videos. We love your interest and are grateful. Cheers to all of you for your continued support!
Cheers!
I’ve learned a lot of things from living in the PanDamit, mostly to be more patient and flexible. Additionally I’ve learned there are a lot of crazy people and I just need to keep my head down and do the things I believe in, without judging even when I am being judged. Like I’ve said before, I absolutely refuse to be a victim in all of this. Instead I am searching for the learning opportunities and growing each and everyday from this life we are handed. It is still a fabulous life. And if our adventures help others make the step forward cautiously into the brave new world, then our work here is done.
Join us on Instagram here.
Iceland here we come! Learn about Iceland’s Covid restrictions here.
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