Vashon Victim

I was gonna write a bunch about my last two days in America visiting super-cool old friends on Vashon Island near Seattle, but in some ways I’m reluctant. When you find places on this earth that are so suffused with sheer magic, it seems a shame to start a stampede in that direction. So pay no attention to the fact that if you lived there, your view might look something like this (not my friends’ home)…

…with nearby stands of gorgeous native madrone trees…

…and the adjacent home might contain cinematic wildman Jon Moritsugu…

…who, with his zany fashion illustrator wife and “muse” Amy, is deliriously blissed-out in Vashon's embrace:

Nevermind that it’s a five minute shot to the birthplace of Seattle’s Best Coffee, wherein one also has a choice of five Pu-ehrs among their dozens and dozens of other loose teas, and without one might chat with an elaborately tattooed woman who catches your eye with two large scorpions inked as a yin/yang on the small of her back…

…and that even the Russian Orthodox tradition monks who live on the island support themselves by roasting coffee and even have a genuine sense of humor about it – one of their roasts is called The Promised Blend. I’ve never been so close to switching teams before; even went to visit them, but the sign on their gate said they were in silent retreat, bless ‘em.

Just ignore that even the local antique shop window displays play it for risqué yuks…

…and that at any given time of the day, you can get meals – such as back to back nights of transcendent wild salmon, one of which, at Gusto Girls, was followed by a duo of Earl Grey tea and lavender ice creams – that years later will cause tears of to spring forth at the memory.

Forget that you could get your life Pacific-slope Flycatcher just by glancing at a bush ten feet from the window.

Just put all that out of your mind, OK? When I go back I want to flout the law of impermanence and find Vashon just as I left it.

Comments

[Carol]

The promised blend sounds like a great Christmas present for someone I know....

[Ryan]

Due directly to your visit there, which made me realize I knew little or nothing about Vashon, I did a little sleuthing, including a visit to a Vashon realtor's site, and was astonished to find that there's a house there for sale for $16 million! It just seems so incongruous with the mellow island life you described.

Drat that you couldn't visit the coffee-roasting monks. That woulda' been sumpin' to see.