Canoe Journey

Today was hot, yesterday was hot and tomorrow will be hot! We left Arizona for the summer heat and found it in Washington. Go figure. Today we were in our motor home relishing the cool air from the air conditioner but we got cabin fever and decided to go out for lunch. There is a nice cafe here in Union, surprisingly named the Union Cafe. It is right on the water but everything is right on the water here on the canal. We shared an order of nachos for lunch, $14! We've noticed that this is not an inexpensive place. Anyway, the nachos were excellent and as we were getting ready to leave we noticed a "flotilla" of several Indian dugout canoes paddling down the canal. They had come from the state park about 10 miles from where we saw them and they stopped at the marina in front of the cafe. We went out to watch as the paddlers took a short break and many of them took advantage of the break to swim and get some relief from the heat. After a short while they go back in their canoes and paddled away headed for another park several miles further down the canal. We learned we were seeing several canoes participating in a canoe journey that occurs every year now, the first of these treks having been held about 1989. Participants had already been on the water for several days and the end of the trip is probably a week away. The annual event is a marine caravan as the paddlers follow traditional trading routes along the Pacific Northwest waters. Paddlers from all the local tribes are participating as well as paddlers from Canada. The fleet grows as each stopover is usually held on tribal lands and members of that tribe often join the group as it leaves, bringing their own canoes and paddlers. Over 100 canoes are expected to be involved by the end of the journey.

We left the cafe and drove around to the state park where the seafarers were to spend the night and there were lots of family and supporters awaiting them and ready to welcome them ashore in traditional form. It was quite an interesting experience to see this.