A trip to the Dacha - I

Since we work so hard on our yard over most weekends and the elements have been blessing us mercilessly, sapping every bit of moisture from the dirt that we are made of, we decided to take a break. So we left our unfinished projects and made for the water. We had been invited to go to a friend’s vacation house.

Our friends wanted to pamper us Russian style (somewhat similar to desi style) and even insisted on driving us there themselves. That seemed perfect to us, except we could not leave as planned at 2.00 pm on Friday. After re-arranging the delicate schedules of the various worker bees involved, I, the queen bee was left to water the lawn before we left. The friendly neighbourhood weatherman did say we were going to get some sprinkles, but I was not going to rely on his word. See, for the time being, our baby grass is our baby!!

Now you may be accustomed to seeing men waiting endlessly for the women to get ready and leave. But, most times in our case, I am the one that’s ready and tapping my feet impatiently while the hunk at home takes all the time he needs. And this just happened to be one such time!! In the time it took for my darling to shave, shower and put on some clean clothes, I finished reading a chapter in my book, watered a few houseplants, watched Gilmore Girls, paced the living room wondering what to do, made a couple of phone calls, paced the kitchen wondering how long he would take and almost fell asleep out of boredom. Then I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to paint my toenails. So I leisurely selected the colour of the week and spent the next 10 minutes taking off a certain colour only to paint it a similar shade again. Aaaah vanity!! FYI, I am not vain…I was talking about the Mister!! Bah!!

So then, we eventually found ourselves at our friend’s place, spent another 20 minutes reloading their car with our stuff, said goodbyes to some of their family that was staying back and hit the road!! Off we went with our friends Y & I and their 10 year old daughter Alisa. Thanks to the weekend traffic it only took us double the usual time to reach downtown Seattle. And then we spent the next hour and a half inching slowly towards the ferry…we traveled about half a mile in those 90 minutes. Another 20 minute wait once we got to the dock and finally the ferry tooted to announce it was headed towards Bainbridge Island. Incidentally, Bainbridge has been voted as the 2nd best place to live in the country. It’s a quaint little island offering a quiet life with cute art shops and galleries and wonderful views all around the island.

It was an annoying irony that it took us over 2 and half hours to reach the ferry and the ferry ride was only half an hour. It was over and done with, a bit too quickly for my liking…I love ferries. I have been on a few boats, but the ferry to Bainbridge is something else altogether.

The wind was murderous outside. Our coffees were sloshing about in their cups like the ocean around us was being sloshed about by the ferry’s steady advance. It gave a whole new meaning to ‘a storm in a tea cup’ or a coffee cup in this case. I absolutely love standing in the front watching the wake, bent over the railing, while shivering in the frightful cold with my hands about my body, smelling the salt and sea, breathing the icy air that chills my insides, with the wind howling about me freezing my ears and the sharp sun thawing and burning the frozen ears and making me squint and grin, all of it creating the paradox that makes Seattle what it is.

But the best part is when I lift my eyes and turn around and see the seagulls all around the boat. That is a sight one does not get to see unless on a ferry or a similar large vessel. They are like outriders, gliding alongside the boat without flapping their wings. Ensuring we are safe, announcing our arrival, adding a regal touch to something ordinary. Sometimes, it makes me feel like the boat is held together by strings which the seagulls have in their beaks and they are all carrying us through the skies to some new destination… It reminds me of a psalm, “For He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways, in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against the stone….” I wonder if angels carry us like those seagulls carry the ferry….oh well!! You know me and my imaginations…but it is a very nice feeling I get, a feeling of absolute peace and a desire to be wrapped in a warm blanket!!

We had to drive through Bainbridge Island and into the Olympic National Forest to reach our destination. After about 2 hours we reached ‘Artek’ the dacha, named after Artek - the famous Soviet Camp. A dacha is a Russian vacation cottage... Here's the wiki version.

After saying hello to the other families that were there (3 families from Moldovia and 1 family from Uzbekistan, all of them Russian speaking) we found our room, settled in, ate dinner and saw the most wonderful moonscape from the newly built deck outside. My attempts to take moon pictures failed yet again and after a while I gave up and enjoyed my tea instead. The moon was full, looked like a blob of fresh butter, that same slight cream colour and she was making a bold statement that night. The reflection on the water was breathtaking!! I knew this was going to be a wonderful weekend and I could barely wait for morning.