Don/Rainy and wet
05/20/2012, Seattle

We met Deb's brother-in-law, Dave Gracy, at the airport in Seattle and grabbed a rental car for the drive north to Bellingham.

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Don/Rainy and wet
05/20/2012, Aboard Δ Latitude - Bellingham, WA

After departing Hartford, CT at 7 am, we have arrived in beautiful Bellingham, home of Change of Latitude. How we have missed her! Δ Latitude is immaculate as always thanks to El and her team's amazing work. How El gets her looking like new each time we arrive is amazing and we appreciate it so very much. Thanks, El!

Brother-in-law Dave Gracy has taken time to join us on this trip. We met yesterday in Seattle and drove north together to Bellingham. Dave just retired as a middle school principal in Petosky, Michigan. He and his wife Barb, Deb's sister, joined us last summer on the trip from Ketchikan to Port McNeil. We are looking forward to more good time and wish Barb was with us, again, on this trip. Dave and I are dying to get lines in the water for salmon, halibut, and ling cod and pots in the water for crab and shrimp! Oh boy! The manly men are reporting for duty! More adventures ahead.

The next few days will be a time of tying up loose ends and preparing for our journey. I have to complete a chapter for a dear friend. (I am so sorry I am so late!) The manly men have to get more fish, crab, and shrimp gear and, of course, beer and wine. (What else is new, eh?) Debbie, Dave, and I also have to provision the boat with food and drink and, of course, new items for our candy drawer. We also need to check out a number of new systems and double check old ones before we head North to Alaska.

The other thing I need to do is to tie up some loose ends on work at the New Literacies Research Lab. Our ORCA (Online Research and Comprehension Assessment) with IES is humming! See: http://www.orca.uconn.edu/ and http://voicethread.com/?#u743044.b2510770.i13300844 There is much to do to get ready for our validity studies this coming year with representative state samples of approximately 1,000 7th grade students in two Northeastern states. In one state all students have one-to-one laptops and in the other they do not. I dearly appreciate all my good friends and colleagues who, through their work, allow Debbie and I this time to recharge out batteries. Thank you Donna, Elena, Cheryl, Julie, the entire scoring team, Jonna, Nell, Jamison, the content team, and many others. Thank you!!!

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Don / Full of Anticipation
05/13/2012, Waterford, CT

On a number of our trips, I failed to keep the blog up. My bad! I will do better, I hope, on this summer's trip to Ketchikan. Here is a brief summary. I will attach a few photos, too.

Last summer, we completed our cruise home to Bellingham. It was a great trip. We saw Orcas on our last leg and caught shrimp in Desolation Sound.

The highpoint of our winter trip was a stay in Tacoma, right next to the glass museum, the Washington State History Museum, and some exceptional restaurants.

Hmm. Now that I think about it, I also failed to blog our spring trip to Vancouver, where my annual research conference was held. We stayed in Coal Harbour Marina, right next to the convention centre in Vancouver. Oh my! I promise I will do better this summer. We plan a cruise up the West Coast (the ocean side) of Vancouver Island, around Cape Scott (home of flying cows in wind storms) and then up the Inside Passage to Ketchikan. We can hardly wait!

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don/Nice
04/15/2012, Vancouver BC

Dinner after a harbour cruise with Lee Gunderson, a long time best friend from Berkeley days, and several of my former students. From left to right: Debbie, Paula Dagnon (Western Washington Univ.), Julie Coiro (Univ, of Rhode Island), Jill Castek (Univ. of California, Berkeley), Lee Gunderson (Univ. of British Columbia), me.

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Don/Nice
04/14/2012, Vancouver BC

Our good friend, Chuck Kinzer, stayed aboard during AERA. Chuck and I go back to our Berkeley days together. He chairs a dept. at Columbia University, Teacher's College.

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Don/Nice
04/14/2012, Vancouver, BC

We went out under the LIon's Gate Bridge and around Stanley Park each afternoon with friends.

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Don/Nice
04/13/2012, Vancouver, BC

Debbie and I took Δ Latitude to Vancouver for the conference of the American Educational Research Association where I had several research studies to give with colleagues. We stopped at a wilderness island, Patos, on the way north. We saw all kinds of beautiful ducks, wintering over in that deserted cove.

In Vancouver, we stayed at beautiful Coal Harbour Marina, right next to the convention centre. Each afternoon, we took friends and colleagues out for a harbour tour, under Lion's Gate Bridge and over to False Bay. I wish every conference of mine was held in Vancouver! It was heaven to do it aboard Δ Latitude!

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01/03/2012

We stopped on the way back at Blake Island. Katie, Sarah, John, and Debbie went for a hike.

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12/31/2011, Tacoma

A highlight was spending a few days at a wonderful marina at dock street in Tacoma. Tacoma??? Yep. Don't tell anyone else. The Glass Museum was right at the dock and so was the exceptional Washington State Museum of history. Plus, there were outstanding restaurants nearby. We spent two days to take it all in. Katie is getting us tied up, Bristol fashion, at the marina. Nice work, Kate!

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12/30/2011

On our New Year's Trip, Debbie and cruised down to Seattle, where Katie, Sarah, and John flew in to join us on our winter cruise. OUr first stop was Blake island, across the sound from Seattle.

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