Vic­to­ria, BC — OK, we’ll admit it: it’s been tough not hav­ing the easy ride to the island, the last three months. Josie & I think of things to do, plays to see, peo­ple to hug, and the Sidney/Anacortes/Friday Har­bor fer­ry has­n’t been sched­uled since ear­ly January…but now it’s back. One of the parts I like  Con­tin­ue Reading

This is part of a con­tin­u­ing series by Update reporter Ian Bying­ton to explain the ways of Cana­di­ans to my broth­er & sis­ter San Juan Islanders, so that you think it’s a good idea to get on the fer­ry, ride for an hour & ten min­utes, and wahoo! you’re in a cool new place that’s  Con­tin­ue Reading

It’s always fun to read some­one’s first nov­el, if only because you feel you know them a lit­tle bet­ter after fin­ish­ing it. Islander Jill Urbach has put togeth­er a sweet sto­ry called Two Room Flat which spot­lights two peo­ple who know each oth­er’s loss­es too well, and are thrown togeth­er by fate and oppor­tu­ni­ty. She tells  Con­tin­ue Reading

It’s fun to see friends from the island pop up in sto­ries — let’s check them out:  You know how Jes­si­ca Old­wyn has been wrestling (and win­ning!) with that brain toom­ah for the past three years (check her incred­i­bly well writ­ten blog for the lat­est). Well, last week, she had the Bud­dha stat­ue from her front  Con­tin­ue Reading

The Nation­al Park Ser­vice plans to apply her­bi­cide to Cana­da this­tle infest­ing crit­i­cal habi­tat for the island mar­ble but­ter­fly at Amer­i­can Camp, an area of crit­i­cal impor­tance to the island mar­ble but­ter­fly, announced Super­in­ten­dent Lee Tay­lor . The treat­ment will tar­get 1.5 acres east of Pickett’s Lane and one acre south of the Redoubt Road. This  Con­tin­ue Reading

Do you remem­ber where you were, the first time you saw Free Willy? For me, it was in a movie the­atre in Eugene, OR, with a packed house that screamed & cheered & clapped when Willy gets away at the end (see the poster at right, for spoil­er). It was a foot­ball game where the  Con­tin­ue Reading

When I first heard Joe Bon­giorno’s new release, The Flight of a Dream ear­li­er this month, I knew that he had a win­ner on his hands. I’ve lis­tened to it now maybe six mil­lion times…but that’s been a cou­ple of weeks, so I had time. It’s great! (Click here to hear sam­ples — you’ll get it!) Joe  Con­tin­ue Reading

I was hop­ing to impress on you how autumn-like it was in Vic­to­ria, so I chose the warmest week of the year — this week it hit over 80 degrees Fahren­heit (27 C.), with peo­ple I meet in the streets say­ing, “Is it like this all the time, here?” Since I want them to know  Con­tin­ue Reading

  Sat­ur­day after­noon brought sun­shine, a foot­ball game with Ana­cortes High, and a flood of mem­o­ries as the Wolver­ines cel­e­brat­ed 40 years of foot­ball at Fri­day Har­bor High School. It was great to see the guys who helped get the pro­gram going & cheer for them, and see the Wolver­ines come oh-so-close as they dropped  Con­tin­ue Reading

It was cool to get a chance to drop by the island for the past few days — dur­ing the vis­it, I ran into folks who had sto­ries to share. Here’s a quick run­down: Last month, Mer­ritt & Janet Olsen came back to the island to vis­it, so it was­n’t too sur­pris­ing to run into  Con­tin­ue Reading