In the SJ Update mail bag this morn­ing we have this let­ter from Justin Paulsen… If 2020 has high­light­ed noth­ing else with­in our coun­try it is that polit­i­cal divi­sion has seeped into every func­tion of our soci­ety. As our cur­rent gen­er­a­tion nav­i­gates social, health and eco­nom­ic waters which have nev­er before been explored, one fac­tor  Con­tin­ue Reading

FREEZER BURNED: Tales of Inte­ri­or Alas­ka is a reg­u­lar col­umn on the San Juan Update writ­ten by Steve Ulvi… Arriv­ing in Inte­ri­or Alas­ka in 1974, I was 23 years old and had nev­er been in any kind of air­plane. (Well alright, full dis­clo­sure; as a kid, I was big on those hors­es and planes that ate  Con­tin­ue Reading

More good news from J‑Pod… The Cen­ter for Whale Research con­firms that anoth­er calf has been born into the South­ern Res­i­dent killer whale com­mu­ni­ty, and the moth­er is J41. CWR will eager­ly await the whales’ return to eval­u­ate the calf’s con­di­tion and hope­ful­ly deter­mine its sex. J41’s new calf is the sec­ond birth in J  Con­tin­ue Reading

Dear Fri­day Har­bor com­mu­ni­ty, I have always loved the month of Sep­tem­ber. Many years ago, when I decid­ed to make edu­ca­tion a life-long career I saw an oppor­tu­ni­ty to broad­en my world, allow­ing me to extend beyond the lim­its of the lit­tle town where I was raised. Choos­ing edu­ca­tion as a career even­tu­al­ly led me  Con­tin­ue Reading

Deb Lang­hans shares some thoughts about keep­ing your men­tal health… Are you hold­ing your breath these days? With all the med­ical, eco­nom­ic, polit­i­cal and envi­ron­men­tal upheaval upon us, is it any won­der? Breath is life. It might be our most faith­ful life­long com­pan­ion as well as a barom­e­ter of how we’re per­ceiv­ing our world: When  Con­tin­ue Reading

Skag­it Val­ley College’s Con­tin­u­ing and Com­mu­ni­ty Edu­ca­tion pro­gram (CCE) is pleased to announce new online work­shops for Fall Quar­ter. CCE allows you to engage, con­nect, learn, and grow from the com­fort of your home in short-term, non-cred­it cours­es. Vis­it the CCE Fall 2020 Course Cat­a­log for more infor­ma­tion. Cours­es are designed for peo­ple who would like to  Con­tin­ue Reading

PUBLIC NOTICE: San Juan Island Fire and Res­cue Sur­plus Vehi­cle Auc­tion San Juan Island Fire and Res­cue is offer­ing a sur­plus vehi­cle for sale by a sealed bid process: 2008 Chevy Trail­blaz­er 4X4, Gaso­line Engine, White SUV 164,000 +/- miles. VIN: 1GNDT13S682221234 Min­i­mum Bid on this vehi­cle is $4,200 Bids will be accept­ed start­ing Sep­tem­ber 21, 2020  Con­tin­ue Reading

Here’s some hap­py news from the Cen­ter for Whale Research… Updat­ing our recent announce­ment con­cern­ing J35’s new calf, J57: we can con­firm that it is male (see top pho­to­graph). This feisty young boy was seen last evening, Sep­tem­ber 22, near Point Roberts, Wash­ing­ton. He was pho­tographed rolling, spy­hop­ping, and swim­ming along­side his moth­er, who was  Con­tin­ue Reading

After months of quar­an­tined wait­ing, the Fri­day Har­bor High School Thes­pi­ans’ pro­duc­tion of Lit­tle Shop of Hor­rors has heard back from their adju­di­ca­tion with the 5th Avenue The­atre for the High School Musi­cal The­atre Awards. The awards show got can­celled this year due to the pan­dem­ic, also can­celling the actu­al nom­i­na­tions and awards cer­e­mo­ny. Nev­er­the­less,  Con­tin­ue Reading

After-school sail­ing club launch­es with 20 stu­dents, 4 new boats, thanks to gen­er­ous dona­tions Twen­ty stu­dents from San Juan, Lopez and Orcas Islands glo­ry in the sun, the wind, and the sea on Grif­fin Bay twice a week with the Sail­ing Club at Jack­son Beach. Because dis­tanc­ing occurs nat­u­ral­ly between sailors in sin­­gle-hand­ed sail­boats, this  Con­tin­ue Reading