Backpacking Ozette Triangle: Sandpoint - Washington State, USA

BEACH DEER? SEA STACKS? Tidal pools & tire swings?

The Ozette Loop (9 miles round trip) on the peninsula of Washington State offers fantastic beginner backpacking trips or car camping at the Lake Ozette trailhead. Drive 81 miles west of Port Angeles, leave your car at overnight parking and embark on a short journey via boardwalk through coastal rainforest and skunk cabbage to a gorgeous coast full of finds for the curious explorer.

There are two trails that fork from the Lake Ozette campground trailhead. One goes north to Cape Alava/Wedding Bells area, where if you look closely enough, you can spot petroglyphs on rocky coastal crags. Walking along the coast south from Cape Alava can get dicey with slippery rocks, and since our party had an infant with us, we chose the other fork, the Sandpoint Trail. This is 3.0 miles one way to the beach, and then there are numerous campsites to choose from along the tree line or right on the beach. First come, first served, and if you time the weather right, you’ll get some of the best memories of beach camping.

I highly recommend camping near the water source: Wish Creek. After the Sandpoint trail, you break out onto the beach and walk south around the headland for about half a mile more to find it. The stream is tea-colored in appearance due to the leaves, and my husband swears it tastes like iced tea, too! You won’t want to add a lemon, though; make sure to bring your water filter, and the Park Service recommends boiling the filtered water, too.

We had an infant, and so we brought enough liquid Similac bottles and pouch baby food to last the trip. That way we didn’t have to worry about sanitizing bottles and burning through our fuel. The dirty diapers definitely added the most weight. One thing about backpacking at the Ozette Loop is you have to keep all of your food and smelly stuff like deodorant or delightfully pungent baby diapers in bear canisters. For a two night, three day trip, we got away with using two bear canisters. You can borrow them at the Olympic National Park Visitor Center in Port Angeles or buy your own. Stopping at the Visitor Center on the way in is recommended either way to check the weather conditions, get tips, and buy a National Parks Pass if you haven’t already. Backpacking requires a permit, and you can now print it out ahead of time. It’s kind of confusing, but here’s how you reserve a Backpacking Permit for this area:

·         https://www.recreation.gov/permits/4098362

·         Click “Check Availability”

·         Select “North Coast”

·         You’ll see different North Coast peninsula beaches and can choose to camp at Cape Alava, Sandpoint, or South Sandpoint. Avid backpackers may plan a longer trip down to Yellow Banks/Norwegian Memorial, but you’ll want a tidal guide to safely cross the headland

 

It wasn't all butterflies and rainbows. We did get caught in the famous coastal rain one night. We'd made the mistake to put a large tarp under our tent, which was great for keeping the sand out of the tent, but not-so-great at fending off the pooling rainwater. It collected under our tent and started leaking! Thankfully we were blessed with sweet sunshine the next day and were able to dry everything out. We switched for a smaller tarp and barricaded the sides with branches as well to divert water flow. If you have a tent with a built in tarp, that's likely best- and less weight.

Overall, our campsite was a top-notch pick. All of them are very well maintained, some coming with makeshift benches, there are even pit toilets, and the bugs weren’t bad in late May, even in the forest. We were right on the beach and our little one loved exploring the rocks and driftwood fortresses. We took her exploring and spent hours in the sun zigzagging up and down the sandy shores, hiking up a dramatic bluff at the Sandpoint headland which is home to several “beach deer,” and poking around tidal pools. We traversed further south and crossed larger streams; there was a dead baby orca that had washed up toward South Sandpoint, which was sobering.

Some of the South Sandpoint campsites hide higher up in the cliffs, but one, to our delight, even had a tire swing over the river. You never know what you’ll find out here; there’s always little sea treasures or backwoods paths to explore, and whenever the sun comes out in the Pacific Northwest, it makes the entire sea glitter. Sunset at Sandpoint was gorgeous, with cathedral-soft sun rays dancing over the far shores and dramatic orange brilliance showering you from the north. Granted, with our infant, we were all snug in the tent before it finished setting, but from past trips, seeing the awesome breadth of the star-studded firmament over the ocean at night is stunning. If you can catch a comet or meteor shower out here, it will be downright magical!

We’re already looking forward to our next trip. This has always been a favorite area of mine from childhood, and I'm eager to see our little one make more memories of her own here.

The above is depicted as fiction, not fact.

 

 

Foundation (Season 1) – Apple TV – TV Series Review

**Warning, Spoilers!**

 

A WORLD CONSUMED BY RISING TIDES is now eerily at peace, giant manta rays swimming among submerged ruins; above, dramatic planetary rings arch through the sky like rainbows. This image is just one of the many sensory treasures that awaits you in Apple TV’s ambitious adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. It’s a slow-moving epic that spans centuries. Characters go to sleep in space pods and wake up light-years from where they began, space-jumping ghost ships can be harnessed as planet-destroying weapons, and a small collective toils on the Outer Reach, striving to protect the knowledge of civilization before the prophesized thirty-thousand years of darkness falls—foretold not be a priest, but by psychohistory professor Hari Seldon, who can, through the galaxy’s most complicated math problem, predict actions of the masses.  

I am a newcomer to Asimov, and from word ‘round the net, series creators David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman introduced many of their own elements, such as the Galactic Empire being ruled by the Genetic Dynasty, clones of the original Emperor Cleon, so that stability may always be preserved. There are three clones awake at any given time: the young boy “Dawn,” the middle-aged “Day,” and the elder “Dusk,” who rule with an iron fist. Early on, they punish perceived terrorists who destroy the Star Bridge by destroying half of their home worlds. “Must we choose this?” young Dawn Cleon asks Demerzel, the last intelligent robot in the galaxy sworn to protect Empire at all costs.

“No,” she replies, played with eerie icy brilliance by Finnish actress Laura Birn, “but you always do.”

Lee Pace gives a captivating performance as middle-aged Brother Day, the Cleon at the height of his power. We get to see him play various clone versions throughout the years, and despite being a stone-cold bastard, Pace wins sympathy through his journey in the hellish Spiral and his redeeming relationship with teenage Dawn, whom he comes to see as a son despite signs that Dawn’s genetic code has been tampered with.

The rebellion against the Genetic Dynasty is led by Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) and his unknowing accomplices, genius mathematician Gaal Dornick (gender-swapped from the books, played by Lou Llobell) and Seldon’s adopted son Raych (Alfred Enoch). It’s really cool to see a character like Gaal have a math superpower, and there’s one neat scene where she wakes up on a strange ship that won’t tell her their destination and yet through a series of “twenty questions,” she’s able to use astronomy to figure out where she is.

Layered on top of Hari’s prophecy that the collapse of civilization is imminent is a futuristic plot where Hari’s followers, exiled to the Outer Reach world Terminus, try to preserve society’s knowledge. However, a mysterious vault hangs in the sky, spreading a “null” field that paralyzes anyone who comes too close. The only one who can withstand the null field is Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey), the warden of Terminus who possesses the uncanny ability to predict events. The vault’s true purpose, Hari’s secrets, and Salvor’s heritage all collide with the Galactic Empire’s past war crimes against the Outer Reach planets when vengeance-seeking Anacreons take Terminus by storm. Again, we get a riveting performance from Grand Huntress Phara (Kubbra Sait), furious at being framed for past terrorism that shattered her family and home world.

It's a television series that you really have to pay attention to, but those who do will be rewarded with the rich world-building, twists, and entangled plots. The series doesn’t answer some questions like who really destroyed the Star Bridge (my money is on Demerzel) and what Hari is up to on his home world with the second Foundation, but I loved the creativity and vivid scenery. You really feel like you’re on a space adventure, and although some efforts fall flat (hard to get invested in the romances), there’s so many cool snippets of worlds, creatures, and the details of traveling in space that it’s utterly immersive. Now that the groundwork has been laid out, I predict the ensuing seasons will be unstoppable!

Foundation is streaming on Apple TV. 

The Wheel of Time (Season 1) - Amazon Prime - TV Series Review

 

Warning! Spoiler Alert!

 

I remember being introduced to Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time book series by my mother. She wasn’t a diehard fantasy fan by any means but kept an ear to the ground. The Redwall Series, The Belgariad, The Chronicles of Prydain, The Death Gate Cycle—I had devoured all of these and wasn’t afraid of a new epic fantasy.

How little did I know!

What would happen was I, like countless other Wheel of Time fans, would get sucked into the lives of Rand, Egwene, Matt, Nynaeve, and Perrin, and then ten more characters, and then ten more, until it was impossible to keep track of all the braid tugging without a fully illustrated map and several books of genealogies. However, I still remembered the magic of the first few books in the series—Eye of the World, The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn, still had a soft spot for the main characters sans Egwene, and it’s impossible not to admire Jordan’s creativity and richly layered world-building in the Aes Sedai, the Forsaken, and the Aiel.

The Wheel of Time is a classic high fantasy in which The Dark One and his enemy, the Dragon, face off in a cataclysmic struggle that ends up destroying the world and the male half of the One Power is tainted with madness. The Dark One is sealed at the Eye of the World until the Last Battle, at which the Dragon will come again and either defeat or join him—thus dooming the world. As such, only women can channel the One Power without succumbing to madness, and a powerful order of mages arises, called the Aes Sedai, who advise kingdoms and “gentle” men who can channel before they go mad. Moraine Sedai, of the Blue Ajah order, finds five young folk in the quiet mountain village of the Twin Rivers, who are each important to the Pattern. One of which is the Dragon Reborn.

So how did Amazon Prime do with The Eye of the World, a whopping 782 pages?

The Wheel of Time isn’t Game of Thrones (it is pretty funny seeing Roose Bolton show up as Rand’s dad, though). I love that it’s little known actors, but they have a long way to go to be capable of commanding the screen with the charisma and star power of Peter Dinklage, Emilia Clarke, and Lena Headey. This is more like Chronicles of Shannara, but where Wheel excels is the excellent world building foundation that Jordan has laid. The scenery is beautiful. Trollocs, the Fade, the Darkfriends—all well done. I love the actors playing the villainous Padan Fain, Logain, and  Eamon Valda—they all seem like they’re having a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the main cast. There isn’t enough time spent on building the core group’s bond to really care about them, and I can see how someone without the book background knowledge would fight through tedious episodes of walking and serious talks lacking chemistry. Nynaeve, for example, is one of my favorite characters in the book, but here she just is missing fire and presence. Perrin, too, is incredibly wooden. Ironically enough, Egwene, who irritated to me to know end in the books with her insufferableness—was fine in the television series. Rand, I’ll give it, is very Rand, but the actor has a ways to go to give the character depth. Mat didn’t have that roguish charm. They opted to give him a dark edge, but that missed the point that Mat was supposed to bring the levity, the fun. Rosamund Pike as Moraine was spot on perfect, though.

So there you have it—there is a lot of unevenness in the acting levels of the cast and the pacing of the series. There are moments that are really well done, like hiding from the Trollocs in the dark city of Shadar Logoth. This is a place with a fascinating history about a people who hid from the world so much that their isolation and hate finally ate them alive. I liked the White Tower and what we’ve seen of the Aes Sedai so far. However, it’s a tough sell when the supporting cast are more interesting. The season finale, especially, was disjoined and started trying to add too much with the arrival of the Seanchan.

You can tell there was a lot of attention paid to ensuring a diverse world, but the television series starts to make the same mistakes as the books by getting distracted with side characters. It doesn’t build up enough sympathy for Rand, who is the titular character and driving force in the series. An interesting direction to go, but honestly, as a fan of the book series, I identified with Rand as the hero thrust into this world of politics and raising an army the most. By trying to redo the angle and perspective of the story, the television series risks alienating the most sympathetic characters that kept readers coming back to the book series for even after it spanned well over ten books. I wanted to see what happened to the "wool-headed" Rand, Nynaeve, and Mat (and Demandred, because I am a big Forsaken fan).

The rest of the hundreds of characters who show up are just momentary weaves in the Pattern.

Season 2 of The Wheel of Time is in production.

Year of the Snake (Changeling Sisters V) Book Description

HAPPY 2022! Wishing you peace and prosperity wherever you are. Kicking off the celebration of the new year, I'm excited to share the book description for Year of the Snake (Changeling Sisters V). Familiar faces, new mythologies, and a murder mystery create the heart of this penultimate installment in the Changeling Sisters Series, coming early 2023:

XIBALBA IS RISING.

The Alvarez and Yong siblings have saved Seoul from a zombie apocalypse, but a murder close to home reveals the terrifying truth that the Death Gods are far from finished. Citlalli, Raina, and Miguel team up with Rafael and Khyber in a dark and convoluted investigation that will take them deep into the Central American peninsula, into the heart of the Maya underworld itself. Citlalli and Khyber’s newfound romance faces the ultimate test when Khyber is summoned to be King of the Vampyre Court, forcing him to choose once and for all his allegiance to the living or the dead.

Meanwhile, dragon shapeshifter princess Sun Bin is welcomed into the high-powered tech world of Saja Corp with promises of finding her missing brother and saving Nyssa from her divine captor. However, while the research into the viruses that created the Were Nation glitters brightly, underneath lurks a deadly secret, one that could spell ruin for life itself.

As Changeling Sisters across the globe unite to stop the catastrophic rise of Xibalba, the spirit world of Eve can no longer bury the sins of the past—and the world may well drown in them.

Year of the Rat Launches on Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Apple, and More!

Nook & iBook Readers rejoice! Year of the Rat (Changeling Sisters IV) is now available in ebook format on Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Apple, Kobo, and other major platforms. There's nothing like curling up with your eReader and a cup of cocoa while snow falls--or in our case--rain. 

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season!

Best Comedy TV Series - Netflix

WITH THE HOLIDAYS AROUND THE CORNER (there were so many Xmas decorations out early we expected to be handing out candy canes to trick-or-treaters instead of Twix), let’s take a look at outstanding comedy recommendations from Netflix. Check out my favorites below and feel free to share your own!

 

Best Witty Comedy

Call My Agent: This is such a hands-down favorite. Welcome to ASK, a boutique agency, where its perfectly cast agents work tirelessly for big-name French movie actors and actresses, no matter how outrageous the demand. This is on top of juggling the drama of their personal lives and some cutthroat office politics that would make Cersei Lannister proud. Camille (Fanny Sidney) journeys to the big city and scores a job at ASK helping the notorious Andréa Martel (played with wicked charm by Camille Cottin), but really her plan is to meet her father, legendary cinema agent Mathias (Thibault de Montalembert), who had an affair with her mother. She soon learns he may be the real office monster who will stop at nothing in his climb to the top and must make a choice about her own career aspirations.

Camille may be the anchoring story, but Call My Agent comes to life with a cast of truly memorable and witty characters, all of whom get their time in the limelight. Andréa is a badass, and assistants Noémie (Laure Calamy) and Hervé (Nicolas Maury) are the most adorable scene-stealers. There’s a ton of fun cameos from well-known actors such as Sigourney Weaver, and we learn that even the silliest grievance can spin out of control quickly. We get 4 seasons of nonstop entertainment that wraps up the loose ends satisfactorily, and there’s even a Bollywood version now available.

Sex Education: So your mum’s a sex therapist and everyone at school comes to you with their bedroom problems. Meet Otis (Asa Butterfield), who lives in an amazingly cool mansion overlooking a valley and attends Moordale Secondary School, where everyone from the students to the staff are in over their heads with relationship angst. They deal with it, naturally, by getting a goat as a pet or having epic meltdowns. Otis and school bad girl Maeve (Emma Mackey)  see an opportunity and start a clandestine clinic giving out advice. Sex Education is not shy about tackling an entire spectrum of issues and has no shortage of colorful characters. Otis’s best mate Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) is particularly endearing, and you can’t ask for much better than Gillian Anderson to portray Otis’s archly mother. The show starts getting a little tired after three seasons, but the great thing about British comedy is they know when a series has run its course, so we’ll see what new direction season 4 goes.

 

Best Heartwarming Comedy  

Never Have I Ever: Just before you say you’ve seen every trope of high school girl caught in a love triangle, check out this fun, heart-warming romp through the San Fernando Valley. Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) enters her sophomore year after the traumatic loss of her father. The trauma resulted in the loss of the use of her legs for a couple months, and naturally, this is what everyone at school is talking about. (“Whoa, is this comedy?” you ask— “Yes, stay with me.”) Determined to change her social status, Devi embarks with the help of her loveable friends to embrace change in her life by completing a series of “never-have-I-evers”, beginning with losing her virginity to the hunky, minimally-verbal Paxton (Darren Barnet). She also negotiates a new relationship with her strict traditionalist mother (Poorna Jagannathan), who she was never super close to. Devi is lively, makes mistakes, and feels like a true teen, and the show clips along at a snappy pace that always leaves you ready for more. There’s a lot of heart and feeling (dare you to watch the last episode of season 1 and not cry!), and it feels fresh with something new to offer.

 

Best Satire

The Chair: Dr. Ji Yoon Kim (Sandra Oh) gets the English Department Chair job of her dreams after fighting tooth and nail both as a woman and as a person of colour. It’s a quick celebration, as she is quickly beset by the demanding expectations of students, colleagues, and the school alike, such as being told to fire the three oldest professors who are failing to enroll students in their classes. The colleague she has longstanding feelings for, Bill Dobson (Jay Duplass), gets embroiled in a viral scandal after he pulls a mock “Heil, Hitler” in class, and oh, her adopted daughter (Everly Carganilla) is either a budding psychopath or quite normal for her age. It’s enough to tear anyone apart, and the show lands solid hits in its deft critique of the higher education system. The dry humor of veteran professor Joan Hambling (Holland Taylor) trying to get an office out of the basement is particularly hysterical.

 

Best Fun-&-Silliness-Taken-Seriously

Cobra Kai: The Karate Kid (1984) was a classic, and when I first heard about this sequel series set to follow Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), Danny’s original nemesis, I questioned if he was strong enough to carry it. However, the show’s creators smartly juxtapose blue-collar, down-on-his-luck Johnny as struggling to navigate high-tech, social-media-obsessed society. However, some things never change, like high school kids’ enthusiasm for epic martial arts battles. I absolutely love Johnny’s relationship with his neighbor kid Miguel (Xolo Maridueña), who he reluctantly takes under his wing to teach his own “middle way” karate creed. Even better, plenty of the old cast from The Karate Kid movies are back, notably Danny LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) who has gone on to own a successful car dealership, and he takes issue with Johnny opening his own dojo. The only thing missing is Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita), who sadly passed in 2005. He’s still the show’s moral anchor, but things aren’t black and white, and both Johnny and Danny realize how difficult it is to be sensei with a whole new generation looking up to them.

I haven’t even gotten to the amazing cast of kids who become part of Johnny or Danny’s dojos respectively, but the comedic martial arts battles are just as intense as they ever were. The show has fun and laughs at itself, dropping sly digs at the guys’ All-Valley Tournament feud through Danny’s down-to-earth wife, and it turns out to be the best decision to hand the story over to the anti-hero’s perspective.

Outer Banks: The first season of this show is a lot of fun. The outer banks of North Carolina are starkly divided between the wealthy Kooks and impoverished Pogues. Best buds John B (Chase Stokes), JJ (Rudy Pankow), Kiara (Madison Bailey), and Pope (Jonathan Daviss) spend their days living it up on the surf and hunting for the lost treasure of the Merchant ship, which has ties to the disappearance of John B’s father. Their search entangles them with the Camerons,  local rich family who is also after the treasure, and plenty of shenanigans commence. It’s kind of like a geocaching beach party adventure, and John B’s crew is a loveable bunch who are easy to root for. The plot gets a bit tired in Season 2, but Season 1 is absolutely recommended.

 

Best Dark Humor

You: You’d think a show from the point of view of the obsessive stalker would be icky, but somehow Penn Badgley (Gossip Girl) has pulled it off. Joe Goldberg grew up an orphan learning how to restore old books under the tender tutelage of the foster care system (his last guardian had a vacuum sealed cage in his basement), but his rough upbringing hasn’t dissuaded him from searching for “The One.” Seemingly mild and charming, Joe demonstrates his love by infiltrating the life of the object of his affection—in this case, Beck (Elizabeth Lail), an NYU graduate student trying to be a writer. Joe woos her with dirt he digs up from her social media, all while entertaining the audience with his critique of how much of ourselves we put online. Heaven forbid anyone get in his way, or Joe, knowing what is best for Beck, will take matters into his own hands. It gets bloody, messy, and thanks to Joe’s inner monologues—utterly hilarious. Each season has a different setting (NY, LA, a Californian suburb), giving Joe plenty to criticize and new frenemies to play cat-and-mouse with. Will he ever find peace with “The One”? Probably not, but it’s entertaining watching him try!

 

Best Originality

Sense 8: For those who like a show that defies genre, check this one out. Eight people around the globe become mentally and emotionally linked when their “birth mother” kills herself to escape a mysterious man known as Whispers. This connection gives them incredible abilities—not only are they telepathic, but they can essentially “download” their consciousness and abilities into each other’s bodies to make them one super human—a Sensate cluster. How well they work together will determine their survival due to the mysterious organization that is after them, and even more awesomely, there are other Sensate clusters with unique makeups as well (think ability of fighter pilot, actor, police officer, hacker all rolled into one person). The show is definitely slow moving and takes its time exploring our different Sensates and their stories, since they all keep their freewill. There’s lots of laughs, tears, and a deep dive into what it is to be human, and it creates a most beautiful story.

Changeling Sisters Series Out in Paperback!

Hi Everyone,

I'm delighted to share that the Changeling Sisters Series is available in Paperback from Amazon.com. Woo hoo! This has been a dream come true. Extremely nerve-wracking opening the box when it arrived, but I'm pleased to have this out and available for the holidays. Check it out today or share with a friend. Thank you all for the support!

 

Paperback:

Year of the Wolf (Book #1)

Year of the Tiger (Book #2)

Year of the Dragon (Book #3)

Year of the Rat (Book #4)

Year of the Boar: Tica (Book #1.5)