What's in her name?

What's in her name (Salish Aire)?

Salish from her new home the Salish Sea

Aire as in a melody of song.

Salish + Aire = The melody of the Salish Sea.

Salish Sea:
In the late 1700's Captain George Vancouver wandered around the waters of what are now known as British Columbia, Canada and Washington State, USA. He did the usual 1700's explorer thing and put names he chose on everything he saw. The names stuck and are recognized and used to this day.

New lines were added to Captain Vancouver's charts in 1872 (after a near war with Great Britain over a pig) which made waters on one side of the line Canadian and those on the other side of the line American.

It wasn't until 1988 (officiated in 2009) that someone finally realized that fish and various critters, (to say nothing of the water itself) were never involved in the boundary treaties and really ignored them completely. (This is best illustrated by the problems that Homeland Security has with Canadian Canada Geese and American Canadian Geese - it seems they refuse to carry passports and have been known to poop on the head of any border patrol person who tries to challenge their right to cross the border when and where they choose!) In reality the waters from Olympia to the well up the East side of Vancouver Island are pretty much one ecosystem.

The Coast Salish are the indigenous peoples who live in southwest British Columbia and northwest Washington state along the Salish Sea and share a common linguistic and cultural origin. The Salish Sea is named in honor of the earliest recorded peoples who plied her waters and learned to live in harmony with her.


Monday, March 20, 2017

A dive trip to the Caribbean island of Bonaire

We returned home yesterday to Salish Aire after flying to the island of Bonaire north of Venezuela (it's the "B" of the ABC islands - Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao). We believe this is our fourth trip there as it is one of our very favorite dive destinations.  The weather was wonderful with the air temperature in the low 80s (F) and the water a consistent 78 degrees (F). 

We understand that while we were gone it rained "buckets" here in the PNW and our daughter (whom we had invited to come down!) got to "enjoy" 20 cm of snow in Ontario. 

We will let the photos tell the story:

We stayed, as always, at the Carib Inn where Bruce and Co. made sure we had a great time ( https://www.caribinn.com/ )

The view looking North from the Carib Inn dock.
Bonaire still has a major salt industry.

Slave huts remind us that collecting salt was not always done by machine.
I'm a big fan of flamingos that hang out in the national park at the north end of the island.



Diving the windward side of the island is supposed to be spectacular but only done when the trade winds are quiet. Maybe next time.






Finally - Norman loves gadgets and Norman loves fresh orange juice.  We ran into this machine in the local supermarket and Norman had to get a video to share:





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