Aki and I are walking the Treadwell Woods, a place with forest and mine ruins that offered the only chance for beauty on this wet, gray day. That’s why I was surprised when I glimpsed the Gastineau Channel through a screen of alders. Rather than the expected slate gray, the channel was an almost Mediterranean shade of green.

            Aki didn’t mind leaving the woods for Sandy Beach where she is more likely to meet dogs. In seconds she finds a friendly pair of huskies. While they played chase, I spotted a kingfisher resting on the top of a busted wharf piling. Several gulls picked over the sand beneath the piling. The translucent bodies of flattened jelly fish sparkle on the sand.