Distant Relatives Live in Seattle

The time was Sunday May 23rd 9 PM, the place: Showbox Sodo. It was a sold out show for 2,000 people, and we thought getting there that early would beat the crowd. We were wrong. It was already packed and the venue was big and flat.

Opening for Damian Jr. Gong Marley and Nas was Nneka, a Nigerian singer with an excellent afro. She lulled me with her bittersweet poetic prose. But I was ready to get the energy going for the next act.

The only way for us short people to see was to push to the front. So after a couple $13 doubles and the opening act, we made our way through the audience. People were crammed like sardines in a can, but we used that to our advantage. Bouncing off the backs in front and bodies behind us, we produced a vibration of energy and spread it through the crowd, getting ready for the headliners.

"As We Enter" was the song they came one with, and the live band got us bouncing. Maybe a lot of people didn't know the new album Distant Relatives because the people around me weren't that excited. I found it enthralling and it inescapably got my feet moving and my hips gyrating.

Nas and Damian Marley preformed multiple songs from their new album and then took turns with an individual sets.

Damian Jr. Gong Marley



They delivered exactly what I needed to hear from them. Their new hip-hop and reggae influenced songs with its consciousness rooted in the African motherland are deep and true. Nas and Jr. Gong together, as well as separate, are indisputable champions.

Camping at Cape Disappointment

Bryan got off work late the night we were planning to leave. That couldn't stop us, we even recruited the whole family to roll. On the drive down to the southern tip of Washington was uneventful, except the fact that we finally arrived there at 1:30AM Saturday morning. The trip was longer than previously calculated, but it was well worth the drive.



To get to this view, we were challenged with removing a u-shaped lock on our bikes. We called locksmiths, went to an auto parts store, and ended at the hardware store to buy a special plier to cut the steel lock. The guys tried together to cut it unsuccessfully. It was the then that people around started to stare at them cutting a bike lock. A bigger older man came up and gave the pliers a try. He lodged one handle against his belly fat and pulled the other one towards him, and snap he cut the steel rod. I mentioned that maybe the guys should fatten up so they could cut steel.

Finally we succeed to ride out on our bikes! We rode out from our campsites to the top of a bluff to check out the view from the Northern Lighthouse.



One person was still practicing riding a bike. The bike path that stretched 5 miles down the beach was the perfect place to test the waters. It sloped up and down, curved this way and that. At the entrance to the trail we even saw a huge Blue Heron fly directly above us!



There were multiple places to stop and chill on the beach. It was a warm, sunny day and people were gathering drift wood for bonfires.



We stopped at one spot where a grey whale's skeleton had been found in 1806. Long beach is also where they have the Washington State International Kite Festival, August 16-22, 2010. This was the perfect weekend for a ride down the beach.



That Saturday night we drove into town to find some entertainment, and on our drive home we took the full loop of Highway 100 that encircles the park. Out of nowhere we saw a medium sized black bear that had just crossed the road and ducked into the bushes! Even though we were in a car, I was frightened!

The next day we just chilled on the beach and enjoyed the solitude and expanse that a State Park in the spring time can offer. We even made a see-saw with some drift wood!