Over Memorial Day weekend, I will water an elderly friend's plants. Billie is going to Lopez Island, WA with family. They will stay in the home of Billie's longtime friend who rents her vacation house on the island.

"Ellen left it too late to get a Friday ferry reservation," Billie said as she dropped off her house key. "We are leaving a day early on Thursday (today) at noon to catch the 6:00 p.m. ferry in Anacortes that we have a reservation for."

It will take them that long to drive 5 miles. After driving over the Cascade Mountains, they will hit massive traffic jams and slowdowns in the Seattle area. Memorial weekend traffic is extremely heavy.

People have discovered the magic of the whole Salish Sea. Ferry reservations are now required in Washington and Canada.

NOTE: These sunny photos are deceptive. It rains a lot in western WA and Canada.

"This is the first day we saw the sun in fourteen months," Claire said when I visited her on April 24, 2021 in western WA. "People have been going nuts. It's depressing."