CATEGORY: SAILING
PHOTO: BABY TEARS

One of the wonderful things about the San Juan Islands was the close proximity to Mount Baker.  What more wonderful thing can you imagine than looking across islands and water and seeing a snow covered mountain the size of a polar bear if it were standing right outside your window?

South of Friday Harbor along the beach were a long string of little houses.  Not only were they right on the water, but they all had a view of Mt. Baker.  I always looked for FOR SALE signs thinking this would be the ideal place to retire.  The houses must have been built when the only access was by water, because they all had docks and were sitting just above the high tide line.  When the street was built on the inland side of them, it was at a height even with their roof tops.  The owners dutifully built steps up to the street and platforms upon which they could park their cars.

One of these houses had large rocks down the hillside between the house and the street and the entire hillside was covered in a bright green ground cover that was about two inches high and had tiny little very green leaves.  As we stood and stared at this marvel, the owner came out to say hello.  She told us the plant was “Baby Tears.”  I looked it up as soon as I was back home.  It was only marginally hardy below freezing, which says something about the climate of the San Juans.

Many years later, after a very cold winter, we walked once again past that little house.  There was not one baby tear left on the hillside.  It was completely bare, its big rocks standing out blatantly.  It felt like a major tragedy had happened.  I realized then that it was not just any house along that shore, but that house, that yard, that view of Mt. Baker I was so fond of.  It was prophetic.  That was the last time I was ever in Friday Harbor.  The baby had cried its last tear.