Two busy, busy days. A new boat ramp. A new set of stairs from the hillside to the ramp. Trails cleared. A huge multi-day demolition project finished (for now).

It has been a big week for big projects.

What I will carry with me home, however is the time spent with Rowan, particularly yesterday and this morning. Yesterday afternoon we hauled four posts, between 16 and 12 feet in length, across and around huge boulders, and up a 40-50 foot rock bluff. Steep, slippery at the bottom and razor sharp at the top. Razor sharp as in over 3 climbs the leather of my gloves was torn open on three fingers and across the palm.

All done because the boy had a vision of building a huge torii gate atop the highest rocky ridge in view of the lighthouse.

It was… really hard to get the posts up there. Really, really hard, It took several grueling hours. But it was so very, very worth it. As we rested afterwards, exhausted, sitting with the rainforest on three sides and the ocean before us, Rowan and I had one of the most intimate, hard, and wonderful conversations of our lives together. I will not be forgetting that talk anytime soon. It is the kind of talk that a child and father rarely find the space to have, and my gratitude for that time is immeasurable.

Then, this morning, backpacks full of tools and toting a chainsaw, we climbed once more and brought his vision to life.

Also very hard. But the boy was happy, and being a part of his vision being realized was pretty awesome.

It was epic.

If I NEVER climb that ridge again it will be too soon.

Being removed from the familiar context of your life, particularly in a way that is a jolt to the body and a karmic boot to the head, is an intense reset emotionally and phycologically. I have not laughed this hard, spent this much time alone in the forest and beach, worked this hard on grand projects, or felt this isolated in ages, perhaps years. And I have not had this kind of time with my oldest son… ever? Without Micki’s suggesting this trip for the two of us it likely would never have happened. Thank you, you amazing woman!

I fervently hope to have similar experiences with his younger brother. I have thought of Murphy many times on this trip, and the feelings are bittersweet- that we are not together, and that fantastic opportunities await us!

On a RADICALLY different note- our fisherman Sergio caught what is perhaps the largest fish I have ever seen outside of a nature program. A halibut measuring around ten feet long. It too over 45 minutes for him to pull it to the boat.

It was an Old Man And The Sea experience for sure. Minus the sharks.

He let it go. We are only here for a few more days, and the waste of so much meat didn’t sit well with anybody. Luckily there were four more halibut and a ling cod on the same line. We ate well.

A day to secure the lighthouse against the winter, a day packing and traveling to Petersburg, then a day to get home. Like all good trips, it is sad to see it ending, and I cannot wait to see Micki, Murphy, and the animals. Missing them so much is an intrinsic part of what makes this time so meaningful- the knowledge that we can leave all that is familiar behind us for a time, because there are people we treasure to return to again.