A Cultural Experience

Yesterday, my friend, Marge, and I decided to spend the day celebrating our birthdays by taking a trip out to Tillicum Village on Blake Island. We have been friends since second grade so that is 50+ years of friendship; yes, we go way back. We've had so many adventures together, I can't even begin to list them. When we were single gals, we were roommates three different times. We've both moved away from Seattle multiple times and we've both moved back. We are the same age and we've both been married to our husbands for 35 years. I guess you could say we have a lot in common.

Marge's birthday is in May and I just had my birthday so it's fun to find the time when we can celebrate together by doing something special. We've had such beautiful weather lately that we decided a boat ride out to Blake Island would be perfect. Blake Island is a state park that has a Native American Cultural center called Tillicum Village because it is the legendary birthplace of Chief Seattle.

We took the Argosy cruise boat called the Goodtime II out to Blake Island which is about a 45 minute cruise. (Argosy does many different boat tours around Seattle)

It was a gorgeous day for a cruise on Puget Sound and Mt. Rainier was out in all her glory.

Once we got to Blake Island, we docked next to the public marina where private boats dock when they come to the island.

Since it is a state park, you can also camp here. People will bring their camping gear and stay awhile. They come via the Argosy cruise boat or they can come via their own private boat.

We didn't come to camp but instead we came to eat! The Tillicum Village Argosy cruise is a 4 hour trip including lunch. The lunch is all native American foods with the main entree of traditional alder baked salmon.

There is an area where you can see where they prepare the salmon.

When we first got off the boat, we were immediately offered steamed clams by servers standing around on the pathway leading up to longhouse.

They were soaked in a flavorful broth which included some garlic and they really hit the spot after our cruise. After we ate the clams, they said to take the shells and crush them with your foot into the ground; an old Indian tradition. The whole pathway was made of crushed shells.

After our steamed clams, we walked into the longhouse where our buffet lunch was waiting. The traditional Native American foods included the salmon, beef stew, wild grain rice, polenta with mushrooms, Tillicum bread which is a rich, dark, slightly sweet bread made with molasses, field greens salad with dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, and Oregon blue cheese and a fresh fruit salad. I'd say our local Native Americans ate pretty well, wouldn't you? Marge and I did on this day, that's for sure.

For dessert, they served blackberry cobbler which was perfect since we've been picking blackberries around our house lately.

Last weekend we had Dutch Babies for breakfast with blackberries...tis the season for blackberries.

After our meal, they did a show on the stage of traditional Native American dances and storytelling.

I liked the masks.

After our meal and show, we spent the rest of our time walking around the grounds looking at all the interesting Native American artifacts, enjoying the perfect weather and wonderful summer day on Blake Island.

We didn't realize that the highlight would be the ride back to town when our captain of the Goodtime II slowed down because there was two pods of orca whales frolicking around. (the black speck in the middle of the photo below)

Below, you can see an orca spouting on the left.

A while later, we saw a school of dolphins swimming about 50 yards off the boat. The captain said they have never seen this much wildlife before. In 8 years, they've only seen orcas 3 times. This turned out to be quite a birthday celebration for us after all...a beautiful day on the water with orcas and dolphins, a delicious meal, lots of Native American traditions, and spending the day with a best friend. What more could you ask for?

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Sylvia's Scenario

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