Tourist Season

Somehow, tourist season has come a month and a half early for Seattle. I look around the galley now and can't recognize a single face, no familiar passenger commuter in my sight. Are they all on vacation, too? Maybe it is the combination of unusually warm weather and a late Easter, but the tourists are out in force today. The ferry is full of them. They walk the deck in multigenerational clumps: obstinate toddler who wants to try the stairs; sullen, headphoned teen; fanny pack adults, marveling, easy-fit grandparents--each with something about their face that unites them, like a gently sloping chin. Many wear shirts or caps that plainly state places they've been before, as though to intimidate the locals with their worldliness. They're chatty and smiling with one another, which proves that this day marks the start of many more vacations than the middle or end. Only one couple, seated at a table outside a bar I passed on my way to the ferry, sat in silent contemplation of their beers.

God bless you tourists! Be safe, love each other. I hope you all have a wonderful time.