The Lepidopterists' Society meeting was held at the Enzian Inn in Leavenworth. This is a place along a river, in the lower reaches of the Cascades. The first night, Peg and I took a walk in a park which included a couple of islands in the river. As we were walking down the alley towards the park, a Black-tailed deer - small buck - appeared at the other end of the alley and slowly walked towards us, browsing along the way. He got within about 2 meters before he paid any attention to us, and that was just to hop a little past us and then continue browsing down the alley! We walked into the island part of the park and came upon a doe and her fawn - again neither paid us much attention.
The next morning, I got up early and went back with my camera. Got a few shots of another deer, but no fawn shots. Then it was back to the Inn for breakfast. A side note: Leavenworth was dying as a town when the city elders decided to try and become a tourist mecca by transforming the city into "Little Bavaria". Everything is German themed - even the McDonalds. The Enzian Inn is no exception (how would you know from the name?) and they served an amazing breakfast (included in the room fee - which was not cheap). Many tasty pastries, and they served actual breakfast food instead of that "Continental Breakfast" crap (dried up bagels and Lucky Charms) one usually gets at motels. The sausage was amazing. At 8:15, an old Bavarian-costumed guy came out with one of those really long horns and stood on the balcony rail and played some songs. Then he got down and went into the room where we had breakfast (you could eat on the balcony, too) where he looked for the most likely young person. He placed his horn on the ground some distance from his victim and then began playing. He slowly slid the horn along the floor towards his young target and then rapidly moved the horn up to the target as he finished the song.
After breakfast, it was Executive Council time. Since I'm Secretary of the Society, I have to take the minutes and give a report as well. Most discussion centered around the "Outernet" project, designed to get children away from the Internet and outside in nature. It's part of the "No Child Left Inside" movement, begun in part by my friend Robert Michael Pyle. Basically, we're hoping to find a way to get an insect net into the hands of as many children as possible to get them outside catching bugs and thus connecting with nature. We had a nice lunch and then concluded our meeting in the early afternoon. Peg and Colleen had discovered the shopping pleasures (of which there were many), so I grabbed a camera and went in search of the Lorquin's Admiral on the river island. Very few butterflies, but I did manage to find one Lorquin's Admiral, who refused to perch close enough for a good picture. He was a freshly emerged male, hunting for a mate and not at all interested in providing a photo-op for a lepidopterist. However, a doe decided she wanted her portrait taken, and in the process showed me a Catbird's nest. I also spotted some type of wren feeding a giant Cowbird offspring - clearly a result of nest parasitism.
That evening, after Peg and Colleen had demonstrated their various purchases, we went to an informal reception and reconnected with old friends. The next day, after fabulous breakfast #2, we skipped the meetings and headed up the canyon. Lots of flowers, but few butterflies. However, I did get my pictures of Lorquin's Admiral and some movies of one feeding on dung (yes, butterflies eat some pretty disgusting stuff). Another side note: Colleen hates the scene in "Return of the King" where Gollum has turned Frodo against Sam, so that when Sam asks if he can help by carrying the One Ring ("Share the Load"), Frodo banishes Sam. It's a pretty heart-breaking scene, and being caring parents, we tend to use the line - "share the load" - at every opportunity (Colleen, we're unloading the car here - "Share the Load"). When I replayed the video of the Lorquin's Admiral feeding on dung, I noticed that it was scared off by some flies. I showed it to Colleen and inquired why they couldn't just "share the load". We were having a great time, but then hit a sober reminder: there were two crosses next to the trail with names on them, and one had pictures. Flowers were placed nearby. Two young women had drowned at that spot.
We returned to the town and I went to some of the afternoon meetings while Peg and Colleen recovered from our warm walk. That evening, there was a barbecue scheduled and so off we went. I met an old friend whom I hadn't seen in over 30 years. Colleen connected with a young girl (Alexandra) who loved fairies (those of you who know Colleen will not be surprised..) and spent a lot of time playing with her. We ate with that family. Alexandra's father was from El Salvador, and it was interesting to talk with him briefly about his country.
The next day, Peg and I took another walk around the Park and then I went to the meetings while they scoured the town for more stuff. The banquet was that evening and we ate with some nice local folks who gave us some tips on the Olympic Peninsula. Bob Pyle and President John Shuey gave really fine talks - John about the importance of saving habitats as opposed to individual species and Bob giving us readings from his new book, Mariposa Road, chronicling his "butterfly big year".
The final day of the meeting was mostly occupied with the business meeting of the Society, again requiring my presence to report on the Executive Council meeting and take notes. We finished up around 11:00, and then it was time to pack up and head off for the next part of our adventure. More on this next time.
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