WE’RE LEAVING FROM KENMORE, on the north end of fresh water Lake Washington, bright and early on the morning of May 31, in Osprey, a 22-foot C-Dory Cruiser. Osprey’s skipper Andy Ryan will be joined by four old friends (one at a time, each for about two weeks) on the 3,000-mile journey from Kenmore to spectacular Glacier Bay, Alaska — and back.

For centuries, the Sts’ahp-absh (a subgroup of the Duwamish and Sammamish tribes) lived in winter longhouses at the village of Tl’awh-ah-dees, where the Sammamish River joins Lake Washington. Most tribal members left the Sammamish River region after they were stripped of their lands in the infamous Point Elliott Treaty of 1855.

Non-Indian history in what would become Kenmore progressed rapidly after the acquisition of land by lumber moguls in the 1860s—followed by construction of a mill and settlement by squatters. Until the old growth forests ran out, logging was king here.

Since 1946 the city has been home to Kenmore Air, one of the best-known seaplane operations in the world, with scheduled flights to various locations up and down the Salish Sea. Andy’s wife, former Seattle Times reporter Marla Williams, grew up here. The old bent cedar tree she sat on at Kenmore Elementary School, is still there—bark rubbed smooth over the years by hundreds of little bottoms.

Departure date: May 31, 2019

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