What can you not expect from little girls who play the piano and violin who have parents who play the cello and violin?  Their uncles and aunts play the piano, violin, cello and their father’s brother teaches and conducts a number of school orchestras.

We were delivered to the bottom of a long stairway leading up to the Keith and Yumi Cohon house by Bill Cohon who had come to take us on a tour of the Washington coastline, distances which he had previously led bicycle trips of young people on many occasions.  He is proud of his state and his self-appointed task of mastering routes along which bicycles may safely traverse.  In the morning hours before Bill came to collect us, he had ridden thirty miles in a warm-up for the STP (Seattle to Portland) two hundred mile mass tour. The prize of such a trip is a
”free” shirt.  There is no race here.  It is merely the fulfillment of the challenge to ride that distance in the company of like-minded west coast athletically inclined and able people.  Bill is fifty, works out and is disgustingly fit. He was not a bit fatigued by his practice session but warmed to his task of showing the sights and points of interest of places he obviously loves.  We drove into a line waiting for a ferry to the peninsula across the water and in the distance; the visage of Mount Rainer could be seen dominating the landscape of distant mountaintops and a ring of clouds.

When Bill dropped us off we found Keith adjusting the bike racks on his car in preparation for their family trip to Bend, Oregon where they will also go white-water rafting.  Bill went back home after the disappointment of missing Blossom whom we passed as she was off to a baby sitting job in her bright red little hybrid Honda that was recognizable for an instant as we followed the coast road through the famous       gardens.  He tried to call her on his cell phone but we could connect but we will have to wait until later today to see her.

Maya is the quite, reserved one.  She is older than her younger more outgoing sister.  Before he grilled an “escalar” fish dinner, Keith readied the car while Carol and Yumi examined their copy of family photographs she brought out of her mother and Keith’s aunts and Uncle Marvin.  Yumi prepared the salad while the girls were very much interested in my offer to sketch their left profiles.  This was the first time that I found the opportunity and had brought along pencils and drawing paper.  I asked if they could just sit and pose, I would do my best.  They were delightful and were the best posers, holding still for as much as fifteen minutes without moving, while I sketched away.

I produced two likenesses of which Keith was able to make copies for me to take home and I have them posted on my easel.  Hana playing the piano rewarded us just before we left following a delicious dinner.  She is seven and performed without reading the music.  Keith accompanied Maya who is ten.  She played the violin while Keith, who normally plays the viola, also was on the violin. They played a duet while the music was scored for four. The image I brought away with me was of this gifted family rather than my weak attempts at portraiture.