Back Again

I have returned from my long vacation to Washington, and points in between. Here is the long, long, long story of my trip.

I flew from Minneapolis to Phoenix to Seattle. Why? Unsure. I had a really really cheap fare and for some reason thought that Phoenix was closer to Seattle than it actually is. Who moved it? 

Here is my route. 

Here is the direct route.

Hmmm.  8 hours vs 3 hours. Is any fare really worth that? I thought that if I took the long way again I’d upgrade to 1st class thereby making the cost even. That made sense while I was flying but not so much now that I am on the ground.

But anyway, that’s what I did, forward and back.

Dave dropped me off in Mpls and I arrived in Seattle where my sister Debbie picked me up with her husband Jay in the back seat. Which somehow struck me as hilarious and I wish I would have taken a picture of it. But as you can see from above map I was in no frame of mind to take a picture.

I got to Tacoma and the next day, Wednesday, picked up my bright red Nissan which I also did not get a picture of. What the heck? Obviously when I get out of my element my blogging skills are shot.

I did get a picture of the my parents house though.

Living room.

My room.

 

My  room with giant cat , Happy, sitting on the chair.

May I say that cat is seriously large? Well, he is.

After picking up my car and shopping at Safeway (something that always needs to be done for some reason) I decided that I needed some new clothes. The dilemma to that is I hate to shop. But no worries, I called my local Nordstrom and hired me a personal shopper. Although they are now called personal stylists.

On Thursday I went to Mecca….

Ahh, I can still feel the excitement. I entered into a whole new world. Oh, and I bought a couple of thousand dollars worth of clothes. I figure if you average out the 10 or so years I didn’t ever buy clothes it all works out. My personal gals, Katie and Andrea, were simply the top. So much so that I went back again on Saturday and bought 2 more pairs of jeans AND some tees. I could really get used to that. Good thing there isn’t a local branch too close by….

After that exhausting morning I came back and worked on the puzzle that I brought. 1000 pieces to complete in 7 days. The race was on. Of course, this didn’t help.

  

 

            

Be that as it may, I worked on this puzzle every day. All by myself with only Happy to help me.

On Friday Debbie and I went to Sock Summit 09 in Portland. You just can’t imagine thousands of knitters in one place. I mainly bought stuff for my swap partner in the Starbucks and Yarn Swap on Ravelry. But I managed some stuff for myself.

This is where we went-the Convention Center in Portland, to the Sock Summit MarketPlace.

 

And the SS09 swag booth-

Bad hair is all I can say about that. I saw Stephanie Pearl-McPhee briefly. And I am sure there were other luminaries I probably walked right by. Visited with the girls from the Yarnery. It was really fun and so much yarn……

We decided to go through Longview on the way back and look at the old neighborhood. This is where I used to live back in the day. However, when we lived there our yard did not look like this. Oh well.

I’d have gotten more detailed pictures but there is something about driving by while hanging out the car window with a camera that just makes one sort of hurry along.

This is my grandma Kalahan’s old house. Now my cousin Janet lives there. It looks way different than when Grandma used to live there.

 

After this we stopped at a quilt store and a yummy bakery for lunch, both in Chehalis, before I got back home. In time for dinner and a Mariners game.

Saturday, as I have said, was another trip to Nordstrom (ahhhhh) and a restful puzzle day, baseball, golf. You know. That is also the day I believe I came up with the professional shussher job for Laura and I. I believe we are quite qualified for this position. More about that next time.

Sunday was actually sunny. It was sunny until the day I got there and is now sunny again. We had this sunny Sunday so I took a walk and some pictures of the club.

            

What was amazing to me was that hidden in those red bushes in the center of this picture is a coyote, just running along the course, which was pretty crowded. I wonder what the handicap is for that?

Can you see him standing there? That little dot! Maybe if you make this picture bigger you can see him better. Wild.

I called Nina, my friend of 40 years, and we went on a walk on Monday. Down by the water in University Place. She brought her dog Roxy and we had a very nice time down there. The weather was warm, not too hot or cold. There used to be some sort of grainery or factory or something down there. Now it’s a golf course (no coyotes) with lots of large cement artifacts.

                       

 

And here is Nina, looks just the same as when I met her at age 10!

We had lunch with her friend Vince and off again. Bought some cupcakes down town (like I needed a little more cake-I made two pies for graampa so I haven’t been short of desserts!). Got home in time for another baseball game.

Tuesday was RelFest 09. We had this at Debbie’s house on Hartstein Island which is nice but a drag to drive to.

Weather was perfect and we all had a good time there-

This is my 2nd cousin Jane (daughter of my cousin Janet)

Here’s Cousin Lloyd, sister Martha, and Lloyd’s wife Betty

View shots-

 

It looks cloudier than it was. It actually was pretty bright and mid 70’s.

OK, now we are getting serious. There’s Gramdma and Grammmpa, my niece Katie and her friend Willie, and of course Martha, with her head down doing some serious eating. We had been waiting for HOURS!! We’d already noshed as much as we could before needing some solid nourishment.

Katie made the delicious carrot cake. That’s really what we were waiting for.

This is Debbie, me, Martha, cousin Janet and part of Jane on the far right.

Madeline, Katie, and Jane. Madeline and Jane are Janet’s girls and Katie belongs to Martha. How’s about that?

Here’s the cousin generation-Lloyd, Janet, David, Martha, me and Debbie.

And the surviving aunt/uncle generation-Uncle Lyle, gramma and grammpa. Aren’t they cute?

We got home about 7:30 and watched the Mariners win in the bottom of the ninth on a two run homer. Very exciting.

Oh, I finished the puzzle too-with no help from Godzilla here-  Look, he doesn't even fit all the way in the box!

Here’s the final product

 

                                 

Just in time, because Thursday I got up at oh-two-hundred (that’s 2 AM) and was off to the airport for another fun day of flying.

I made it home finally by 5 PM our time and am back again.

Phew.

It doesn’t even seem like I was gone. I sure had a good time. Now all I have to do is pay for it……

                      

Thanks for having me!