10 July ‘08
Thursday
First off I want to wish Leslee a “Happy Birthday”. It’s not that we forgot it, but I neglected to mention it when I wrote my journal on June 27th. I also heard from Lena that I didn’t mention her on her birthday as well….SORRY LADIES!!! For some reason I’ve really fallen off the nightly habit of writing and I really feel guilty, strange isn’t it? I’ll try to do better, I promise.
The 4th of July was just as great as we could have ever imagined it to be. We started out the day with the Chouinard family coming over for a visit. We barbequed, started a fire in the pit, and indulged in one of our favorite desserts of “smores” before heading over to Carl and Mario’s condo. As I mentioned earlier, their condo sits on Capital Hill and overlooks the Seattle skyline,
Puget Sound, the Olympic Mountains, and Lake Union. Directly behind the Space Needle, and on a barge in the Sound is where one of the fireworks displays were to be shot from, and then just to our right as we stood on the deck from their penthouse location, there floated another barge that was to be the site for the best of the two 4th of July displays. Our night of celebration was going to be spectacular !!!
On top of all that, Mario had set out this spread of food that was prepared for a feast to be remembered…
On Saturday, Phil and Kathy flew in from Alberta.
Phil and Kath are the couple that traveled with us when we came out of the Baja a couple of years ago. Unfortunately one of the topics that keeps coming back to haunt me during that trip was when I turned onto a one-way street going the wrong way when we were heading towards the border in Mexicali. I was fortunate to have been able to make a “U-turn” Ok, but with Phil and Kathy right behind us in their motor home, they got caught strung across all 4 lanes with their coach and toad and started to block a huge amount of cars approaching quickly. All worked out fine, but it could have been a lot worse if it hadn’t been for a Mexican motorcycle cop that came to our “rescue”. Anyway, we enjoyed their company even if it was just for a couple of days. We did get over to see the falls at Snoqualmie, which is always a beautiful sight even if we did find ourselves in a downpour…
All was well after a great Tai dinner at one of the local establishments and a good night’s rest at the coach. Sunday afternoon they drove to Portland for a wedding and a chance to visit with Suzie and Ricardo for a few days.
On Tuesday the 8th, Louise and I drove the car down to Portland to join Phil and Kathy in visiting Suzie and Ricardo for a couple of days.
It gave us a chance to “catch up” on what everyone had been up to over the last couple of years. Tuesday night Ricardo and Suzie barbecued a wonderful steak dinner for all of us and then we made plans for an outing on Wednesday. Unfortunately come Wednesday morning, Phil wasn’t feeling too well so they decided not to chance spreading “whatever it is” and stay at their hotel while Ricardo, Suzie, Louise, and myself went boating. Prior to hitting the water we had a small deviation… Drew (our youngest grandson) wanted us to check out this “famous” doughnut shop in downtown Portland. It has been featured on Goodmorning America, The Today Show, and etc, etc… Well the name of the place is “Voodoo Doughnuts”. I must say this place is “different” to say the least.
First off, with address in hand and knowing the area pretty well, we had to phone them to get directions. As it turned out we were practically standing right in front of the door and still didn’t see it. The one item that Drew wanted was the “double chocolate, ginger man style design, with a dagger (small pretzel piece) stuck in its heart…on top of that, it was filled with a red berry jelly…. I’ve got to be honest here, it just wasn’t my “thing”, but for the grandkids???
Our boating with Ricardo and Suzie was a blast. They had this great little restaurant on the Columbia River they wanted us to have lunch at and let me tell you, it was “Great”. It kind of reminded us of one of our favorite haunts in Cabo that all of us spent many an hour at.
Well the day went by quickly and Louise and I had to drive back to Seattle before midnight so we gave our thanks for a great time and headed north. Wednesday we have to check out of our campground in Fall City and head over to Yakima.
