Vancouver Harbor

I was shone around the retirement complex. Larry loves his garden box with flowers  Next year he is going to get a second one so he can grow tomatoes.

 I am being shown the sights of southern WA. Today we went to the harbor.  Maggi, Larry and I went early and walked along the river and looked through a shop.  We were meeting Val, Adrienne, and Dan (M & L's son) for Happy Hour at the Wild Fin.  Dan's wife Maria had been stuck in NY because of the cut cable).

After merrily eating and drinking (and going for ice cream at Salt & Straw across the street) I went home with Val and Adrienne.  

Their new home is lovely - but much larger than they really need  also has 2 floors.  Adrienne turned one of the bedrooms into a closet.  Very like those 1940's movies. She has floor to ceiling shelves for her shoes and another set for purses.  I just don’t have enough clothes for this to be worthwhile for me.

Pictures to be added later.

Washington Visit 9/21

 Off on my visit to not 1, not 2, but 3 different places. First I’m visiting my long time good friends Maggi and Larry in Vancouver, WA.  Next, taking the train to see Branwen before her classes start, and then an overnight in Bellevue, WA to visit an IBM er colleague.

My flight up was great.  I have figured out how to game the Southwest new getting on the plane groups.  I bought the cheapest seat and was assigned to the last boarding group.  I went up to the gate agent to ask if I could be in “pre-board” because I’m old.  Of course!!!  So I got on the plane first.  My carryon was really heavy so a steward rushed to help me lift it.  I was a very happy camper.

M & L picked me up  and took me to their new home.  They decided to move here to be near their younger son.  A good decision.

Pictures of their new place:

We drank champagne, noshed on crackers and cheese and talked and talked and talked.  Maggi had made split pea soup for dinner and then we talked again until bedtime.

I slept on a roll away bed, but am moving to Adrienne and Val for tonight.  (Everyone wants me.)

10/8 more classes and field trip

 Yesterday was a whole day class about lace knitting.  Romi Hill is a very good teacher and I learned lots.  I was also very tired by the end of the day. Breakfast was at 8, class from 9-12, lunch 12-1:30, class continued from 1:30-4:30, rest with a glass of wine til 6, dinner and a speaker (Amy Snell on Stranded Traditions) til 8.  Was in bed asleep at 10.  

Going to bed really early means that you wake up pretty early too. At 6 the only person I knew would be awake was Marie in Paris, so I called her (on WhatsApp) and we had a lovely long chat.

Today wasn’t quite as intense.  Still had breakfast ,  class, and lunch, but then we went on a field trip to a yarn store.  

Today’s class was Holey Cables again with Romi.  I managed to make the whole thing including the bind off which is pretty remarkable for me.

Some swatches we were shown

The yarn shop was nice, but not spectacular.  I didn’t buy anything and took a walk to see the ocean  I walked out onto the pier and saw lots of people fishing and crabbing. 

Waiting for the bus to pick us up.

Tonight we are on our own for dinner so I’m going to get something in the hotel dining room and then read until bedtime.  Also I have to pack so I can put almost everything in the car before breakfast  

11/6 TKGA arrival

 TKGA stands for The Knitting Guild of America.  So I am attending their conference.  I drove up with Catherine who also belongs to my local guild.  She drove the whole way even though I had said I could do some of the straight highway parts,

Signed in and got a swag bag.

Attended the welcome dinner and saw lovely knitted things.  The steak was dry and overcooked.  The knitted items were great.

Classes start tomorrow. 

10/19 last day

 Today we went to a place to pick apples.  After almost running over an old dog who insists on sleeping in parking spaces, we shared a bag of fresh from the fryer apple fritters.  There was a red wagon parking lot so people could haul pumpkins to the register.  Even though the picked apples were the same price as the ones you pick yourself, Susan wanted to do the picking.  We walked through the orchard to the type apples she wanted.  Luckily the trees  are fairly short so no ladders were involved.  She picked the apples and I watched.

We rocked on the porch.

Stopped at Sam's Club on the way home.  They have a fabulous checkout system.. Susan scanned each item as she put it in her basket and then after scanning something at the exit line she could just walk out. I think they have a scanner that you walk under on the way out that checks you paid for everything.

Had pork roll for lunch again.

Ariel and Luck carved pumpkins that they could wear.  It was really fun to see them.

Luke hurt his back lifting pumpkins so is now in bed trying not to move.

We had salmon with acorn squash, corn on the cob, and little potatoes for dinner.  It was very tasty.

We did a FaceTime with grandson Maverick.  He is 1 1/2 and very cute.  He was roaming all over with Ford trying to keep the camera on him.

Early to bed. I leave at the crack of dawn.  If nothing exciting happens on the way home, this is it for this trip.

10/18 Yale football

 Susan’s boss wasn’t using his football tickets, so he gave them to her, including the parking pass.  Luke decided he would go too.

These were great seats on the 40 yard line.  We stayed until midway through the 3rd quarter.  Yale had just scored on a long pass and then made the 2 point conversion.  We were ahead by lots.  Stonyhill just wasn’t a good team.  I think the final score was 47-7.

Susan and Luke both had errands so I amused myself until dinner.  Luke's girlfriend Ariel went with us to Burton's grill and bar.  She had steak with green beans and French fries, Luke had steak frites and Susan and I shared a burger with fries and a side salad.  When the waiter asked if all was ok? Susan said that the burger wasn’t medium rare, so they comped us with 2 desserts, chocolate cake and key lime tart.

Watched more of Emily in Paris and to bed.

10/17 Moved on to Susan's

 Because none of us is capable of carrying a packed suitcase down stairs, I carried everything down and then put it in the suitcase.  Many, many trips.  My watch was very happy with me.  My thighs - not so much. 

When Susan arrived we had a little visit with fresh cardamom bread and Susan and Lorraine shared grandchildren photos.

In Glastonbury we stopped at T.J.'s and I managed to resist the cute canvas orange and black bags.  We had pork roll for lunch. (Another taste I look forward to.)

We went to the Apple festival.  Unfortunately it didn’t open until nighttime, so we just walked through and continued to the boathouse by the river.  A lovely day for a 2 mile walk.

Rested, since I had also climbed 6 flights of stairs! until dinner.  

We went to Max Fish and enjoyed clam chowder, mussels (me), salad with salmon (Susan)

At home we watched Emily In Paris.  In one episode I recognized the cafe they were at - it was the bad cafe across the street from my favorite on the Ile St. Louis just behind Notre Dame.

Slept like a log.

10/16 last day

We didn’t do anything, but had a busy day. A visitor 

She came with the woman who was fixing the wallpaper in the dining room.  (It was lifting a little at some seams.  So some places she glued, some she painted - a very tedious job.)  The dog sniffed us all and then found a sunny spot to nap.

After lunch 

We had another visitor.  Anne is a neighbor and friend.  She takes Bob to a book club which gives Lorraine a couple of hours by herself.  When she heard about the Jane Austen conference, she wanted to hear all about it.  She brought along a puzzle that she just finished which had all of the characters and scenes from the books.  She had seen the exhibit at the Morgan library and I filled her in with the info from the lecture.

For dinner we had spaghetti and meatballs.  They were someone’s nonno's recipe with a secret ingredient which turned out to be raisins chopped fine.

10/15 Barbara visit AND PIZZA!

 Today was very busy.  The cleaners came so Bob and I lurked in the office on the 3rd floor.  Lorraine went for a boob squeeze. Then the mow and blow guys came.  It was pretty noisy here for a while.

Lorraine, Barbara, and I worked together at the phone company from 1965 to 1968.  We vacationed together on Cape Cod with our husbands and had many good times.  Both Barbara and I moved away and hadn’t seen each other since.  She moved back about 5 months ago and showed up at Lorraine’s door.  We thought it would be fun to get together and catch up.  We both said we wouldn’t have recognized each other until we spoke and then we sounded exactly the same.

So, Lorraine invited her for lunch while I was here.  We had caprese and curried chicken salad.  For dessert Lorraine had made peanut butter cookies and also added Jaffa cakes. (Thanks, Janet, for the recommendation). After lunch we just talked and talked.  Caught up on children, grandchildren, and husbands-both past and present. 

She left midafternoon and we read and rested until dinner time.

BIG TREAT FOR ME we went out to Moden Apizza.  This not as good as Sally's but only had a 15 minute wait instead of being in a line around the block.

Bob and I shared a medium bacon with onion on one half (me) and spinach on the other half (Bob).

Lorraine had a small “muts” which is how mozzarella is pronounced here.

The drink of choice is birch beer.  I ate tooooo much.  It was delicious. We brought a lot home.

Watched the news and retired to read in bed.