12 Oakdale

We’d gone to Fort Lauderdale to celebrate Patten’s birthday, bringing the watermelon cake he’d requested. He said I’d made one for his birthday many years ago. That recipe was long gone with all the cook books I’d tossed when I sold 14th Court. Onto the internet for a recipe where I found one using watermelon-flavored Jello. None at Publix, but three brands at Wal-Mart: Jell-O, Sonic, and Starburst. Do those customers do a lot of Jello shots? I opted for the Sonic, which claimed it tastes just like their slushee. Could be. Because the frosting was buttercream, I’d had Grant put our camping fridge in the truck to keep the cake cold on the trip down. It thawed while we watched the Miami Dolphins beat the Baltimore Ravens 42-38. Actually, I watched while Patten, Ryann, and Grant went to the grocery store. They’d left at the beginning of the 4th quarter, Ravens leading 35 to 7, with the Dolphins not looking good. Fortunately, Patten keeps his phone on so they saw the comeback while they sh...

Our last chance to see Mount Olympus, and it was the cloudiest of the trip. Never the less, we decided to drive up Hurricane Ridge to at least say we’d done it. As we climbed, the fog became more and more dense. It wasn’t smoke, because I had to run the windshield wipers to keep clearing off the droplets. Dang, I wish I had my Tacoma truck with its fog lights. I crawled along at less than 20 miles per hour and prayed some local wasn’t going to fly into us.  Then, suddenly, we were above the clouds, and it was a beautiful sunny day. And we could see the mountain tops with their receding glaciers. We walked along the meadow trails where the Olympus marmots were supposed to be gamboling, but it must have been their day off. A couple of chipmunks came close enough for me to be suspicious that perhaps they had been given the occasional trail mix treat. I did see two juncos and two yellow-rumped warblers, in addition to the ever-present crows. This has not been much of a birding trip. Wr...

A ferry ride aboard the Coho to Victoria. So calm I didn’t realize we were underway. We also didn’t realize it was September 11, until the ferry agent mentioned the ship would be stopping for a moment of silence at 8:50 AM. Everyone was given a carnation as we boarded, to throw into the water during the silence. Very touching. A little over an hour later, and we were on Canadian soil. What a beautiful city, but rather than stroll casually around, we hightailed it over to the tour buses parked in front of the Empress Hotel to get our tickets to visit Butchart Gardens, or as the guide said several times, the World Famous Butchart Gardens. After making a fortune in the early 1900’s, owning a limestone quarry used in their cement factory, the Butcharts had wagon loads of topsoil brought in to create the gardens. 55 acres of beautiful flowering plants. Lots and lots of color. Petunias, begonias, daisies, hydrangeas, etc. A wall of dahlias with some blooms as big as dinner plates, others so ...

Three nights at the Paradise Ocean Hotel, which is ocean-front but a long way from the water. In this part of Washington, the beach is wide, hard packed, and open to driving on, at least after Labor Day. I ventured out a ways, but didn’t want to get stuck in the sand. I was unnerved when I saw a station wagon backing out, with a guy jumping up and down on the back bumper. I’d never seen this technique of getting out of soft sand, and didn’t want to try it.  Our first day we drove up Washington State Road 109, stopping at all the state parks and most of the beach access points along the way to Talohah, capital of the Quinault tribe, at the north end. After Labor Day, this area is deserted. We had the beaches mostly to ourselves. At the North Jetty in Ocean Shores, I spoke to a birder from South Carolina who is driving all around the country with his wife. He pointed out wandering tatters and black turnstones among the rocks. Another beach had a family flying kites which is a big pas...

Grant is suffering from his malaise that struck the morning after the wedding, perhaps from partying too hearty, which he did. He managed to come to breakfast with Mary and family at the Daily Feast (I had marvelous porridge of steel-cut oats topped with banana, blueberries, and raspberries), then accompany me around the Art on Pearl show for a little bit. I was really impressed by the level of crafts at the show, including a pair of earrings by Serendipity, which I should have bought. Lots of fiber artists, which we don’t see in Florida. By the time we took the train to the airport and picked up our rental car, all he could do was belch and quietly moan. I certainly hope his claim of a stomach virus is wrong.  The wedding was wonderful. The bride was radiant; the ceremony abbreviated because the groom cries easily (an endearing trait, in my book); the food, vegan and non, delicious; and the dance floor filled by our family. All of our children and their significant others plus chi...

6:00 AM (EDT): Sitting at the airport, waiting to board for our flight to Portland, Oregon. I had made reservations with TSA, a service provided by Reservations by Clear now available at 6 US airports, and Orlando is one. Which worked well, except our airport shuttle dropped us off at Jet Blue, then we had to walk to Alaska Air to check a bag. Next, we were sent to the Reservations by Clear agent, but we were on the west side of Terminal A and needed to be at the east one, past the center lobby. Fortunately, we had plenty of time. Once my reservation QRC was scanned, again, we walked right up to a TSA agent. So far, so good. I had been in a slight panic on our way to parking at the Marriott hotel, because I’d missed the I-4 on-ramp. Going surface streets to the next ramp added 5 minutes to the drive. We still had 15 minutes to spare before the 5:30 AM hotel shuttle, but we’d learned last time that they wait for no one. One other blip was no parking spaces at the hotel lot, even though ...