30 Hours in Seattle

Each year it seems I lose more and more classmates. Thanks to Facebook many of us have reconnected over the years and it has been good to meet and catch up with old friends. Since Darryl's nephew Chris Cunningham and his wife live in Seattle, and I have an old school chum who lives on Bainbridge Island in the Pugent Sound, we decided to take Friday afternoon and Saturday to go visit them. 

Friday May 18th

We had a wonderful dinner with Chris and Caitlyn. We ate on the rooftop of Duke's Chowder House as we watched the sun set over the Puget Sound. It was our first time to meet Caitlyn (We missed the wedding due to a family emergency). What a lovely young woman she is. The last time we saw Chris He was in High School, so we had a lot of catching up to do.

Saturday May 19th. 

Saturday Morning we drove up to Bellevue to visit the Botanical Gardens. What a pleasant way to spend the morning.

Visiting the "Ravine".

I have never seen so many Rhododendrons in my life. They were glorious!

We found the Gnome door.

One of the community garden clubs was having a flower show. These were my favorites.

We drove over to Seattle where we were meeting my friend, Roger Dunaway, on the University of Washington Campus. 

After reading the novel "The Boys in the Boat" about the 1936 Olympic Rowing team from the University who won a Gold medal, we couldn't come to the UofW and not visit the shell house.

The Crew shells.

We met up with Roger and he took us on a tour of the Seattle area.

Roger and I were classmates at Terre Haute North Vigo High School Class of 1975.

Roger went on to IU and became a lawyer and moved to Seattle. It was so good to see him after more than 20 yrs., and it seemed the time just melted away as we visited about our families and friends from the old days.

Our first stop was the Bollard Locks and Salmon Ladders.

Watching the boats come and go in the locks was fascinating and Darryl had quite a conversation with the Army Corps of Engineers personnel about how the locks work.

Unfortunately the salmon ladder was closed, so we had to find something else to do. 

Roger took us to Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle, then we caught the ferry for Bainbridge Island.

The Seattle skyline is pretty impressive!

By the time we got to the island our phones had died so we don't have any photos of Roger or his sweet wife Renee` or their beautiful home and island. Renee` served us a delicious dinner of homemade salmon cakes, salad, potatoes and grilled asparagus, (Thank you again for that!) then they drove us around the island showing us the Japanese American Exclusion Memorial, the Beach, more beautiful homes and their town. What a delightful mini vacation it was, and just 30 hours after leaving Hillsboro we were on the road again heading back. It was a quick trip but one I will remember for a long time to come. We hope to do it again sometime.

Much Ado in May

May 1st was another Watercolor lesson.

This piece is called the Boat in the Bay.

I made the clouds with paper towels. I thought they turned out quite nicely.

Saturday May 5th we decided to go hiking on the Oregon Coast.

We went to Oswald West State Park and hiked down to the ocean. 

I love this forest. It is the most beautiful green forest I have ever seen in my life! 

I know these trees must be 200 ft. tall or more!

This is a busy Surfing beach. You can see several surfers in the water behind Darryl. 

On the way back to the car we decided go on a very faint trail, we were a little lost.

Darryl says: "Move the camera over so you can get this cool moss." 

I did what he said and he ended up with a stick up his nose. Haha!

Once again.... it is so very green!

These plants are growing on top of a decaying log. It was so cool looking.

We went to Canon Beach and saw "Haystack Rock" and then found a nice picnic area to enjoy our lunch with a view.

Sunday evenings we enjoy a game of Dominoes with our friend John Kimball.

On Tuesday, May 8th Cody was up high in a tree trimming some limbs when his saw got caught and was stopped by his knee. This was the result.

That same Tuesday, while we were looking at the damage done to Cody's knee, Darryl had surgery in the afternoon to repair a torn meniscus in his knee. 

All went well and in a few days he was as good as new!

I did my very first solo watercolor. 

While the instructor was helping other students paint a different picture, I attempted to pain the one in front of me with little or no help.

I still have a few touch ups I need to do on it, but I think it looks alright.

The Country Road.

Reagan and Annabelle performed in The Beauty and The Beast Ballet.

Reagan was a woodland fairy and Annabelle was a butterfly. I sure wish I could have been there to see it.

 For Mother's Day Darryl bought me a dozen colorful roses...

and after he fixed me lunch we went for a walk in the Tualatin Hills Nature Park.

The bottom left apartment is where we used to live. Due to a mix up at work we had to move out by May 15th, so we packed everything up and moved it across the complex to a little one bedroom apartment.

Another watercolor class. This one is called "The Boat House".

Finally, my next door neighbor Mary, went to church with us and she is taking the discussions from the Missionaries. She is such a sweet lady and I enjoy her company.

Mary is from Mexico and became a U.S. Citizen back in 1963. She is 79 years young and has one son named Anthony who she lives with.