Trip to Washington

Yesterday afternoon, I got back from my Washington trip where I went to see Aunt Phyllis and cousins. It was absolute torture driving this ugly blue Mustang. Yep, total embarrassment. Believe it or not, this Mustang was cheaper than a Ford Fusion and the other generic small/mid size cars available. Hmmmm...the last Ford Fusion I rented went back to the agency after some guy on a motorcycle tried to imprint his life on the front left fender.

Here's Aunt Phyllis in her assisted living home. It's a beautiful place. She has brain and lung cancer and an attitude toward life that would put a 20 year old to shame.

I wasn't sure how her health would be so I wanted to have my own private visit with her. We had a 3 1/2 hour visit that could have gone on longer but it was time for her to go to dinner so I thought I'd better skidaddle out of there.

She was the same old Aunt P. Funny, easy going and full of great stories which she let me record. We talked about life, growing up and dealing with death and our mortality. I needed to visit her and thank her for the great summer visits, for being in my life as a kid and tell her I loved her.

I achieved my goal with her and will be able to smile fondly the next time we meet, which will most likely be at her funeral.

Look at this quilt. It's absolutely beautiful. It's the hands of her children, grand children and great grand children. Mary told her when she's lonely or scared to wrap herself in the quilt and feel all their hands holding her.

Chris gave me a call and invited me on a tour of Seattle. She drives this huge double long bus. It was great. She was out of service while driving into Seattle so I had this huge bus to myself.

Whenever the bus empties, she takes a tour down the aisle to make sure people haven't left anything on it. Look at the length of this thing. Can you imagine trying to drive this thing in downtown Seattle? She handles it like it's a Volkswagon!

Yep, that little itty bitty dot is me. I feel like I'm a block away from the front of the bus.

Chris told me we'd have a boring trip back from Seattle because the riders would just want to be quiet and read on their way home from work. It turns out, the bus in front of us had gotten in an accident so we made a detour to stop on the side of the freeway and pick up its riders.

It was also a double length bus but we were able to squeeze all the riders in our aisle. I was surprised how relaxed and funny everyone was. They took the accident in stride and smiled and joked about us picking them up. They thanked Chris for the rescue.

Oh yeah. I met a woman who wrote a book and just had it put on Amazon.com to be loaded onto the Kindle. I bought her book Tomato Blossoms (Janice Brookshire) for $3 and started reading it. It's fast to get into and I'd read two chapters before she departed the bus. I told her she did a good job because it's a fast read. Chris gave her a transit pass which she autographed and gave to me. Now if she becomes another J.K. Rowling, I'll be able to say, "I met her on a bus in Seattle once and she gave me her Autograph!"

Look Ma! No sound walls. I always forget how beautiful Washington is. I think I need a reminder once in awhile. This is driving south just out of Bellingham after my visit with Aunt Phyllis.

I know...I know....I'm letting my TOURIST hat show here. But really, doesn't Washington have some of the most beautiful rest areas in this country?

I tried my best to get a picture of Uncle Bill where he wasn't either talking or eating. I've come to the conclusion that's an impossible task. So here's Uncle Larry (left) and Uncle Bill (right) at a family get together at Michael's house. Michael is my cousin and one of Larry's three sons.

This is my cousin Linda. She refused to let me take her picture so I took one of the bruise on her arm. It's actually double the size because we're only seeing half of it. She decided she would drive a moped around the yard. She popped the clutch and immediately ran into the picnic table. She's decided not to drive any type of two wheeled vehicle ever again. LOL! What a riot!

I thought I had a killer view. This is the view Chris has to deal with out her living room window everyday. While we were there, we could see whales in the sound. I didn't see breeching but I saw water spouts in the distance.

This is our token cheesecake picture. On the left from front to back is Barbara (Bill's Daughter), Chris (Phyllis' Daughter) and Linda is drinking out of the wine bottle (Bill's Daughter). On the right is Betsy (Larry's daughter) and me.

This is Barbara, Linda, Bob (Chris' friend), me and Betsy. Bob was a terrific sport. He took all our family pictures for us and fed us. You can see here how much he was suffering through our visit.

Which one of us is the California girl? They kept making fun of me and my red clothes. I told them I'd be happy to take off the red jacket but there was a red shirt under it. Hahahahaha!

Finally, I had a bonus to this trip. Through lots of driving and phone calls I was able to find my Aunt Harriet. Scratch that, Chris and Aunt Phyllis were responsible for getting me the location. Anyway, she's 95 and we had a fantastic visit! I was with her shy of 3 hours. She told me about my other great aunts, my great uncle (which I didn't know I had) and my grandmother. We talked about my Uncle Blackie and Uncle Otto.

I learned more about family and my roots from this visit. It was a trip I'll remember the rest of my life. I can't thank my Aunts enough for their valuable time and patience with my visit.