Seattle

A couple of weeks ago I traveled to Seattle, WA.  The reason for going was a High School Reunion.  No, I did not graduate from High School in Seattle...I graduated from High School while my father was still in the military and we were overseas in England....I may have said that before but in case I didn't...
My high school holds a reunion every 3 years.  That's because our school no longer exists and so we are a finite group...before the advent of the Internet and social media like Facebook it was harder for us to find each other and keep in touch.  Now it's not so difficult but we are a small group and we tend to be a fairly close knit group of people.  We also vary the locations of our reunions because we are spread to the 4 winds.  The USA is split into 3 sections....West Coast, Central and East Coast.  So every 3 years we hold a reunion in one part of the country.  This past time was West Coast and locations were suggested and the alumni voted on where they would like to go.  Seattle won.  So that's how that happened. 
I was not going to attend this reunion because mother had been so ill at Christmas but along about March I could see that she was getting much better and started to watch for airline prices to fall. 
I have a site that e-mails me when a particular fare that I'm watching is going for a particularly good price.  It's called *AirFareWatchDog.
*AirFareWatchDog has no idea who I am other than sending me e-mails and I get no financial compensation from them.  I just know about them and have used them several times to get good fares on plane trips to reunion sites.  

So a great fare came about and I jumped on it.  Then of course Mom got sicker and sicker and then she died and so I considered not going....but my tickets were non refundable (one of the downfalls of buying online).  I still didn't have to go but I would have to use my tickets within a year anyway if I delayed my trip and I had the time to go, the reunion to attend and other people to see...so I debated it and then decided to go.  
I chose to stay with an old friend from High School at his apartment instead of staying in the hotel because I didn't want to stay in a room by myself and he offered.  Besides he's also dealing with his mother having cancer and we're really good friends, our parents are good friends and because he is a professional photographer I felt like I would really get to see not just the tourist Seattle but the city that he has called home for the last 30+ years. 

This is of course the Space Needle...built for the 1962 Worlds Fair it is synonymous with the Seattle skyline.  And my friend lives just 2 blocks to the north of this iconic symbol.  So looking out his picture window I was able to see this every single day.  
Dinner the first night was right around the corner from his apartment at a Greek Restaurant.  I can't remember all that we ate and drank but I remember that it had lamb in it and along with Ouzo and a couple of glasses of wine made for a fine night of conversing with an old and dear friend. 
After dinner we opted for a walk and ended up downtown and I sought out my other friends in town for the reunion and my very special friends who made the trip from England.  They were still trying to get over jet lag and since I had been up since about 3 a.m. Tom and I decided to call it a night around 11 p.m. and we walked back to his apartment. 
The next day Tom had business to take care of and so did I.  I had a mission to accomplish and that was to head out to Bainbridge Island to pick up a cap from the Sage Fly Rod Company for my husband.  

This is a picture of the waterfront from the Ferry taking me and my friends to Bainbridge Island.

This is the tip of the island and we begin to pull into Bainbridge Island. 

As you can see by the sign....we made it to the factory.  Funny story here....I'd done a little research before I left and saw that there was a "gift shop" there at the factory.  I could also take a tour of the facilities but really all I wanted to do was to get the cap or a couple of them for my husband.  
I had the address of the factory and I knew that once we got off the ferry all we had to do is get on a bus and it would take us right to the factory.  What I did not know was that the bus we needed to take did not run until about 4:30 in the afternoon.  It was just 11 a.m.  So the kind lady at the Ferry port suggested that we take a taxi (one price for all of us) and that way we could go and get back in time for the ferry to take us back to Seattle.  The Ferrys run about every 1/2 hour or so all day long and then slow down to about every 3 hours after 6 p.m. and they run until about midnight.  So if you lived on Bainbridge...you could catch a ferry around 6 p.m. and take it into Seattle and eat a nice dinner out and then catch the ferry back home and never have to drive for more than 5 minutes.  And the commute to work is much the same.  If I was a city person...that would not be a bad commute.  But I digress...the funny story as I promised.   So we take a taxi to Sage and when we get there ....there is no gift shop...none, nada, nothing.  I am crestfallen...I know that I read on their website that they had a gift shop.  Everyone there is very nice and my friends are all laughing at me and so I appeal to the lowest form I know of....begging.  My story is unique...I've come all the way from Texas just to visit the Sage company and surprise my husband with a cap from Sage because that is the only rod that he uses to fly fish with.  I'm about to cry when I see the receptionist make a phone call and directly a young man comes out with a cap for me.  Yeah...success....I thank them profusely and ask how much and of course there is no charge.  Score again.   Oh yeah and on the way back to the hotel I spot a flyfishing shop and buy my husband another cap that has the Sage logo on the back.  
That night my friend and I decided to have a lovely dinner at his apartment and so off to the grocery store we went.  Fresh steamed crab was on the menu along with a lovely green salad and some red potatoes.  A nice cold beer to top off the meal and I was in heaven...oh yeah and some good bread...bread that I had baked and brought with me.  

The next couple of days were a blur of activity....Pike's Market, the aquarium, Chihuly Garden and Glass, glassblowing, Discovery Park, EMP Museum, the monorail and of course all the good food that Seattle has to offer.  Here are just a couple more pictures....

There are too many pictures and not near enough time to go into it all but surfice it to say that I really had a wonderful time and it was good to get away for a while and visit with old friends.  And the reunion was really great too!!

Ssssssnnnnnnnnaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkeeeeeeeee

Let me just state this for the record.  I love, love, love living in the country.  And as crazy as this sounds....I don't even mind the snakes and we have a lot of them.  All shapes, sizes, colors and dangerous and not.
But although I am not afraid..yes, I'm not afraid of them, I am always on the lookout for them as you never know when one might appear.  I respect them, give them their space and we have a wonderful relationship. 
However, that does not hold true for our dogs.  We have two dogs.  A Schipperkee that is 15 years young and a Blue Lacy that is about 5 years old.  Pepper is the Schipperkee and she has been bit twice in her lifetime.  Once when she was a puppy and then again when she was about 2 or 3.  Both bites were on the face...which tells me that she was just sniffing around like dogs will do and was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Because the bites were on the face then you have a whole lot less to worry about.  There are no major blood vessels in the face and so the reality of the situation is that there will be swelling and pain and maybe even infection but there will be no death...unless of course the dog is very old or very health compromised in some way.  So a trip to the vet to get some medication for pain and steroids for the swelling and something for infection is usually all you have to worry about.  
The day before my mother's funeral we were all sitting on the porch...my younger brother and his family were staying with us until after the funeral and so we were all out on the porch enjoying a morning of reflection and memories of my mother.  Bonnie was over by my clothesline sniffing along the ground to see what creatures had passed that way the night before.  All of a sudden she jumped back and my husband ran to see what she had jumped from...knowing it was probably a snake.  I also ran to see and grabbed Bonnie to see if she had been bitten. 
Yes it was a snake and yes it was a rattlesnake and yes she was bitten.

This is the snake that bit her.  There has been nothing done to this picture but you can sure appreciate how camoed she is.  Don't really know if it's a female...I just always refer to snakes in the female tense..
Bonnie was bit on the face and although she does get a shot for rattlesnake bites she soon began to show signs of shock.  Her gums turned white, she got a far away look in her eye and began to pant rather rapidly.  Bob loaded her into the truck and off to the vets he went.  He called the vet on his way to tell her to expect him and so that they would be ready to receive him once they arrived.  Our vet is only about a 10 minute drive away so that was fortunate. 

This picture was actually taken late the next day.  The vet decided that it was in Bonnie's best interest to keep her overnight and into the next day as we had my mother's funeral to attend. 

Here's what she normally looks like. 
But she's right as rain now.  A few days of swelling and medication and you would never know that she was bitten.  Which is something that we try to avoid but sometimes happens. 
I'm off this week to Seattle, WA.  I'm going to a high school reunion and to see old friends of mine and some friends of my mothers.  It's going to be a fun trip but I'm also sure that there will be a few tears shed when I have to visit my mother's friends.  I'll post pictures of that trip when I get back.