Seattle in October

And then suddenly I was flying to Seattle!  

I guess I should explain: we hit a weird issue with this whole "Bentley stays with my sister in Seattle" when most of my family decided to go to Hawaii!  Great plan for them, but Bentley couldn't take that much time off from his new job and I didn't want him stuck all by himself for a week.  Natalie was still in town, but she lives too far away for him to be able to stay with her and still go to work.  We thought about asking if he could stay with someone in the ward, but that made him (understandably) uncomfortable.  So finally we decided I would just go and stay with him!

So I was off!  As the plane took off, we flew right over Albemarle High School, so that was cool:

Craig's old school!  See the "A" in the field?

Everything went pretty smoothly.  My long flight from Chicago to Seattle was pretty uncomfortable-- middle seat, I couldn't get my headphones to connect to the TVs, and for reasons I don't understand, my backpack couldn't fit under the seat in front of me.  AND, I later learned that United charged me for my carry-on suitcase, which still infuriates me.  But I got there on time (maybe even a few minutes early) and Natalie was there to pick me up, which was lovely.

Looking over my seatmate's shoulder, I could glimpse this gorgeous sunset with those mountains dotting the horizon.  I finally asked her to snap a picture for me, it was so lovely!

We hung out a bit that evening but I was pretty exhausted.  And then I woke up at four in the morning, because it turns out that three hour time difference is rough.

I rode along with Natalie to drop Caleb off at seminary just to have more time with her.  Then we grabbed Bentley and picked Caleb back up, and the four of us headed to the temple to do baptisms!

The back of the Seattle temple is surprisingly impressive!

And I learned that this is one of only four temples where the Angel Moroni is holding the gold plates!  So that's cool!  I never appreciated that before!

We got lunch at Cafe Rio and then stopped by the cemetery where both Janine and Patrick Rex are buried and shed a few tears while we visited them.  It was my first time ever going and I was so glad to finally make it there.  It was also the ONLY time I saw Mt. Rainier that whole trip, so it was nice to say Hi when the mountain was out!  (I didn't take any pictures because I never know how to pose in a cemetery.  I live in fear of recreating that one meme...)

Caleb had to get to orchestra, so we returned home to retrieve his violin and I got my stuff packed back up again so Bentley and I could head to Bainbridge!  We were staying at Tracy's house, but we made a detour to my parents' house so I could steal my mom's new car.  It was really weird going to their house when they weren't there-- they had to tell me beforehand how to get in!  I've never gone home and had all the doors locked!  I also had to figure out how to drive a new car, which is always a bit of a challenge.  Fortunately, Mom had explained how to shift into reverse and park-- that new car was complicated and I never would have figure that out on my own!

Finally we arrived at Tracy and Adam's house!  I put my stuff in their bedroom and we hung out for a bit and then decided to get dinner at Meadowmeer.  My Dad has been telling me how much he loves the restaurant there for years now, so it was fun to finally go!  (Although I wasn't hungry enough to tackle their 1/2 lb burger and settled for a BLT instead!)  Bentley dropped me off back at the house and went to Activity Days and I settled in for some reading and some time chatting with my family on the phone.

The next morning I was up early again.  Bentley was going to work, and I sat down at the computer to work on writing up my interviews for TOSVA.  And then Adam finally sent me our family portraits (from August!) and I spent the rest of the morning going through them and trying to decide which ones needed to go on our Christmas card!  I love working on my Christmas cards so much!!!

Once I felt like I'd gotten a fair amount of work done and I was tired of sitting in front of a computer, I decided it was time to venture out of the house!  I started small by just sitting in the backyard and reading for a bit.  And I also texted a couple of old ward members about meeting up.  Then I drove to Safeway and got a few odds and ends that Bentley had requested.  I stopped by Bay Hay & Feed to see if they had any pig shirts for Ryder-- no dice there, most of their stock was just Halloween shirts.  I went to Fay Bainbridge and sat looking at the water for a bit...

I can really never get tired of that view, but I was getting sore from sitting on driftwood (and a park ranger was blowing leaves, so it wasn't as peaceful as I wante), so then I went to my parents' house and sat in their hot tub for a bit.  And then I sat in their very comfortable chair reading my book.  I was trying to decide if I should say Hi to Gail on my way out (she'd been up on her room also using a leaf blower to knock the moss off when I'd driven up the driveway), and just when I was thinking I was too lazy to bother, I spotted her daughter Allie walking up the driveway from getting my parents' mail for them, so it seemed mean to NOT stop.  So I popped by and we caught up for a bit and she showed me pictures of her granddaughter.  I was glad I pulled over!

I went back to Tracy's house, trying hard not to speed on an island where they've lowered ALL the speed limits since I lived here.  I swear you can never go above 25 mph on the whole island, and then half the drivers go even slower than that!  It's kind of the worst.

I read my book and chatted with my kids, waiting until Bentley was off work.  But he ended up staying late, so we finally decided to just meet up at Isla Bonita for dinner.  We were both starving by then, so that made our meal taste even BETTER!

The next day I was back at work on my Christmas cards and deciding to postpone writing up my second interview until Saturday.  It was raining ALL DAY and I was glad I'd done some of my outdoorsy things the day before!  But I did meet up with Carole Faltermeier, who was my Mia Maid advisor WAAAAAAAAAY back in the day and we had breakfast at the Streamliner Diner.  It was THE BEST time.  I love Carole so much.  We just talked and talked and talked-- it was hard to even bother eating, there was just so much to say!  I was so glad Tracy had suggested I look her up!

This is a terrible pictures of me, but you can see how cute Sister Faltermeier is!

I had a few hours to kill after that-- I think I mostly napped and chatted with Craig and the kids?  maybe I kept looking at Christmas cards?-- then as soon as Bentley was home from work, we drove to the ferry and met Natalie at the Seattle Center food court.  It was POURING rain that whole day, so this traveling was not super fun.  Plus, we were going to the opera (!!!), so I wanted to actually look nice!  Alas, I had to wear my tennis shoes with my dress and rain jacket, but then I did put on my pumps once we were in the theater.

Natalie had two extra tickets to The Pirates of Penzance at Seattle Opera, and it was so nice of her to share them with us!!!  You may recall, but I LOVE this show so very much!  When I told Bentley we'd be going, he asked if I hadn't just seen that at Cville Opera this summer, and I was like, "Yeah, so?  I also watched the movie again this summer!  My love for Pirates knows no bounds!"  And indeed, it does not.  I thoroughly enjoyed this performance, too.

Unfortunately, we did not manage to hurry out of the theater at the end, which meant we were stuck in the parking garage for quite a while, which in turn meant that we missed the 10:50 ferry by about ten minutes and had to wait until the 12:15am ferry.  So that was a very late night.

Bentley snoozing on the ferry

After our initial grumpiness of having barely missed the ferry wore off, Bentley and I actually had a pretty good time hanging out at the ferry terminal and watching all the weirdos trickle in.  There must have been some crazy stuff happening in the city, because there were several people wearing zombie costumes.  Interesting.  Bentley decided he was too tired to go to work at 6am, and was much more cheerful once he'd decided to skip it.  Since I was the one keeping him out so late, I figured it wasn't a good time to lecture him about the Zoomer Generation's terrible work ethic.

Instead, he got to come with me as I visited my old friend Carolyn Zane!  Carolyn was a member of my ward for forever, but she also worked as a substitute teacher at my high school and was beloved by all the students (which should tell you how awesome she is-- NO ONE likes their substitute teachers!).  Carolyn divorced when I was in college, and then remarried in 2020, but I hadn't seen her in ages, so I hadn't met her "new" husband yet.  It was a pleasure to meet him and Carolyn (even at 86 years old) is sharp as a tack and it was so fun catching up (and introducing them to Bentley)!

After our visit, we went to Sluy's.  That was actually a big pain-- it was pouring rain AND there was no parking ANYWHERE in Poulsbo.  We kept seeing cars pulling out and anxiously trying to grab the spot they'd vacated, only to discover that they were either parked in handicap spaces or in spaces that weren't parking spaces at all!  I'm not brave enough to try that (especially in Mom's new car), so we finally got a customers-only spot at a mini-mart and Bentley bought himself some gum there so we weren't breaking any rules.  

Anyway.  Once we'd finally acquired our doughnuts, there was nowhere to eat them!  And Bentley was starving.  Like-- teenage boy, I need Big Food NOW starving-- so we headed to what used to be Central Market and got Real Food and sat in their restaurant chowing down.  Then we grabbed a few groceries and drove home through a few small lakes (this was a LOT of rain, even by Seattle standards!) and ate our doughnuts.  Not quite the day I was hoping for, but not terrible, either.  Later, when we realized we needed some more stuff for dinner the next night, I tried to bribe Bentley to do the shopping for me by offering to pay for his Subway, but he refused.  We had to venture out to the store yet again in the rain!  

That night, while I was sleeping, Tracy and Adam and Cora all got home from Hawaii.  (I had vacated their bedroom and set up a bed on the floor for Cora, and then taken over her room.)  It was so nice to get up in the morning and get to talk with them and hear all about their trip!!!  And then I was busy zooming the primary program in our ward (Camille did such a great with her talk-- I was so proud of her!) and then we got to go to church together, which was also nice.  And I saw so many other familiar faces, so that was also delightful.  It made up for the fact that it was STILL raining.  Ohmygosh, so much rain.

Finally, the next day the rain finally stopped the next day, and Tracy and I took the opportunity to go on a little hike with a friend of hers.  I was so excited to be outside looking at all the trees!

I used to read books where people could find their way in forests by orienting themselves from the which side of the trees the moss grew.  That always perplexed me-- in Washington, moss grows ALL OVER trees!

Seriously-- so much moss!!!

Can you see the ferry gliding by through the trees?

I loved how this fallen tree was caught by the other trees!

And here's the beach!

And then we stopped by Ace Hardware so I could see Bentley at work-- why is that so fun for moms?  Look-- my son is gainfully employed!  Maybe I've done something righ!

I love how the expression on his face is so clearly, I'm embarrassed by my mom!

We had to return my Mom's car, so we were going to enjoy their hot tub while we were there, but then I realized that I was more interested in spending a little more time at Fay Bainbridge, so we went there instead.  We sat on the benches eating sandwiches and chatting (and watching some bald eagles) while Cora played on the pirate ship, and then we hopped across the driftwood to look at the Sound for a bit.  I really liked this fishing trawler:

And Tracy spotted this creature swimming around:

There's his tail as he dives underwater

We were thinking it was a seal, but the way he was sticking around pretty close to shore and not just swimming away from us, I think it actually may have been a river otter?  Hard to tell, though.  I also saw something jump briefly out of the water.  I assume a salmon?

Tracy and Adam were very nice and let me order all of my favorite Thai dishes from Sawatdy that night.  And it was all just as good as I remembered.  AMAZING.  What a great end to my trip!  I also got a really good hug from Bentley when I said goodbye the next morning.  Those are so rare!

Tracy felt bad that she couldn't take me to the airport, but I managed to take the lightrail without any troubles, and everything with my flights went very smoothly.  This airline had free shows I could watch on my phone, so I was very happy watching Shrinking and Ted Lasso the whole way to Charlotte.  I was very nervous about catching my connection-- I only had about forty minutes, and that airport is ENORMOUS.  But we actually got in a bit early and I got there with time to hit the bathroom before they began boarding.  And my last short flight I was seated in the one seat in its row so it was both an aisle AND a window seat!  I tried to take a picture to show off my good fortune, but you really can't even tell.  Oh, well.  

I listened to the audio book of Emma M. Lion for that short flight.  It was so good to see Craig again when he picked me up.  And so good to be home again, too.  (He'd done a great job keeping up with the laundry and making sure I came home to a tidy home-- awesome work, Craig!!!)

There's no place like home.  My other kids had really missed me, and I missed them.  But I'm glad it worked out for me to spend a week hanging out with Bentley!