Ginny and Wally's August Visit

10-14 August 2014

C.J.'s sister Ginny was flying up to visit Uncle Harry who is in an extended care facility in Puyallup. C.J. invited her and Wally to stay with us, at least until the 14th when we had to leave for the Oregon coast to meet Paula, Stephen and their family.

10 Aug, Sun - Ginny got in fairly early but had to catch a shuttle to Puyallup to pick up her rental car. Apparently this week several cruise ships were due in port and the price of a car rental for 4-5 days doubled or tripled at SeaTac. She visited with Harry and had dinner with Xxxx, the former wife of Harry's son, Jim (?). Then she picked up Wally at the airport; he had spent the day teaching his"critters" at Ed Levin. So they didn't get here until close to 11 pm.

11 Aug, Mon - We had oatmeal with blueberries, and blueberry cream cheese muffins for breakfast. After visiting and lunch, the rest of the party walked (in the heat) to the outlet mall while I stayed home doing this and that.

12 Aug, Tue - After a breakfast of blueberry pancakes cooked on the deck, we went down to Puyallup to visit Uncle Harry for an hour or two. We brought a 1.5 qt. carton of ice cream and finished it off along with some chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Then we drove into Tacoma to visit the Museum of Glass. Parking ($5 for 0-3 hrs) was available under the building. We spent some time in the "hot shop" where a glass artist was making something that looked like a mask. It was pretty interesting but would have been better if we could have heard what the presenter was saying. Later we visited the galleries; one had large, brightly colored glass letters and numbers; another had early Chihuly works some of which played off Joyce's Ulysses, others were traditional Irish Waterford. Just before the museum closed at 1700 we went outside and toured the Bridge of Glass - not made of glass, but containing glass art objects. To the west of the bridge was the old Union Station, now the law court, and to the east was the Washington State History Museum. Definitely a place to return to. We drove back to North Bend and changed clothes and went to dinner at Jak's. We were shooting for 1930 but we had a 30-minute wait. Fortunately there were stools available at the bar so we didn't have to wait outside in the rain. The steaks were as good as we remembered them, as was the garlic mashed potatoes.

13 Aug, Wed - G and W went out for breakfast at the NB Bar and Grill. After a lunch salad of leftover Jak's meat and veggies (and potato made into a pancake) we headed out to kayak from Enatai Beach under the I-90 bridge that crosses to Mercer Island. C.J. and I used the kayak cart to get our boat to the beach while G & W rented two Current Designs singles. We all paddled under I-90 and up the slow-moving waterway known as the Mercer Slough. There were several large great blue herons and many ducks. We were able to get up close to a couple of turtles who were sunning themselves on logs. About a tenth of a mile before the slough ends at a fish ladder we turned left and made our way around an island which had several office buildings. The total paddling distance was 4.65 mi according to Google Earth. We returned home for a great dinner of stuffed zucchini.

14 Aug, Thu - C.J. and I planned to get on our way to the coast before 1000 and leave Ginny and Wally behind to pack up and return to Puyallup to visit again with Uncle Harry. They decided to wash the sheets and towels at the laundromat on North Bend Way, and eat breakfast at NB Bar and Grill again. We got packed up ourselves and were just about ready to leave around 0930 when they got back. [I had already removed the racks from the Sorento so we were hoping for better gas mileage for the 6-hour trip to Waldport-Yachats.]