Southeast to Northwest Adventure!

I was barely back from Italy and time to head out again. Parts of this trip were planned well over a year ago and I was looking forward to it all. Part one took me to Charlotte NC for a family reunion at our cousin John’s beautiful lakeside home. A good turnout of siblings, spouses, cousins, kids and our newest addition 2 month old adorable Bryson. Fun was had by all as we enjoyed fantastic food, cooled off in the lake and spent time with the people we have known and loved the longest. We kept meaning to take a picture of the whole group but we were having too much fun to remember to do it. Well, another gathering is already in the planning stages for next year so we will do it then for sure! Thanks so much to Susan and John for a truly wonderful time🩷

Part Two - heading straight to Seattle. A gathering of college sorority friends hosted by Kim at her beautiful slice of heaven in Union WA on the only fjord in the continental US. These ladies are a blessing in my life for the past 50 years! Each accomplished in their own way with fantastic careers and life experiences that have taken them around the world. And so organized, active and fun to be with. Of course Kim is flying the flag so we know we have arrived at the right place💛🖤💛

We did exactly the right amount of fun activities with plenty of time to relax, reminisce and catch up on the latest in everyone’s life. Thankfully everyone is in a good place and we are filled with gratitude that that is currently the case. So here goes a brief recap of all the fun thanks to the excellent planning skills of our amazing hostess Kim. Also a BIG shoutout to her awesome and super fun husband Mike. He cooked, kayaked, was our photographer often and did the most amazing trivia contest for us with questions about Theta rules and Illini history that made us all realize how little attention we paid in college to any of that! Complete with throwback photos in a professional PowerPoint presentation!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻We were gobsmacked with awe.

Kayaking on the gorgeous fjord with snow covered mountains and a guided tour thanks to Mike of the famous peoples homes we were paddling past (I see you Bill Gates and Nordstrom families). Then how about digging for clams, mussels and oysters right there on the beach for dinner tonight? A first for me and some of the other ladies.

Followed by the hard work opening the clams and oysters and cooking them. All the glory to Nancy and Peggy. Those are not food items I normally gravitate to but I did try them and they were good.

Kim and Mike live really close to a beautiful spa and resort called Alderbrook so we started one day with a great hike there through the woods seeing lots of interesting vegetation, ferns, mushrooms and huge trees. So lush and very different from the Midwest.

No trip is complete to the Seattle area without a visit to the famous Pike Place Market - so after our hike we headed to Bainbridge Island to take the ferry to downtown Seattle. Watching the fish thrown, being repulsed by the ever expanding gum wall, posing with the pig, smelling the beautiful flower bouquets, eating some delicious Mac and cheese and Greek yogurt - we did it all!

Then back on the ferry to explore Bainbridge Island and eat some delicious Mexican food. One margarita is plenty - they are as big as our heads!

A trip to Bainbridge is not complete without seeing Pia the Peacekeeper. A huge amazing troll from Thomas Dambo, a Copenhagen based artist who used recycled wood to build this 18 foot tall troll. I read a bit about it and it was truly a community effort to raise the funds to bring this sculpture to their beautiful island. Such a whimsical face - I found it very endearing.

On our last day we rented a pontoon boat from the marina at Alderbrook Resort and spent about 3 hours exploring more of the fjord. Luckily Cindy and Peggy are skilled in driving a boat. The Skipper and Gilligan for our three hour cruise 😂

Then happy hour in the Alderbrook bar before heading to dinner. I had to post this picture because we had the waitress take it before Kim realized she still had her sunglasses on. So we got the attention of a different waitress and asked her to take another picture and explained why - because Kim wanted to remove her sunglasses. She was happy to oblige. But when we looked at the picture we saw that she had cut Kim out of the picture totally! We died laughing and at that point decided to just let it go. We would rather have her in the picture even with sunglasses!

We had a number of delicious meals on Kim’s gorgeous deck with this spectacular view of the fjord. The food was great too!

Such a wonderful time with great friends. No matter how much time has elapsed we pick right up just like we saw each other yesterday. Thanks again Kim and Mike.

Now Part Three. Nancy who lives in Portland along with her husband Bruce recently purchased a vacation home in Hood River Oregon. That’s about a three hour drive from the Seattle area and just across the Columbia River which divides Washington and Oregon in an area called The Gorge. She invited whoever was able to continue the fun in Hood River since we were already all the way in the Pacific Northwest. Everyone except Kim could extend the trip so we said goodbye to Kim and headed south.

Hood River is such an adorable town of about 10,000 people overlooking the beautiful and very windy Columbia River. So windy it is one of the top places in the country for water sports like wind surfing and kite surfing. Peggy who has been water skiing almost since she could walk decided to take a lesson and try it. The lessons are two hours and as you might imagine it’s HARD! You have to be able to balance on the board and be super strong to pull that sail up with a stiff wind blowing the whole time. She was a trooper! We came for the second hour of her lesson to be her cheering section. She never gave up and we did see her manage to do it for at least a bit of time. Yeah Peggy! You made us all proud!

She definitely had the most vocal and largest cheering section. No way the rest of us would try it.

Now off to pick up a picnic lunch from the amazing Pine St Bakery! Might have been our second visit just that day!🫢We took an early hike through some beautiful woods on the long way to the bakery when we woke up. We wanted to earn it and we weren’t disappointed. Just so many great choices we got a bunch of bakery items and shared them. Then went back for sandwiches on delicious bread to take with us to see Mt Hood and Mt Adams on our way to the lavender fields and winery.

Stave and Stone Winery was right next to the lavender fields and since Nancy and Bruce are members we got the best table right next to the vineyard! So beautiful whatever direction you look🩷

We headed back to Nancy’s place because her amazing and excellent chef husband Bruce had come over from Portland to cook us a great dinner and join us for more of the fun the next day. Delicious salmon caught that very day with terrific sides and the Ina Garten dark chocolate tart. And a great clean-up crew!

Our last day was another fun one. Bette headed back to Eugene to spend Father’s Day with her family so we are down to 5 plus Bruce. We rented E-bikes and rode about 25 miles to see as many waterfalls as we could get to in 4 hours. For us that was a very respectable 6! I was the only one in our group that hadn’t ridden an E-bike, but if you can ride a bike you can ride an E-bike. It was a blast and the perfect way to see the waterfalls. They are very popular and it was a Sunday so extra busy. Limited parking but we just rode our bikes there and chained them together and took off for the falls. Sweet!

The tallest waterfall in Oregon is called Multnomah Falls and it’s stunning. It has a 620-foot drop. Here we all are in front of it.

Bruce headed back to Portland to work the next day and the rest of us had a great dinner at a wonderful restaurant called 3 Rivers Grill. A beautiful patio with a fantastic view of the river.

It’s almost time to say goodbye to the last of the group. Well maybe one more stop at Pine St Bakery before departure 😂

Nancy and Bruce thank you for hosting us in Hood River and for the fantastic time I know we all had🩷

The Midwest crew gets dropped at the Portland airport but I’m on to Part Four - a return trip to the Seattle area. Nancy was such a great friend to offer to drive me halfway back to Seattle and my dear high school friend Pam and her husband who live in Gig Harbor agreed to meet us at that halfway point and take me back to Gig Harbor for a few days. Who has better friends than me? I can’t think of anyone!

I’m ready for a little rest and relaxation. Pam and Lance have a gorgeous home and this is my view from their front porch. Watching the ferries cross Puget Sound to Vashon Island - that’s where you can find me every morning.

Pam took me to a sweet little town called Poulsbo Washington. A Scandinavian vibe around a pretty marina where Pam and I had a nice lunch overlooking the water. Also a great bakery called Sluys that took me back to my visit to Sweden. We picked out a few things to share with Lance the following morning.

It was wonderful to have time to catch up with Pam. We have been good friends since high school and have kept in touch the whole time. And now that’s close to 55 years! I was in their wedding so Lance and I have been friends a long time too! Thanks so much for a wonderful time in your beautiful slice of heaven.

Now Part Five - the final chapter. Pam and Lance drove me to meet my brother David in Bremerton Washington where he lives and not too far from Gig Harbor. We met at a restaurant Pam, Lance and Dave all like - the Boat Shed. Had a fun delicious lunch and then Dave and I headed out to his beach house on the ocean in Pacific Beach.

Dave and Dee’s beach house is so cool. It’s right on the beach, just walk through the seagrass he keeps trimmed to get to an expansive beach you can walk on for miles. A perfect way to end my fun action packed adventure. Pure relaxation listening to the waves on the beach. Well relaxing for me. David seems to find plenty of projects to keep busy with out there, but he lets me relax and walk the beach. And he cooks for me too! Thanks Dave🩷

The walk to the beach from the deck. Magical!

When the tide goes out you can find hundreds of sand dollars on the beach, and sometimes cool wood and sea glass. They have seen sea otters too.

Dee and Dave have collected a lot of sand dollars!

Everyone loves the gorgeous sunsets🩷

Well that’s it for my fabulous trip. Thanks to everyone who made it so wonderful and for memories I will cherish forever. I feel very fortunate to have you all in my life🩷