bellingham/seattle

Alrighty. Let's play a little game of photo-heavy catch-up!

So after leaving TheBon's and Eugene Saturday morning, MyFavoriteKid and I drove up to Bellingham to visit my grandma (my dad's mom).

95 years old and still in her own apartment.
May we all look so great!

We had a quiet dinner at her place. Some cousins popped in for a quick hello (Grammy's brother's kids...so these cousins are my dad's age). They invited us to a 4th of July potluck the next day, which sent me scurrying out to the market (I hate showing up empty handed!).

The morning of the 4th was a really nice quiet time visiting with Grammy over breakfast, but I also shot out for an hour to procure supplies for an emergency knitting project. More on that later. The same cousins came back and took us all out for a lovely seafood lunch on their local wharf, and then for a drive around their historic downtown. Since it was a holiday, everything was closed...so Mouse...no, I did not get to go to Spincycle. Last time when I was in town, they were closed then, too! But Amanda took me to NW Handspun Yarns which was also quite awesome. Drove past it this time, and the had tagged the tree out front.

I don't know if you can see it, but in addition to knitted fabric there are stuffed turtles and mushrooms sewn on...hahaha.

Mkay. So after lunch and the scenic tour, we headed over to where this potluck was. It was at the home of (follow along if you can--LOL) one of these cousin's son's wife's (soon to be ex wife's, the plot thickens) family's property.

Whomever it belonged to, it was awesome.


Several fancy homes scattered about on their vast waterfront acreage, all homes being occupied by their various family members. They referred to it as "a compound". I think I heard that the grandpa who bought the property in the first place years and years ago had invented the phonograph needle. Sheesh.

SUPER nice people, very warm and welcoming, ALL of them. Lots of folks my age, and lots of kids running around. My absolute favorite guy of all was one of the brothers who immediately started joking and me and poking fun at me (letting me know that I was being treated like family). He also took it upon himself to be safety coordinator for the kids so they could light off fireworks safely from the dock. He even had safety glasses and a list of rules for them.

That eased my mind tremendously, because some of these were pretty serious fireworks!

I actually think this might have been the best 4th of July party I have ever been to. It will be hard to top.

The next morning...yikes, yesterday morning...I went out with another cousin. This time it was (follow again) one of my dad's cousin's daughters....a gal a couple of years older than me whom I had not seen since my early 20's. She and I went out for coffee and breakfast and some family gossip. She and I have had a lot in common over the years, as we both worked in the food service industry and even for the same company (but in different locations). I was glad to see her again, and hope she'll come visit us when she comes to California.

MyFK stayed with Grammy so they could have a little one-on-one time, and when I got back from breakfast I finished the emergency knitting project.


Now, I don't know if y'all remember me telling you about this before, but....my grandma has been asking me for a knitted Lysol can cozy for something like 6 years, and I am such a shit of gift knitter, that I have never done it. I wrote about here (but I cant find the post for some reason), and several of you even told me that if I didn't get off my arse and knit one for her, that you would. Quite frankly, I had forgotten about it, until I went in to use her potty and there was her Lysol can, on the floor hidden behind the toilet (where she probably can't even reach it). Hence my saying I was going for espresso (which was true) but then also running out to Jo-Ann's (all that was open on the 4th) for some RedHeart (ugh--but I wanted her to able to wash it easily if need be) that matched her towels (which I had shoved one in my bag).

(that was a lot of parentheses...what else is new)

She was very specific about how this was to look, right down to the i-cord (rather than ribbon) being in a knot, and not a bow, but hanging down to just that length. Whatever. She loved it so much that she practically swooned.


Alright. So after that, on to Seattle:



There's the view from our room.
MyFK was so beat from running around the night before blowing things up, that he asked for a nap, but I wanted to go out. We compromised and headed over to the hotel lobby for happy hour.


Kindle. Cocktail. View. First quiet in days.
Pretty good compromise, I'd say ;-)

I went back for him and took him out to dinner at place that was reported to have awesome scallops (which it did) because it's one of his favorite foods ever. It was a great little place on the waterfront near a drawbridge. We ate outside on the patio and watched the boats go by.



And then after dinner, in the way back to the hotel, we headed over to the Space Needle to catch the sunset.



Phew! Long post. Sorry, dudes.
It's 9:30am or so, kid is still sleeping, I'm going to get up now and figure out the coffee situation...then we're off again to play tourist!