Happy (Real) Birthday to Gary!

We had a busy day yesterday. Gary was on call Tuesday night so on Wednesday morning he went to do sign out while I stopped at one of the many nearby Starbuck's, drank coffee and paid bills. Once he was finished we stopped at the house briefly, petted Suki once more and headed to the airport. We checked our bags - United has a new policy of charging $2 per bag to check in curbside, but we did it anyway - and waited for about twenty minutes to get through security. I had printed out our boarding passes already and had a little surprise for Gary - I upgraded us to First Class for both legs of the trip.

We boarded our flight to Denver on time and pulled back from the gate on schedule but once we made it to the taxiway we were number TWENTY for take-off. Wow. They fed us a nice breakfast on the plane (omelets with sausages) and we watched a movie (Pixar's "Cars"). I listened to the "Tower Talk" channel for a while - United is still the only domestic airline that I know of that allows passengers to listen to the air traffic controllers. We were following another United flight from Des Moines into Denver and as they were landing their pilot said that they had just gotten a wind shear warning alarm so they were going to pull up and come back around again - that's when I decided not to listen to it any more.

There were strong headwinds on the flight and we didn't make up any time, arriving about a half hour late. We were the first ones off the plane and found that our flight to Seattle was leaving from the gate directly across the concourse, so we didn't have any problems making the connection.

On the next leg they gave us a cheese and fruit plate and we chatted with the flight attendant and napped a bit. We had a nice view of Mount Ranier on the way in - right next to the airplane. We got in a little early, the bags were there shortly and the rental car was ready for us. Traffic was pretty light and we got to Jody's house right around 5:00. Clark was there, wearing his orange hunting camo suit - he had just gotten back from elk hunting for a few days.

Their house is just lovely - I love the open beams and the windows looking out on the porch. Clark showed Gary his gun collection while Jody gave me a tour. Terra came home - she is so tall and pretty and grown up - she is going to Eastern Washington for the state cross country finals this weekend.

We all headed over to Bennett's Bistro for dinner. What a great spot! They serve a Northwest cuisine - all "pure" (no artificial anythings). Terra and Clark had the chicken, Jody and I had salmon with blueberry sauce (very tasty), and Gary had the hamburger. He raved about it (and was still raving about it this morning), so I will contact the restaurant and see if they will share their secret (other than adding ground pork to the mix). They had great home-made mac and cheese as a side, and we all split a "Chocolate Tower" for dessert - what fun to see everyone!

We had a fifteen minute drive to the hotel in Redmond. It's a nice little place and reminds us of the Avenue Inn where we stayed in Rehoboth Beach a few weeks ago. They have a fireplace in the lobby, and complimentary coffees and bagels in the morning. We were pretty tired and fell asleep by 9:00.

Jeff and Lucia will pick us up at the hotel this morning and we'll spend the day downtown Seattle or thereabouts. Maybe an update later if I can find another wireless signal!

[Between raindrops.]

SAVE YOUR CORKS!!

[Only 5,609 more needed for our Wine Cellar Wall.]

Quote du jour:

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.”

Abraham Lincoln

previous ~ home ~ next