LOVERN'S FAMILY VISIT

The baby birds in our electrical box have all grown and flown away. It was an amazing nest. The mama bird had even wound a string around the electrical cord to help hold it in place. Now we are watching the bird nest in our boat horn and one in the same pipe on the dock as last year. The boat horn nest is fascinating as there seems to be two birds that laid eggs in there. They come at 7 PM and both get in that small space to feed the baby birds while two other birds sit on the nearby railing to wait their turn to feed the babies. Very interesting. You can see the exciting life that we lead.

Since we had to cancel our planned RV trip up to the Northwest, I decided to fly up instead. I flew into Portland and my daughter, Peggy, met me. She took a week of her vacation to visit with me the fabulous towns of Bremerton and Longview. Her fellow workers were impressed. NOT! While I was gone, Zoe drove down to San Luis Obispo to see her son Russell and his family. Russell had an operation on his foot and was pretty much homebound.

The next day we rode the Intercity train, MAX, from her town Hillsboro to downtown Portland. I wanted to see how they had fixed it up. We didn’t find the center I had seen on tv but we did find a farmers’ market in progress. Lots of berries were on display and I found the rare find of gooseberries. I quickly bought three boxes in the hopes of making a gooseberry pie. With other goodies in hand , we had lunch at a French café to celebrate Peggy’s birthday.

Next it was off to Washington state to see my other daughter, Anna, near Bremerton. We admired her place and yard that are all spruced up for a prospective sale. We headed to the restaurant by the ferry terminal to have dinner with her two sons, Matt and Ben, and another grandson Brookes. Matt is working on his electricians journeyman license. Ben is a senior in engineering at the University of Washington. Brookes has just gotten a job at the Sea-Tac Holiday Inn as the beverage and food administrator. The chef quit a few days after Brookes started the job so he is doing that job also until they hire a new chef. It was great to see the young men and to hear of their interests.

The following day we had a lovely picnic on a bay on the Puget Sound. Anna had made the gooseberry pie in the morning so it was cooled down enough for us to eat when we returned. On the way home the next day, we stopped in Longview and had dinner with my son, Frank, and his wife Linda. Back at Peggy’s, her daughter Alysia drove me and her son Davonte’ to the Seaside on the ocean. A final barbecue with Peggy’s other granddaughter Rashanna and most of the great grandchildren ended the visit. It was wonderful to catch up with everyone again.