Goodbye Sedro-Wooley

All good things must come to an end, and our time with our friends were no exception to this rule. They left early this morning to start their hike. We were all up late as they packed their bags and we enjoyed our last hours together, something that has happened all too little since we got married. Our wives met as room mates freshman year of college and have been best friends since. I have always enjoyed hanging out with them when we visited them ever since they lived in Seattle. I have known them as a couple for about 15 years, even though we have spent less than a month in the same place since we met. Peter and I had spent some time in the sauna he built the previous night. It had been a long time since I had been in a sauna, and it was as invigorating as I remember. Pour the water over the rocks and chills go up your spine as the heat wave sweeps your body and your body responds by pouring out the toxins through sweat. We had some nice conversation about how this needs to happen more often and we both love seeing our wives together. When they are together, it is sometime hard to get a word in, edgewise, but they are so comfortable together and love each other very much. I wish we lived closer together to spend more time together. In the morning, we said our last goodbyes and all of us got on our way. Our hosts had cleaners that were at the house to clean it before the house sitter came to take care of the animals and the house. Packing up after having stayed at a place for a while and gotten comfortable was the most difficult part of this trip, especially with all of the toys and clothes that our children have spread out and forgotten about. I believe we lost some things along the way, but we gained a lot of great memories, that is for sure. I don’t know if our youngest, who just turned 3 will remember it all, but we took a lot of pictures to remind him. I learned about the death of my great uncle while we were staying with our friends, and that was particularly difficult for me. He was my grandfather’s oldest brother, and the last of that family to leave this earth, so it was a milestone. All of the memories of that family when they were our family’s age were not lost from this earth forever. We have nothing but their stories left to remember them by. They are now history, and that was hard to swallow. It is the closing of a chapter in my family history that I can never get back, but must let live on through memories. I am sure they are all together now beyond the horizon, happy to be together. My grandmother is the only one left of their wives, and many children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. We will carry on their indominable spirit that led them through hard times like world wars, the depression, and a host of diseases that some have now been rendered no longer on this earth. It is because of them that we are here today, and without them, we would be but someone else’s dream.

It was with a heavy heart that we left Sedro-wooley. We are looking forward to the next time we can spend with our friends.

Olympia

We made the drive through Olympia and were surprised with what a small city is was for being the capital of Washington. It reminded me of my hometown somewhat. It was fairly quiet and there wasn’t a lot going on in the city. I am sure spending more time there than we had would be helpful in making a more thorough evaluation of the city, but it still included super friendly and courteous poeple, both drivers and everyone we met in our time in this area of the country. We ate lunch at a little place called 5th on 4th. It was really cute and is owned by a husband and wife. Apparently the wife was our server. We looked around at the food that was being server, and were growing more excited as we waited for our own food. I ordered a club sandwich and fries.

The fries were served in these cute old cooking pots that reminded me of when I grew up. The food was super excellent both in quality, quantity, taste, and appearance. We definitely couldn’t finish our meals, but after seeing a desert that the people close to use was enjoying and enquiring about it (it was an enourmous cinnamon roll), we decided to get one to take with us for that evening. We had plenty of food to take back to our hotel, and we were excited to get back to our hotel that we had stayed at previously.

We had booked to stay in the same roon as we had previously since we liked it so much (and I found out that Jill had cleaned out the drawers and that was the real reason she wanted the same room again). But the people that were staying in the room decided to stay longer , so we took the room next to our previous room. The room was the mirror to the previous room, which had its advantages and disadvantages. For instance, our previous room’s pullout couch had the air conditioner right in line with it, so we couldn’t turn it up of the boys would freeze at night. Our current room had the air conditioner in line with the dining room, so we could have a better night time temperature. We got ready for bed and passed out after a long day.

Our hosts mentioned that if they were to move from their current location—but they definitely aren’t currently— they would love to move to Olympia. It is the capital

5th on 4th

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