To DC to visit family

George, Nathan and I headed off to DC for a family visit.  We took the MAX to the airport which worked out very well.  There was not a long line to go through security.  I had TSA Pre chk. Nathan had gotten there earlier so he was waiting for us. We were going to visit my niece and her husband and their 2 little ones.  We had not met Nicole yet.  Jamie (my younger brother) and Pam (his wife) had arrived earlier.  

This plane was a new plane but they have giving up with the individual TV for each seat.  Now they assume that you will use your computer.  I never could get my netbook to work to watch a movie.  There were a lot of movie choices.

   

Nice view of Mt Hood.

We were a little late leaving Portland and then we were also a little late pulling into our gate.  We got a Lyft to go to my niece's place.  They had ordered take-out Indian food.  It was all delicious.  Ella was still up but Nicole had gone to bed.  

Yippee!  We are in DC.

The front of the apartment.  They actually are in Arlington.

Michael and Ella

They are in the same building as when we visited last time but they are in a larger apartment.  It is very nice.

After dinner and relaxation we walked back to the hotel.  It is about 1/2 mile away.  We got checked in.  While we were relaxing I decided to go downstairs and get a glass of wine.  I asked for red wine.  It was on the counter but the person helping me was looking in their refrigerator.  Then she pulled out a martini glass.  Oh well.  

Linda was due to arrive at 10:30 pm from Michigan.  She is in grad school.  She is Jamie and Pam's younger daughter.  We will see her tomorrow too.
 

Sunday, April 4

 We hung out in the hotel in the morning.  Dorothy was sick with a cold and was sleeping.  Ed used the fitness center.  Madeline and Roman had their morning routine with Ivan. So, I had a chance to zoom church.  It is so weird, no matter how many times we do zoom church something always goes wrong.  Frustrating for the staff.  This time the music did not come through for half of the people.  It came through fine for me but when they did the slide show I could not see the pictures.   Anyway, I did manage to figure out how to do a screen shot.  I wanted to show how they put up the flowers that some of us had helped to paint.  

Slight digression

A few weeks ago, they came up with the idea of painting flowers since we cannot do the flowering of the cross like we usually do.  Several people painted rectangle of canvas blue and drew flowers on them. Poppies, Irises and Tulips on a blue background.  They needed 24 rectangles painted.  I volunteered to paint one.

 

               The 3 designs                                                                    My painting

More paintings

Partly assembled 

The background is the finished product of the flowers. Don was doing a goodbye blessing for Amanda. Today was her last day of work.  They even ended the service with a recording of the Halleluyah Chorus.  Loved it.  

Digression over.

We checked out of the hotel around noon and headed over to Madeline and Roman's place.  We hung out there.

George had his turn with Ivan.

Madeline was cooking the Easter dinner.  

We had a delicious dinner.  Salmon in coconut milk on buckwheat and broccoli beef on cous cous.  Both very tasty. 

We left around 3 pm

drive home - Mt Rainier

I think it was a fancy car party at the gas station

 and got home around 6 pm.  

I had time to go on a walk before dinner. I think that this is a weeping cherry.

Seattle April 3, 2021

 George and I left Beaverton at 8:30 am Saturday to drive to Seattle.  This is our first trip in over a year.  We have had both of our vaccines but not the full 2 weeks post vaccine.  So hopefully this is not too big of a risk.  Dorothy (George's sister) and Ed are both fully vaccinated so they flew to Seattle to meet their new grandson, Ivan. He was born in November. They are visiting for one and a half weeks, but we will just be up for the weekend.  Nathan was coming up just for the day so he left Portland earlier than we did.  We got to the hotel at 11:30 am and Debbie got here about the same time.  It was nice to see her too.  Nathan, Dorothy and Ed were over visiting with Madeline and Roman until we arrived.  Their apartment is pretty close to the hotel, so we have been walking back and forth. Once we all got together, we decided to order take-out sandwiches and then to go to a park to eat.  We made the mistake of saying that we wanted the food in 10-15 minutes.  It was easily a half an hour before we got to the restaurant to pick up the food.

We are staying at a Sonesta Select.  It is very nice.  

Roman and Ivan (pronounced e VAN)

Madeline

Toasty warm Ivan

Debbie and Dorothy

Tired Dad

Waverly park is a nice park. 

After lunch we walked along the water to Heritage Park

Rest break

Debbie left us at this point to head back to her place.  

buried boat

These signs were everywhere.

We headed back to the hotel.  There was a nice courtyard area.  Nathan, George and I played cards while everyone else was napping.

Ivan was up from his nap.  We hung out at Madeline and Roman's place.  They fixed a nice dinner.

We all took turns.  Here is Ed with Ivan

Ed and Dorothy

Dorothy's turn

Tossing the baby

Nathan's turn.  

1

My turn

After dinner Nathan headed off to drive back to Portland.

Our hotel room