Mt Vernon and home

 I had to be at my volunteer job at 1 pm, so I wanted to be sure to make it home by then.  I thought that the Monday morning Seattle traffic would be terrible.  Google said that it would take us 4 hours. I said 6 hours.  Normally when we go to Debbie and Joe's it is at least 5 hours.  We left Debbie and Joe's at 7 am, to give us plenty of time.

morning view

Seattle

Kalama 

Google was pretty accurate.  It was 4 1/2 hours.  Google didn't know how many stops we would need to make.  Restroom and gas.  My car was getting about 52 miles to the gallon.  Not bad. 

We got home in time for us to unpack before I had to head out to work.  Because of the heat, I was not planning on walking to work.  It is supposed to get up to 106 degrees.  It is 94 degrees right now. Ugh!!

Kirkland to Mt Vernon

Madeline took Dorothy and Ed to the airport at 4 am so they could go back to Ohio and we took Nathan to the train station at 6:15 am so that he could get back to Portland.    

train station

We got back to the hotel and had breakfast.  It looked like they had a container of hot oatmeal.  I decided to try some.  I took a scooper full and then realized that it was gravy for the biscuits NOT oatmeal.  Oh well.  I felt bad about throwing it away but I really did not want a bowl full of gravy. 

Once we were packed up we headed on up to Debbie and Joe's.  We got there about 9 am.

We chatted a while and then did the neighborhood walk.  

Debbie and Joe's house with Phil the cat sitting under the tree.

Belle

Phil

The view

Then it was time for lunch.  Joe drove us in his corvair convertible 

There is a restaurant, Slough Food, that periodically has some catering company come in to make a big paella.  Today was the day.   When we got there they said that it would be about 45 minutes so we went to Terramar for a drink.  We got back in time to be seated. 

Chicken and veggies in one pan and seafood in the other

Then they combined the two with rice.  A very impressive process.

close up view

It was very good.  George gave me his chicken pieces and I gave him the mussels and most of the calamari.

Then we headed back to Debbie and Joe's.  

 

Mt Baker

We sat out on the back patio in the shade.  It was very pleasant.  We heard that it had gotten up to 100 degrees in Portland.  Ugh. We heard that Dorothy, Ed and Nathan all  arrived at their various locations safely, 

We had a 7 pm reservation at Bonefish Grill. 

Joe had a Smoked Old Fashion.  Fun. 

George's fish tacos

I had chicken, rice, and brussels sprouts.  It was yummy.

Another Fun Day in Kirkland

 

Ivan's special friend (Nathan). 

Today we headed off to Snoqualmie Falls 

This is the top of the falls.  We then took the trail to the bottom. It was about 1 1/2 mile total but it took 3 times as long going down as it did going back up.  We made sooooo many stops going down.  

rest break

View from the bottom of the falls.

 Roman, Ivan & Madeline

The trip back up was much quicker but more exhausting.  Going up hill is always hard for me.  

We had a 12:30 pm reservation at the Iron Duck in North Bend.  

I had asperagus and egg

George and Nathan split the black bean burger

I had a Katie May (elderberry, grapefruit and vodka)  

Back through Seattle 

We hung out in the apartment while Ivan took a nap. We played some bananagrams and 8, 7, 6.  

Nathan, George, and I took a short walk.  By the time we got back everyone was ready to head off to Castle Park.  

One interesting thing that they do around here is placing flags in a bin at a crosswalk.  You can grab a flag on one side of the street and hold them out to stop traffic. Then you put the flag in a container on the other side of the street.  Pretty smart. 

This park was not far from where we were to have dinner.  We had a 7 pm reservation at Cafe Veloce  

I had a penne pasta with feta, artichokes, and shrimp.  It was very good.  I sent my left-overs home with Madeline.

Dorothy, Ed, George, Roman, Madeline, Ivan, Nathan, and me.

After dinner we went to a close playground. 

Ivan seemed to like this playground. 

Then it was time to say good-bye to everyone.  Dorothy and Ed will be heading off to the airport at 4 am.  Madeline and Roman have other plans.  We will get Nathan to the 7:30 am train.  So we won't see them again this time around.