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October 16, 2009

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!!

We had a great trip last weekend going to Sedro Woolley, Washington. We drove as far as Everett the first night as we had reservations at the Motel 6. The room was not great, but it was clean and the bed was comfortable. We had Internet service and "even indoor plumbing" according to the clerk at the motel. We walked across the street to a great little restaurant where we had a nice prime rib dinner. We had to celebrate making it through Seattle with all of the rush hour traffic. Don't get me started on the transportation system in Seattle. Anyway, staying in Everett for the night put us only two hours away from Sedro Woolley and since we had to be there by 11:00 on Saturday we didn't have to get up early that morning.

We found our destination to Pat & Merrily Farrell's home. They had an open house of their private museum for the Northwest Steam Society plus the board of directors had their quarterly meeting there as well. Pat has about ten old cars, five of which are Stanley Steamers. He fired up the Stanley Mountain Wagon that holds 12 passengers and gave everyone a ride. We got on too - that's us waiting our turn at the end of the video. He houses them in a two story building with about 2000 square feet of floor space and what space the cars don't use, the rest is "floor to ceiling" with antiques. Literally. Floor to ceiling! What a trip down memory lane. There was so much stuff we had to take the tour twice just to see everything. It was great.

Farrell's Museum We left Sedro Woolley to catch the ferry for Port Townsend at Keystone. Luckily, Dave had made reservations for the 4:30 ferry because otherwise we would have had to wait, as there wasn't room on the ferry for all the cars in line. We were expected at our good friend Sherry DeBoer's beach cottage at Belfair for dinner and overnight and that was about two hours away from Port Townsend where the ferry landed. Her place is right on Hood Canal. We arrived around 6:30 that evening and after two martinis and getting caught up on the latest news from her, I was beginning to enjoy myself! We finally ate around 8:00 (way past my dinner time) and even though we were tired, we couldn't quit talking and didn't go to bed for several hours. The next morning, after treating her to breakfast, we headed for home.

Limbs and leaves I thought we were in for a nice fall but I was awakened around 3:00 a.m. on Tuesday with rain pounding on the rooftop and wind gusts of about 40 miles an hour! All that nice weather we had and now it's like Mother Nature flipped the switch to "winter"! I am sure glad I got the lawn mowed the day before, but I had to spend the next day raking up debris from the windstorm. My poor sweet peas were blown down and much of my other flowers look pretty beaten up from the wind and rain. I also got my garden all put to bed just in time before the storm hit. With the left over veggies, I made a beef/vegetable stew for dinner.

Dave had a Blazer pre-season game in Portland this week. The Blazers are celebrating their 40th year so they decided to play the game in the old Memorial Coliseum instead of the Rose Garden. Of course that is a lot more work for Dave as he has to set up the equipment in a different place and it always causes more work and stress. He was a tired puppy when he got home Thursday, and didn't move much the rest of the afternoon.

This weekend we are getting up bright and early so we can go to Silverton to watch our two oldest granddaughters play their soccer games. It is suppose to rain all weekend so we will dress accordingly. Maybe we will get a break! After the game, we will go into West Linn and spend the night with Lara's family. I haven't seen any of my granddaughters for so long and I need a grandma fix! We are also celebrating Lara's birthday and I promised I wouldn't mention how old she is going to be. Dave has a Blazer game Sunday night and so we will be driving back to the coast late that night.