what a week it was!!

and a very good week it was, too! took Amtrak to Seattle on tuesday, met by Kate and kids, then spent that evening and Wed. just hangin' out at their house. They've built a raised bed garden, with deer fence near completion, which looks to be filled with super-dirt of some kind! the veggies are huge and lush and look delectable. Alex planted a bed of sugar peas, which are just getting to pickin' size:

Zylie has a pumpkin patch which is trying to take over the pathway and all beds near it.

and here's Kate's salad garden:

Thursday we awoke to steady rain, and being the tried and true Northwesterners that we are, we tossed raincoats in with the other gear and headed out to take the ferry from Anacortes to San Juan Island to visit Pam and Larry, and go whale watching! It was a shock to me to find that the fare was $68 for car, 2 adults and 2 kids, and that was with a really reduced rate for seniors ($6.65 for me). Alex really loved the ferry ride:

When we arrived at Friday Harbor an hour later, there was some sun showing and weather just got better all day. the kids had a rompin' good time with Buster-the-kitten, who loved chasing anything they'd drag around the floor for him. Buster finally wore himself out and snuggled up by my feet for a rest.
(cool socks, huh? didn't make 'em... bought 'em from socklady.com and i love 'em)
we drove to the other side of the island, and stood on a bluff to watch the Orcas... and they really put on a show! they were quite close to the shoreline and it looked like there were several pods of them. the amount of time they are actually out of the water is so brief i knew i'd never be able to catch a photo of them... but what a magnificent sight it was! here's where we were:
you can see that it became a gorgeous clear and sunny day... and made us really glad we stayed with the plan. got up thursday a.m. to pouring rain, hung out with Pam for awhile, then rushed off to catch the ferry... missed it... waited 4 hours for the next one. wandered around in Friday Harbor, had lunch, yadda yadda....

took Amtrak back on saturday. and i gotta say, the party that Jim planned and executed for my
birthday on sunday was far beyond my expectations, and ranked up there with the best ever!! first.... he cleaned the house, including mopping floors... and right there he got highest marks!!! he had invited my twisted sisters so we could twist awhile and eat a lovely meal and admire the fabulous "twisted sister flower tower" he'd given me early as a bd gift (photo on an earlier post). in keeping with the twisted theme... he made a drink he'd heard about when visiting a winery... called (of course) a "twisted sister", made with a white port (tasted like gewurtztraminer) with orange zest, lemon zest and tonic water... and it was excellent!! and for lunch he served Caesar salad, Hungarian mushroom soup (made by special order by Maggie herself at Maggie's Buns, a local cafe), warm garlic bread, and the bd cake was (ta da my most favorite) tiramisu (also made by Maggie) Livin' large on my birthday! Laurie brought me a twinkling lights tiara and sceptor/magic wand which she had decorated with dyed mohair locks (tho guests were instructed to not bring gifts!)
me in my tiara and Rachael

Rachael and Matt came down from Goldendale:

Laurie, Jane and Jan were here

Stephanie showed off her new talent of balancing a vase of flowers on her head... ok, the shot wasn't set up really well, but it sounds better the other way.

Gail arrived after the picture taking and i neglected to get out the camera and document her lovely presence!

I had an outstanding 69th birthday and felt very loved and honored and who could ask for any more than that? so now i'm really and truly "almost 70" and feel like i kind of missed the 67
and 68 because what i kept hearing in my head was "almost 70".

so if you got this far in this very long missive... thanks... and that's all for now!