Wedding and Exploring in Washington

At our Bloomington, MN hotel checkout time we turned in the key and got into the shuttle van.

I reached for my phone, it wasn't  there!  We were the only ones in the van.  I asked the van driver to wait a minute.  I raced in, ran past the front desk where fortunately our keys were still sitting there.  I  grabbed one and dashed (literally ran) to our room.  No phone.

I returned the key and got back in the van.  Steve asked if I used the public restroom in the motel that morning.  Yes!  

I asked the van driver to stop, he had only gone about 50 feet.  He stopped, I jumped out and ran again.  As soon as I opened the restroom door I heard my phone ringing.  It was Steve calling me to help me locate the phone.  Yay!  I found it!  I dashed back to the van, thanked the driver and Steve.  Steve and I both sighed.

We flew to Seattle on Sun Country Airlines.  The seats were tight and they didn't offer any free movies or snacks.  I mention this because on the way back we had a Delta flight and we got to watch a movie and have free beverages and a snack.  "Remind me next time to book Delta," I said to Steve.

Bellingham, Washington and Mt Baker

We flew into the Seattle Airport and took a shuttle to the rental car complex.  It was huge with all the different rental car agencies there.  We then drove our rented VW to Bellingham to our motel for the first night.

Lori, my  friend Debra's daughter, is starting a travel service and is doing quite well. She helped us find motels for our first and last nights and for the rental car.  Thank you, Lori Holguin Travel!  We liked our motel.  A small, local, one-floor place that was clean and maintained for a decent price.

The first morning the wedding couple was hosting a brunch at a local restaurant.  We had it on our google calendars for nine and for eleven.  It must be eleven... if it is a brunch, right?  We went to the waterfront where there were some trails and a nice boardwalk and we started exploring.

Below is an interesting water shaped rock and in the background, the board walk.

We kept walking and about nine o'clock I started to have second thoughts.  Maybe the brunch was at nine and we would miss it.  I texted Erin, Steve's daughter.  She sent me a screen shot of the invitation.  The brunch was at nine!  We were about a mile from the car and a mile and a half from the restaurant.  I had been kind of nervous about meeting Steve and Margaret's extended family.  Now I was more nervous.

It wasn't all lost, we showed up just as their food was being served.  We got a nice hug and greeting from Bobbie and Matt and their son the groom, Patrick.  Then we got to meet the bride and her parents.  

Patrick knew that Steve was active and he recommended a couple of his favorite hikes for us to enjoy while we were in the area.

One day while there, we drove to the Chain Lake Trail on Mt Baker that the groom had recommended.   He said was 6 miles long.

When we arrived the mountain was socked in with fog.  Even so, we got so see some neat things and challenge ourselves a bit.

We walked 8 miles and climbed 2400 feet!

Not bad for a 70 year old and her younger boy toy.

If you zoom in you can see the hikers and the hard scrabble trail we hiked on in the picture below.

Joe rode in Steve's pocket most of the hike.  His short legs are magically fast. They are still very short.  He would have slowed us down too much if he hiked.  He did get to do some climbing, though.   He was pretty good at it too.

Do you see the pica in the picture below?  We saw many of them on our eight-mile hike on Mt. Baker.  We also saw a marmot, but the fog had decended and none of the pictures we took turned out.

The next morning we rested but by noon we were ready to explore some more.  I used googlemaps to find waterfalls near us.  

At the bottom of Scrabble Falls, there were many flat pieces of rocks.  Some of the rocks crumbled into flat pieces in our hands.   We found fossils of plant life.   We stayed quite a while picking contentedly through the rocks.

The trails to view the Race Horse Falls were quite steep.

Race Horse Falls is a series of four falls each with its own character.

Climbing around on the steep sides of the streams had our calves reminding us of the climbing we had done on the Chain Lakes Trail the day before.

One day we went back to the ocean front in Bellingham with Erin and Matt.  It was fun sharing the trail with them.

 

Artists took a pile of sheets of tin, discarded from a former canning factory that had been on the waterfront and created a piece of art.

This year we have dipped into The Gulf, the Atlantic, four of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain, and now the Pacific Ocean.

The extra feet in the picture belong to Erin, Steve's daughter and Matt, her boyfriend.

It was great that they came out for the wedding too.  They didn't have time to stay and explore longer, like us.  They both work.  We did have some fun meals and good times together.

The wedding was a blast.  The ceremony was short and sweet and to the point.  The venue was a lovely outdoor space.

Steve liked the dress I chose.  We were all on the dance floor.  The younger folks (30's?) knew all the words and moves to the songs that I used to dance to when I was their age.  It was fun to watch.

Joe jumped right into the celebratory mood.

Erin got to meet Joe.

Steve and Erin at the wedding.

Erin and her boyfriend Matt shared the Airbnb house with us for a few nights.

Steve and I and one of the six or seven dresses I mulled over wearing to the wedding.

How about it, did I do ok picking out a dress?

Steve looked great.  I regret not getting a picture of the open jacket.  The lining of his suit is Stary Night by Van Gough.

The woods near our AirBnB were lovely.  

There was a door with creepy artwork on it.  We all thought it reminded us of the book, Narnia.  A door to another dimension or a secret world.

Steve wanted to create something for the second graders.  Click below to see our attempt.  It still makes me laugh when I think about it.

Video one.

Video two.

Here are some more pictures from our walks in Washington.

Magaret's brother, father of the groom, is and Steve at the pool party that was held for out of town guests.

We drove back to Seattle our last day.  We had a hotel booked close to the airport.  First we went to Pikes Market in Seattle.  We watched the fish toss.

I had been there before.  In fact, in 2018, after George passed, my brother invited me out to join him and his wife and families to share in the house they rented for a month.

I showed Steve the Gum Wall, which is now a full hallway with the walls plastered with gum.

Erin and Matt had told us about Wings over Washington, a fun kind of 4-dementional ride that made you feel like you were soaring like a bird.   I whooped and screamed.  It was a fun 12 minute ride.  

We walked to the International Fountain (which wasn't as impressive as it was the first time I saw it in 2001.)

Steve bought us tickets to go up the needle.  

It was after three when we found our rental car again and went around and around and around in the parking garage trying to find our way out. (One of the exits was closed but nothing told you that until you got there.)

We drove to the rental place, returned the car, took a shuttle to the airport, walked to a different location in the airport to catch our shuttle to the Hotel.

The next morning we shuttled back to the airport.  Flew home on Delta with movies.  We didn't have seats next to each other on this flight.  Steve watched Interstellar.  I watched 17 Again... part of it actually.  

Because most of the trip I was writing to you in this blog.  I was totally unaware that the Airplane wifi was not really connected to my blog.  All my saving didn't work and all my words were lost.  

Boo hood.  I will have to start over again, I thought.  Maybe next time it will be better.  

I hope so.