Trip to California, Charlie's ashes in Depoe Bay, and Olympic Peninsula trip

These pictures start out with our trip to Whidbey with Chris & Beth.  Like many of you who have visited Whidbey Island, we enjoyed ourselves.  We traveled by ferry to Friday Harbor (in the San Juan Islands) and to Port Townsend.  Although there was lots of driving, we enjoyed Tessa's home and the character of the Islands.

The next section starts out with Calllilies which represents death (according to Diego Rivera) and includes
the pictorial story of Charlie's (Will's brother who died last October, 2011) family gathering to send his
ashes forever out to sea.  Depoe Bay, the bay in the movie "One Flew Over the CooCoo's Nest"
with Jack Nicholson, is the place Charlie wanted to be scattered.  Will rented a fishing boat..Depoe Bay is one of the smallest bays on the coast...I mention this because many family members planned a fishing trip for the next day which was cancelled due to weather and high waves.  I didn't go out on the boat for the ashes as I knew I would get sick.  Sounds like many of the family members did in fact get sick from the choppy waves and fumes.  But I think Charlie would have been so pleased with  his adult children and their families and his two former wives presence.  These two families interacted with generosity and much love.  It was a wonderful ending to such an iconoclastic life.

As Charlies only brother, I was honored to actually place him in his final resting place, the Pacific Ocean, that he loved so much. It was so wonderful having everybody there and getting the chance to visit over the weekend. I enjoyed sharing some of my memories of growing up with Charlie.Thinking about Charlie recently, I remembered something else that I learned from him that turned out to be very valuable. Charlie was a very good swimmer and we would go to the public pool almost every day during the summer. Charlie took the life saving course at the Alhambra pool and would show me the methods to tow someone in that was in danger of drowning and how to give artificial respiration and the other things he learned. When I was 12, which would have been in 1954, I was on a Boy Scout camp trip at a place called Jackson Lake. I heard someone yelling for help out in the lake and I saw someone frantically waving their arms about 50 yards out from shore. I swam out and towed the assistant scout master back to shore using the technique Charlie had taught me. He had gotten leg cramps and could not swim or tread water. The newspaper gave me the credit for saving his life and told how I had learned the towing technique from my older brother.
(for more about Will's relationship with his only and older brother Charlie, see October 18, 2011 blog)
       
 I loved Depoe Bay and Arch Rock Inn were we stayed.  I teased Will about someday moving there to live
(I often have these fantasies as we travel and find a place we like).  He reminded me how far it is from the
nearest City...and how long and wet the winters are.  But...we will return and thank you Charlie for the trip.

These next pictures are July 18 to 26th when I returned to Woodland, CA to visit my granddaughter, Marly.
She is 2 and 1/2.  She is loving two words:  "No!" and "Why?"  Her parents and the village it takes to raise
her are all in to giving her only 2 choices:  this or that.  She doesn't like it much but is beginning to accept these limits.  As a long-distant grandmother, I "suffered" in not being able to take her to Starbucks with me daily and buy her what she wanted.  But hey!  I've been lectured too often by my older son, Tom about not abiding by limits they have set.  Being a grandmother isn't all cookies and cheer...but it's still the best role I
ever had!  It was such a joy to see Justin, Maia and Marly spend time with Kannon & Kiara.  Having family and spending these early years getting to know each other is so important.  They live within 2 hours of each other and my wish is that they spend more time together.  I hear Lisa's mother may take Kannon & Kiara to
Hawaii and/or Mexico over Thanksgiving vacation.  I also heard some sad news about Tom's(my former husband) niece Denise and her husband Mike.  Sounds as if they are separating which is such a loss to the Dote's.  I wish both of them the very best.  They are great individuals and have been so very generous over the years at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Their daughter's Kaitlyn and Haley are teenagers now and I'm sure the transitions are difficult for everyone.  My thoughts are with you guys...and my best wishes.  Thank you.

I returned from California with Suki to learn we are not going to Kauai in September after all.  Will has a work related trip to Korea at the same week we were scheduled for Hawaii.  He went to Korea a couple times years ago when with PG&E so he is interested in going back to see the changes.  We will be in Palm Springs in September and attend his aunt's 90th birthday party in Long Beach.  Do you know how hot it is in Palm Springs in September??!

Before I could get myself settled back into my routine, Will planned a trip around the Olympic Peninsula for
6 days.  We started out in Cascade Locks (I'm reading "Wild" about a gal hiking much of the Pacific Crest Trail up to the Bridge of the Gods which is in Cascade Locks.  We took Suki on a road trip where we stopped at motels nightly and fixed our lunch as a "tailgate" experience.  We rode, hiked, and admired the Pacific North West and delighted in this wonderful country called the West. Some of the high lights of the trip were the beaches along the Washington coast, the Olympic National Park, Lake Quinalt and the beautiful old lodge on the lake shore, the worlds largest Sitka Spruce tree, the worlds largest Red Cedar tree at 19-1/2 feet in diameter, the Hoh rain forest  and the Hall of Mosses trail, Neah Bay on the Makah Indian reservation and the great Native American museum there, Cape Flattery which is the furthest north western point in the lower 48 states, the coast and towns along the Strait of Juan De Fuca , the shoreline and towns along the Hood Canal and the majestic Mount Rainier and the road through Mount Rainier National Park to Paradise on the flank of the mountain with unobstructed views of the glaciers with blue ice and a lenticular cloud crowning the mountain.  All in all it was a beautiful trip and something we wanted to do before leaving Washington.  Opps...forgot to mention the ticket we got at Cape Disappointment (no pun intended)
for $99.00.  We thought we had this pass but a very rude ranger (I think he was afraid of Will) told us otherwise.  Everytime Will sees the picture, he curses.

Since this is such a long blog (I waited too long) I won't go on anymore.  There's lots more to share and I
will do it again soon.  Our next planned trip is to California in September.  Will will be in Colorado (near
Denver) the end of August and in Korea in September.  I'll be here in Washington with Suki studding my couples therapy modules.