Seattle

My trip to Seattle went quite well. We met my Aunt Diana at Kalama (at a park along the river) so that she could see Audrey. The park was lovely, and I enjoyed talking to Diana. I photographed a large barge that had the "Honda" logo on the side of it and a barge being towed by a tug. The river is lovely but I'm certain they had to remove quite a bit of bed/bedrock to create a body of water large enough for these ships to pass. After the visit with Diana we got back on the road, stopping several more times so that Audrey could get out of her car seat. Unlike many babies I know, Audrey hates being strapped in the seat. Thankfully she isn't a grumpy baby, or I'd have wanted to murder myself! It was raining and late when we pulled into Bob and Helen's house. Grandma Dona, Angela and Derek came to dinner. Wednesday morning mom, dad and I got up at 5:30, in order to leave for the airport. Mom and dad have never flown before and Alaska Airlines is all self-check in at Sea-Tac, so it ended up being a good thing I crawled out of bed! We got dad checked in, checked his bags and then took him to breakfast. Poor dad could hardly eat he was so nervous! After the airport mom and I went back to Bob and Helen's and waited for Grandma Dona. Around 11:00 we finally got to go see Great-Grandma Betty and Great-Grandpa Al. They live at Doug and Sallie's with Grandma Dona. Considering their age and medical conditions, Betty and Al look fabulous. In order to lessen their stress we took Grandma Dona to Pike Place Public Market for the day. She hasn't been since she was a little girl, making the experience that much greater! By dinner time Betty and Al were ready for visitors and we headed up the hill. When we first arrived Betty and Al both spent time with Audrey. Betty had been pretty out of "it" all day but after the baby arrived she became incredibly lucid, asking if she's a good baby, talking about how healthy she feels, rubbing her head and smiling the whole time. Al held her for quite a while, holding Betty's hand and Audrey's leg with one hand and Audrey's back with the other. He also grinned the entire time, particularly when Audrey stood in his lap, facing him and laughing. She brought a little light to their lives last night and it was beautiful! Good food and good company followed, rounding out the evening quite nicely. This morning we met with Ang for breakfast and then headed home. I'm glad to be home, thought Moose and Freyja were going to knock me over they were so excited to see me.

Tomorrow my huckleberry paper is due. I was pretty confident about it, but now that it's close to being due I'm a little nervous! Friday, Saturday and Sunday I'll be doing my last bird surveys, Monday Julie and I are taking Jan to the zoo, Tuesday I have a final exam and Wednesday and Thursday I'll be doing vegetation surveys. A busy week but after that I have nothing major going on until September 15. Summer is almost over.