Wednesday, November 13, 2013

What I've been up to since July 2013

A week after my return from Albuquerque we left for vacation in Washington state.  The trip was originally intended for a visit with Gary's older sister and her family, but we took a couple of days to visit some old friends who recently relocated to Port Townsend. 
Thanks for a wonderful time Mike and Sandy!
 
We had  an amazing two day visit with them before heading out to drive to Walla Walla (via Mt. Rainier National Park).   Did I mention the fact that we're trying to visit all the National Parks before we're too old to enjoy them??  While on the Olympic Peninsula we visited Olympic National Park.  Here are a couple of pictures from that drive.

Fort Worden Lighthouse

Wind surfer at North Beach, Port Townsend

Olympic National Park vista

Wildlife

Waterfall we hiked to.


Downtown Port Townsend

 


 
Our trip to Mt. Rainier was the third for us and we were sad to see a lot of damage from old forest fires, not to mention that the lodge at Paradise is no longer there.  Here are just a couple of pictures from Mt. Rainier.





Our drive to Walla Walla to visit Gary's sister took longer than anticipated due to lots of construction along the way.  We had a great time visiting the relatives here's a picture of the gang.
Gary and I are in the back row on the right and his sister is directly in front of us.  She has two daughters and they have 3 kids between them.
 
Here's a picture of Bonnie and Gary in front of her residence.
 
We took a drive to Palouse Falls while we were there and these are a couple of photos from the park.


 
We arrived home the end of July and Gary's older brother Joe arrived a week later.   Meanwhile I've been quilting a lot of charity quilts (will post pictures of them later). 
 
In August my Aunt Rosalie came down from St. Louis to go with me to the Rice Festival in Weiner, Arkansas.   Uncle Robert was to accept a plaque for Uncle Sonny's service over the years. 
Uncle Robert (my last surviving uncle)

Aunt Vera, Uncle Robert, Aunt Rosalie (two of my four remaining aunts)
 
You might notice that Aunt Rosalie is wearing St. Louis Cardinals gear.  By this time we were in the midst of the end of the baseball season and being the Cardinal fans we are, we were following the games to see if we made it into the playoffs, then to see if we would win the Pennant, then on to the World Series!  Go Cards!  Unfortunately we did not win the series, but there's always next year.   Keep your fingers crossed for us. 
 
 
I'll post more quilt related topics with my next post, hopefully before the end of the year.  
 
 
Happy Quilting!