Violet and I were up and out very early for our morning flight to Seattle. (Thanks, Stace, for taking us to Burbank airport!)
We got settled in and relaxed with Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty. That evening, we celebrated my birthday with homemade better-than-restaurant pizza, and outstanding homemade blackberry crisp with berries they'd picked.
Patty and I had picked up Will and Anna's children from day care and got to hang out with them, and then Will and Anna came over for dinner. Miles is a happy three-year-old, and Sophia is a sweetheart at 6 months old.
On Saturday, we got out for a nice walk in the woods, getting back to the car just as the rain started. There's a stream behind us in this photo, though it's a little hard to make out.
We deserved a good coffee after our walk, and Uncle Bill took us to the perfect place - Victor's, a longstanding Redmond tradition in a cool old building filled with coffee roasting machinery.
Later, we played a new-to-us game, Rummikub. It was fun! We also watched some Victorian Farm.
After church on Sunday, Aunt Patty and Violet made some amazing focaccia.
On Monday, we took the ferry to Kitsap County, checking out historic Port Gamble. The general store sold lots of neat items, and had a museum upstairs.
We looked at a few more stores, and then drove to Bainbridge Island, an upscale town across the water from Seattle. We went to an art museum, shopped, and had lunch/dinner.
We then took the ferry to Seattle - we'd realized that Violet had zero memories of taking ferries, because Bill and Patty had moved from Kitsap to California when she was 2. (And you don't take a ferry to get to Redmond from Seattle.)
So, we wanted to be sure she got the ferry experience, especially with the lovely nighttime view of the Seattle skyline, and the Space Needle. She later said the ferry into Seattle was a highlight of her trip.
On Tuesday, we walked to the park near their neighborhood with the farmyard, before heading back to the airport.
We had such a nice, relaxing long weekend together! A truly restful vacation.
Traveling with Violet was a great experience. And the gorgeous snow-covered mountains in the background at the airport - wow!
Unfortunately, we flew home into a horrendous windstorm, that was quickly becoming a firestorm in Los Angeles. The fire visible here was the Eaton Fire not long after it started. It proceeded to burn thousands of homes not far from Pasadena. The winds around Burbank were atrocious, and our pilot made a landing attempt that had our whole plane shaking around. I've never been as scared as I was on that descent - literally, I didn't know how we would land safely. (I felt completely nauseous, too, with the many minutes of turbulence.)
The pilot took us back up, and eventually announced that we would instead be landing at LAX. Landing there involved "normal" turbulence, but the cabin filled with the smell of smoke from the Palisades fire, which was also burning through neighborhoods. So sad!
Thankfully Stace was able to get the message while we were still in the air, so we didn't wait too long for him to drive from Burbank to LAX.
I've never been more grateful to be on the ground.
The young lady who will move in has worked very hard on it every weekend, and designed the inside. She did a fabulous job!
We three girls came out to the grand opening, which featured a breakfast and award ceremony for the volunteers.
Christina gave Stacey special recognition. He worked the most hours of any volunteer, for over two years on two homes. I'm so proud of his hard work. What will we do with his newfound freedom on Saturday mornings?
