From Cousin to Cousin

We left the Tacoma Elks, Post 174, the oldest post we have ever stayed at.
The traffic was not bad as we got onto I-5, but as we got closer to Seattle we crawled to a stop.  This gave us lots of opportunities to snap pictures of the beautiful skyline. We were warned about the I-5 Seattle traffic, but this was at 11:30 in the morning… how bad could it be?  When we got up to the slowdown about 1 1/2 miles from the ‘slow down’ we found a car had been pulled over by the police completely off to the side of the freeway out of traffic.
All this because of ‘rubber-neckers’; go figure. From here we sped up to 55 mph in no time and were on our way to Mukiltio to catch the ferry to Whidbey Island.  We were not sure if we would have to unhitch the Jeep, whether it would be cheaper or easier, but the nice lady at the Terminal said she would measure both the rig and the Jeep hooked up.  It measured 57 feet. This is nice to know and as it was less than 60 feet AND we are seniors the ride was only $52.50.
We were the first vehicle in lane 5 with a great view of the ferry coming in. We drove onto the ferry very close to the right side.  I think our mirror was less than 2 inches from the wall. Tom can thread a needle with our Windsor.



 

The ride took only 20 minutes and we barely felt the ferry moving across to Clinton, Whidbey Island. All the cars from the upper deck exited first, then the middle lane, then we were motioned to leave.

We drove to Payless Food Market where my cousin, Rob, is the seafood manager. Rob’s department sells $7000 in seafood a week (or is that a day?), anyway it is a lot. We later shopped for a few items and found this to be such a nice store with lots of healthy, fresh items. We even found Gingerbread Biscotti. Woo Hoo!!!  Since Rob was not going to be home until a little later and Gwen works late at the hospital, we decided to unhook the Jeep and take a joy ride around South Whidbey Island. When we got back about 2 hours later, Rob was sitting in his car in front of the RV calling us. Tom jumped out of the Jeep, and brought Rob to the RV to take a look around.  It was poring down rain and I stayed in the Jeep until it let up then joined the boys in the RV.  When it finally let up a bit we all drove the 3 vehicles the mile to the Parrick abode. 
They live on a hill overlooking Useless Bay and across the Sound to Seattle. What a view! Rob is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of NY so he insisted on fixing dinner. There was no talking him out of it… though we didn’t try too hard.  When Rob and Gwen built their house they planned a serious commercial kitchen. These are a few shots of their wonderful kitchen.








Rob had potato crusted halibut, red potatoes, asparagus, and salad with a raspberry dressing. We talked all about our memories growing up with our grandparents, stories about of kids, we watched the rain, the rainbows and the sunset. If you look real closely you can see the double rainbow on the left.  These rainbows only lasted a few minutes then were gone. It is like the opportunities in life where sometimes we only have a brief time to catch the treasures offered us in the gift of life.


We had a fantastic evening catching up on our shared lives.  What a joy it is being able to travel to see our family. We have visited 3 cousins that we have not seen in over 10 – 30 years. WAY TOO LONG and we won't let this happen again. While we have 2 family reunions a year, this side of our families have lived too far to travel and we count it a privilege to visit them.
Yesterday, Rob & Gwen went off to work and we headed to the north end of Whidbey Island. Our destination was Rosario Bay.  We were intrigued by the name, Rosario, and thought our friends, Sharon and Don DelRosario would be interested. I know they have to have visited here so we just had to go here too. We saw so many vistas, forts, bridges and learned the history of this Island. We are going to explore tomorrow also. These are a few of the places we visited:

The most patriotic restaurant on the Island, we think. There was every kind of honor for our service men and women inside and out.
The guy, Frank, has a real funny sense of humor, too. Notice who is on the restaurant sign, Frank and all the presidents from Roosevelt to Obama.  












I guess I was wearing the right sweater for Frank’s Place.


We drove over the very high Deception Pass Bridge. The state of Washington is rebuilding the beautiful guard rails that were originally built by the CCC’s, Civilian Conservation Corp, in the 30’s. Tom’s dad, Joe, was in this and was one of the men that put up the hand rail posts up the back side of Half Dome.
 
The state flower of Washington is the Rhododendron. They are in full bloom and come in amazing sizes and colors.
 
We stopped by Fort Casey, which looks a lot like Fort Stevens in Oregon.
Visited the Admiralty Head Lighthouse.
And then hurried back to Rob & Gwen’s for another one of Rob’s fantastic dinners: Parmesan baked chicken, spaghetti with a wonderful marinara sauce, green salad, and Tuscan bread.
The Parricks have two adorable and of course “not too spoiled” dogs.   Lilly, the basset is just too typical of a basset. Our first dog, Blossom, was such a character too. She actually got me into the Animal Welfare business while volunteering for our CCSPCA .
This morning Gwen came over to our place for coffee and biscotti, then we went to Rob’s store to store to stock up on a few things. Biscotti anyone?





On the Road Again, Caching Places That We’ve Never Been…  Thanks for joining us.