Olympia: Last Day

Dave and I headed out for a walk around the lake that is below the Washington State Capital Building. Yes, if you didn't know it, Olympia is the Washington State capital. The lake was pretty and after our major 2 day eating fest we needed more exercise.

We went and picked Alyssa up and said our good-byes. These were much easier than our first good-byes over six months ago.
As a parent I suppose that I could have only seen the messy apartment, the nude drawings of everyone living in the house - including Mikey Badger - the clothes and dirty dishes, the boys in and out and over at all times. But, along with the mess, and I would be lying to say I ignored the mess, what I saw was my amazing child growing up with an open heart and an open home. I saw young women exploring their bodies, their lives, and their ability to make choices about all of those things. I saw that they had created a place that people wanted to be -- where people wanted to spend their time; and I was so very proud.

Olympia: Hike and more

Our second day we decided to get out of town and head up to Olympic National Park. The day before we had stumbled on a great outdoor and ski store and bought a hiking guide to the area. "Whitey", a nice young blonde dreadlocked man at the store, spent time talking us through some good spots and warning us that it was the very beginning of the season so some things might not be open. Good words of advice since our first hike was closed.

We ended up at Lake Cushman and did the Big Creek Loop Trail. It was fantastic! Not too long (4.6 miles) and just the right amount of strenuous climb to make me lightly sweat (1200 ft over 1.5 miles), but not so much that I had to rest.

Great waterfalls and wildflowers.

We also found trolls under one of the many bridges! Luckily we didn't "trip, trap, trip trap" across the bridge too loudly. No one was eaten.

More pictures of the hike.

We took the girls out to dinner at Darby's. The place is an Olympia icon. The waiter was the best... as was the food.

Olympia: Procession of the Species

Since we have been showing Alyssa colleges we thought is was time to let her visit her sister who is actually living the college life. Although I was more than happy to put her cute little behind on the plane and send her up on her own, David decided that maybe she wasn't quite ready to navigate it without us. So, I bought cheap tickets and booked a hotel room for "mom and dad" and we packed our bags.

It turned out that we were hitting Olympia during their "Procession of the Species" parade day. Bethany's roommates came down for it and we had a blast. What the heck is it? "The Procession of the Species is a joyous, spontaneous artistic pageant where community members celebrate their relationships with each other and with the natural world."

After a beer at the Fish Tale Brew Pub, we headed out for a walk downtown. We came across the FireSide Bookstore and had to stop in. Jane Laclergue is the proprietor and her charming husband was there as well. We talked about books, brothels, and earthquakes. The store is in the Olympian Hotel building. Although it is no longer a hotel, it was once the place where all of the politicians stayed and the call girls were flown in from Vegas! It was also damaged in the 2001 Olympia earthquake (6.8), but it looks great now.

Easter 2009

Easter this year was a mellow affair. Bethany didn't come home from school and since we were getting ready to head down to LA to look at colleges for Alyssa the next day, we kept things low key.

My mother and I felt the need to attend church. That Lutheran thing lives deep in our bones. We have been enjoying attending St. Marks in San Francisco occasionally and decided to go to their Easter celebration.  The church was packed with over 400 people by my estimation. The service was great and the music wonderful. 

Picture from St. Marks website http://stmarks-sf.org/

We went back home to a wonderful dinner of ham, potato salad, asparagus, and lemon cheesecake for dessert. The food was great. I was worried that I would miss the noise and chaos of a full house during a holiday dinner, but the company of just David, Brooks, my mom, and Alyssa was actually wonderful.