Round 2

Judy. We’re off again.  We had a a brief stint in Denver with son Stefan, his wife Sarah, and grandson Oliver, where we celebrated Ted’s dad’s eighty-seventh birthday and our great-niece Evie’s first birthday.

The family there had not met Ollie, who is now seven months old, so we had a fun visit.

 We also got a great shot of four generations.  

         

When we go to Denver, we usually spend all our time with family.  Denver is where Ted and I met and married, where I got my MFA in theatre, and where our children were born, so we definitely have some history there. One afternoon I hopped the light rail (which I adore—sure has helped the smog that was there in the ‘70’s) and went to downtown Denver. There’s so much energy and improvement downtown—actually from years ago. LoDo, Larimer Square, Union Station, Coors Field (where the Colorado Rockies play baseball), the Sixteenth Street Mall are so vibrant! The light rail was filled with folks in purple shirts headed to a Rockies game, a short walk from Union Station. Artwork and street musicians fill the Sixteenth Street Mall. So alive!

I wandered up to the Denver Center Theatre Company, where I was hired as part of the original company in 1979, and where I earned my Actor’s Equity Association card (that’s the actors’ stage union), and was pleasantly surprised by the growth there as well. Yep, Denver is a cool city.

Unfortunately, housing is out of sight. The influx of folks from richer states and the marijuana industry have caused property prices to go nuts—and they were already high. But, folks seem to deal with it, so bravo to them.

From Denver we flew to Seattle to meet our good friends and travel and wine-drinking buddies, Terry and Sue. Originally from the area, they drove us around the Olympic Peninsula for some Washington sightseeing. The bad news is that there are several forest fires in British Columbia, and the smoke has drifted south, obscuring views and the sky. We’ve never let bad weather or other surprises stop us before, so we kept going.

We have the best luck with Terry and Sue!  Our first stop was in Oyster Bay at what looked like a rent-by-the-hour motel. Surprise: it was a charming old place with incredible views of Oyster Bay off our balconies! AND it happened to be two doors down from a fun restaurant where a good friend of theirs worked.

We drove up Mt. Walker in hopes of incredible views of Mt. Ranier, but the smoke squashed that plan, so on to the floating bridge over the Hood Canal and the ferry across Puget Sound to Mukilteo, where we had a condo for a few days.

 

There we discovered the Big Gulch Trail through an urban forest just blocks from where we were staying. After walking past traffic and road repair, it was a delight to find ourselves almost lost in the woods, listening to birds and reveling in the beauty of old growth and second-growth trees.

We hit up the Mukilteo Farmer’s Market for bread and local flowers, and walked around the old lighthouse. 

Ted, Terry, and Sue went to the Boeing Museum, which they pronounced out of this world, and we all went to the pub/restaurant next door, The Scotsman, where George, the Scottish expat owner told us about growing up with Ian Rankin, one of Ted’s favorite authors.

Another quiet day of walks, before we head into Tacoma and fly out to Vancouver, BC. It’s a great start! And, by the way, we changed out our clothes.