Angela gets out of bed and decides to make sure Sabriya is awake for school. Bree is sound asleep. Angela wakes Bree up.
Angela: “Time to get up for school. It’s 7:00 am.” Bree: “…?? No, it’s not. It’s 4:00 am.”
Angela returned from the East Coast yesterday, and her fitness tracker watch hadn’t updated its time zone.
Angela’s parents come to visit for a week and a half. The main reason they’ve come is for Liya’s upcoming high school graduation, but it’s also the first time we’ve been able to see them since the pandemic began.
Jan’s sister Skye and her family drive up from Oregon to spend some time on the Olympic Peninsula, so Jan drives down to Tacoma to have lunch with them. It’s the first time Jan’s seen them since late 2019.
They have lunch in Tacoma, then go to Point Defiance Park. Skye picked out a great spot to visit called “Stairs & Slides”: a hill with a series of six slides going down. Skye and Jared’s boys, Leif and Auden, are delighted. Jan happens to have a blanket in the back of his car, which removes nearly all the friction from sliding down — something that’s either good or bad, depending on your point of view.
Afterwards they walk around towards Owen Beach, and spend time at a playground before Skye and family continue on their way and Jan heads home.
Liya’s senior class holds its prom dance at a pavilion in the Olympic Sculpture Garden. Liya (second from left) has a great time with her friends.
Jan takes Cheng-nan for a hike to Debbie’s View on Squak Mountain. He’s in amazing shape for 83, and makes the 1700’ climb without any trouble.
We all go out for seafood at Chinook’s on Fisherman’s Wharf. This is the first big meal eating inside at a real restaurant for a long time. There’s a bit of a wait — everyone wants to eat out at restaurants again, but restaurants are still only allowed to use 50% of their indoor seating, and our group of 8 needs to be split across two tables. But once we’re all settled it’s a great meal. It’s Copper River Salmon season, so a bunch of us have that.
Liya graduates from high school in a ceremony at T-Mobile Park. The school had really wanted to hold an in-person graduation that could allow families to bring a decent number of people, so they hold it in the baseball stadium where the Seattle Mariners play. Even with large family groups in tow, a graduating class of some 65 students barely begins to fill the seats on the main level.
The program includes too many speeches that go on for too long. Two standouts are the main speech by Sarah, one of the school’s class deans, and a funny speech by a student (the head of school’s daughter) about, of all things, astrology.
It’s fun to watch Liya appear on the Jumbotron as she receives her diploma.
Congratulations, Liya!
Anya, Liya, Sabriya, and Evrim go to Portland for a 3-day, girls-only trip. Liya’s organized the entire trip, saying she wanted to do something with her sisters — and without parents. They stay for two nights at the Kimpton Vintage Hotel, and visit a variety of places around Portland, including the city’s Japanese garden, its science museum, and its art museum. But the place all the girls are most keen to visit is Powells, the city’s enormous bookstore.
In the three days the girls are in Portland, the girls make a total of four trips to Powells, and come back with a shelfload of books.
Bree by the Willamette River in Portland
Jan and Sabriya go on a father/daughter backpacking trip with Bree’s friend, Hazel, and Hazel’s dad, Joe. Joe and Hazel show up bright and early so Jan can get them set up with gear they’ll be borrowing for the trip. They’re both avid day hikers, but this is the first backpacking trip.
They head to the Thunder Creek area of North Cascades National Park. It’s a very busy season for outdoor activities everywhere, so there’s a line at the Marblemount ranger station to pick up first-come/first-served campsite permits. They manage to get permits to camp at the McAllister campground and Junction campground, both of which lie along Thunder Creek.
They eat lunch at Mondo’s restaurant in Marblemount, where Bree and Jan stopped for lunch last year. As before, the lunch portions are far too big for normal humans.
The foursome drive to the trailhead on a bay of Diablo Lake, gear up, and head out on the trail. After a short while, they come to the first crossing of Thunder Creek, which at this point near the river’s mouth is enormous. The trail gradually climbs up the river valley. All around them, snow hangs onto the tall rocky peaks that tower above the valley.
After some 5½ miles, they arrive at the McAllister campground. The hiker camp is full, so the ranger’s had approved their use of the spacious stock camp. A trail crew that’s been working in the area has graciously left their tarps in place over a nicely-furnished eating area and a fire pit. Jan explains that backcountry campsites aren’t usually this elaborate.
Jan helps everyone set up their tents. By this point, everyone’s hot, so they rinse off a bit in a frigid stream nearby.
Dinner is rehydrated backpacker chili augmented with real cheese, onions, and Fritos. He’d been careful to set Joe and Hazel’s expectations for backpacker food very low. They’re happy to discover that the meal tastes quite good, particularly with the fresh toppings.
While they’re toasting marshmallows, a very tame deer walks slowly around and through the site.
Jan, Bree, Hazel, and Joe hike further up the Thunder Creek valley toward the Junction campground. A hiker had warned them that the trail was only cleared up to the Tricouni campground; beyond that, there were plenty of blown-down trees. And, sure enough, as soon as they pass Tricouni campground, they immediately hit a big, messy pile of trees that’s somewhat difficult to cross over. The trail also begins to climb steeply.
Thankfully, while numerous trees have indeed fallen across the trail, there are few spots as bad as the first one. And after completing the climb, the trail’s quite easy. The four hikers eventually reach Junction campground around noon. This turns out to be a set of clear spots at the top of a ridge, with expansive views across the valley toward Tricouni Peak and other snow-capped mountains. The melting snow has created long, long waterfalls cascading down towards Thunder Creek. It’s beautiful.
The rest of the day is spent hanging out in camp, mostly reading and napping. Jan makes Bree’s favorite camp dinner — a rehydrated pasta bolognese that’s always very good.
The final day of Jan and Bree’s father/daughter backpacking trip with Joe and Hazel is another nice day. A bit too warm for June, really, but it’s nice in the shade. The four break camp by 9:30 am and set out to hike all 9 miles back down to the trailhead. This is the furthest Bree has ever hiked in a single day.
After descending from the ridge and clambering over all the fallen-down trees again, they take a break by a creek for lunch. It’s nice to cool off — Bree and Joe both dunk their heads in the cold creek.
From that point on, it’s pretty easy hiking all the way back to the trailhead. On the way to the car, they stop at an empty campsite on Lake Diablo for a quick wade or dip in the lake.
Jan’s looking forward to stopping for homemade blueberry ice cream at a roadside place south of Marblemount, but it’s unfortunately closed. They make do with a stop at Moe’s in Darrington, which turns out to have pretty good ice cream itself.
A construction crew begins the process of replacing our front sidewalk and front walkway, which have been destroyed over the last few years by the beautiful but evil magnolia tree in our yard. The tree, probably planted 40 years ago, is now enormous — so big that the city says it’s now too significant a specimen and we can’t take it down. We’re tried of having people trip on our broken sidewalk, so while we continue to advocate for the tree’s removal, we’re replacing the sidewalk.
The crew jackhammers out all the sidewalk concrete in a single day. This exposes the magnolia’s extensive root system. The crew says the roots are too large for them to cut out, so we’ll have to get a specialist. Our project is on hold while we wait for one to become available.
We pick strawberries at Bailey Farm in Snohomish. Jan, Anya, Liya, and Evrim go, along with Lilian, Anya’s friend from the NSIL-Y program who’s staying with us for a few days.
The girls are more enthusiastic about picking strawberries than actually processing them into food. We do our best to eat as many fresh strawberries as possible before they go bad, but 9 pounds is a lot of strawberries.
Angela accepts a new pastor position at Community Presbyterian Church in Buckley, WA. She’s been looking for a new position for about half a year. There are very few openings in Seattle, so she began looking at openings further afield, including a couple out of state. Happily, the church in the small town of Buckley was interested in her, and she liked the feel of the church.
Today concludes the process: Angela leads a worship service at the church, with the family in tow. After the service, the congregation meets and votes on accepting Angela as their new pastor.
Buckley’s about an hour’s drive away from our house in Seattle. That’s not a short commute, but her schedule will have her down there just a few days a week.
Seattle caps off a three-day heat wave with record-breaking temperatures. It eventually hits 107°F (“feels like 112°”).
When Jan moved to Seattle 31 years ago, one reason he liked this part of the country was the temperate climate, with its mild winters and summer temperatures in the mid-70s. Normally, at the end of June it would still be a bit gray and chilly, with temperatures finally warming up over July 4th.
Washington State lifts most of the restrictions put in place to contain COVID. Restaurants can fully reopen, we don’t have to wear masks, etc.
A stump grinder removes the magnolia roots that were holding up our sidewalk replacement project. This essentially dooms the magnolia tree, so whether the city lets us take it down soon or not, the tree will probably die on its own in the next few years.