After many years of receiving weekly milk deliveries, we finally cancel our service. We’d started it when the kids were young, somewhat amazed that Smith Brothers Farms was still offering milk delivery. We went through a lot of milk each week, and liquids are heavy to carry, so it made sense to get it delivered. In later years they greatly expanded their offerings to include eggs, yogurt, and Beecher’s Flagship Cheese.
The delivery service also turned into an odd touchpoint in our family lore. At some point Jan claimed that he was the milk delivery man, going out in the early morning to deliver milk as a side job. He added that, before delivering the milk, he would jump up and click his heels together.
With all the kids out of the house, we no longer go through milk and those other items so quickly. We eventually concluded that it made sense to cancel the service. Jan snapped a photo of the delivery box in its spot on our front steps before they came to collect it. The box sat in that spot for so long that its removal reveals a square of lighter-colored, less weathered wood.
After a stretch of rain, we get a beautifully clear Sunday. As Angela leaves for work, Jan heads out on a long walk through the Arboretum, across the lake, and into downtown Bellevue. The view from the bridge’s pedestrian path is gorgeous, looking out over the marsh islands towards Union Bay, where the University of Washington crew teams are rowing.
Earlier this fall Jan replaced his old car; today Angela buys a replacement for her old car. The car she wants is at a dealership in Spokane. She decides to fly there to pick up the car and drive it home. She has perfect weather for her drive, and is happy with everything in the car.
The car’s quirkiest feature: a camera under the rear bumper. If you stand behind the car and hold out your foot under the bumper, the camera sees your foot. This signals the car that your hands are full and you want the car to open the trunk.
The maple tree on the north side of our house is at peak color.
Our neighborhood community group has organized a morning of volunteer work around the park, so we go over a help rake leaves from the sidewalks. There are 30 or so other volunteers; the streets end up with 100+ leaf bags waiting for pickup.
Bree departs from school to make her way home for the Thanksgiving break. At Bradley Airport, she arrives at her gate to find it empty — her trip via Dallas has been delayed until tomorrow due to thunderstorms in Texas. She’ll have to spend the evening somewhere near the airport.
She consults with Angela and decides to fly to Washington, D.C., instead so she can spend the night with her grandparents in McLean, VA. They’re over the moon to host Bree for the night.
Bree finally makes it home for the Thanksgiving break.
A buyer for Angela’s old car comes with a friend to inspect the car and — if it meets with their approval — buy it. Everything with the car is fine. They’ve come prepared to pay cash: literally thousands of dollars in cash.
Angela takes the cash to the Wells Fargo branch around the corner, where their cash-counting machine takes a second to determine the amount of money is significantly lower than it should be. The buyer asserts that he hadn’t counted it himself, and says he’ll come back with the rest.
Angela completes her car sale at a bank where she can meet the buyer who is paying in cash. The bank verifies that the large pile of bills is the correct amount. Angela immediately deposits the money so she doesn’t have to walk around carrying a ridiculous amount of cash.
Liya arrives from UBC for a short break. Since UBC is Canadian, there’s no official break for American Thanksgiving, but she’ll take the time off anyway.
Bree, Angela, and Jan pick Liya up at the bus stop on the University of Washington campus. We drive to a nearby Dough Zone so both Liya and Bree can get their fix of dumplings.
We drive down to Hood River, OR, to spend Thanksgiving with Jan’s family. Jan picks up Lyn and then we set out around 10:00 am.
It’s a rainy day, so highway traffic isn’t great. We stop in Chehalis for lunch at a kitschy cafe called Once Upon a Thyme. The afternoon is a series of crawls past a sequence of fender bender accidents. To avoid slow traffic near Portland, Google Maps sends down Highway 14 on the lesser-used north side of the Columbia River gorge. At Cascade Locks, we cross over the Bridge of the Gods where Jan started his hike across Washington on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2016.
We reach Hood River around 4:00. Chris has already arrived, and so has Skye and her family. We’ve rented a huge house for the next few days — there are plenty of bedrooms and a nice living room and dining room.
We’re just outside the town’s business district, so at dinnertime we make a short walk to Mugen Noodle for ramen. Jan makes the mistake of ordering the “hot” spicy level, which turns out to be too painful to eat.
After dinner most of the group gathers at the large dining room table to play a game called Herd Mentality. It involves a lot of mooing.
Thanksgiving Day. Various groups go out and about on shopping expeditions, quests for coffee, or walks down to the waterfront park on the Columbia River. As the forecast predicted, it rains nearly all day.
We spend the afternoon in the kitchen, which happily has two ovens so the turkey can go in one while sides go in the other. Bree and Uncle Chris enlist the help of Leif and Auden in assembling an icebox pudding. The canonical form of this dessert is a log shape, but Bree and Chris decide to construct a Roman Coliseum, including chocolate gladiators and a chocolate emperor.
Dinner is ready at 6:00 and it’s all good. After dinner, Skye breaks out a murder mystery game she’s brought. We’re all given parts to play, which we do enthusiastically and/or absurdly, taking the opportunity to borrow costume elements from a costume closet.
Chris’ British lord character, speaking about the disreputable tabloid published by the murder victim, has a line about the “‘Society Boobs’ column” that we can’t make heads or tail of but find humorous anyway. It’s ultimately revealed that Angela’s character was the murderer.
There are more walks and coffee runs in the morning. We’re delighted that the rain has ended and the sun has come out. Jared and Leif spend a long time playing a game the boys have learned/invented called “Oahu Slap”. There are so many rules that require slapping down on a card that nearly every card can be construed as an opportunity to slap down.
In the afternoon some people remain at the house, including Lyn, Skye, and Angela. Bree also stays behind so she can work on a college application with a deadline in three days’ time.
The rest of us go for a hike at a spot a short drive up the Columbia Gorge. It’s a perfect afternoon for a hike. The Lyle Cherry Orchard Trail climbs up steeply, eventually reaching a bluff with sweeping views of the Columbia. Leif happily runs ahead of the group.
At the top, Leif’s excited to point out a bald eagle soaring overhead. Chris claims that it’s a “white-headed crow”. Leif disputes this. Auden sides with Leif.
Chris reveals that he’s brought some high-end chocolate brownies from a bakery in town. Before giving some to Leif and Auden, he asks them what the large bird soaring overhead is called. They agree with him that it’s a white-headed crow in order to receive their brownie allotment.
In the evening we have dinner in town at an upscale restaurant called Celilo. Everyone has dressed casually, with the exception of Leif who wears a white dress shirt and black necktie.
We walk back to the house and play a big family card game that was often played in the summertime by members of the Coffin/Sims clan. This game is called “Dingman’s Dilly”, and was named after someone the family knew.
Chris and Jan remember playing the game but not the rules; Skye just barely remembers the rules to the point where we can start playing. At one point in the first round, Lyn flips over her card and everyone tells her not to do that. She protests: “I have a king. I’m supposed to flip it over.” Skye thinks: “Actually… she’s right. You’re supposed to do that.”
The game is simplistic and mostly luck but, as always, produces a lot of funny moments. Chris keeps swapping cards with Liya, who keeps giving him very low cards in exchange. Jan bluffs Auden into accepting some bad cards. Liya ultimately wins the game, besting Jan in the last round by playing an unbeatable king.
Rules for Dingman’s Dilly, preserved here so that we can find them the next time:
The “Good Night” song:
Good night, <name>, how we hate to see you go.
Good night, <name>, gee we’re gonna miss you so.
But we’ll all be waiting for you, <name>, while you roam.
Good night, <name>, don’t forget to come back home.
We have a fantastic breakfast at Broder Øst, a Scandinavian cafe. The spherical Danish pancakes are tasty.
Back at the house we pack up the cars. We’re all heading west on the highway, so Jan proposes we make one more group stop at Multnomah Falls. The 600’ waterfall is amazing, as is the thin bridge below it.
From the falls we say our goodbyes. Chris heads to Portland for his flight back to Boulder, and Skye and Jared drive back to Salem. We point north, stopping in Vancouver, WA, for Korean food at Sool. The food’s fine, although everything’s far too big.
The weather’s not sunny but still much better than what we had on our drive back, so there’s only the usual traffic at the Lewis–McChord military base to slog through.