Well the time has come to help Yogini with the boys on our long flight to Seattle. Flying that distance is difficult for adults so you can imagine how it must be for two energetic boys. Traveling with youngsters is challenging in so many ways. You have to deal with strollers, car seats, suitcases, a few toys, waiting in lines, boredom, etc. All in all they did very well for such a long journey.
Once we got to Sea-Tac (love the name of the airport) it became a comedy of life. With two car seats, one stroller, suitcases for five people we had quite the pile of stuff. Of course when you are dealing with car seats there is no room in a car for extra passengers Erich, in his usual way had everything orchestrated. He picked up Yogini and the boys leaving Bruce and I with the mountain of luggage at the airport. He drove to where their other car was parked and dropped off Yogini. After battling an immense amount of traffic they both made it back to the airport to pick us up, Bruce with Yogini and me with Erich. Luggage packed wherever it would fit and off to the apartment in Renton. This was to be our temporary home until they could settle on the new house. Erich drove Yogini's car here about a week earlier and had the apartment ready for us. Interesting thing about the Seattle area, at least for us Mid-Atlantic folk, people don't have air conditioning. I understand it is not usually needed, but of course they were dealing with unusual heat while we were there, Erich had fans everywhere. This was also when there was major forest fires in Canada and Montana. There were times when we could see and smell the smoke.
It was a nice two bedroom apartment overlooking a courtyard with a pool. It was unfortunate that I was suffering from a bad case of plantar fascitiis and was unable to do any walking. My poor grandsons had to suffer our limited ability to go anywhere and have any adventures. Bruce did his best but I definitely was a killjoy.
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| Park near the apartment. |
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| Jayan helping with the photos. |
We did take a few hours one evening and hobbled down to a local sports bar foe some adult time.
We celebrated Jayan's 5th Birthday.
We stayed with the kids there for about two weeks while Yogini and Erich worked at their new jobs, settled on their new house and got moved in, all in a very short time.
When they had the house livable, we all moved out the the apartment and into their lovely new house in Sammamish, WA.
Once the boys were in daycare we decided to stay a few days longer and rented a car. This was the time of the solar eclipse and there were no cars to be had. We finally were able to get a car on Wednesday, August 23. Speaking of the eclipse, we were in an area of partial coverage. We could not find a pair of glasses anywhere to view the eclipse so we tried a few homemade things that were not very satisfying. But, I have to say during the eclipse the lighting was really strange. It didn't get dark but everything took on a sharp look. It was eerie.
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| Eclipse Shadows |
Once we had a car and our babysitting duties were no longer needed we did a small amount of exploring. We visited Snoquamie Falls. I understand these falls were used in the intro of a TV show called "Twin Peaks." Since I was still hobbling around because of my foot most of our siteseeing was from the car.
We also visit Jimi Hendrix's grave in Renton.
We drove up to Bellingham, WA to visit with our friends Anita and John George. We had melon margaritas with excellent chicken wings with angry sauce, followed by a splendid dinner of grilled salmon. Spent the night there in our luxurious suite and after a great breakfast went exploring. Again, my foot held us back from any hiking but we had a great car adventure.
Back to Erich and Yogini's for a few more days. Spent the weekend back in Snoquamie. This time with the whole gang. Did a train ride through the area, had a nice lunch in town. Viewed a very big log. A nice family day trip.
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| View along the tracks. |
Now it was time to fly back home. Already missing my guys.
