Home at last.

Now begins the slow process of re-assimilation.

My flight got in late last night (about 11 p.m.) and by the time I got home from the airport it was almost 12:30 a.m. So I slept in a bit.

I need to get this laundry going, shower and get ready for a 1p.m. memorial service for JB’s mom.

YM got up and left the house before I was even up and left me a note saying she was going to church and then spending the evening with D. Probably overnight, but that’s just my guess. Not much I can say about that. She has probably curtailed a lot of that sort of thing the last two weeks in order to watch Libby the Wonder Poodle.

There’s lots still to process about this trip. Not only the vacationing alone part and how that was good and bad, but also about the visits I made in the Seattle area. All of them were good and rich visits. All of them were with people I had either never met before or only had a short conversation with.

OK. To begin.

Tuesday, as I came back across the Cascades via Hwy 20 (the northern most segment of the Cascade Loop. BEAUTIFUL, by the way) I stopped in Everette and visited with McKilt’s family.

Yup. That’s right. I actually called Monday evening from Wenatchee and they extended the invitation so I accepted.

Everette is a beautiful little city. The scenery can’t be beat. You have the Cascades to the east, with Mt. Baker and the Snohomish plain running up to those foothills. On the west you have the Sound and the Olympic Range with snow capped peaks on that side too. And lots and lots of trees. And beautiful flower gardens in the yards….with dark blue hydrangeas!! (probably from the acidic volcanic ash soil)

I happened to arrive in town the same day McKilt’s Uncle from Hawaii arrived. So Tuesday’s dinner included Mom, Step-dad, Aunt who lives in town, Uncle & Aunt from Hawaii. And me.

And we had a great time.

They are really nice people. We had interesting conversation, but it was also very low key.

Uncle & Aunt from Hawaii were staying at Mom’s so Aunt in Everette invited me to stay in her guest room.

Wednesday morning I met L who is staying in Aunt’s lower level apartment (suite of rooms with bath.) L is sister to a childhood friend of McKilt’s. She and I had a wonderful chat over coffee on Friday morning. But that’s getting ahead of myself.

Ok.

Wednesday, I had lunch with Sr. E. who lives in downtown Seattle. We had met briefly two years ago at the Deaconess Assembly when she was president of the board and I was a new candidate. We talked for about 90 minutes over a delicious lunch at Place Pigalle overlooking Elliot Bay (part of the Sound) and watching the Navy ships come into port for this weekend’s SeaFest.

After lunch I wandered around Pike’s Market picking up a few more gifts and watching the fish throwers. I made a reservation for the sunset cruise and then went to find a hotel room. That late afternoon I found out about the bridge collapse here in Minneapolis and between Wednesday night and Thursday morning talked to just about everybody in my address book it seems. They either called me or I called them. I found myself answering the phone “Hi, This is NFH, I’m in Seattle!”

Anyways. Thursday I drove back up to Snohomish to visit with the church that I had sent my resume to that’s looking for a musician but I withdrew my name because of the job with LN. Very nice people. Razzed me a little about not moving out there. Assured me that “It’s always this beautiful!” (Har!) and we visited for about an hour.

Then I went downtown Snohomish and stopped in to McKilt’s Uncle’s antique shop and said hi. He’s got quite the deal going on there. Mostly it looks like he sits out on the sidewalk and holds “mens’ club” with his buddies. So anyway, I sat and had a coke and shot the shit with them for about an hour.

There was a farmers’ market in Snohomish on Thursday and I found a lady who raises sheep and spins the wool. I bought about 200 yards that I think will make a nice felted bag.

Then back to Everette for what I hoped would be a dinner at Alfie’s with the group. (McKilt had told me on Thursday morning that he had talked with Step-dad who said we’d had a nice visit and they hoped they could see me again before I left town. Who am I to turn down company for dinner?)

We didn’t actually go to Alfie’s. Mom fixed a quick “fall-back” dinner and we piled in the car (all except Hawaii Aunt and Uncle who were bushed and decided they needed a stay-home evening) and drove to the beach at Mukilteo. It was windy and there were para-sailors on the water and big waves and kite fliers and big clots of teenagers with armloads of firewood preparing for a summer’s night bonfire and fun at the beach. I have to admit to imagining McKilt growning up there and what that might have been like.

But the beach was cold and these people are in their 70’s so our visit was short. We stopped for ice cream on the way home and then I bunked in at Aunt’s house again.

Friday morning, I had that nice chat with coffee with L and heard a bit of her story. I was surprised to find myself sharing a bit of mine as well. As younger sister to McKilt’s friend she had a little sister crush on him way back but they haven’t kept in touch or talked for many years. Maybe since high school. Maybe I felt comfortable talking to her because it wouldn’t seem so much like trying to get in good with the folks.

The weirdest thing of course is that I have no idea of how these people are interpreting the phrase “This is NFH, McKilt’s friend.” or it’s variant “This is NFH, a friend of McKilt’s from Minneapolis.”

No. I take that back. The weirdest part is that I don’t really care how they are interpreting it. I enjoyed my visit with them and went back for more because I enjoyed the first one. As the visits got more comfortable I heard a few McKilt childhood stories, but not a ton. And nothing in any of the conversations led me to have to explain or backpedal anything. I guess, I’m kind of hoping that I was welcomed for myself and not because I was a “friend-who-is-more-than-a-friend” of McKilt’s.

Eh. Anyway. The funniest thing was when Antique store uncle asked me if he was still wearing skirts.

So, I’m still processing.

• if/how this changes/develops things with McKilt and how I feel about that.
• what it’s like to vacation on my own.
• how I like visiting with people I’ve never met before. Where my awkwardness is, whether it shows, if I was rude somehow without knowing it…that sort of thing.
• what it would be like to move that far away from family and friends
• how I want to keep in contact with these new friends going forward

And I’m still getting used to looking around and seeing my own house, with my own stuff. And my own messy gardens and unfinished projects.

Uff da. This is the hard part of vacationing!

A year ago yesterday on This Journey, I went on my first date…I think! and a year ago today I wrote the 200th post.

— — —
A year ago (or longer) on This Journey…

Round two 2008
# 200 2006

— — —
A year ago (or longer) on This Journey…

Round two 2008
# 200 2006

— — —
A year ago (or longer) on This Journey…

Round two 2008
# 200 2006

Posted on August 4th, 2007 under vacation. RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.