Another busy month

August began quietly as Val returned to Houston to help with some of her grandkids.  After she returned, we had one more trip planned to the Pacific Northwest.  So on Friday, Aug 17th we flew to Seattle and 3 days with Len and Alansa Bates. Len was my college roommate and he was in my wedding.  Had a great time there - pike place market, Space Needle for Brunch, Chihuly museum (a glass artist of some renown, apparently), the salmon latter and the Ballard locks from Lake Union to the Puget sound, Anthony's for seafood, and, of course, great food and wine at Len's--really better than any restaurant.

We then rented a car and made a slow drive along the water up to Vancouver, BC to see Bob and Karen Rangno, who are old, dear friends from our time in Nashville at Vanderbilt U.  We spent a lot of time catching up, seeing the sights, and eating well. Bob is a very talented sculptor (now mostly wood, but some stone as well) and he has many of his creations in his house.  It was great seeing them and I hope they will visit us sometime in the near future.

We ended our trip with a visit to Jimmy and Teresa Goode, Sally's brother and sister-in-law.  They live in Port Ludlow on the Olympic peninsula at the mouth of the Hood Canal with a gorgeous view. Jimmy has a boat and sets out crab traps and so he has a supply of Dungeness crabs--we had a lot of crab and good wine and brought 5 frozen crabs home to Carlsbad where we shared them with Craig, Kathie and the boys.  While at Jimmy's we explored Port Washington, a very nice little town, and drove up to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park.  We loved seeing them again and hope that we will get together with them in October when they are going to be in Panama City, FL.  We hope to spend a couple of weeks there in the condo that I purchased last year as an investment. 

Health wise, we survived the trips but Val's knees and my back are still problematic.  I have scheduled another epidural steroid injection for the first week of October when we get back to Houston.

But it has been a fantastic summer.  Busier than any I remember, and everything worked out as planned. If you want to see any of our pictures of the trip, they are here.  And if you want to look at some of Bob Rangno's sculptures, they are here.