Preparing for change

We have enjoyed another beautiful day in Tacoma. The temperature rose to 90 degrees today. Every time we have been here the weather has been lovely and sunny. It is hard to believe that it rains here as often as all the Washington people say it does.

We spent the morning preparing for tomorrow's departure. Somehow we seem to have accumulated a small mountain of dirty laundry that had to be dealt with. Jim needed a haircut. I went with him to a barbershop and we both found the experience amusing. We think this is probably only the 2nd or 3rd time he has been in a barbershop over the last 43 years. He tipped the barber. He has never tipped me. Maybe it was because she (yes, a female barber) gave him a shoulder rub afterward. I will have to rethink my job description.

This afternoon we took a stroll near Steilacoom along the bay. There is a golf course there that Jim drools over every time we are here. With green fees starting at $150 drooling is about all the playtime he got.

Tonight we celebrated (a few days early) the 92nd birthday of Jim's Mom. It was a good way to end our visit here.

Tomorrow we point the car south toward Oregon and see where we land.

Reunions

Our time in Washington State reminds me a bit of using my sewing machine to darn a hole in a piece of fabric; back and forth, this way and that, criss-crossing the space.

We came into Washington in Spokane, heading west to Seattle crossing over to Bainbridge Island via ferry. We traveled up and down Kitsap Island, and then down to Tacoma the next day. The following day we traveled back up to Kitsap Island, and back down again to Tacoma. Yesterday we traveled south of Tacoma and today north of Seattle, and back again to Tacoma. We have darned this state!

Today was a delightful day of reunion. My roommate from my young, single and free days in Minneapolis lives almost at the Canadian border and blessed me by driving a couple hours south to meet us for lunch in Quil Ceda. I am again amazed how some people who have been a part of our past life never leave our hearts and consequently we quickly fall back into that easy flow of conversation like no time has elapsed at all. It was so much fun to see Dee again. I wished there were more time available because I know we wouldn't have run out of chatter.

Our drive back down to Seattle was filled with heavy traffic and crazy drivers. We survived the drive (I am so thankful that Jim is such a good, patient driver!) and arrived just a few minutes late for dinner with friends from SDSU college days. It has been years since we have seen Jerry and Gloria, and it was so much fun to catch up with them.

As we have been reconnecting with all of these families and friends from our past, we can't help but notice that all of us have aged in body, but in not any of these reunions have we felt an aging in spirit. Our memories of times past are sweet, and the present is our treasure.

Losing it

It seems that when we settle in one place too long, we lose our sense of organization. For the past few weeks we have been aware of where everything was because there was only one place for it to fit in the puzzle of our compact quarters. Staying here for several days with Jim's Mom and Cora has made us sloppy in our awareness of where we put things because we have more room to spread things out.

This morning we brought the car in for an oil change. We had about a half hour wait, so we strolled over to a nearby restaurant to to get a bite to eat while we waited. When we returned to the car dealership Jim reached into his wallet for his credit card to pay the bill. No card. He immediately realized that he had left it in the restaurant so handed me what we fondly call the "man bag" and left to recover his credit card. The man bag holds our office - computer, calendars, receipts and everything else we need to keep track of our life on the road. I set it down on the floor so I could reach for my credit card to pay the bill.

We left the car service center and drove about 30 minutes south to the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. As we prepared to go on our 4 mile trek I asked Jim if the man bag was away from direct sunlight. It wasn't in the sun. In fact, it wasn't in the car at all. Yep. Left it at the car service center. A quick phone call verified that they had it, and they assured us they would keep it in a safe place until we returned. It was hard not to let the fact that it was not in our possession niggle in our brains, but we had come to enjoy the refuge, and we decided at this point that strangers were better at being in charge of our possessions than we were.

It was a beautiful afternoon and we trekked through both woods and tidal basins. Although we didn't find the warblers we hoped to see, we found a couple different kinds of hawks, a bald eagle and several other kinds of birds. Jim was delighted to find wild blackberries and picked as many as he could reach.

Tomorrow we will take better inventory of where things are!

Decompression

For the first time since 1974 school started without Mr. Keatley. It is an odd feeling and yet one that Jim is totally comfortable with. This trip is a celebration of the completion of his career, but also a time when both of us look forward to our tomorrows with eager anticipation of what God has in store for us. We are available.

Today was a day to relax, decompress, do a bit of reading, and much to Jim's delight (maybe that isn't quite the truth) a bit of shopping.

Driving around Tacoma has made us grateful that we live in a small town with easy Interstate access to a city a good half hour away. We think we spent as much time at stoplights as we did moving forward.

Cora started her school year today so I made dinner and it actually felt good to be back in the kitchen.

We "Face Timed" Justin and Kayleen tonight and it was so good to see them and the grandkids again! I remember when I lived in California years ago and my family seemed so far away. The technology of today has made the world so much smaller and keeps our family so much closer. I doubt I would have wanted to go on this long journey without the blessing of cell phones and my I-pad.

Jim helped with dishes tonight. For him I am sure it feels just like home!

Tomorrow we go exploring again.

Be still

Cora, Jim and I drove back onto Bainbridge Island this morning to visit the Bloedel Reserve. This is a 150 acre natural garden founded by Prentice Bloedel who intended that it be a place which "provides refreshment and and tranquility in the presence of natural beauty". We walked trails for over two miles and it was so beautiful and so tranquil that we often found ourselves talking in a whisper. The 10th verse of Psalm 46 kept running through my head "Be still and know that I am God".

The trails were covered with ground up pine, and I made the very bad decision to wear my flip-flops instead of tennis shoes. I kept getting horrible, thin little needles stuck in the bottom of my feet like tiny, painful injections. Finally in desperation I lined the soles of my flip-flops with Kleenex that Cora fortunately had with her. I looked like one of the poor orphans from Oliver Twist. Note to self: think twice about what you are wearing before you leave the house!

After our trek we drove to Poulsbo which is a little historic bayside town with Norwegian roots where we had a German lunch accompanied by a Scottish bagpipe player who was on the street below the balcony where we were seated. I guess it must be an American place because it was a conglomeration of international influence.

We had to remind ourselves that today was a holiday (Labor Day) because every day feels like a holiday.

We were sorry that Mom Keatley was not able to accompany us because the trails would have been too difficult for her to navigate, but we finished the day together with more conversation.

Surprise

We started our day with a wonderful breakfast on the bay.

We had done a little research on the Internet to decide where we wanted to go to church this morning and were excited to get there. I wish I had my camera open and ready to shoot when we walked in and asked if we could meet the Pastor. He was standing nearby and when he turned toward us I said " Pastor Jim Keatley, I would like you to meet my husband, Jim Keatley". His mouth very nearly hit the ground! We found both Jim's do indeed share a common ancestry going back about 5 generations to Donagal, Ireland and two brothers who both immigrated to the United States and who both fought in the Revolutionary War in the 1700's.

Pastor Jim announced that he had a surprise namesake visitor in the audience, and then told the congregation that Jim had just retired and the entire audience applauded. It was all immense fun.

We were blessed with a very nice worship service and a meaningful, well-delivered sermon was followed with communion. I thought about the fact that while this connection was just made on earth, our connection in heaven will be eternal. We are indeed living out the communion of the saints.

After church Pastor Jim and his wife Sonna asked us to join them for lunch so we all went to a local restaurant and chatted like we had been friends for a long time. I love how God keeps bringing new people into our lives. They bless us and we pray that we are a blessing to them.

We arrived in Tacoma mid afternoon to spend a few days with Jim's family. Jim's Mom lives here with his sister-law Cora and currently her daughter Tina and son-in-law Jon. With us added to the mix there is a full house! I am sure we will find much to talk about in the next few days.

Changes

As we came into Eastern Washington we stopped at a pullout overlooking the Columbia river. That scene and the subsequent wheat and potato fields were in sharp contrast to the Cascade mountains which followed. We have decided that the Cascades are the prettiest we have seen so far. That may be because they are so green compared to the drought stricken mountains we had crossed earlier. Seeing the snow on the eastern side of beautiful Mt Rainier makes us aware that the cold season is not far off.

After missing about three turns we finally got to the Seattle Ferries. The ride over to Bainbridge Island was a delight. The weather was perfect and the sea was calm which is a good thing because a sea sick driver would not be a good thing! One thing we immediately noticed that we did not see on previous trips here were the two Coast Guard boats escorting the ferry. Both were armed with M-60 machine guns. That was a somber reminder to us of how our world has changed since 9/11.

We spent the later part of the afternoon driving about the Island and found the historic Norwegian town of Poulsbo. We wished there were more hours in our days because there is always more to see and explore than we have time for.

Tonight Jim is honoring rule number 4. The hotel we are staying in is definitely in stark contrast to the campgrounds we have stayed in. I like the rules!

Tomorrow we head to Tacoma to spend some time with Jim's family.