Just Modern Day Gypsies: Our Visit Home Part 1

Seattle Space Needle

View of Olympic Mt's

A Beautiful opportunity to see the Olympic Mt's in the evening

Puget Sound

Dylan & Dusty base of Space needle

Dylan & Char at base of Space Needle that Grandpa built

Puget Sound

Dylan on top of the Needle

View of Seattle from the Space Needle

Dylan & Grandpa

Beautiful view from atop the Space Needle

You must try to visit Seattle

Well since I am writing this weeks after it happened and with Internet connection not very good here on Bethel Island, CA where we will be working for the winter I will be putting Part 1-2-etc so you will know it all goes with our 10 days in Puyallup, WA. As you seen on the previous blog our first evening in Puyallup was spent at Dusty's Aunt & Cousin's...it actually is his cousin's Sherry house. The next day was Sunday Aug.20 & Dylan and I spent most of it at Urgent Care. Fun..fun. We got home in time to get him some crackers and a video game, change clothes and go to Tacoma, WA to meet our niece's new boyfriend Greg. This was a treat for us and he has a beautiful home with views of the Olympic Mt's. Now I know it is not fair to those of you who have never been in the Pacific Northwest but for those of you who have you will appreciate that there was such a view. I have only 1 niece and 1 nephew on my side of the family and Dusty's sister has step-children that we never see so we are very close to our niece and nephew. Jennifer has two sons..Conner & Logan...and our nephew Paul has a son Gavin. So it was nice to have a quiet dinner with Greg & Jen before all the family began to arrive. Whoops..I'm sorry did I say quiet..no way do you get quiet with me & Jen....talk..talk..talk....poor Greg he had no idea what he was getting into!!! Your a good sport Greg...anyway..Oh Happy 40th Birthday Jennifer...love you...we went out onto the deck to have dinner (so nice of it not to rain) and Greg asked a question he never should have and I never finished my dinner!! He asked such an open ended question on some of my "beliefs" and was so interested in what I had to say that we talked the rest of the evening away and when they come to visit us this Nov. I know we will continue our talk...
Monday was a catch up day around the motor-home, cleaning and laundry and I met Jenn in Tacoma and went out to my sister's house to get some family albums and begin to pull out some pictures for mom & dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary. This was why we had made our trip to WA state to celebrate that day with them. My dad has lung cancer and my mom is seriously ill from her diabetes so their wish was that all the children, grandchildren & great-grandson's be there. Now this doesn't sound like a big deal but you must realize even though there aren't that many of us we are spread all over and we all hadn't been together since our daughter Sarah graduated from Mills College in Oakland, CA in May 2000. But we were going to be able to put it all together even tho some spouses weren't able to make it. So we spent the evening laughing more at how we looked years ago or how cute our kids were when they were little then putting together pictures for the slide show but Jan, Jen Larry, Sarah & Eric did a great job with it in the end!!
On Tuesday Dusty & I spent the afternoon with my mom & dad and then went looking for a gift for them. We had to leave Dylan at home since we weren't sure at this time what he had.
On Wed. we went to the Space Needle. Dylan still felt terrible and yet since he had missed seeing so many things he wanted to try going to the Space Needle. Now we have family history with the Space needle as my grandfather was a riveter on it and use to to tease me that it was safe to go up in because he had put it together. Now I know it is hard for you younger people to realize but in 1962 when the Space Needle opened during the 1962 Seattle World's Fair it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. I attended that World's Fair and was the good age of 12. What a thrill it was to go and explore all the things of the future..especially to see a machine that could cook a hot dog in 20 sec...yes the micro-wave was a thing of the future at that time. I think Dylan enjoyed his time up at the top of the Space Needle..I was just happy it wasn't raining(notice a theme here)...but the thing that made him feel better while up there wasn't the Sprite he had oh no...he takes after his cousin Paul..he enjoyed looking into the hotel rooms with the telescopes up there and spying on people on the ground.....Hey if you ever get a room in Seattle and you can see the Space Needle from it be sure and close your curtains when you are in the room..LOL.
We took him briefly to Pike Place Market as that was something Dusty wanted to show him and the waterfront...he took as much as he could and then asked to go home. But at least another generation shared in a moment together as I have taken all my children and grandchildren to the top of the space Needle and tell them how Grandpa was right it is still safe to go up in because he put it together!!