It’s been a week of visiting with old friends and family. Last Sunday I attended my usual 8.30 mass at St.Nicholas in Gig Harbor where I have been a member since the mid eighties. Lots of familiar faces and hands to shake. I drove up to Bellingham to see the Nesbits and then the three of us drove across the Canadian border to have dinner with Paul de Leeuw ( nee, niet “de” Paul de Leeuw…) who was on his way to Amsterdam from New Zealand. I had not seen Paul since before I took off from the West Coast. Monday I had lunch with Brenda in Kirkland. Tuesday evening 10 couples got together to have their “Taco Tuesday” ritual at the Hesters in Gig Harbor. Most of them are sailors and have known each other for the last 30 plus years. For this reason it was suggested to bring an item to the potluck reflecting the sixties era. I brought Lucky Lager beer which whent the way of the bell bottoms but is still brewed in Canada.  But as you will see in the below picture I did not impress anyone else with the effort.

 Lisa, daughter #1, organized a tour of a chocolate factory in Seattle.  The only organic, fair trade chocolate maker in the U.S. There were 11 of us, the 4 West Coast grandchildren. Both daughters and partners, plus Corrine’s class mate and Donnovan’s mom.

This Thursday is Thanksgiving, we expect to sit with 9 of the above, myself, John and Seth and their partners at the dinner table at Rose Marie and Donovan’s home in Federal Way. Then I plan to ride back to Portland, Oregon with Seth or John and spend a few days with them and take a train trip to Eugene to see Evert and Judy Slijper and Joanie Rippe and her friend Mark.