[7.1] Family Encounters (Part 2)

It's almost March, so I guess that means it's time get you all up to date on several trips and visits that surrounded the holidays before spring comes and more people start visiting. Time has been pretty scarce for blogging as we've been doing quite a bit of traveling on the weekends. But I will have some more time for the next couple of weeks as ankle surgery this week has sidelined me once again. This is my second time under the knife to try to fix this ankle and now that I'm up to four sizable scars, I'm hoping that I'll be relatively pain free.

Anyway, time for some catch-up so this will likely be a long post. Let's start in November. A good portion of Lisa's side of the family converged on Oregon for Thanksgiving. Lisa's sister's family secured a condo in central Oregon, her mom flew in, and after we picked up Margaret and her granddaughter, Riley, in Portland, we had the whole female part of the Hayes family. We had a fun trip down Wednesday night, driving through the Cascades in the dark of night.

Lisa and I were in one car and Margaret and mom were in the other with Riley. We brought our walkie-talkies in case we lost cell phone coverage which lead to a funny story. We used the walkies and somehow Margaret's unit became stuck so that Lisa and I could hear their whole conversation. Luckily, they stayed away from any criticism about Lisa or myself. When Lisa tried to wave to get their attention, mom responded, "She's so silly. Why doesn't she call us on the walkie talkie if she needs to tell us something?" We finally got to a decent cell and were able to call Margaret to tell her to fix the walkie. While the trip down was in the dark, our ride back offered some great views of Mt. Hood. Slowly we're conquering all of the mountain passes in the great Northwest.

Rebecca, with a bit of help from everyone else, put together a great feast despite the handicap of a foreign kitchen with limited utensils. A most excellent bird and other fixings were served, all of which were documented in photos by Marissa, our niece. Marissa and Brianna also hit the non-alcoholic sparkling cider hard. Fozzie hit the leftover turkey hard. The next day, we were able to secure a racketball court to play some wallyball in a futile effort to lose the several pounds we each gained the previous day.

We all headed back to Portland on Friday as Albert/Rebecca and family were heading back to NM and mom, Lisa and I were headed back to Seattle. But before we went our separate ways, why not one more meal? So Margaret's son and his family joined us for some sushi before we got back on the road to Seattle. The trip back was was marred by our first encounter with the Washington State Troopers. Apparently there is about a 15-mile stretch on I-5 that is considered to be under construction and Lisa was going a bit over the speed limit.

Once back in Seattle, Lisa, mom, and I had a full day planned on Saturday since I had to hop on a flight to China for work on Sunday. So we first headed down to Uwajimaya, a big Japanese grocery in the international district. Lisa and Mom stocked up for the next day when they hung out at home for some cooking and bonding. After the store, we decided to do something ultra-touristy and take a Duck tour. For those of you not familiar, Duck tours are given by bus drivers that drive old, converted amphibious vehicles from the armed services. So the tour is half on land, half on water. Complete with canned jokes and music from the drivers, you really can't get more cheesy. But they're very fun nonetheless and rather informative. We managed to capture mom on film having quite the time.

Of those of you that have already visited, many have asked us where the "Sleepless in Seattle" house is. You know, the one down on the water. Well, our Duck tour was very informational and worth the $25 if only for the fact that we now know where the house is. It's on the west side of Lake Union, only about a mile or so from where we live. So there you have it.

You would think that was enough of Lisa's family, but not quite. Margaret seems to find herself up in Seattle once every few weeks, so she made it to our party in December, and then in January, we got a call from her to meet at the Cheesecake Factory in Tukwila as she was in town for business. She, Lisa, and I also headed to LA to visit their grandmother and a bunch of other family toward the end of January (mentioned in the last post about our snowboarding adventures) and had a great time, albeit a busy one trying to fit everyone in for at least one meal. Many thanks to Mike and Jen (and Maverick and Flo) for putting us up for the weekend as we breezed in and out.

The three of us had fun-filled meals on Friday (Aunt Trisha, Uncle Doug, Mike, Jen), Saturday (Mike and Jen), Sunday afternoon (Paul's b-day at Ed and Nancy's) and Sunday night (traditional Japanese meal prepared by mom). Sunday night, we also found out that it was requested that we drink a rather large bottle of sake. To no one's big surprise, Margaret, Lisa, and I were up to the task.

And that brings us to the end of family time with Lisa's side of the family, for the time being.