Pepper and I are taking a cruise that departs from Seattle. We considered flying out there, but decided the drive isn’t that far and has the added bonus of passing near Thom and Katie’s house (well, sort of). So we spent a couple of days at their house and had a great time with those kids. Of course it was funny that I’d just seen all of them a week before on my surprise birthday trip.
In addition to fun around the house, naturally we had to go on a hike. We drove up into the hills and hit the trail. Sefton has a little camera he takes everywhere with him, and he’s always snapping pictures of random stuff (like his Uncle Cosmo).
Hadley, with her short legs, does a great job on the trails but occasionally bats her little eyes and asks to be carried.
Eventually we came to an overlook that was breathtaking. We all had a snack, and Thom and I spent some time taking pictures of the mountain landscape.
Spring has definitely sprung here, and the hills were covered in yellow flowers. It was so pretty.
Thom is finally fifty! To celebrate this milestone, he invited a group of friends to join him and his family at a campground in the North Cascades. It’s been their family tradition to go to this particular campground each year on his birthday, but for fifty it seemed fitting to invite a crowd. He sent me an invitation a couple weeks ago, but since I live almost 450 miles away it was more of a joke. I told him I’d love to join him, but it wasn’t going to work out.
As the days ticked past, I thought maybe I should go. You only turn fifty once, and 450 miles isn’t that far. So on the day of the party I jumped in the car and headed west. Nine hours later I pulled into the campground, and found Thom and a group of friends standing around chatting. When he realized what was happening, he did the best double-take I’ve seen in a long time. It was hilarious and emotional and awesome.
I met several of his friends, re-met his in-laws, and had the wonderful opportunity to see my nephew Julian again. It’s been a few years, and it was great to hang out with him.
We enjoyed dinner and a campfire. Everyone– even the little kids– stayed up late talking and laughing. It was a fun group. The next morning Thom went skiing (of course) and Katie decided to bike up a mountain pass (of course). Since I had to get home, I jumped back in the car. But before heading back east, I wanted to see the pass. Up I went.
Yeah, the North Cascades are breathtaking.
As I drove up the highway, I caught up to Julian, who was biking. He’s the tiny speck in the lower right, climbing the highway just in front of a patch of snow:
He’s an incredible biker and was going faster uphill than I usually go on flat ground.
It was a quick-turnaround trip, but worth every minute. Happy birthday, little brother!
Big Sky Country certainly has its share of beautiful sunsets. This evening I was driving home and saw the Mission Mountains lit by the sun behind me.
About a month ago, driving back from Kalispell, I was treated to a similar scene on the Swan Mountains:
And a month before that, it was the Salish Mountains beyond Flathead Lake:
When I lived in Colorado, I told myself if I ever grew tired of seeing the mountains, it would be time to move. Well, I never grew tired of them (although I moved anyway!) and now I feel the same way about Montana sunsets. Seven years in, I’m not tired of them yet!
Kyra has a remote job, which gives her the flexibility to travel a bit (as long as there’s a wifi hotspot handy). She decided to trek up to Montana for a few days, and we had a grand time.
After a few weeks of cold, the days finally started to feel spring-like. That meant we could play board games outside!
We enjoyed games, lunches at Rosa’s, movies on the big screen, cooking meals, and just hanging out. It’s always a party when Kyra’s around!
Year after year, we return to Holland Lake because it’s an easy hike and a great way to introduce visitors to the beauty of this area. (Glacier National Park is, of course, the height of that beauty.) When we learned that our local friends Bob and Nancy had never been there, it seemed proper to bring them.
It was a gorgeous day: chilly but not cold, sunny with some drifting clouds, and nary a breeze. That meant the water was like glass.
As we continued up the trail, the views kept getting better!
And of course at Holland Falls, we were treated to the amazing overlook of the lake.
The best part, of course, was hanging out with our friends.
I opened it up and powered it on. It booted up and started taking me through the setup process. After more than thirty minutes of downloading updates, I cancelled the update (which was 15% complete!) because I was ready to move on.
What followed was awful. I counted at least twenty different screens prompting me to sign up for Microsoft services, use Copilot, customize my experience, restore from backups, set up new backups, subscribe to Office 365, install Microsoft’s gaming platform, consent to advertising and transmission of my personal data (“to personalize my experience” of course), and on and on. I couldn’t believe how many things I had to click Skip or Do this later to get past. It probably took me another fifteen minutes to wade through this morass of services I don’t want.
Now, nearly an hour later, it’s well past midnight and I finally have the Windows desktop before me. Hallelujah. I opened a command shell, ran a quick command to find my Windows product key, and shut down the laptop. (I’m hoping to use the product key for a Windows virtual machine I need to run in order to prepare my taxes, but that’s a tale for another day.)
Tomorrow I’ll install Linux and KDE on the laptop. From long experience, I know the entire installation process will take around ten minutes. When it’s done, I’ll be able to boot up the fresh installation and login immediately. No ads, no offerings, no requirements for email and phone number, no subscriptions. It’ll just work.
My friend Lisa was recently diagnosed with aggressive cancer, and is about to enter an intense six-month treatment regime. She’ll be hammered with chemo and all the usual poisons, and she’s pretty scared.
Today I got an email from another friend, Paco, who was sending his message to all of the Boulder ultimate players who know Lisa. He’d just dropped off a plastic crate in front of her house. It’s labeled Box of Wonder and in it are crossword puzzles, old DVDs, homemade crafts, cards of sympathy and encouragement, and anything else people want to add. People are invited to drop by Lisa’s house and leave her a little surprise to get her through the tough days ahead.
Although I live a thousand miles away, it warms my heart that my ultimate friends are coming together to support this good woman who’s facing some hard times. Not only does it remind me how amazing the ultimate community is, it restores some of my faith in humanity. There are good people all around us. I hope I can be one to a friend in need.
After all the excitement in San Diego, we drove seven hundred miles north, back through Nevada and Arizona, and into Utah again. We stopped in St George to see the temple:
And then had dinner with four friends who’d served with us as senior missionaries in San Diego:
Eventually we arrived back at the Villa and enjoyed another few days with the posse there. It included an epic hour-long game of Jenga.
Much to his chagrin, Zack ended up collapsing the tower.
Finally it was time to say farewell to the kids.
We continued north, destined for Alex and Kaitlyn’s home, but stopped for dinner with another group of senior missionaries. Brent and his wife Jackie (who couldn’t join us that night) are actually serving another mission now– they support couples who are working on serving missions of their own. It sounds like a great gig.
Up in Tremonton we had a few more days with Alex, Kaitlyn, and the boys. At last it was time to go.
We drove over three thousand miles in ten days, and managed to spend time with sixty-two friends from our mission. And that wasn’t even all of them! I’m so grateful for the opportunity we had to live in California for a year and meet so many incredible people.
The Villa is right around the halfway point of our trek to El Centro, so we had a long drive ahead. We cruised through Arizona, Nevada, and finally hit the Golden State. This was one of the welcome signs.
We’d chosen not to bring the Tesla, because it would’ve added a few hours to our already long drives. As we crossed into California and saw the gas prices, though, I was wondering whether that extra time would’ve been worth it. No matter– we were here and just had to grit our teeth while we filled the tank.
It wasn’t long before the temperature was over a hundred degrees. Normally March is a pretty nice month in southern Cal: a nice warm eighty. But this pesky heat dome was baking everything. We finally arrived in the Imperial Valley and definitely had to stop at the Dunes.
We’d been there so many times, and had a lot of good memories of the warm soft sand. After hiking up a few of them, we headed to dinner in ol’ El Centro. Jerry and Keja met us there, and we had a happy reunion.
The next few days were a whirlwind of seeing friends, sharing meals, and remembering all the things we saw and did for a year in this little corner of the world.
Lunch with Tracy and Teresa at our favorite sandwich shop, Brickhouse Deli…
A few hours with Eileen and HV (who’s chair-bound but still has an indomitable spirit)…
Then dinner with part of the Brawley gang, including Dave, Vicki, Ben, Lee, Dale, and Karen…
We attended the Institute class we used to teach, and snapped a photo with Willa…
The next morning we woke up just after five to drive 30 miles to seminary. The class is smaller than when we taught, but four of “our kids”— Heidi, Amanda, Tyler, and Dael– are still getting up crazy early to learn about the gospel (the fifth is a freshman we hadn’t met until then).
After seminary we enjoyed a chat with Stacy, who’s as bubbly as always at seven in the morning…
We spent about an hour walking around Bucklin Park with our co-teacher Jen as she gave us all the news…
We worked up an appetite and headed over to a cafe for some breakfast with Elder and Sister Johnson, who are the senior missionaries who replaced us. We had a great time swapping stories about all the people we know in common, and hearing how their mission is going. Every couple has a different experience, and they’re learning (as we did) that missions are what you make of them.
We spent a couple hours with Stephen and Toni, who are about to move to Arizona after thirty-seven years in the same house in El Centro…
After that we popped in on Wayland and Brenda, who are always hilarious…
Lunchtime! We went back to Brickhouse Deli for a meal with my lunch buddy Woody and his fiery wife Marilyn…
To my great pleasure but not surprise, we ran into our friend Heather (and her mom Sue) at the deli. I was always bumping into her there…
That evening we arranged a dinner with the young adults and had a great time eating and catching up. We’re thrilled to see that the group has grown by a few people since we were last with them…
After dinner it was time for the other Institute class. No matter that the lesson was the same as the night before (the Johnsons did it the same way we had); we loved seeing Lorraine and Judy again…
We also bumped into Nathan, which was a fun surprise…
Then we had another early morning. We found out there was a food distribution during our brief time in town, and couldn’t resist lending a hand. Cari and Roberto were shocked and thrilled to see us…
Then it was time for Roots class, which is always a hoot. While waiting for class to start, we snapped a selfie with Zera, Judy (again), Licia, and Tamra…
After class we invited everyone to lunch, and caught up with Michelle, John, Margo, Mel, Stacy, and Woody…
Our packed days in El Centro had come to an end. But our reunions weren’t over quite yet. We drove an hour west into El Cajon to meet up with Sisters Johnson and Tennis, two of the young missionaries we’d served with (and some of the only ones we still know in the San Diego Mission)…
Both of them are finishing their missions soon, and it was so fun to see them again. Our final stop in San Diego was dinner and an evening with Robin and Jan, another of the senior missionary couples…
The four days went so fast, but we absolutely packed them full of friends and fun.
A few weeks ago, Pepper and I decided we wanted to visit our friends in California. We met so many amazing people during our mission there, and we missed them. It’s been almost a year since we finished, and it’s not too hot in the Imperial Desert yet, so we packed up and headed south.
It’s a long way to El Centro– about 1,400 miles– so we made a few stops in Utah along the way. First we had to see little William, who’s already bigger and more engaged than he was a few weeks ago. He doesn’t sleep all the time, and smiles and laughs a lot.
Alex taught us a new board game, and we spent a few hours haunting an island to scare off explorers.
I snapped a selfie with my grandsons. Ollie continues to be a bit of a stoic.
Continuing south brought us to the Salt Lake City area, where we met up with Kyra and Cil at the temple.
At lunch afterward, I grabbed fireman’s hats for everyone. Jim wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.
Then we made a quick stop at Tara’s to see her renovated basement (it’s nice) and a couple of our grand-nieces.
Off to the Villa! We hung out with Kyra, Zack, and Hannah for a few days. That included a trip to the newly-finished temple in Lindon.
At dinner one night, I couldn’t resist the little rocket ship on the sidewalk outside. Apparently it wasn’t designed for adults.
The girls didn’t quite fit the old-fashioned car, either.
The weather was unseasonably warm (the entire West was experiencing a “heat dome”) so it felt a little odd to be walking around in shorts, but I wasn’t complaining. We loved our time in Utah, and after a few days it was time to continue our trip…
