The 3rd, 4th and 5th of July

Thursday, July 3rd

Liz and Kyla actively got our program manager to cancel citations for the week. We didn't see a need to come into the office on Thursday since the 4th of July was the next day. Yes, I could have taken it off, but I didn't. It's not that big of a deal since we work at home most of the week. Because it was a Thursday, I didn't have to get up early and get dressed and drive to work. I got to work at home in my sweatpants. 

I was hoping to get everything that I wanted to get done finished so I could leave a little bit early, but it didn't work out. Ben had an appointment on the westside and ended up sticking around longer than he wanted to taking care of errands. I got off at 4, my normal time, and then went for my walk. The park was getting busy. Earlier that week, I had invited a bunch of people over for BBQ hamburgers and to walk over to the park for the fireworks.

I got back home, cut up all the fixings for the hamburgers and then started putting stuff away so I could take the two tables out. Rhonda and her son, Zach, arrived first and they helped me finish the tables, bring out the chairs and aided in putting up decorations with me. It was very kind of them to help me.

I went inside and started the beans. Ben finally came home to change and start the burgers. Ben forgot to make cheese less ones, so he made a couple without cheese. Rhonda can't have cheese. Everyone else arrived between 6 and 6:30. The neighborhood was getting super busy and more cars started to arrive. This is the only time of the year when our neighborhood is this busy.

We finished preparing and cooking the food. I had made a key lime pie and no bake cookies the previous day. 

I got the six bags out that Lindsay gave me so Erika could go through them for Brian. She found a couple things to take home, and we stored the rest of the stuff inside the bags plopped in the garage. We ate just before 7. The food hit the spot, and we hung out in the back yard for a bit. No one stayed for fireworks except Megan, Rhonda and her son. 

Rhonda and her son walked over earlier than we did so they could meet up with some people already at the park. We gave Megan a sweatshirt to wear and we grabbed a couple blankets to sit on. We made the short walk over to the park, around 9:40, and down the dirt path. We liked sitting under the trees over the past couple years so that's what we ended up doing again. We found a spot to spread out the blanket and sit until it was firework time!

The show was roughly 20 minutes, and it started promptly at 10. There were some great color combinations and some loud booms! I always enjoy a good firework show. 

Once it was over, we grabbed our blanket and made our way back to the house...with everyone else. There were vehicles and people everywhere!

We got back home the same time Rhonda and her son got back. We had a quick chat before they left to go get in the giant line of cars on Ruddell Road. Megan said it was way too late to drive home and decided to stay the night. I spent some time changing the sheets, pillowcases and blankets in the extra room. I gave her some comfy clothes to sleep in as well. She and I went to bed around the same time while Ben stayed up longer playing his game with Josh. 

Friday, July 4th

I knew Megan has been up since 5 (because she is crazy and wakes up early) and just laid in bed until someone showed any life of being awake. I woke up around 7:30 and got dressed. Megan was ready to go get some coffee from Cutter's Point, which was just down the street from our neighborhood. She needed a coffee fix since we didn't have a coffee maker in our house. We made the short walk over. She ordered one of her favorites and I didn't need anything, so I got a cup of water just for fun.

It looked like the weather was not going to be favorable for the 4th of July. I was disappointed.

We walked back to the house, and I asked Megan if she was hungry, she said she could eat a little bit. I made scrambled eggs and had to force Ben to get out of bed to eat them. Megan wanted to hit up the Goodwill, so I went with her. She needed to find a couple things for Mason's upcoming trip to Mexico with his youth group. He didn't have a proper carry-on backpack for the plane. She did end up finding something for him to utilize. We came back to the house and she headed home. We were going to see her the next day for an extended D&D session.

It was our turn to make food for D&D and Ben decided to make beef and chicken kabobs. We took a short trip to Winco to grab everything we needed. We headed home to cut up everything because we had some time to before heading into Eatonville for 4th of July Clear Lake fireworks at my great aunt and uncle's house.

We got our stuff packed up in the Escape, like I had mentioned before, this year's weather was meh and we didn't need to pack up swimsuits, towels or floaties. It was barely going to get to 70 degrees. That is way too cold for jumping in a lake for me. Instead, I made sure I had warm clothes for when the sun went down. I called Grandma and let her know we were on the way. Mom decided she wasn't going to go this year.

We arrived at the lake around 4, unloaded the Escape and set up our table, chairs and stuff near the shoreline. I spent some time wandering around and talking to people. It was nice to catch up with people I rarely see but once a year, haha. I saw that Paul started up the BBQ around 5ish. So, I knew food was on the horizon.

People asked how being married was and I told them that it was about the same except that we have an awesome memory of how the wedding day went. They were glad to hear it. I helped Peggy and Shari put out some of the food on the tables. Paul announced that food was ready to go. A horde of people made their way over to the tables and grill to pile their plates with food. It's not hard overeating at a party.

I did some more wandering around and talking. Most of the time I was between hanging out with Bev and Trish. It slowly started to get dark, and the clouds never went away so we were not able to see Mount Rainier while we were there. As it cooled down, I went and got my sweatpants on and found a comfy place to sit for the remainder of the night. I did find out people were making smore's over by the firepit. Of course, I wanted a smore!

The docks started to light up with the smaller fireworks and soon boomed into the larger aerial fireworks with some rapport. The flares started going and we knew it was almost time for the barge fireworks in the middle of the lake. We could see it start its puttering journey from the west side of the lake to about the center. We all waited in anticipation on what kind of show we were going to get.

It went well for the first half of the show and then something malfunctioned and we didn't get to see the end. We were hoping everyone involved in the barge was okay. We all sat there for a minute or two and decided that fireworks were indeed, done. 

We all packed up everything we came with. We thanked Paul and Peggy for having us, we found Grandma and shoved everything in the Escape. We took Grandman and then ourselves home. We got home around 11:30. I got in a shower because I do not like going to bed smelling like sulfur.

Saturday, July 5th

I did not set my alarm because I needed some sleep after the busy days I've had. It was nice to sleep in without any distractions. I finally did get up, got ready and took a walk around the loop at the park. It was nice to get in some exercise before sitting in a chair for most of the day.

I got back home and had a very small breakfast just to get me by until we eat the kabobs at Nicole and Del's. Ben eventually got up and he showered.

We gathered up everything, packed up the Escape and headed over to Tumwater for our 1:00 p.m. special edition of D&D. We were all excited that Megan was able to join us during this session. Nicole had a special role for her. We all arrived just before 1. Nicole had made us potions and she, Celeste and Megan had contributed with a small charcuterie to snack on before we had dinner later on. 

This session was in the Land Region and focused on puzzles, mazes and killing Banes, Shamblers, Earth Elementals, a minotaur, battling mimics, killing a Bone Demon that tried to convince Ben to sacrifice one of us. There was a lot going on during this session. Some of us were knocked unconscious, some were hit hard, some of us depleted our spell slots but we were able to prevail inside the labyrinth of trickery. We were instructed to prepare for the Ball in the capital city of Focrain for the next session.

Our homework from or DM Nicole was to create a Ball outfit for our characters to wear. We can either describe it or actually make one on the internet to show everyone during the next session. We ended around 10:30, gathered up all of our stuff and went home.

We got home, unloaded our stuff, put it away and we chilled for an hour or two before going to bed. We survived another busy weekend of stuff!

Next Adventure:  First Anniversary Weekend: Lacey to Hood River

Spokane Trip: Spokane to Lacey

Sleeping wasn't restful. I had set the alarm for 8:30 and started getting ready for the day. I had to nudge Ben so he would start getting ready as well. We had to pack up our stuff and get it out to the Escape. I got dressed and did my bathroom stuff. I went back upstairs and started rolling up the sleeping bags and folding up the blankets. We made some piles and then started taking them out to the Escape...luckily, we didn't have to take them very far.

We sat on the couch and waited for Willmarth and Mandy to show up. He said they would be there between 10 and 10:30ish. They pulled up around 10ish and knocked on the door. This was the first time since we got to Spokane, we were able to see and visit with him. I would have liked to have visited more with him, but I had no control over that. We met Mandy for the first time. He had mentioned her back in March for the first time. He had been seeing her for the past 3-4 months.

He had told us that she is a librarian in Deer Park, loves Star Wars, Disneyland and is slowly being immersed in sports since she wasn't familiar with any of them. He said he has gotten her to watch basketball with him as of late. She introduced herself and she apologized for her ER visit she had to do when we got there. We told her it was okay and then started talking about all kinds of things - from growing up in Rainier, to basketball, to meeting Ben, to the wedding and the things we liked to do. We covered a lot of stuff. She said that Willmarth has told her all kinds of things about me. I replied, hopefully good things, haha.

Willmarth asked if we were ready to go have breakfast and we all agreed that it was time to go. We drove separately to the Kalico Kitchen, which was about three miles south of the apartment off of Monroe. Apparently, the owners are huge Gonzaga fans. Once we got there, we found a couple places to park and discovered it was busy. We walked up to the front and luckily got in within 10 minutes. We were escorted to our table and ordered drinks. I got an orange juice and Ben got a coffee. We visited some more while we looked through the menu.

I ordered a light meal of hashbrowns, 1 sunny side egg, toast and two bacons while Ben had a scramble. We continued talking as we ordered. I told them about the last 6 months of my dramatic DJA and it turning into a job while Willmarth told us about his work journey over the past couple years. Our food came and we kept on sharing our stories and how life was going. It was fun talking to Mandy and getting to know her a little bit.

Willmarth paid for all of us and we thanked him. We all got back into our vehicles and headed back to the apartment where we visited some more. It was approaching time to get going since we had like a six-hour drive ahead of us. We thanked him for letting us stay at his tiny apartment and that hopefully we would be able to come over to Spokane again for another visit soon. 

We gathered up the rest of our stuff and took it out to the Escape. We left around 1:15. We stopped at the Conoco to fill up with gas since it was one of the cheaper ones around, without having to cross over into Idaho, grab ice and make our way to I-90 west.

The drive west was boring, and Ben fell asleep a few times. I just listened to my podcasts. We got to Vantage and decided to get out of the Escape, walk around a bit, soak up some sun and enjoy the scenic overlook of the Columbia River gorge. Ben found the earthcache that was there. I had told him I found it years ago during one of the many back and forths from Spokane.

At the top of the hill before going into Ellensburg, we stopped at the Ryegrass Rest Area to once again, get out, stretch and use the restroom before the mountain part of our trip. Ben fell asleep a few more times and kept myself company with my podcasts and music. 

We got into Cle Elum for some gas and to use the restroom inside the Safeway. 

The rest of the trip was uneventful except a few stupid drivers here and there. We got home around 7:30, unloaded the Escape, took showers and started a load of laundry. We got ready for our work week as well. It was going to be a rough one because we both were not feeling all that great. We both got colds from somewhere. It surprised me because I hardly ever get sick. We both went to bed early hoping our colds won't last too long.

Next Adventure: The 3rd, 4th and 5th of July

Spokane Trip: Caching with Brenda and Ray and Dinner with Fitzy

After a miserable night sleeping on the floor and getting up in the middle of the night with a throat/sinus thing, we got up around 8:30, got ready, ate yogurt and toast, Ben managed to get up and also got ready. He was sore and I had to rub that icky Tiger Balm all over him. It sure does open your sinuses in that unpleasent way! 

He made a fried egg and had some toast with it. We cleaned up after ourselves and texted Brenda and Ray that we were on our way.

We left North Spokane around 10:30 and drove to the South Hill to pick up Brenda and Ray, they were staying at Brenda's mom and dad's house. We pulled up and Ray came out saying that we were still waiting for Brenda. She and her sister went and had a coffee date that morning. We visited with Ray until Brenda rolled up. They both hopped in and we started our geocaching adventure for the day.

They've been waiting a while to update their dog park Adventure Lab since one of the waypoints changed and they had to update it.  They gave us directions on how to get to that dog park. The park was busy, but we stayed in the Escape while Ray got out to get what he needed to update their Adventure Lab.

On the way back down from the top of South Hill, we saw a cache we didn't have and were driving right past it. Brenda and Ray already nabbed Crestline Rock Garden (GC9JDKB), but they told us we could stop really quick and get it. Everyone stayed in the Escape while I went out, found it, got our names on it and quickly walked back. It was a fake rock hidden around rocks. Luckily, it was easy to spot once I saw it.

We searched the geocaching app for an Adventure Lab to do and that took us to a five waypoint one in Polly Judd Park. It was a smaller park with a tiny parking lot. We did manage to find a parking spot with Ray's handicapped pass. There were some people having a kid's birthday party underneath one of the covered areas. This Adventure Lab took way too long because one of the waypoints took us forever to figure it out. It was poorly worded, but we finally managed to figure it out. We walked back to the Escape and went to the next closest cache.

Downtown Abbey (GC4658D) was in an old South Hill neighborhood covered in trees, one-way narrow roads and strange confusing intersections. We managed to find a place to pull out of the road and Ray and I got out and walked the rest of the way to the guard rail. We found it quickly, got our names on it right away and put it back before cars drove by wondering what we were doing. We got back to the Escape and decided to drive further down the hill near the hospital.

We were on the backside of MultiCare Deaconess Hospital. Luckily, the street wasn't busy. We found a place to pull over so Ray and I could get out and search. The High Road (GC2HD3E) took us a few minutes to find. It was hidden well but missing a lid. We got our names on it and on our way back to the Escape, we saw a wild turkey waddle by.

We wanted to wander around Riverside Park to do some of the virtuals and the 12 waypoint Adventure Lab. Of course, parking was insane, so we found a place to park at a nearby store and hoped that we wouldn't get in trouble or have the Escape towed. We went inside the store to make it look like we belonged there. I made sure to grab my phone charging battery because something was seriously eating up my battery. It never really has done that before. Hmmm.

We walked into the park from the west and found where the 12 waypoint Adventure Lab, Art in Riverfront Park began. This one took us a while to do but we set aside the time to do it. We figured we would do it in a reverse clockwise rotation and take pictures of the art we needed and number each of them. The park was super busy and even the events center was showing a play that afternoon. We had to duck and dodge around everyone.

Ben and I did the Meet Me at the Clocktower (GC7B9R1) virtual cache, but I didn't read it entirely and had to do the rest of it online. I was super lucky there were photos online that depicted the answer I needed. I got a phone call from my non-Spokane friend Megan asking me a couple questions. I was on the phone with her for a few minutes. Ray, Brenda and I convinced Ben to slide down the giant Radio Flyer wagon because you just HAD to if you were at the park and he's never done it before.

We continued gathering waypoints as we wandered around the park and the finally, my phone died. I let it charge up with the portable charger I brought along. Ray and Ben would have to do read the info and take pictures. We all walked over to the pavilion to do the Pavilion in the Park (GC9P54V) virtual cache. We had to find a quote on the wall; find out how far away the ice-skating park was to the pavilion and take a picture of yourself or your group inside the pavilion giving a thumbs up or a peace sign.

We continued around the park and finally got all the pieces we needed to finish the 12 waypoint Adventure Lab. We did have a hard time trying to get the answer at the totem pole. We still aren't sure, to this day, if we did it right or not. We did have some great laughs though. We walked back to the Escape, and it was still there! Yay! 

We piled in and drove out to the Valley to the Azteca for a light lunch. I messaged Fitzy to let her know where we are in our day. She was in Post Falls with Chaise's family hanging out after the wedding the previous night. She said she could leave whenever we wanted to meet up with her. She said we could hang out whenever and that there is no hurry. We told her that we were almost done and that Brenda and Ray had to be back soon to do some family stuff.

We got back onto the freeway and drove back to the South Hill. Along the way, we chatted about the good times we had in Portugal and the next time they would be in the States, they said probably in about a year when they come over to visit Brenda's son, who is stationed in Hawaii with his family. They were excited about visiting Hawaii. They thanked us for taking them around Spokane and hanging out. We gave out hugs and told us to make sure we kept in touch. It would be nice to go visit them in Portugal again someday.

We let Fitzy know we were done and could meet her wherever she wanted to go. She suggested the Iron Goat because they had some gluten free options. We told her we would be there soon and just leaving the South Hill area. The Iron Goat was on the west side of downtown Spokane. Luckily, there was some available parking nearby. We got there sooner than she did and hung out inside the car until she got closer. There were some homeless people around and just kept our distance for safety. She said she was almost there, so we walked the block into the restaurant and found a table.

She joined us, Fitzy and I grabbed a beer and Ben got a cider. 

We chatted for a while on what has been happening in our lives, Fitzy told us about the wedding and some of the stuff she and Chaise were doing and thanked us profusely for being in Spokane to let the dogs out the other night. She appreciated that we were able to help her out with them and that they behaved for us. We also ended up sharing a pizza a little while later. It was great that we got to meet up with her that weekend.

We went back to the apartment in North Spokane and Willmarth still wasn't around and we tried texting him again. We both got cleaned up and played several rounds of dice while we waited to hear back from him. He finally texted us back apologizing for not being around very much that weekend and that he wanted to meet up tomorrow to have breakfast at the Calico Kitchen. He and Mandy would meet us at the apartment before we went. I told him it was a plan and to see both of them the next day.

Ben and I got ready for bed. We were both feeling a little worn down.

Next Adventure: Spokane Trip:  Spokane to Lacey