A few weeks ago, Mom and I were talking about what we were going to do with my dress situation. I wanted to incorporate my dress with Mom's dress and Erika's veil. We were running out of time. Mom suggested that we go take a visit to the place that she and Erika went to last summer in Centralia. We booked an appointment online and waited for the day to come. I asked my supervisor if I could take a half a day, and she said sure. I put in my leave and gathered up the stuff we needed for the appointment.
I logged off at 11:30 and went to go let Murphy out. I don't normally let him out on Fridays, but Rhonda and Brad were on their way to New Zealand for his several weeks-long hunting trip. I drove out to Rainier and picked Mom up. She was actually ready to go this time when I got there. We drove the back way through Bucoda because I didn't want to drive down the freeway on a Friday.
We got down there super early so we took a detour to Fort Borst Park to see if we could find the cache, Borst-ing with Love (GCABWXH). We parked as close as we could inside the park, got out and walked to ground zero. The coords were so bad. We didn't end up finding it because we ran out of time to look. I will have to go back soon and look for it when I have more time. We walked back to the Escape and headed into downtown Centralia.
We found a place to park, at the many free areas near the train station, grabbed the dress and walked to Doria's. It was locked. We looked at the sign and it said they were with a client and to call to have her let you in. We were super confused because our appointment was at 2 and it was literally minutes from 2. Mom called the lady, and she let us in. It was a weird exchange because she acted like we weren't supposed to be there. We explained that we booked an appointment online for this afternoon at 2. She went to look at her computer and she said, you're right, you have an appointment at 2.
She asked what we were looking for and we explained. She looked at us like we were crazy, and we probably were not allowing that much time for her to do anything with the dress I was holding. She added that it was not going to happen because she was going to be on vacation most of June. We thanked her anyway and she gave us a refund on our consult visit with her. We decided to try elsewhere, and Mom called another dress altering place. The lady was out running errands, and we didn't want to wait.
We took the dress back to the Escape and Mom said she was hungry. I asked her where she wanted to go. She said the same place on the corner where she and Erika ate last summer. I asked her, which is? She pointed it out and I was like, they have an O'Blarney's in Centralia? Apparently, they do. We walked over and went inside. We were immediately seated, and our server was eccentrically entertaining. We both ordered strawberry lemonades, burgers and fries. We talked about a bunch of stuff we still had left to do for the wedding while we waited and ate.
As we sat there, I saw a man and a women sitting a couple tables away and she looked super familiar, but I could not figure out why or how I knew her. She kept looking at me too. We both finished eating about the same time and paid. Mom and I got up and I noticed the man and woman also got up. She was on her phone, and we walked out the same way. She got my attention and showed me her phone. She asked me if I was Cougarcach24 and showed me a recent picture I posted in Instagram. I said that is me. She follows me on Instagram, and I follow her on Instagram. Her geocaching name is Dovekc (Karen), and she geocaches with Nicsac (Nikki). I met them years ago during geocaching events in Thurston and Lewis County. I haven't seen her in years and I kinda felt like a celebrity that afternoon, especially when people know me in random places.
Mom and I decided to check out the Goodwill and get some gas at the Arco while Mom used the restroom. I bought a Pepsi Zero while she was inside the store. We got onto I-5 and drove north towards Olympia. We went to JC Penny's, Macy's, the Seattle Sports Store (obviously not for a dress), and other places before I settled on a dress from Macy's for $40. They were having a Mother's Day sale, and my dress was originally $50 but with the discount, it was $40 and some change.
Mom wanted to go to JoAnne's, so we drove over there. Mom found some fabric she needed. Afterwards, we went to Tumwater and did some grocery shopping to get it out of the way. We hit up Walmart, Costco and Fred Meyers and then afterwards visited Grammie and Grandpa at the cemetery. We went the back way to Rainier to drop Mom off. I drove home, showered, did some laundry, other random things, did some blogging, listened to some of my podcasts and ate some popcorn.
I remembered that the northern lights were supposed to be visible that night. I went out around 11 that night and it was awesome! You could see it with your naked eye during some parts of it, but you could actually see the vibrant colors if you took pictures of it with your cell phone. It was an amazing experience. I've always wanted to see the northern lights from Alaska or Norway, but to be able to see them from our backyard in the Pacific Northwest? Utterly amazing! I told Ben to get off his butt and to come outside to see it. He was glad he did. He said it was a memorable night!
I went outside off and on for the next couple hours to see if it looked any different. It wasn't as vibrant as it was at around 11-11:30 that night. It was definitely once in a lifetime from Washington State. I eventually went to bed after a long day of choices and watching the northern lights!
Almost two more months until the wedding!
Next Adventure: Mother's Day
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