To visit family, we stayed west of Seattle at Kitsap Memorial State Park. It was a waterfront park with a beach and views of the Olympics. It was also close enough to our prior campsite that we had plenty of time to visit nearby family. That was one of the things I was most looking forward to. However, by this point, my cold had taken hold of my sinuses in a big way. That meant I was constantly concerned with how I could protect everyone I was visiting, by distancing and staying outside, even though all I wanted to do was hug them and sit close. I didn’t want anyone to get sick and feel as lousy as I did. Or suffer the stigma of having a cold during Covid-times – during which everyone treats you like a pariah when you have a cough.
After feeling like I’d prepared everyone for my illness and taken every precaution, we hopped in the car and made our way over to my uncle and aunt’s house in Keyport, WA. My uncle used to run a marina and still has a dock close to the entrance of Liberty Bay (close to Puget Sound). Having been there last when I was around ten, I remembered how much I loved running out the dock and looking at all the tube worms and crabs. The cool thing was watching my own kids enjoy the same sights as I had when I was their age. Matthew, in particular, was glued to that dock the whole time. He even got to do a little fishing thanks to my cousins and their spouses.
One of the truly amazing things that evening was that four of my beautiful cousins, plus a few of their kids, took time to stop by and say hi. That, combined with getting to spend time with my maternal uncle and aunt, just tickled my heart. (My uncle had seven kids if you’re trying to keep track of how many of us there are.) We were able to hang out, talk and eat for hours. None of them had met my kids or husband before, or vice versa. One of them took one look at my daughter and noted how much she resembled my mom’s side of the family. My children got to sing songs with my Aunt, who was a gifted singer in the past. It was a blessing I won’t soon forget.
When I woke the next day, I didn’t feel any better, but we had plans to meet up again with a cousin who we’d seen the day before and who lives on Bainbridge Island and works in the city. He took us on a very personal and fun tour of Seattle. Here we are on the ferry and arriving during the foggy hours of the morning.
Our first stop was Market Theater gum wall. Honestly, I’m 50-50 on whether it was disgusting or cool. Glad to see Mexico brought its A game, though.
Next up was a visit to Pike’s Place, where a bit of one of my favorite movies, “Singles,” was filmed. We found beautiful fresh fruit and fish for sale and a really fantastic comic store.
After that, we dropped by the first Starbucks (but didn’t feel like standing in line). I had read once that they changed the logo because *looks around and whispers* boobs. So of course I had to take ten million pictures of the original logo and buy two cups (from the less crowded Starbucks up the block) that featured it as well.
My cousin spent a great deal of time orchestrating an optical illusion picture from in front of the Art Museum, so kudos for doing that! Our last stop on the tour was to the Pioneer Square, which was a big locale for the 90s Seattle rock scene. Given that my cousin played in bands there, and also listened to many, he has many fond memories here.
We had afternoon plans, so it was time to go all too soon. The sun was out by this point, so we got some great pics as we left the city (only got one photo where Raineer is kind of visible above the fire-haze). In the ferry parking lot, we noticed someone had hilariously decked out their car in National Lampoon Vacation style, so we had to snap pics. After all, we were on our own cross-country journey.
My nose and throat hurt so bad by this point, I knew I couldn’t do anything else until I took care of my cold. While Chris and the kids met up with my closest-in-age cousin and one of his kids to go paddleboarding on Wildcat Lake, I went to a local clinic. I got (yet another) Covid test, along with flu and strep tests, and also got negative diagnoses on all of them. The verdict was a bad sinus infection; I was given prednisone for a week to reduce swelling.
After the doctor, I made one last trip to my Aunt and Uncle’s house to see them and pick up Chris and the kids from their day out. It was great to get one last visit with my cousin who spent the day with my family, and I was so happy to learn that another cousin of mine – who hosted us on the Fourth – had come out to see us again with her husband. After spending some more time with them and my Uncle and Aunt, we headed back to the campsite.
That evening, I spiked a fever of 100 and felt like my head was going to pop with pressure. Plus – and likely because of feeling cruddy – I had a huge fight with my teen daughter, who had wandered off and got her clothes full of mud while I lay dying in bed. *snort* Of course, this all happened when Chris was out running an errand.
On that note, a lot of people ask us how we as a family don’t kill each other being in close quarters for so long. I have to say that we have a lot of tiny, bickering, grumpy moments. We’re definitely not the Waltons. But generally speaking, these kids are kind of used to car travel, since their mom spent a lot of time getting them to nap by driving all over New England. Also, we are a make-the-best-of-it sort of family. A lot of joking and sarcasm is involved in our typical conversations. It didn’t hurt that I made sure each person had a separate device to be able to watch shows, do work, or listen to audiobooks, along with enough mobile data to make it worthwhile. God bless technology.
Setting the Heather Alight 