Monday, October 21: Seattle

Monday morning.  I strolled out into the living room of our unit to find that Kathi was already up and quite busy.  She was typing up her very late journal entry for Saturday, but had already made a pot of coffee and was hardboiling eggs in the microwave.  Wait.  Hardboiling eggs in the microwave??  POP!!!!  Yes, as you can see in the photo, one of the eggs did, indeed, explode.  All over the microwave.

Ummmm,  Kathi, have you ever tried microwaving eggs before???  Did you, maybe, research how best to do that on the internet???  Nope.  Just figured you could put them in a bowl of water and cook them for a couple of minutes.  Well, it turns out that when cooking an egg, in the shell in the microwave, steam builds up inside the shell and pretty soon you have an exploding egg.  I actually think that it was pretty impressive that only one exploded!!!  So the reason for the experiment in microwaving eggs is a result of the fact that we bought groceries while we were in the Birch Bay condo, which had a full kitchen.  Once moving to the urban location of The Camlin, however,  all we have is a kitchenette, consisting of a coffeemaker, a sink, a refrigerator and a microwave.  But, we had some eggs left and thought we should cook them.  We had some bacon left, too.  And, though I said I would never go back, our circumstances forced Kathi to microwave the bacon, rather than bake it due to the lack of an oven.  Well,  that didn't turn out so well, either.  The paper towels stuck to the bacon.  So, not only did we have to clean up the microwave after the exploding egg,  Kathi also found herself peeling paper towels off of the bacon!!  It turned out to be quite tasty, however, as did the morning pot of coffee.  I lost my appetite for the eggs due to some weird discoloration where the yolk attached to the white and decided against partaking.  Kathi took a bite or two and declared that the eggs had a weird texture and decided that bacon and an Australian muffin would do for breakfast.

After such an interesting culinary morning, we got ready to get out and about in Seattle for the day.  I went on-line and signed us up to take the tour of underground Seattle at 2 pm.  We decided to do a little shopping at Nordstrom Rack and wherever else might strike our fancy along the way.  One of the things that I love about Seattle and that is wonderful about the location of The Camlin is that, if one is up to it, just about everything that you might want to do is within walking distance.  So, walk we did.

First stop, Nordstrom Rack, where we both found some wonderful new things to add to our wardrobes.  From there, we walked the 10 blocks or so to Pioneer Square where the underground Seattle tour begins.  I had been on this tour many years ago with my husband when we were here for our anniversary.  I remember being a bit disappointed because I was expecting to see a lot more than what I did.  I had imagined wooden sidewalks, hitching posts and old storefronts.  Those things are not to be found on this underground tour.  Mainly because pretty much the entire town of Seattle burnt to the ground in 1889 after glue caught on fire in a woodworking shop.  When the town was rebuilt, they elevated the street level about a story because much of the town would be underwater at high tide otherwise.  These are the kinds of stories and historical facts that one learns on the tour making it worth the time even though there isn't much to see.  Hearing the stories of how the land was settled and developed is really quite interesting and the kind of stuff that Kathi and I love.  Before going underground we grabbed a couple of slices of pizza to satisfy our hunger, because, after all, our breakfast was not quite as satisfying as it had been the 3 previous mornings!!

An early "crapper"

Much of the tour guide's talk on the walk throughout the underground tour seemed to focus on the problems of plumbing and sewage for early Seattlites, making for some funny stories.  Initially, a wooden box sewage "pipe" was built once early toilets were installed.  This worked on the principle of gravity flow.   For folks living on the hill this wasn't too bad, but once the "pipe" hit the flatter areas of town, things didn't flow so well.  Then, when the tide came in, there was pressure causing the contents of the "pipe" to flow in the reverse direction.  And when one pulled the chain on their "crapper" to flush,  the contents would explode up and out of their toilets due to this reverse pressure rather than flowing downward and into the bay.  YUCK!!! By the way, I'm not just being crass.  What has developed into our current flushing system was developed by Thomas Crapper, a Brit, in the mid-to late-1800s.

At the end of the tour, we browsed the gift shop (oh yes, Disney style, you have no choice to exit without first going through the gift shop!), made a few purchases and began our trek back to our home away from home.

We actually stopped and took a photo of the blue sky that we saw peeking out between downtown buildings because for the majority of this trip it has been foggy and we wanted evidence of this glorious, beautiful fall day.


Kathi had e-mailed a St. Richard's classmate of hers (Kathi attended St. Richard's for grades kindergarten through 6th) who had been unable to attend their class reunion last summer and who lives here in Seattle, in hopes of connecting with him for a bit while we were here.  Upon checking her e-mail, she had received a response saying that he would love to meet us for dinner so that they could catch up.  He chose a restaurant, Gordon Biersch Brew Pub, that was only a couple of blocks away from our condo and we agreed to meet him for dinner.  After taking a brief rest in the room, we went back out, walked around downtown a bit, browsed Barnes and Noble Bookstore, (which is just a few stories  below the restaurant), then went up to meet him.

We had a lovely, and delicious, dinner and John and Kathi, who last saw one another 42 years ago at their St Richard's graduation, caught up on one another's lives.

Kathi and her St. Richards classmate, John Atcheson

We parted ways with John and went back to our room, where we watched a little bit of TV (The Blacklist)  and did our computer stuff.  Unfortunately, Kathi's cold had worsened and she got sleepy a bit early due to her cold medicine, although, I fell asleep during the last 15 minutes or so of The Blacklist and she had to fill me in on what happened!!

Oh!!  And I almost forgot!!  We actually did the final tossing of the states this morning before we left the room and next year's Girls Weekend will be taking place in North Carolina!!

GW, Sunday, October 20

We seem to be naturally awakening around the same time on this trip… somewhere between 7 and 8.  Lori gave up on scrapbooking and we decided to go outside for a while, where the day was bright and sunny….ha!! We wish.  No, the fog was right there where we had left it, hanging over the ground, the sky and the sun.  Despite the fog, we tied on our tennis shoes and set off on a wonderful walk on the beach.  Blaine does not have a sandy beach, it’s rocky and seaweedy and not very wide, but it was a great walk nonetheless.  We passed several other walkers, some with dogs, all out and enjoying the foggy morning as we were.  After 30 minutes we came up from the beach and returned to the condo along the street route. Back in the room, we tossed the states.  Two down…and two up – Nebraska and North Carolina!  I hadn’t had any real strong opinions about the remaining states, but I was not sad to see Alabama go. After a yummy breakfast of bacon and eggs we passed the rest of the morning in our normal fashion.  Noon was checkout time, and soon after, we were in the car headed to Seattle.

 

Once in Seattle, we checked into the WorldMark Camlin.  This used to be the Camlin Hotel, but was bought by WorldMark over 10 years ago.  It is beautiful, and since it was an old-world hotel originally built in 1926, it has a different feel than other WorldMarks I have stayed in with Lori. There is a big beautiful lobby with a player grand piano, sumptuous carpets, and lots of maroon and gold and copper furniture and drapes.  There isn’t a full kitchen in this one, but a kitchenette with microwave, small fridge, and sink. The master bedroom had a tiny attached bathroom, but my favorite part is that the shower in the main bathroom has a window in it that actually opens.

 

Lori and I put our things away in our rooms, and then flipped our switches.  We have these mental switches that we can turn on and off  to adjust to our surroundings.  We do it without thinking most times.  Our brains told us that we needed to flip from rural mode into urban mode, and so we did so, without any type of recognition or discussion.  With switches flipped, we grabbed purses and camera and took off out into the city to see what we could see.

 

I have recently decided that my wardrobe, which is plentiful for sure, is also old and travel-weary, and needs some sprucing up.  So, even though I didn’t really intend it, this trip turned into a shopping excursion.  Shopping is one of those things for which you need just the right partner, or else it is better to do it alone.  Lori and I have years of shopping experience together, and are great partners. Seattle has wonderful shopping,  and while they certainly have malls somewhere I’m sure,  their downtown is our favorite kind of downtown, with street after street of stores, restaurants, interesting architecture, and eclectic, somewhat unique people.

 

 

We started out by walking directly west from our hotel, down to the waterfront, where we explored the most famous of Seattle’s attractions, the Pike Place City Market.  Lori has been to Seattle several times, as it is an easy getaway for her and her family, but I haven’t been here since I came through with the Dreamgirls tour in the latter half of 1988.  All I remembered was that I loved the city, and that I had really enjoyed coming to Pike Place Market.  We wended our way up and down the market, bought some souvenirs, gawked at the HUGE clams, and stopped at the original Starbucks coffee shop, which was – as it is every single day of the year – packed.  A barista told us that in the summer people will wait over 90 minutes for coffee.  Now, I’m all for experiencing history, but that is just stupid.  Seattle boasts three Starbucks stores for every two blocks.  I would say, go look at the original store, and then go buy your coffee at another one!

We wandered past a Russian bakery where we stopped to watch with fascination as a woman in the bakery window rolled out some yummy looking yellowish dough, slathered it with.butter, folded it up, then began the entire process again.  We decided the dough was so yellow  because of the egg mixture we saw on the shelf above the woman.  She was making piroshkis, of which I had never heard.  I had heard of pierogis, but not piroshkis.  Lori and I decided to look up the difference.  Pierogis are Polish (which I knew but had forgotten) and are similar to Russian vareniki – they are more like what we would call a dumpling; while a piroshky is like a baked bun.  Piroshkis have either sweet or savory fillings. We decided to come back the next day and taste the delicious-looking thing.

As we were walking down one street we saw one of those people who pretend to be statues and place themselves on the sidewalk, standing stock still and wowing the passing crowds by their sheer quietude and determination.  This was a lady all in copper, in old-fashioned dress.  We watched her for a while, then Lori wondered out loud if we tipped her, we could get her to move.  Lori went to place a couple of dollars at the woman’s feet, and as she did so the copper lady gently came to life and ever so slowly, blew Lori a kiss.  We were delighted.  I love that Lori and I are always ready to celebrate our inner child.

 

Seattle is HILLY.  After what turned out to be a great workout hiking the downtown streets, we headed back to the hotel in the early evening.  At one point, Lori prohibited me from starting across a street because the walk timer was down to 8, and the picture was of the stopped man and not the walking man.  The street was neither wide nor too terribly busy. While we are both certainly getting older, we are still mostly able-bodied and probably could have crossed the street in the allotted time without mishap, but I bowed to the concerns of my best friend of so many years.  I’m sure Lori was just being cautious and safe, not timid. And certainly not a wimp. Never that.

 

I had started sneezing on Saturday night, and by Sunday night it was apparent that I had definitely caught a cold – ugh!  Back in the room, we settled in to a lazy Sunday night of snacks, journaling, and watching the Colts beat the Peyton Manning and the Broncos – a heartwrenching experience for those of us who wished that somehow both Peyton AND the Colts could win. I will always root for the home team, though, and it was a great win. Lori hasn’t been sleeping very well, and I was battling my cold, so after the game we went to bed, somewhat amazed that when we awakened it would be yet another last day of yet another awesome Girls Weekend.

Saturday, October 19th, 2013

Fog. Again. The Weather app on my phone tells me it will burn off today around noon, but it said that yesterday, too, and it never happened.  So, I don't believe it when it tells me that it's gonna happen today.  But, it won't stop us from having fun and enjoying our day.  However, I do wish that it would burn off and go away.

So, today we decided to go back up to Canada again to visit a beach town just across the border called White Rock.  The pictures on the website make it look quite charming and Kathi and I are both suckers for charming little towns.  We waited until about 12:30pm to leave, because we were trusting the weather app to be telling us the truth about that fog burning off, and to give us a chance to have breakfast in the room and catch up on our e-mails and tweets and Facebook trolling and all of those internet, geeky things that we both seem to like to do.  And, speaking of breakfast, I must record here that Kathi has introduced me to oven baked bacon.  OH MY GOSH!!!  I LOVE bacon and Kathi asked me yesterday morning if I had ever baked bacon.  Why, no, I don't believe I have, Miss Kathi, but I would love to try some.  I am never going back. When one bakes bacon at 400 degrees in the oven on a cookie sheet and keeps an eye on it until it looks done (and maybe turns it over at some point while cooking if so inclined), one produces perfect, crisp bacon.  Just for the record.

Anyway, after eating our delicious and perfectly cooked bacon along with some eggs and Australian toaster muffins (does breakfast get any better than this?), we hopped into the car and headed north to cross the border into Canada again.  This time, it took us a while to cross over into Canada (maybe 30 minutes or so), but we again turned up the music and had a dance party in the car and didn't mind the wait.  We found the town quite easily and drove around for a while to see which part of town looked the most inviting to us, before parking and getting out to walk around.  The main street is on the waterfront and has many shops and restaurants (mostly restaurants) and, while it certainly was pleasant to walk around on this foggy October day, I would bet it is extraordinarily nice to walk around on a warm summer day.  We found a clothing store that was going out of business that we did some shopping in and found a couple of nice buys, then went to the West Beach Bar and Grill for lunch/dinner.  We shared an appetizer of steak bites and bleu cheese as well as a dinner size Ceaser salad.  Kathi had a "high ball", which consisted of vodka with cranberry and orange juice, while I had vodka with soda water with a little lemon and lime.  After dinner, most of the shops were closed, but we were fortunate enough to find a gelato shop (where they make their gelato daily, right there) open and we went in for some dessert.  Back into the car and back over the border into the state of Washington and after a short stop at  the grocery store for another bottle of wine as well as some bottled water, batteries and some Simply Limeade (MMMMmmmmm!!!), back to the room for the rest of the night.

I was determined to get some scrapbooking done at this point, but found that Kathi had NO PICTURES from Saugatuck, which is the trip that we are up to in the scrapbook (2007).  So, I kind of lost steam and just did some organizing of pages completed at the last scrapbook retreat we went to, then got back on-line and geeked around for a while before I got so sleepy that I could barely keep my eyes open and gave up and went to bed.

Oh!! I almost forgot!!  We did toss the states before I tucked myself into bed and here's what's left:

Tomorrow, we pack up and move down to The Camlin in Seattle for the last 2 nights of Girls Weekend 2013.  Seattle is ALWAYS a great city to visit and I am looking forward to it!  Until then.........

Friday, October 18, 2013

 

Lori and I have a system wherein we alternate the writing up of the journal days.  She wrote Thursday for her blog, and I edited it for the official journal, and now it’s time for me to write up Friday…but I am very late.  I’m late! I’m late! For a very important date!  Right now it is Sunday night, and I have not yet even begun to write Friday’s journal. Lori has already finished Saturday, the showoff.  I have vowed that I will write succinctly and efficiently and not be so wordy (really, Kath?  is that even possible for you??  :-))  I think I’m really making a good start! Aren’t I?

 

On Friday we awakened at about 7:30am. to the awesome realization that Girls Weekend had truly begun.  That first morning is always really great.  We started a pot of coffee and settled down to our morning routine: making some breakfast, (more scrumptious baked bacon, yum!!) getting online, planning our day.  We decided we would indeed go to Vancouver, Canada.  Looking out the window, we wondered about the weather – the forecast continued to promise sun in the afternoon, but by the time we got into the car at about noon to drive to Canada the fog was still firmly in place, and didn’t look like it was going anywhere.

 

Vancouver is a 45-60 minute drive north from Birch Bay / Blaine.  It was a nice drive up to the very northwestern tippy-top of the US.  We breezed through the border with no trouble, although we were fascinated by the questions the customs officers asked us at the border. “Where do you live?” Ok, that one was pretty normal, but then they asked, “ Why are you coming to Canada?” and “How long will you be staying?” and “How do you know each other?”  The temptation to answer that we had met in terrorist school and couldn’t really say why we were visiting Canada but we shouldn’t be here very long at all, was very tempting, but cooler heads prevailed, and we answered simply and truthfully.

 

Once we arrived in Vancouver we parked on Robson street in the city center, in an area known for shops and restaurants, and took off walking.  It was quite chilly! Lori and I thought we had dressed fairly intelligently – we each had a couple of layers with long sleeves and jackets.  The Vancouver city dwellers, however, obviously understood the situation better than we, and were almost all wearing really thick jackets or coats.  They had scarves and hats, and strolled around as if they had been wearing such attire for at least the last few weeks, which they probably had.  The temperature was in the 40s, but the fog and damp really increased the chill we felt.

 

We walked some and shopped some, cutting through a posh mall to get warm at one point, and had a great day.  The great day part goes without saying, because Lori and I always have a great day.  We really enjoyed people-watching in this cosmopolitan city – actually that’s the perfect word.  These people are cosmopolitan; there is a slightly different flavor to their dress than either Lori or I see in our home cities.  Vancouver has a European feel; there were tons of people on the streets even though it was early afternoon on a weekday.  Even heavily clothed as the people were, we could see that they were dressed in a more upscale manner than we were used to.  It has some of the hustle of New York or Chicago without the congestion.  We saw lots ethnic diversity – OK make that Asian diversity. There are primarily Caucasians and Asians here. I have started my annual Girls Weekend black people count. I rarely need more than the digits on my two hands whenever I’m in the Pacific Northwest – or apparently, Canada.

 

Vancouver is expensive. We wanted to buy a map and stopped in a Safeway.  We found no map, but I bought a mid-sized size bag of Baked Lays. They cost $5.00. As it turned out, everything was more expensive.  Gas, food, clothes…street parking was completely nuts.  A quarter bought only 3 minutes of time. Want to know what else we noticed about the city? In the interest of promised succinctness, I will now switch to one line descriptions: 

The traffic lights are weird.  They would turn green, and then almost immediately start blinking.  We didn’t really know what a blinking green light meant, and it freaked Lori out a bit.  Lori is not, shall we say, a brazen driver.  She never really was, and now she is just…well…let’s call it “a bit timid” (ok, I MUST speak up in defense of myself here!!  What Kathi describes as "a bit timid", I would describe as cautious and safe and what she would label "brazen", which is more the way she drives, I would describe as aggressive with a hint of recklessness.  Just saying').

            After driving through a couple of neighborhoods, and passing many houses on the long stretch of road leading back to the highway, we noticed that the Canadians do not seem to favor having fences.  Instead, they grow huge, dense stretches of tall hedges.  Even if they do have a fence (I did catch a glimpse of a few) there is most often a row of hedges in front of the fence, on the street side. The hedges are beautiful, many of them  more like really dense trees, and there are several varieties, not just the typical garden hedge we tend to see in Indiana.  Also, it does not seem that there is any height restriction on these hedges – they towered 8 and 10 feet into the air, affording total privacy to the homeowner.  If I were to put an 8” fence along the front of my property line to help block the sights and sounds of the busy street on which I live, I’d have the city ordinance people on me in no time.

            Those weren’t really one-line descriptions were they? I’ll try again tomorrow.

 

We began the journey back to Washington State at 5:00pm, but did not arrive back at the condo until almost 7.  The border was quite a bit busier coming out than it had been earlier getting in to Canada.  At one point we were stopped by a red light for quite a while.  The area surrounding the border was a national park, and next to us were a couple of shelters which housed bathrooms. Two Asian women in the car just ahead of us got out and carefully crossed the road to go to the bathroom.  As soon as they were in the building, the light turned green, and our line of cars started moving forward toward the border crossing.  Lori and I were somewhat anxious about the women being left behind, but their driver moved confidently forward. We needn’t have worried, we didn’t really get very far, and a few minutes later the ladies came hurrying up the road and were able to easily get back into their vehicle before it was their turn to go through customs.

 

About 45 minutes into our wait at the border, Lori mentioned that she had seen something online, where a man who was stuck in a traffic jam decided that rather than sitting there and fretting about something he couldn’t control and getting more and more frustrated, he would try to enjoy himself.  He turned up his music, got out of the car and started to dance, to the delight of everyone around him.  We decided this would be an awesome thing to try.  We did not get out of the car – customs may have frowned on that, but we did begin an attitude change and attacked our frustration by first dancing to "Pompeii by Bastille, a song with a great beat introduced to me by Lori. I highly recommend it if you need a lift. http://youtu.be/riWhWE2IcDQ  After that we went all out; we  rolled down the windows, cranked up Christina Aguilera’s “Ain’t No Other Man” and danced in our seats like crazed fools. The rest of the time in line flew by, and we were apparently quite entertaining to the people in the cars around us. It is so awesome to throw away your cares and just act silly sometimes!

 

We arrived back at the condo surrounded by the same fog and chill which had followed us all day. Whoever said it was going to burn off was a LIAR!! Lori made a delicious dinner of chicken, pasta, and broccoli, and after eating and writing a bit we watched two episodes of the new show “Blacklist” which Lori and I both enjoy.  Deciding that scrapbooking was way too much work for today, we went to bed, totally forgetting to toss the states!

I just had to throw this in.  They had a series of these funny signs at the border crossing.  This one was our favorite!

Girls Weekend Sixteen. State of Washington. October 17, 2013

Finally!!  It is here.  Girls Weekend Sixteen.  Our state this year is Washington, which means I don't have to fly anywhere this time!!  We had several years where we visiting midwestern states that surrounded Indiana, so Kathi just drove (Wisconsin, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio), which always made me just a bit jealous (because one can bring so much more STUFF when one brings a car rather than packing to fly) so I am quite excited about being able to drive up this year.  So, after dropping Megan off at school this morning, I headed back home to load up my cute little Nissan Cube with all of my scrapbooking stuff (because we still have a way to go before we are actually CAUGHT UP on our Girls Weekend scrapbook), and packing my suitcase and throwing it into the car, too, kissing Tucker goodbye, I hit the road to make the drive up to Seattle.  I first made a stop at Jamba Juice to indulge in my first Pumpkin Smash of the season for the drive as well as a stop to top off the tank.  It is a beautiful fall day and the weather forecast for the duration of this trip looks to be perfect.  Upper 50s, low 60s and sunny or partly sunny is forecast for every day.  God always blesses us on these trips, without fail.

After an uneventful and pleasant 3 and 1/2 drive, Kathi texted that she was on the ground in Seattle when I was about 20 minutes away from the airport, so our timing was nearly perfect!!!  I swooped up to the baggage claim and picked Kathi up, then back onto I-5 north for the final 2 hours of the trip to Birch Bay and the WorldMark located there.  We pulled into Blaine, Washington where the resort is located and were pleased to find that it appears to be a charming little town right on the water.  We checked in and during check-in I got roped into signing up to attend an "owner education" session on Saturday morning at 8:45 am.  ARRRgggghhhh, I hate these things because they really are an opportunity for WorldMark to try and sell you more points and while I LOVE our WorldMark ownership, I do not want to buy more points right now.  BUT!!!  Being here without Tom makes it easier to go to one of these because I CANNOT buy without his blessing.  Then, of course, they turned to Kathi and asked if she would like to attend with me and oh, did she forget to bring her husband, too???  Kathi and I guffawed at this.  While we both love our husbands dearly, their presence is just flat not allowed on Girls Weekend, so there was no "forgetting" involved, of course.  The lack of husbands is totally intentional!

So after check-in we returned to the car with a luggage cart in tow to load up our bags along with ALL that scrapbooking stuff that I mentioned earlier that I had packed into my car.  My friend Jill, who I do a lot of scrapbooking with, and I call this "the walk of shame", because we bring SO MUCH STUFF with us when we scrapbook that it is actually embarrassing to load it all up and bring it all through the lobby of whatever hotel we might be staying at.  There was so much stuff, in fact, that we had to make a second trip in order to get all of it up to our room.

Once we got everything up in the room we checked out our lovely digs and stepped out onto the balcony to breathe in the fresh air and look out on our view (which, frankly, is mostly the parking lot, but we can see a little bit of the water!) only to see a couple of gals unloading the backs of their cars onto luggage carts with stuff that looked quite similar to some of the stuff you can see on this cart.  I said, "look Kath!!! I bet they are scrapbookers, too!!"  Then one of the gals confirmed that guess by pulling a card table out of her trunk and putting it on the luggage cart.  These ladies had their own "walk of shame" to do!!  Later on, as Kathi and I were leaving the room to make a run to the grocery store, we saw these same gals pushing their stuff into a room just down the hall from us.  We just had to go down and chat with them a bit and we all laughed about this crazy hobby.

After driving around in the fog a bit and getting a little lost, we finally found the grocery store and loaded up on groceries for the weekend.  We love staying in the condos because we can dine out for SOME meals, but stay in and cook some, too, which saves us a little bit of money and we both appreciate that.  From the grocery store we decided to act upon the advice of the concierge and have dinner at the Dry Dock restaurant to satisfy Kathi's longing for a margarita.  Kathi had a reuben sandwich, which she enjoyed and I had their Southwestern soup, which was a creamy vegetable soup that was quite yummy!!  We then consulted Kathi's AT&T map program in order to get back to the condo, because we got very turned around in our trip to the grocery store, and it sent us on some big circle, when, we found out the next day, that the restaurant was literally just a few doors away from where we were staying!!

Once back in the room, we settled in with our computers to check e-mails and Facebook and such.  Well,  Kathi got onto her computer, while I spent time with the ResortNet IT people (again.....I just went through this last weekend at the Seaside resort) trying to get on the internet.  Unlike last weekend, we were FINALLY successful in getting me connected....Hooray!!  Which is my excuse for getting this written and posted so late. (Yeah, that's it!!)  We did our first "tossing of the states"  and here is what we are left with at this point in time:

We were both pretty sleepy at this point and having a hard time keeping our eyes open, so we decided that we were ready for bed and made a tentative plan to head north up to Vancouver, Canada tomorrow.  We said our good nights and headed to bed.  Good Night!!