Denise

My sister, Denise and her husband, Barney made it down here. They came over to Wayne and Helga's for the afternoon. We had a lovely visit. She brought me a new pair of earrings. :)   We heard some great stories of the farm and family.

After visiting, the littles and I went back to their hotel and got in the pool. The kids had a blast. Audrie went past where she could touch and took in some water. I think it scared Connor more than her. They were fascinated with the hot tub, but it was very hot. Denise went in it for a bit. Barney didn't join us in the pool, but he watched us play from the side.

It was the littles first hotel pool. Bet that was a mistake. 

Fireflies

I had forgotten about fireflies. We enjoyed them in Minnesota two years ago. The littles had forgotten that. So they spent a good half an hour chasing fireflies. The little man caught them easy.  And then aunt Helga showed him how to squeeze them so they would light up. They didn't hear the stories about the kids squishing the bugs to paint their faces to glow. I'm sure if we were here long enough they would figure it out.

Buses, a Train and a Plane

We had the best adventure for the beginning of our trip. We had a really late flight and didn't have anyone we could ask for a ride. So we caught the bus to the mall. The driver was especially helpful. I was able to buy a transfer pass which took us all the way to park rose transit center. He also told us when to get off to catch our next bus which shaved half an hour of our trip. once at park rose we caught Max. Got off at cascade station for dinner.
Then it was back on Max to the airport. Found out where our gate was and started working our way there. We had lots of time.  We met a vet who sent us to the tunnels for some running around without disturbing anyone. Each kid found a shopkin and thought they were blessed.
The plane was late.  Once it arrived everything moved pretty quickly.  We got on,  settled and asleep.

Fireworks

I guess it doesn't work in Mom's neighborhood the way it works in every other neighborhood.  The kids and I went outside to throw their pop its and burn some sparklers.  John, the neighbor a few houses down sent up something that must have had fifty parachutes come out of it.  It was really cool.  And what it did was brought my two and one other neighbor boy down to his house to collect parachutes.
About that time I thought I should introduce myself to him and I did.  We discussed his generous nature in decorating for Christmas.  The man goes all out.  And apparently he does the same for the fourth.  He had several hundred dollars worth of fireworks.  He had a tote about 3/4 full of mortars. The littles were enjoying all he did with smoke bombs and what not.
I was doing laps to get my steps in and I came back around his house.  His wife and guests must not have known I was there but I could hear one of the women as plain as day tell Audrie to go ask her mom for pop its.  Now obviously Audrie asked if she could have some and the woman could have just said no.  I heard Audrie reply that she thought we were out.  So I called her and Connor back to our house.  The woman did not want extra kids around.  That was all right.  We had a nice view from our own section of the sidewalk.  We threw the rest of our pop its and did the sparklers. We shared a sparkler with Nathan because he had stood at John's house while the three girls there did some of their sparklers in which they had twelve boxes minimum.
Next thing I knew the girl who lives with John came to ask if we had one of their fireworks.  One was missing and it was there before the three kids came down.  I just looked at her and said no we haven't seen their firework.  Seriously.  The woman was right there when Connor and Audrie walked away.  And when Nathan scootered by I didn't see anything extra on him either.
I think she just didn't want to share their fireworks and definitely is not neighborly.  Good to know.  But John is a really nice guy.

July 4th

I met a man this weekend who was in the Navy.  I figured he was because of his tattoo, but I had to ask to be sure.  You know what they say about assuming.  Anyway he had painted the flag pole and rocks around it at Sargent's Island.  The American flag hung proudly along with a POW/MIA flag.  I could tell there was something there close to his heart.
We had a brief conversation.  He served four tours in Vietnam.  I think that attests to the character of the man.  I told him "welcome home." He was so appreciative.
Vietnam was a war that was when I was a child and I can't say I know anything about it from my own life experience.  I was pretty sheltered. We lived in a very small town in the country.  As an adult I have a much better understanding of it.  Our society did not treat those veterans very nice when they returned home.  A lot of emotions that people didn't know what to do with and they thought it was all right to lash out at those most affected and they were wrong.
Here is what I know about Vietnam vets.  They don't talk about it.  It is a rare occurrence to hear any kind of story from a vet.  And that is all right.  People have the right to tell or not tell their story.  I read that to tell them "Welcome Home" is one of the best things we can do and I thought it is such a small thing.  I put it in my head that I would do that because the Vietnam vets I have met in my life have been outstanding men. This weekend was the first time I put it into practice.
And so Happy Fourth of July to all of us and Welcome home to the vets who fought in a horrible war, especially the man on the island, my little Donald and Dave H.  Hopefully for all of those suffering from PTSD you find some peace among this day of great noise.

Last Day

Our last day at the island was spent on the beach.  I packed us up and then went and sat with Pat and his friend Amy and her mom.  We watched the fishing poles.  We watched the little man fly a kite.  They found more dragonflies.  The little miss found great shells.  We were not in any hurry to leave the slow pace of the island.

Saturday

It was a day filled with nature. Pat fished most of the day.  Mom came out for dinner.  We saw lots of newly "hatched" dragonflies.  There was an eagle perched in the tree right about our heads.  I wish I could have gotten his head, but check out those claws.  The littles had several hours of river play.  It was a great day camping.