Brewster

The last leg of our Washington adventure was six days in Anne's home town of Brewster. It's always nice to go to Brewster because there isn't much to do but swim in the pool and look at the Columbia out the living room window. That sounded nice to us because we were in the mood for a little down time after all that hiking. But before we could get into full relaxation mode, we had company to entertain. The day after we arrived, Sarah and Jason, and their daughters Emi and Mia, as well as Eric and Theresa and their baby Nathaniel, came to visit for a couple days.

The visit with friends was really nice. It was the first time I'd met either Nathaniel or Mia. I'm never quite sure what to do around babies, but at that age they're primarily interested in mom, so I wasn't called upon to do much. I was amazed at how much Emi had grown, and she was very eloquent and a lot more interactive than the when I'd last seen her a year ago. We spent a lot of time hanging out at the house and swimming. We ordered take-out Mexican food one night, and grilled burgers another. Everyone had garden burgers, except for Jason and I, who had real hamburgers made from nearly a pound of ground beef. It was a bit much, but I was still a little protein-deficient, so I savored every bite. We had one adventure into town while the company was there. We went to the Mexican grocery, and were saddened to learn that their baker that made the delicious empanadas had moved to California. We bought some doughnuts in lieu of the empanadas, and I got a tamal, then we strolled up and down the length of main street, briefly stopping at El Campesino clothing store, before we headed to the park. After eating our doughnuts and hanging out on the grass for a while, we were satisfied that we had "done" Brewster so we headed back to the house to swim.

After the company left, we mostly hung out at the house, with the exception of a couple trips to Pateros to go to the bakery. (Notice the critical role that bakeries play in any vacation that Anne and I take.) Anne got roped into going through some boxes in the closet of her old bedroom, and that kept her occupied for much of the rest of our visit. The sorting had the air of a geological expedition as each subsequent box came from an earlier era in Anne's life. While Anne sorted, I kept her company while playing with Legos, playing "God Save the Queen" on the songflute (which is similar to a recorder, but -- if this is possible -- somewhat more shrill), and reading all about the 1986 World's Fair in Vancouver. Do they still have World's Fairs? Most of the contents of the boxes she was able to divert to the yard sale pile, but there were definitely a few keepers amidst all the old class papers, clothes, and drawings. One of the best finds was a sweatshirt that she made while she was in 7th grade. Unfortunately, I couldn't persuade her to model it for my blog, but I assure you that it's beautiful. We had one more outing the last full day we were there because I wanted to go back and get a Mexican wedding shirt I'd spied when we were in El Campesino with our friends. It's a sweet shirt with embroidered pumas on the front and a big embroidered puma on the back. I haven't had a chance to wear it yet, but I can't wait to.

Our trip home was relatively uneventful. I always like the flight from Wenatchee to Seattle because the plane flies relatively low so you get really impressive views of the Cascades. Also, Horizon serves free beer. Back in Oakland, there were some delays on BART, so it actually took us a little longer to get home from the airport than it did to fly from Seattle to Oakland. But we got home eventually, where Lucy was very happy to see us.

We had planned this year's vacation partially with the intention of doing something cheaper than our trip to Brazil last summer. That part definitely worked out well, especially for the three full days on the trail when we didn't spend anything. We also got to spend a lot of time with family and friends, which was a real treat. The backpacking trip was great because it was something we'd wanted to do for a while. Neither of us had been out for that many nights before, so that was a fun challenge. All in all, it was a really nice vacation that served as a good reminder of what a great place Washington is.