Bonney and I sang at her church. They have "pick-up" choir in the summer. There were about a dozen of us--three men. It is a nice building, but no air conditioning! Thank goodness the service was over by 11, when it was starting to be uncomfortable. We picked up the things we had won at the auction--including two tickets to the tram and a gift certificate for the restaurant on top.

We took a picnic up into the mountains, about an hour away, where it was cool enough that we all needed sweaters--except Ray. We took a short hike/walk and headed back down.

We marinated London Broil like my Mom used to, in Wishbone Italian dressing, and Hank cooked it for us on the grill, even though he doesn't eat meat himself. We had broccoli and mashed potatoes. It was delicious, eaten on the patio again. And a bottle of Mouton Cadet Bordeaux! Chris joined us for the evening and we played a couple hands of cancellation Hearts, before we were too tired to stay up any more.

Yesterday we played tourist: Bonney and Ray and I headed to the history museum in Santa Fe. The Palace of the Governors. Lots of cutaways showing the structure of the building and the previous buildings under this one, like in Mexico City. History often makes me sad. The Spanish came north from Mexico, where they had found gold and treasure, seeking more of it. Thy didn't find it, killing hundreds of people in the process, as well as a lot of them dying. A few held out in an outpost that became Santa fe. So much death in the service of greed. Isn't that what future generations will say of our time?

We had to hurry back to get Nick the car so he could go to work. He has an internship at the Children's Museum ending today. And we didn't get going quite as early as we meant to. Bonney and I made a ruspberry custard, according to my mother's recipe. I never made it before, but she did. It uses 8 egg yolks, so wouldn't be something I would usually do. I had brought some raspberries from Polly's and we needed to use them up before they went bad. Unfortunately, it took more than an hour to cook. Even then, it wasn't very firm. Apparently, alitude is part of the problem.

We parked a ways from the museum, a place Bonney knew that we could park fo rfree, which was fine. But we hadn't begun to see it all by the time we had to leave. Walking back hurriedly in the sun at 1 o'clock with no lunch and the car ride home made me feel sick. Fortunately, there was the last of the potato salad I could gobble down with some more iced tea. And leftover fish with corn relish.

We rested some after lunch and eventually made bean salad to marinate a while before supper. Ray took a nap and bonney and hank and I went to a fund-raising auction at their church. There was a lot of good stuff, including a place to stay in Italy and one in Austria. I probably would have bid on them, except that I couldn't pay for it right now LOts of artwork, but kind of hard to travel with it.

We had our bean salad ans some sweet potato fries bonney had in the freezer. IT mae a surpirsingly satisfying supper and then we ate the cusdelicious raspberry custard. We had decided to watch something--a movie from Netflix. But it was hard to find one that was really funny that none of us had seen. We watched the King of California, very quirky and not as funny as I would have liked, but enjoyable. Starring Michael Douglas as a man searching for buried treasure in Califronia left by the Spanish. So in keeping with the morning's activities.

I had trouble falling asleep, feeling that I was as crazy in my own way as he was, traveling and spending money like water with no job.

It's very dry here--duh. My nose is stuffy and my hands and lips are dry. I bought some hand cream and keep water close by all the time.

We went on a short hike in the morning--it was pleasant, not too hot, with interesting foliage. Nicky made us sandwiches as we were driving home and then all of us went swimming (except Hank, who was working). It was breezy, so pretty cold once you got wet, but very refreshing. On the way home, we stopped at Bonney's grocery store (a health food co-op) and loaded up with stuff. I was tired after that and rested and read for awhile.

For supper, we made fried fish with corn relish from my file--it was well recieved, except Nicky made himself some beans instead. I believe he likes fish, just not tilapia. We had steamed zucchini and leftover potato salad, eating on the patio where there was a nice breeze.

It's cool in the mornings, so we open the windows and enjoy the temperature. Then we close everything up. Late in the day, they run the swamp cooler, a sort of whole-house fan that involves bringing air in through a wet cloth. It feels great and runs into the night until somebody decides they're too cold.

After supper, we played Bananagrams, which is a lot like Scrabble solitaire, except you share letters and race to see who can use all their letters first. It was lots of fun. Apparently Bonney usually wins in their family, but I managed to beat her a couple of times and once she and Ray tied.

I slept well. Ray was up when I got up, but now he is back asleep. Today we are planning to head to the history museum.

The walls are white stucco. The dark wood ceiling is high above me, with large wooden logs supporting it. The floor is large square tiles. At this time of day, the birds are calling outside, much like they would at my house. There is a cool breeze coming in, although the sun is already shining in on the other side of the house. It is very dry here and Ray and I drink water throughout the day and night.

We arrived in Santa Fe Wednesday night. Yesterday we spent resting and recovering. We did some laundry and made potato salad for supper. Chris kindly met our plane. We went to dinner at a very nice Greek restaurant in Albuquerque and then went back to the airport, because our luggage did not come on the same flight we did. Then he drove us to Bonney's house, where we said hello to everyone and went to bed.

The sky is bright blue, with mountains on the horizon. We took a walk yesterday. The houses are pinky-brown, with walled yards enclosing small trees and shrubs and flowers. Some are different from Athens and some are similar. There is lots of butterfly bush and lavender, but not much lawn. This is, after all, more or less, desert. Bonney and Hank were at work. Nick went in at 2, working at the children's museum. I remember going there with Molli and Amelia when they were very young. They particularly enjoyed the face-painting. Amelia was some sort of cat, I believe.

Wednesday went quite well. Ray took a shorter-than-usual walk. I did not bake any farewell cookies or bread. We were packed and ready to go by 8:30--or at least 8:35. We dropped off Nate and Lidet and Polly drove us to the airport. By the time we got on our plane, I had received two calls about the second part of our trip: Oakland to Albuquerque. It had been delayed by a couple of hours. So when we arrived in Oakland, a Southwest agent helped us rebook to a different flight, leaving earlier and going through Los Angeles. We arrived about the time we had expected, 7:40, but our bags went on our original flight and were there a couple hours later. The view from the window all day was magnificent. Peaks above the clouds during the first half of the trip. The flight from LA to ABQ was over the desert, cloudless and bright. Mountains with a dusting of snow, huge amounts of bare sand, punctuated by green spaces, houses and golf courses. We even flew over a canyon, jaggedly cutting through the light brown stretches.

Of course, we had no meals on any of our flights, only endless rounds of peanuts, pretzels, and beverages. At the end, I started turning them down. We did have a lovely meal in Oakland, where there were several good choices near our gate. We chose Andele (?), a very authentic Mexican restaurant. I had a snapper burrito, which I couldn't quite finish and hated to leave. It didn't seem like it would travel very well though.

We had free wireless in that airport, I think. I spent my time trying to delete the duplicate photos that have accumulated from downloading pictures from my phone. I now have more photos than can be loaded into iPhoto and want to figure out some other way to get them onto the computer, not using iPhoto. It is very frustrating. I delete and delete and I have almost 6 GB free space. I set it up and it starts copying, but gives me a message before it is through: there is not enough space... Yesterday, I managed to get them all off, but iPhoto still crashed.

We miss our young niblings from Seattle. On Monday, we took Lidet to a little place called LaConner and then drove home down Whidbey Island. We bought gorgeous strawberries and had them for dessert. Some old friends of Polly's joined us, visiting from Spain. Tuesday was the day Polly and Jim picked Nate up from his soccer camp. He had a good time, but was pretty exhausted from three days at sleep-away camp. We enjoyed our time there, helping with child care and cooking and becoming more familiar with Seattle and their routines there.

Saturday morning, I went with Jim to take the kids to Aikido while Polly went to yoga. It was fun to watch and then we repaired to a coffee shop, where I treated myself to a pain au chocolat--not a particularly good one, but a thing I like to have to remind me of France and how good they are. I also ordered an Italian soda (raspberry), which was mainly half and half and whipped cream. Then I sat by the window with my iPad like a Seattle ite.

We took them home, where Nate and I played Spider, eventually winning a game! Two days in a row! Lidet and Jim went to the park to watch the milk carton derby (boats). Ray walked over and met them there. I read to Lidet and she took a nap. Polly and Jim and Nate left. Ray and Lidet and I went on an urban farm tour. We visited 6 or 7 of 60 homes that have backyard chickens, gardens, and sometimes rabbits or goats. We all enjoyed it. Ray told all the people about our chickens. Lidet got to feed them some clover and pat the soft rabbits. I do feel very at home here. And what a fun way to see some neighborhoods. I fantasize about buying a house here (a small one) and look at them, saying, "maybe that would we could afford."

At home, Lidet went to get her friend Natalie and they came back to the house. I made homemade pizza, which did not turn out perfectly and we ate later than I would have liked, but they were appreciative. The thing where you heat up the pizza stone and make the pizza on a big paddle, or peel, didn't work so well. Getting the pizza off of it and onto the really hot stone in the really hot oven seems pretty impossible. We ended up getting it onto a cookie sheet, but it burned in places and was raw in places. Not the way that went in my head.

We watched a Dolphin Tale, which made most of us cry several times. Good movie with good messages. So it was very late when they went to bed (almost 11). Lidet wanted us to sleep in Polly's bed upstairs, so we did. The view of the lights below is pretty amazing. I did have some trouble sleeping, maybe because it was a different bed...

Gray and windy and cool this morning. I just want to watch cartoons in my pajamas...well, almost.

Sunday morning we had pancakes, of course. Lidet and Natalie played in their pajamas for hours. It was even cooler and grayer than usual, so there was not a lot of incentive for going out. By the time Natalie went home and we got dressed and had lunch (homemade lentil stew), it was about 3 before we headed out. We were on our way to Bastille Day celebrations at the Seattle Center. We found a great parking spot (free!) and walked over, but could find no festival. There is a lot to see and do anyway--admire the Space Needle and the fountains, play in the fields. Thanks to the magic of iPhone, I discovered that there had been a mistake--Bastille Day, not surprisingly, was only Saturday, the 14th. But there was enough information to the contrary that there was a disclaimer on the website. Humph! We were looking forward to that, for sure. In particular, I wanted a pain au chocolat after my healthy, low-carb lunch! Lidet was not pleased either and rejected most of our alternative suggestions. (there's always a lot to choose from in Seattle--especially on a summer weekend). As we got back in the car, heading to Chinatown, Polly called. They were almost home. Given the choice, Lidet said, "let's go home!" So we did.

Jim and Ray and Lidet headed down to a bar. Polly and I discussed dinner and started working on it. They called me to say Lidet was heading to Goodwill and did I want to join them. So, I walked down there and helped her pick out the adorable black and white dres she has on here. Eventually we had a lovely dinner, for which she made the menu you see.

After we took the kids to camp Thursday, Ray and I drove down to the ferry and rode across to Bainbridge Island. We drove to Port Townsend and spent some time exploring Fort Worden. Lots of old buildings and concrete gun bunkers, as well as a beautiful beach. Some families there but not as crowded as beaches in the east, and very little actual swimming. It would be a great place to have a family reunion. They rent the former officers' quarters.

We drove into Port Townsend itself, where there are hundreds of historic homes in beautiful condition and gorgeous views on three sides of water and mountains. We looked at the wooden boats being built and did some shopping. I bought a book for my Dad, another from a series about seafaring, like Hornblower. Ray and I discussed where to eat and looked at menus. The weather was sunny and warm, but not too hot.

We had a lovely dinner and headed back to Seattle, via a different ferry boat. Ferries are so much fun--you can travel and stretch your legs at the same time. The view is great, the wind blows your hair, and the other passengers are interesting. We were home by 9 and said goodnight to everyone before we watched a little TV--found a Doc Martin we hadn't seen before.

Yesterday, I made more cookies and challah bread. I drove the children to camp by myself while Ray woke up. All that driving had taken a toll on him, I guess. He picked them up, plus a friend for Lidet. They didn't want Nate to play with them, so he helped me with a Spider game--and we won! The girls wanted to go swimming, so I took them to Green Lake (found the way by myself, with a little help from them). It was about 66 degrees out, but sunny, in spite of thunderstorms in the morning. They swam for about 20 minutes and there were several other kids in the water, including teenagers in bikinis. I was very comfortable watching, with a sweater on.

We got home about the same time as Sadie's mom, who came in and chatted a bit. Then Jim arrived and they talked some more.

That evening, the grownups went out to dinner while a young man came to sit for the children. They ate Annie's mac and cheese (from a box) and watched movies on TV. We were only gone a couple hours. I went right to bed--maybe it was the drink I had before dinner...I slept about 9 hours!

The days are running together. I am a little homesick, although not for the weather in Georgia. I talked to my Dad on the phone yesterday and I am feeling guilty for leaving him there to deal with the heat and the household problems, like the dying plants and the chickens.

Tuesday Ray and I took the children to their camp at 9:30. I made ginger cookies. We went to the grocery store and bought a few things. We had chicken stir-fry with snow peas from the garden for supper. We picked the children up from camp at 1:30 and they played nicely all afternoon. It was cooler that day and overcast, but burned off toward dinner. Lidet spent the night with a friend.

quiche and beet salad

Yesterday I made bread, which was a big hit. One loaf was gone between 3 and suppertime. We took the kids to camp. We picked them up. They played. It was a beautiful warm sunny day with a pleasant breeze. Lidet and her friend Stella put on their bathing suits and asked me to spray them. Nate and his friend Connor built a "car" out of a cardboard box and tried to build a ramp so it would go fast down the steps in the backyard. They were going to charge people, but then someone (maybe Lidet) said "who's going to pay for that?" It was very entertaining. We made salade nicoise for supper. Ray did the dishes, so it was tidy when Polly came home. Jim came home, took Nate to a ball game, and went out with friends afterward. Four of us had a nice supper on the back porch in the sunshine, with a view of the city and the mountains. Three of us went to Polly's P-Patch, a portion of community garden, and picked more raspberries. Ray and I had some with vanilla ice cream. We were in bed by ten.