My Summer Vacation: Penultimate Vacation Day

There was no new snow last night. In fact, the snow had started to melt off.

Twenty-nine minutes after sunrise.

Originally I was going to attend the Mariner High School Martin Luther King Day assembly today; the Indigenous Club was going to perform as part of the celebration and my friend Susan invited me to attend. Susan is their advisor; I was also going to help make lei on Monday but school was cancelled due to the snow. So we were going to try for Tuesday but that was cancelled also. So no lei & no celebration due to snow. Aue! The morning ended up being errands to tie up loose ends with the Loyale, searching for some of Kai's things in storage, and getting some of my things out of storage and headed back with me.

We also made 2 trips to Cafe Makario. The first was in the morning on our way in; Kai needed his caffeine so that he could function. The 2nd was when Steve called to see if we could meet today; we had cancelled our earlier meeting on Monday due to the snow! Steve wanted to show us the book Obata's Yosemite. Chiura Obata made a series of woodblock prints of scenes he experienced at Yosemite in the early 1900's. Like Obata, Steve is also enthralled with Yosemite. We originally met Steve the previous Friday at Cafe Makario! He is such an interesting guy we will be staying in touch with him; he also may have some work for Kai.

Matcha Latte.

Kai had the Dutch Luau.

The Dutch Luau with 2 macaroons.

You have to stir it up before you drink it.

Bacon & Cheese Macaroon.

My Chai Latte later in the afternoon.

I had a Savory Scone in the afternoon.

While we were out running errands, we also washed the Outback to get the sand off of the car. A lot of other people had the same idea; there was a traffic jam at the car wash. It was even longer an hour later when we drove by!

The Outback in the morning before it got washed.

We got the Beary Best wash.

Clean again!

When we were at Cafe Makario the first time our friends the Balas called to see if we were free for dinner this evening; Mr. Bala had forgotten when I was leaving. We had already made plans to have dinner with my nephew David tonight. So I just talked to the Balas and we agreed to get together on my next trip. About 5 minutes later David texted to say he still had a sore throat, cough, and headache and needed to cancel dinner tonight. I immediately called the Balas back and told them we could see them after all! We settled on 7 pm since they had a bunch of things to do in the afternoon.

When we got back to the house we started to clean out the Loyale; I had called the car donation number and they will call back in 2 or 3 working days to set up a time to pick up the car. We transferred everything Kai is keeping to the Outback, threw out a bunch of stuff, and there is a small handful of cool rocks we used to keep in the car that will be going back with me.

While I was starting to transfer things to the Outback, Kai took the snacks we bought to take to the Balas house in the refrigerator. He got delayed getting back out because Bear had gotten in to my room, rifled through a bag that I had carelessly left on the floor, and found one of the cookies we got last night from Kafe Neo. He ate it and some of the plastic wrap as well. Fortunately all my omiyage was in my carry-on bag which was zipped shut; I specifically did that so if Bear got in to the room he couldn't get the chocolate!

Bear in doggy jail.

After we transferred everything to the Outback, I started repacking my suitcase; I had things from storage to fit in along with the omiyage. At least, that was the original plan. About 15 minutes later Mrs. Bala called to say that they were back early so we could come over right then; so we headed over about 15 minutes later. I just put everything in the Outback; I decided to leave the omiyage in the carry-on and not worry about packing really efficiently to get everything in to my suitcase. Besides it would probably be overweight if I did that and I would have to take some of it out and put it in the carry-on to lighten the load.

Dinner was excellent as usual! Mrs. Bala is a great cook! We had goat curry, spinach & black garbanzo beans, naan, papadum, rice, chai tea, and carrot halvah for dessert.

Clockwise from top: naan, spinach & black garbanzo beans, rice with goat curry, and relish.

Carrot halvah.

Mr. Bala had me sit in the chair where he has installed the Snailax massager that he recently purchased. It was really great! I will have to look in to getting one; he said he got it through Amazon for a little over $100!

The temperature was on its way back down when we left the Balas house. Their lawn ans side streets were still covered with snow.

We left the Balas and headed down to cousin Karen's house in Renton; earlier in the week the long term forecast showed possible snow tonight. I didn't want to be in Marysville and have to start at or so in the morning to make sure I got to the airport in time to make it through TSA for my 8:30 flight. Karen is about 20 minutes away so we would have a better chance of getting there in time even with snow on the ground.