Visiting Friends Up North

This evening we visited with Norm & Carole in Bellingham. They are one of the reasons I am here visiting. I got a text from Norm about 2 weeks after he had surgery to remove bone spurs in his neck. The spurs had grown in to his spinal cord! Yikes! 😲 Due to inflammation from the surgery, his hands were numb & he only has 10% to 20% use of them; his doctors anticipate he will regain more use as the swelling goes down ... over the next year or so! Auē! Since they can't come to visit me, I decided to come & visit them. We met them at the Diversity Diner in about 2000; Norm & Kai can talk for hours about anything! 

Kai, Norm, & Carole.

We picked up dinner from Busara Thai Cuisine to take over to Norm & Carole's. (I forgot to take photos of the food. 😢) In the same shopping mall as Busara was a place called Insomnia Cookies. I looked them up; apparently they will deliver cookies until 3 am, 7 days a week within a 20 to 30 minute drive of their location!

We started our day having breakfast with Lani at Lunchbox Cafe. Lani is from Hawaiʻi; we went to the same high school, she was in my brother's year. We met at Aikido; her sons were training with Kai in the kids classes. We've known them for around 30 years.

Kai, Lani, & part of the lunchbox collection.

Kai had the Breakfast Chimi. 

Lani had the Small D Breakfast.

I had the Eggs Benedict.

As we were getting ready to leave, I went to use the bathroom. It has a rather interesting floor. I estimated there is about maybe $30 worth of pennies on the floor.

There's about $5 in this doorway.

About $1.40 here.

When we left Mount Vernon, we headed up to Bellingham. Our 1st stop there was to visit Crilly who is now retired. He & Martha celebrated his retirement with a vacation to Molokaʻi in March 2023; I met them there for a whirlwind visit. They don't have as large of a growing area as they did in Kenmore, but they are making the most of what they have. I had met Crilly earlier, but didn't really get to know him until I transferred to Environmental Services in late 2009. FYI Crilly recommended Busara Thai Cuisine; it was a very good choice!

The new garden area.

After we left Norm & Carole's house, I dropped Kai off in Anacortes. Then I headed to Darla & Jim's house in Stanwood; I am spending the rest of my visit with them until the day before I return home. It was too dark for photos, you will have to wait for tomorrow's post for that!

The next episode of the Kīlauea eruption is still anticipated for next week some time.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Deb! A me ka Hauʻoli lā Hoʻomanaʻo makahiki kanalima e Diann & Robert! A me ka Hauʻoli lā Hoʻomanaʻo makahiki kanakolu kumamālua e Umi & Brian!