We stretched out our visit until late morning, enjoying
those last moments with Gail. What a
delightful time we had had with her.
Then had to drive south and west to get to the coast for our
next stop. This meant driving along the
Columbia River. We saw such a contrast between the dry hills above the mighty river and the green orchards irrigated along its shores.
It is from this valley
that most of the nation’s apples are produced.
There are other crops growing there, too. At many points, we saw huge stacks of large wooden boxes that would be soon filled with apples. Seeing these empty boxes gave us such a dramatic sense of how many apples this region produces.
We HAD to stop and
buy fresh Rainier Cherries, and had a delightful conversation with an orchard owner who told us stories of the struggles of dealing with the
drought and the lack of fruit over the past few years, as well as some the complications of bureaucratic
rules in keeping his orchard certified in order to keep a large European customer. Fortunately, this was a bountiful year, which
made it look like they would not lose the orchard. It is tough being a small farmer of
anything. We took a few moments to watch the operation of sorting cherries for packing. The people were pulling out the damaged fruit before the rest ended in a cherry shipping box. The cherries were
fantastic! Nothing like totally fresh
fruit.
Finally we reached I-90 and turned west. We had been seeing the Southern Cascade
mountains to the west of us and now we crossed them. They are quite beautiful. We had spent time in the Northern Cascades on
a previous trip. It is a special range
of mountains.
Before we knew it, we were stuck in Seattle traffic. Not the most fun at rush hour. We were driving south of Seattle to visit
Patti’s Aunt Alice. She is Patti’s dad’s
oldest sister at age 93.
The visit was very fun and filled with catching up on family
and telling old family stories and travel tales. Alice was quite a traveler herself, and was
the source of many names and addresses of the people we got to meet in Denmark,
Patti was able to get some videos of Alice telling some of
her family stories. Priceless! It was so fun hearing about her childhood,
her trip to Denmark now nearly 30 years ago, and other family memories. She was
sad to not be joining her brother for his 25th wedding anniversary celebration
in Minnesota, but flying is not longer practical for her.
She loves company and was very gracious in her hosting of
us, making sure we were well taken care of.
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