Tom was able to wrangle a week and a half of leave to come home for a visit. He was recently in Tacoma for two weeks working, went back to Wichita for a few days and then flew here. It is our first time seeing him since the divorce. It is bittersweet. Love having my time with him these days but know that if it wasn't for the fact that he is divorced, I wouldn't be seeing him. He would be with his wife instead. He has missed Washington so he has been grateful to have spent the last four weeks here between work and vacation.
I was on call and worked the first few days he was home but took a week off so that I could spend time with him. We drove up to Bellingham the first weekend so that we could spend time with Chris. While we waited for Chris to get off work, Tom and I wandered about town going to the WWU campus and Whatcom Falls. He has been there a couple times before but only for brief visits and those were two spots we hadn't taken him to before. After Chris got off work, we went out for sushi and went to see "Ready Player One" at the theater. It was so good to have our whole family together for an evening of fun.
Bill had recently come across a website article about a kangaroo farm about an hour from Bellingham. He and I had seen kangaroos in a similar setting on our honeymoon so it was something I was really looking forward to doing and Christopher was pretty excited about it too. Unfortunately, it was pouring down rain when we went Sunday morning on the way home but we decided to go ahead with it anyway. It was pretty darn cold, wet and muddy there. Bill and I had such a good experience in Australia. Our host took us to buy sticky buns before we went to the nursery where the kangaroos and wallabies were located. They flocked to us wanting the food. One fella kept clawing at me after I ran out because he wanted more. The ones at the Outback Kangaroo Farm in Arlington are a little more skittish. Most of them ran off if we tried to get close. Tom and Chris were able to pet a couple of them though.
Monday was the only nice day we had while I was on vacation. Tom and I headed to some trails near us that he had never been on. I love it there but don't go very often. We saw all three waterfalls at the Round Lake Park trails and lots of wildflowers. Unfortunately it was a little too early to see the camas lily field in bloom but we saw a couple of early bloomers.
The only other day we did much of anything during the week was on Thursday. The original plan was to go hiking at Silver Falls but we saw that snow was predicted so we nixed that and stayed in our backyard to hike in north Clark County at Moulton Falls and Lucia Falls Parks. I'm a fair weather hiker so I had my umbrella with me--not that I hardly ever carry on any other time- but I was glad to have it when it started pouring down rain.
The rest of the week Tom just wanted to rest, play games, watch TV and movies, etc. He also connected with a couple of his friends here which was nice. He was pretty exhausted from the exercise he just finished in Tacoma.
Our last hurrah was to go see my friends in Puyallup. Tom was up for going with me and seemed to enjoy visiting with them. We had wanted to go to Northwest Trek with them but it was pouring down rain again/still. We thought it would be pretty miserable to go so we just went bowling at the McChord AFB which was fun. I hadn't done that in a long time. I'm not a good bowler--in fact none of us are--but we had a good time anyway.
Always hard to say goodbye but hoping we can see each other again this summer.
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