We arrived in Seattle late morning and David picked us up and we stopped in Tacoma at a really fun and delicious place for lunch.  The building where the restaurant is was in the former Tacoma Elks building with 6 floors and 3 or 4 restaurants, each with a different theme and hotel rooms.  Two brothers bought it and completely renovated it in a rather eclectic style.  They had collected all kinds of chandeliers which predominate the each floor.  Nice views of the harbor, too.  

This is what it looked like before the renovation.

Here’s the view of the harbor.

David took us to his apartment in Olympia and the next morning we went to Spokane.  We drove over Snoqualmie pass with off and on rain but had views of lakes and snow on the pass and waterfalls coming down the mountainside.

This was a 6 hour drive from Olympia so we (David, Sam, Denny and I) stopped at a very nice restaurant for lunch. We were on our way to Tessa’s graduation from Washington State University in Pullman but because the school had so many graduates we couldn’t get a reservation any closer.  Spokane is a little over an hour away.  We stayed in a beautiful hotel right on the River Walk Park. It was still raining and a bit chilly but wanted to see the River Walk Park so we took our umbrellas and ventured out to the river.  There were beautiful gardens along the walk and the river was raging. 

There was also a big clock tower commemorating the Northern and Southern Pacific railroads that came by that way and a nice fountain and a carousel.  Charles I. D. Looff, a German immigrant hand-carved 54 horses, 1 tiger, 1 giraffe and 2 chariots back in the early 1900’s.  He also created the carousel on Coney Island and many more across the country.  Each of the horses has a name. The one in the front with his head pointing up is Oliver.

Here is the fountain.

Tessa’s class was so big that they had 3 separate graduations. Hers was the first one at 8:00 am. So, up we got very early and drove the hour or so to the campus. It was a cold rainy morning so we were glad to see that the commencement took place indoors. There was a large 4 sided Jumbotron focused on the speakers and then on each grad with their name and school under it. That got somewhat messed up but fortunately Tessa’s name and school were aligned in our view.

After graduation we took some pictures in front of the Cougar then went to Tessa’s apartment where we joined Leila, Tessa and Sam and Tessa’s roommate for some lunch. Then David, Sam, Denny and I went back on the road for the long trek back to David’s. Tessa had her own car that she was driving home on Sunday and Leila was going back to school.

We took a different route home across White Pass this time. We went through a totally different environment of rolling hills of farmland until we got to the pass where we saw at least 100 elk standing by the road in front of houses and in fields. This route was a little longer but nice to see a different view.

On Monday we had lunch with Oscar and Barbara Soule. These are old friends who go way back to St. Louis where Oscar went to high school with Denny and Barbara went to high school with my brother, Bob. Oscar was one of the original professors at Evergreen College and actually taught David when he went there. Lots of great connections also including our fathers who were partners in their medical practice for a while. We try to see them when we visit David.

During the week we stayed at David’s we visited many parks– Woodard Bay, McClane Creek, Nisqually NWR, a walk around Capitol Lake, and Tumwater Falls. Here are some pictures from them:

Woodard Bay is a. place where hundreds of Cormorants nest on an island in tall trees. They make quite a racket. It also has a pier at the end of the peninsula where thousands of Yuma myotis bats nest underneath. On a warm sunny day you can be there at dusk to see them come out and fly about 7 miles to feed at Capitol Lake.

McClane Creek is a regular visit when we come to Washington. It’s a nice trail around water with Wood ducks and Mallards. There were lots of Rough-skinned Newts in the water and we even saw a beaver swimming. It was a little early for the salmon to spawn but when they do a lot of them end up dying in the creek and the eagles are plentiful.

David worked one day so we were on our own and walked around Capitol Lake.

Then another day we went to Tumwater Falls which is just below the old Olympia Brewery. There is a trail along the river which also has a fish ladder for the salmon. We saw a couple of American Dipper birds playing on the rocks and sometimes getting swamped and one even came up with a fish. \

Also when Tessa came back we played pickleball one day. There are courts close to David’s apartment. Then two days later David and I played there. I left one of my paddles with David and bought another for Tessa so they say they are going to play often this summer. Hope that works out.

On Thursday night Sam and Tionna came over for a nice dinner and Friday night David took Tessa and Aiden, Denny and I out to a wonderful graduation and Mother’s Day dinner at a restaurant on the Sound. Unfortunately Sam and Tionna had to work that night which is why they came to dinner the night before. Aiden is Tessa’s new boyfriend and it was our first time meeting him. He seemed very nice and we all had a delicious meal together.

Tessa’s graduation present was a week in Cancun with Aiden and her flight left the next day about a half hour before ours so we all drove up together. It was a lovely visit. So glad we could make it to Tessa’s graduation. Hope we can go back next year for Leila’s graduation.