Olympia, WA to Costa Rica

It’s been over a year since Denny died.  I’ve had many ups and downs but more and more I’ve come to feel so much gratitude for having been with him for 61 years.  We’ve been able to do so many things and gone so many places and created a wonderful community of family and friends.  I didn’t want to spend what would have been our 61st anniversary (12/27/25) and the 1st anniversary of his death (1/9/26) away from my family so on 12/24 I flew to Washington to be with our son David, granddaughter Tessa, and David’s girlfriend Cindy to spend a week with them.  As it happens we have friends in Washington that we were able to get together with also.

One of the things I’ve been doing over the past year is spreading Denny’s ashes around to places he loved.  After his Celebration of Life we sprinkled some in Maine at a place we’d taken the kids in the summers when they were young.  

Then David and I kayaked one of our favorite routes in the Adirondacks where we sprinkled some more. 

View from Honeymoon Lean-to

We also left some at the rail yard in East Deerfield where he spent many days taking pictures of trains and walking on the bike path.

View from the bridge at the bike path.

Denny always loved to travel so his ashes have been traveling for him. 

When we were in Washington we took him to Nisqually NP

and MacLane Creek which we visited almost every time we went to Washington.

 David later took him to a favorite spot on the Washington coast called Ruby Beach.

It was rainy most of the week I was there but we managed to get out and about.  We had lunch with an old canoeing friend Ed Regan and his wife Pam Nolan.  They had moved to Washington a few years ago and were in the process of building a house in Port Townsend.  They met us in Olympia for lunch and a little walk to Tumwater Falls.  We had been to the falls the day before when we were walking around Capitol Lake with Tessa but Ed and Pam had never been there so we went again. 

Another day David took me on a tour of the State Capital where he works and showed me a lot of interesting architecture and beautiful landscaping using native plants and trees.  After that we went to Oscar and Barbara Soule’s house and out to lunch with them.  My family and Oscar’s had been long time friends in St. Louis.  His father was an OB/GYN who at one point had been partners with my father.  His father delivered me, my brother and sisters and also David.  So we go way back.  Oscar, who graduated Clayton High School with Denny came to Olympia as a founding professor of environmental studies at Evergreen State College and stayed there until he retired.  Barbara graduated from U. City high school with my brother Bob.  Barbara was a nurse working worldwide in epidemiology and public health.  

We spent a week in Olympia doing a lot of eating out, taking walks, cooking wonderful meals, playing games and exchanging holiday presents.  It was great fun.  On January 1st David and I left on a red-eye for warmer weather and sunshine.  We flew to San Jose, Costa Rica for almost 2 weeks.  

Stay tuned for part 2