2017 Pacific Northwest Fest

From a deep and restful slumber, we were rudely awakened by the fucking alarm clock at 4:45am.  Why so early for an 8:20 flight?  Because it's a holiday, it's DIA, it's Friday, and we're flying Southwest (where bags fly free but each passenger is charged a pound of flesh...and I am certain that if I had even one more pound of flesh on my body, I would NOT have fit into that middle seat). A small child made the second hour of the flight seem more like four hours.  Dear rugrat's mother, may I remind you, THIS IS AN AIRPLANE, NOT MCFUCKINGDONALD's PLAYLAND!  At the baggage claim, there was one carousel for three flights that arrived at the same time.  Chaos.  Another small child was standing at the conveyor belt making as if she were going to unload a couple of large bags by herself.  GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY YOU STUPID LITTLE GNAT! Rental car buses were packed.  Thrifty could not find my reservation (they finally did).  The hour and a ha...

Well, it's time again for summer vacation.  And this year - like the past two years - we're heading to the Pacific Northwest (PNW). We tried to fit Olympic National Park and Vancouver into this adventure, but there were several logistics playing against us.  We now have at least four groups of friends that we have to visit when we go...and getting all of their schedules AND ours to work together was just too much.  So, we'll save the park and lovely Vancouver for next year. Of course we'll go see Joe's sister, Debbie, in Olympia, WA (south of Seattle at the bottom of the sound).  Lou and Mary, who live in Dallas, have a summer home in Portland, so we'll hook up with them on the 5th.  Mike and Martha used to live in Denver, but he got a job in Salem, and we got a standing invitation.  Then there's Matt and Sheila just north of Victoria on Vancouver Island...also a standing invitation.  By the way, do you know that it's easier to get to Vancouver Isl...