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Thursday, July 26, 2007
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Ok, I think it is time for me to do some catching up on this blog. Sorry I haven't updated in so long. We were back to back busy our entire trip and I never had a chance to write a blog, then I was so tired at night I couldn't do it before bed either. So You are going to have to settle for an over view update of our week.
We really did have a great time although we were both tired a lot from staying so busy. We left Lynchburg Tuesday Morning to Drive down to Allie's Dad's house and then ended up waiting there for about an hour for Allie's Dad to get off work so we could go to the Airport. Once he arrived we packed up the car and headed over to RDU Airport. Checking in and getting through security went very smoothly. Our plane left on time too and we got to our layover airport early. But then there was no place for our plane to park so we ended up being stuck on the taxiway for about 40 minutes. We were starting to worry about catching our second flight, but we soon found out that our connection flight was on the same airplane so we didn't have to walk anywhere. But since we got to the gate late our second flight was delayed a little bit. Then once we got in the plane and headed out we were waiting in line to take off for another 40 minutes or so. It was pretty annoying. Apparently there was a thunderstorm over a neighbor airport and they had to re-route all the flights to that one and caused all kinds of backups. Finally though we were underway. Both of us were pretty hungry though because we were going to get dinner in between flights but since it was cut so close we didn't have to time to do that. Luckily they ended up feeding us dinner on the flight to Seattle. The food wasn't all that great but at least it was food. We got into Seattle around 11:30ish at night and my parents came by to pick us up. After getting to my house and talking and unpacking some stuff we didn't get to bed until around 1:30 Seattle time which would make it feel like 4:30 our time. So we were pretty tired.
Wednesday my parents let us sleep in a little bit to make up for the jet lag. Both of them had the rest of the week off work and that was really fun. We ended up going up to Enumclaw for a small 4-H fair that they had going on up there. It was really small but still fun. They had little art displays and projects kids had worked on. They also had a big animal section with pigs, llamas, goats, cows, dogs, horses and stuff. Allie said she really loved the goats. We didn't end up staying there too long though as it was kind of small and didn't have too much to do. On the way back home we stopped in at a meat store right at a farm and my dad bought some fresh steaks and stuff. Later that evening we met up with my Grandma and my cousins wife and kids at Mongolian Grill and we had dinner there. After that we headed home for some dessert and my Aunt and Uncle came over for that. It was nice to be able to see everybody again. That evening Danny also came up and hung out with us. Then I was really surprised when Kiyle Decker ended up showing up too. It has been like 5 years since I saw him last and it was great to catch up some. It was a surprise to my parents that he was in town too. So that was really cool. My cousin was planning on coming over also but he ended up getting in a small accident on the way and didn't make it to our house. He ended up just going back home. We all really did have a fun evening though and we were up kind of late again that night. It was nice to get to sleep.
Thursday Allie and My parents and I all went up to Bellingham for the day we were going to end up staying at my sister's house for the night up there. They were at work still during the day though so before meeting up with them we stopped up at one of the beaches in Bellingham. It was a really nice one and there were purple starfish everywhere, it was kind of cool. We ended up hanging out there for a few hours and tooks some pictures and things like that. After doing that we went to lunch at Dairy Queen and then waited for a little while until my sister got off work. After she got home we just hung out at her house for the rest of the night and had dinner and played some games. We laughed a lot during parts of them. It was fun. We ended up getting to bed around 11:00 or so.
Friday we woke up around 8:00 and we all got ready to head to Canada for the day. Allie and I had never been to canada so we wanted to try and do that. One the way up we stopped at the border and took some pictures of the park area they had there. I'll try to get some of the pictures online soon I hope. After getting into canada we drove up to Vancouver and went to the Aquarium they had there. I don't know why in the middle of a Friday but the Aquarium was packed with people. It made it very difficult to walk around and see what you wanted. There were a few cool things there like otters and a huge fish/eel looking thing, but for the most part it was nothing spectacular and it was actually kinda of small. I probably would have rather just walked around downtown Vancouver or something instead and been just as happy. Oh well it was nice to at least be able to go to Canada. On the way back to Washington we got a little bit lost in Vancouver and it took us a really long time to get back. So that was a little bit frustrating not to mention that the roads in Canada are really bad. They don't have a major Highway system and you have to drive through just regular city blocks the entire way and that means you have like a stop light every other block. Then the street signs are sooo small you have to practically stop and pull over to read the sign so that didn't help any either. Anyway, we finally made it back home and had some Tacos for dinner which were very good by the way. After eating dinner we all packed up the cars and headed back down to Seattle. Becca and Katie were going to come back with us for the night. We got home kind of late and I think I fell asleep on the trip back but it ended up being a nice day and Allie and I enjoyed ourselfs. Katie ended up going to her Mom's house for the night though and Allie and Becca shared a room and I headed on to bed dead tired again.
Saturday I woke up with a little more energy but it wouldn't end up lasting very long. That morning we met up with Carol and Richard Doremus and they invited us along for a boat trip. They have a really nice boad and it has a little covered area to sit on top and a dinning area below deck. It was pretty cool. We got there in time to watch them drop the boat in the water Via a little crane type thing. Allie had never seen those before so it was nice she got to see how that worked. Anyway we had to decided where to Go for the trip and the two options were either Tacoma or Seattle. Tacoma has like a little place to dock and then you can walk around the little shops they have. But Seattle has a great view and the skyline and stuff. We ended up choosing to go to Seattle. Up there they had some cruise ships docked and we were able to go by those to see them up close. We also saw some of the ferries come and go. At one point we went by a little bouy of some sort and there was a Bald Eagle sitting on top of it. Everybody got pictures of that. We ended up going along the whole coast area of the city and then turned around and went back. The weather stayed nice for us the entire boat trip. That really was an answer to prayer. As soon as we got out and they put the boat back on the trailer we went out to lunch. Once we got to the restaraunt it then started raining. I think God held it back for us the whole time. It was really great. One complaint was that it was still too cloudy to see the mountain that was kind of sad. At the restaraunt Allie and I ordered and shared a Salmon dish. We didn't want to eat too much because we were going to be going to my Grandma's house for dinner right afterwards. So we were goign to be eating like 4 hours later. Anyway we still enjoyed the meal. We had to kind of hurry a little bit after we ate though so we could stop in at home to grab a few things before heading down to my Grandma's house. The trip to my Grandma's house was quick for me because I think I fell asleep shortly after we got on the highway. That boat ride kind of made me sleepy. Anyway after arriving at her house we all just hung out and talked there for the rest of the night. My Grandma had made Lasagna for me too and I really enjoyed the dinner. There was also corn on the Cob too. Two of my favorite things. It was great. Through the evening my cousin's boys were getting a little riled up and loud at times. Everybody was trying to talk to them and tell them what to do and stuff. It was a little overwhelming. But we all still had fun. My mom wanted a few family pictures and stuff too so we took a few of those as well while we were there. We ended up leaving around 8:30 or so that evening though because my dad had some stuff to do for church the next morning and we also wanted to try to get to sleep a little earlier if possible so we could be rested up for church. We did pretty well I think and got to bed around 11:00.
Sunday morning we had to be out the door by around 9:00. My parents had to prepare all the stuff for music. But when we got there it turns out the other guy that was going to be there to help didn't make it so they went early to just sit around there. It was kind of sad. Anyway it gave me a little bit of time to meet and talk to a few of the people I knew there growing up. The attendance is getting a little grim though. I think for the Sunday School hour there were only about 11 of us. The guy that was supposed to teach for sunday school though ended up getting stuck in traffic on the way and he was late getting there. My Dad had to end up improvizing and doing some of the teaching without notes. Before that though They had me go up and talk a little bit about what I've been up to and my call to missions and how God has blessed me and things. Apparently I did pretty well for off the cuff stuff. I only talked for like 5-10 minutes though. I was pretty nervous. My Dad did really good though going through notes from a bible lesson they have been going through every once in awhile. He did it without notes or even reading it that morning. It worked pretty well. For the service the guy ended up making it and he spoke on one of the Minor Prophets. He really had some good stuff in his message, it was really long though. He was goign to talk for about 30 minutes and ended up talking for like an hour. So yeah, he went really long. I enjoyed it though. After church we went home and ended up having BLT sandwiches for lunch. They were pretty good. While they were being made though I took the time to do some work on my mom's computer. After lunch My Dad, Allie and I went to Frys Electronics store to pickup a few things, we needed a couple fans for the computer and a new CD Burner because theirs quit working for some reason. So After that we went back home and I tried to get as much done as I could before we had to go back to church. Church that evening started pretty early though. They've been doing evening service at 5:00. That night they were working through a video series of "How should we then live" by Frances Shafer. I got really sleepy through it though and I think I dozed off some. Anyway after church we met up with My old Pastor and his wife along with some of the people from church that evening at a Chinese Restaraunt. We all ordered like one dish but then we all took little bits of everybodies so we could taste it all. It was kind of a cool way to do it. We had fun. It was nice to hang out with everyone again. We ended up staying there for a long time after eating still. When we finally did leave though I had to call Danny back because he was waiting to come up once we got back from dinner. So we picked him up on the way back from dinner. Then after getting back to the house I had to do some finish up work on the computer. I had to drill a few holes and install the fans. But I think they are all up and running now. The CD Burner works again now too. After getting that all finished up we all kind of just sat around and talked for awhile. It was really nice to see Danny again. We all headed to bed again kind of late that night.
Monday Allie and I had the day to ourself to go to Seattle and do whatever we wanted down there. My Mom took my dad to work that day so she could use his car for the day and we used hers. So we ended up driving to Seattle and parking in a Garage down there and ended up leaving the car there all day. We then walked everywhere else we wanted. Our first stop was to the Pike Place Market. We had gotten there around 9:30 though and there were a lot of the shops that didn't open until 10:00 so we had to walk around the place and find the shops that were open. We stopped up at Fish market where they throw the fish when people buy them and watch that for awhile. Then walked around and mentally noted the places we wanted to go for lunch. We didn't do a good job of noting though because when the time came to eat we had forgotten most of them. We still had a great time though. There are a lot of cool thing there. When lunch did come we ended up getting a small helping of Macaroni and Cheese from the Handmade Cheese Factory. That was some really good stuff. After that we ventured around some more to find another place to eat We ended up going by the Athenian Inn. That is the restaraunt that Tom Hanks was in when they were Filming "Sleepless in Seattle" He sat at one of the bar tables there for the scene. Allie was pretty excited about being able to eat there. So we shared a small helping of crab cake there and then decided to walk over to the Seattle Center to look at the space needle. We didn't end up going up inside though because we had both been up there before and it really is kind of expensive. Becca may have been able to get us free tickets up but we forgot to ask her about those. We ended up just walking around though and looking at the stuff around there. We were also on a mission to try and find a good place to eat for dinner that night because we were going to meet up with Danny and his Girlfriend Jana for dinner. I ended up asking someone where the good places to eat are and he directed me to a general intersection where there are all kinds of restaraunts. After doing a lot of walking around we had found a few options and I called Danny to see what his price range was going to be for the night. He decided he could splurge for an evening and so we all decided to go to a Restaraunt called "The Melting Pot". The stuff there is fairly expensive but he was up for it. So we got a time frame to meet and decided on a time about and hour and a half later. So Allie and I had some more time to Kill so we ended up walking back to Pike Place Market and doing some more wandering around in that area trying to find some gifts for people and stuff. Once it got about 30 mins from meeting time we started the long walk back to the restaraunt area. By this time our legs were killing us but we pressed on. I think we probably walked a total of 8-10 miles that day back and forth. After getting back to the restaraunt area I gave Danny a call to check on his status to find out that he was stuck in traffic and wasn't going to be able to make it in time for our reservation. So I called the restaraunt and had them push it back half an hour. That meant Allie and I had to kill some more time. So we found a small little book store and sat in there and read some Calvin and Hobbes Comic books. It was nice to sit down for awhile though thats for sure. After that we headed back to the restaraunt and went inside this time to wait for them to arrive. They were really running behind though because we were waiting for a good amount of time before the got there. I don't think it was all his fault though. The traffic was just killer. I guess what do you expect around 6:30 in the evening on a Friday. Anyway by this time we were very hungry and ready to eat. So we all chose our meal courses. Then out came the salad first which was very good by the way. After finishing the salad they brought us out the main course. We all had chose either Chicken or Steak to eat and we shared among ourselfs. Fondue takes a really long time to eat but it gave us a lot of time to talk and get to know each other. It probably took us about an hour or so to get through that part of the meal. As we neared the end I was the last person still eating. Danny was getting somewhat fidgety though waiting for the next course so he found somethign to do. He put his cabbage on the fondue for and put it in the boiling oil. Oil sprayed out and popped everywhere and made all kinds of noise. I guess what do you expect from a vegetable 85% water. It was really funny though. The look people gave us next to us was great! Shortly after that fiasco subsided the waitress brought us out the next part. Chocolate Fondue with Fruit. That stuff was really good and there was nothing left on the plate by the time we were done. Danny and I were contemplating grabbing some cheese cake and the fruit that was left by the people sitting near us. I don't know how they could leave the restaraunt without taking that stuff with them but Danny and I wouldn't stand for it. We tried to figure out how to pull it off but our ladies were reluctant to let us. Danny worked out the courage to go for it though but then the waitress came by and stood at the table next to us for like 20 minutes. She just stood there and didn't leave. We ended up having to leave because it was late and Danny never had the chance to grab it. It was unfortunate and sad. Anyway after leaving we asked Danny for a ride to our car. We had already walked so much that day we wanted to try to get out of having to do it again. He was nice enough to let us tag along. We still had to walk a few blocks after he dropped us off though but that wasn't bad at all. After getting to the car we decided to try to drive around the city a little bit at night so Allie could try to take a few pictures of Seattle at night. It was kind of hard though because while driving there was always something in the way or the picture was blurry. We did get to see it though and that was cool. We didn't end up getting home that night until around 11:30. I was going to try to meet up with Seth that evening too but of course that didn't work out. We decided to try for Tuesday though instead. From all the walking and the long day outside both of us were pretty weary and ready for bed. We didn't stay up too long after that before we headed to our rooms and fell asleep. Ahh yes, bedtime is a great thing...
Tuesday ended up being another day Allie and I had mostly to ourself. My mom had to work that day so we ended up taking her to work. It was kind of cool though because we were able to see the babies that she had been babysitting for the past few years. They also had an amazing view of the seattle skyline from thier house there. It was cool. We ended up staying there for about 45 minutes or so. After leaving there we stopped back at the house really quick to grab a few things before heading off to do a few more things. Our first stop was to Seahurst Park that is only about 5 minutes from our house. It is a nice little park along the beach of the puget sound. We ended up going there to do our devotions for the day. it was a nice little quite place for that. There was a little bumble bee that was harassing us for part of it though but it settled down and left after awhile. This was the first day also that the clouds had cleared and allowed the sun to shine down on us all week. It was nice to see that. After finishing up with our devotions we moved on to drive around and see all the changes they had made to the airport. They are trying to put in a Third Runway and the area around our house has changed quite a bit from that. It was sad though because there was no over look anymore to watch the airplanes land like there used to be. We were also going to try and go to the park across the street from my house and watch planes from there but the airplanes were taking off in the wrong direction for that to work. We could have done it all week but the day we decided to try they flip landing procedures around on us. That was just not right I tell ya. Anyway after doing that we stopped in at the Burien community Center and across the parking lot from that they have a little Botanical Garden area They are still working on it but from what they had complete it looks really good. That ended up being a good thing to stop in and check out. We hung out there for a little while. After doing that we ended up going through the park across from my house anyway just to take a look. While we were there we discovered a few blackberries that were ripe so we parked and got out and picked as many as we could fit in the two coffee cups we had sitting in the car. They were really good too so we even ate a few ourself before we left. By that time we decided to run head on back home because my grandma was going to be showing up. We thought she would have been there by then but we got home and she hadn't arrived yet. So we just hung out for a little bit and did a little cleaning and some packing because we had to leave that night. I also used the time to go through some boxes of my stuff my Mom had in a closet there. I labled ones I wanted to keep and ones she could keep and then threw out a few that we didn't need. By the time I was done with that My grandma had shown up. She was going to be making some homemade chicken and noodle dish for us for dinner. She always makes those really well. During the time while she was making Dinner Seth ended up coming over with his daughter and we were able to spend some time together. It was nice that we finally had some time to do that. We were rushing everywhere all week I wasn't sure if we could make it happen. But it did work out and it was really good to see him and his daughter. At first his daughter was quiet and shy but then she started to have a crying fit and we discovered she was just really tired. After taking her outside and swinging her for awhile she fell asleep in Seth's arms and he laid her down on my parents bed for the rest of the time he was there. We then had some good time talking about all kinds of stuff we both had been up to. He then stayed for dinner. Dinner was of course excellent because my grandma had made it. She does such a great job cooking. Everybody loved it. Seth left shortly after dinner though and then soon after that Danny ended up coming up. We all hung around and talked and Allie and My mom and Grandma looked at pictures and stuff. Danny and I hung out in there with them too while they did that. It was nice to go back through the week and see all we had done. It was nice to just spend some time with my grandma too. It wasn't too long after that though and Allie and I had to prepare to come back home to Lynchburg. We had to be at the airport by 9:30 or so because our flight was going to leave at 11:00. So we finalized all our packing stuff and then loaded the car. Danny and My grandma then hugged us good bye and left for the night. It was sad. We then got in the car and went to the airport. After getting there my parents just dropped us off as the door and got out to hug us and left. So we were on our own and our trip was coming to an end. Check-in actually went very smoothly and the person asked us if we wanted to be upgraded to an exit row seat. We were excited for that though because there was extra leg room. We soon found out though that exit row seats won't recline and the armrests won't go up either. That ended up being kind of annoying. It made it pretty difficult to sleep. The flight just seemed kind of long but we ended up making it to Philidelphia pretty close to on time and when we landed it was daylight and about 7:00am.
Anyway somewhere in between these posts it ended up being Wednesday.. After landing in Philly we walked around to make sure we knew where our gate was and then found some breakfast. After eating we went back to our gate and watched some episodes of House MD on my laptop. While the first episode was going they ended up delaying our flight about 40 minutes so after that was over we were able to start another one. We didn't quite get to finish it though before we had to board the plane. This plane had reclining seats though and so before we were even at cruise alitutde we both kind of fell asleep. We didn't wake up again until about 40 minutes before we landed. That gave us enough time to finish the episode of House we had started on the ground before we had to turn off all electronic devices. After Landing in Durham it took awhile to get our bags found as the claims were not listing our flight number. So we just waited and watched for our bags anyway unsure if we were in the right spot and eventually they came. After getting our bags we ended up waiting outside for Allie's Step Mom to arrive to bring us back to their house. On the way back we stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaraunt. She then brought us back home and stayed for a little while but then had to head back to to work. So Allie and I left shortly after for the two hour drive back to Lynchburg. I drove about halfway and was starting to get sooo tired I had to pull over and switch with Allie because I wasn't sure I would make it. One thing that helped though was we were listening to a CD that had on it recordings from Allie and Brittany Growing up. It was pretty funny. Even with that though I was having trouble and was having a hard time concentrating on what they were saying. Part way from when we switched and Lynchburg we stopped at a gas station to pick up something to eat and drink because now Allie was starting to get pretty sleepy. That helped for a little while but I ended up falling asleep.. I'm not sure how Allie did it but she successfully got us to Lynchburg without dozing off driving. I'm so proud of her =). After getting back she just dropped me off at my house for the rest of the night and I had all kinds of unpacking to do and stuff to make up from being gone for a week. As I was unpacking I remembered I had a few things of Allie's in my suitcase that Allie would need that night. So I put all her stuff in a plastic bag and then called her and told her that it would be in my van so she could pick it up because I was going to be going to bed. As I got in bed just about to go to sleep Allie calls me because she was outside getting the stuff out of my car and she noticed that my tire was very flat on the rear drivers side wheel. She told me that if I didn't check on it that night it may not be driveable in the morning. So that was really sad. I was all ready for bed but then had to wake up and get dressed again to go outside and check on it. She was right though. It was flat. It was driveable at least at the time though so I drove it up to a gas station with an air compressor to pump up the tire. I then waited for about 5 minutes to watch it and make sure it stayed pumpped up. It did still work though so I drove it back home and checked it again and it was just still workable. I'm not sure what happend but apparently it was just flat.. no hole or anything apparently. So I went inside and back to bed. It was about 9:30 or so by the time I was finally in bed for good.
This morning I woke up at about 6:00am because I wanted to try to get to work around 7:00 if possible to catch up on some stuff. Plus I wanted to leave a little bit of extra time incase I had to go back by a gas station to pump up my tire again. That didn't end up being a problem though and it still held the air. I'm going to be checking still for the next week or so just to make sure but I guess it is fine. Anyway I ended up getting to work a little after 7 and started going through my long list of to-dos and prioritizing what needed to be done today. I actually got through my list a pretty good ways and by tomorrow I think I'll be back to where I need to be. After work I stopped by Wal-Mart to pick up some stuff that I had to get rid of before my trip so it wouldn't spoil like milk and eggs and stuff. Then I came home to cook some dinner. I'm still trying to get stuff done here at the house that I'm behind on from the week like mail and stuff but this blog was also one thing to-do on my list and It ended up taking awhile to complete this. Anyway... I think I'm done and I'm going to go ahead and post it finally. Hope you didn't get too bored reading it!
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posted by Jeremy Dillinger @ 10:46 PM
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