Northwest adventure (day 5)

Sunday, August 3, 2008
Washington, Oregon

Today is fast Sunday. Our motel provides a full continental breakfast. Michael's children, who fast one meal on fast Sunday, decided to eat breakfast and skip their midday meal. That way we wouldn't have to stop somewhere on the road to buy a meal on the sabbath.

Chris and Camilla stopped by our motel about nine o'clock, and we followed them to their meetinghouse, where we attended the meetings of the Mukilteo Ward. Sacrament meeting was first, followed by Primary for the children and by Sunday School and priesthood meeting for Michael and me. The children felt more comfortable going to Primary because Camilla was there as the music leader. Chris accompanied Michael and me to Sunday School and Michael to elders quorum while I joined the high priests group.

After church we returned to Chris and Camilla's apartment to visit for a few hours. Sam has had a great time having some of his cousins here to play with, particularly Andrew, who is closest to his age.

Around four o'clock we said good-bye to Chris, Camilla, and Sam (we will be seeing them again in two weeks when they come to Utah for the wedding of Chris's sister) and left Everett, heading south on I-5 past Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia (the capital of Washington), and on south to Vancouver. We continued across the Columbia River into Oregon and on through Portland to Lake Oswego, where Michael's friend Dani lives. She used to work with him at Deseret Book. On the way to her house we passed the Portland Oregon Temple, which can be seen just off the east side of the freeway just south of Portland. (On Friday, as we were arriving in the Seattle area, we passed the Seattle Washington Temple on the north side of I-90 just before it intersects with I-405 in Bellevue.) It had taken us between three and three and a half hours to travel from Everett to Lake Oswego.

We spent the evening visiting with Dani. Michael, Meghan, Caleb, and Jacob slept in sleeping bags in a tent in the backyard. Andrew and I slept in sleeping bags on the floor of the living room.