A quick trip to Washington

Friday evening, October 3, Claudia and I flew from Salt Lake to Seattle. Becca had kindly driven Mom to the airport. (I had driven to work and went to the airport straight from there and parked our pickup in long-term parking, since our return would be near midnight on Sunday, and it didn't seem right to ask anyone to come get us at such an hour.)

Our flight was uneventful, which is precisely what you want when you're in an airplane.

It was raining when we landed in Seattle, apparently the first time it had done so in quite a while. The freeway traffic was heavier and slower than Camilla had expected, so we had to wait 20 or more minutes for her and Sam to pick us up. We were happy to see them again, and we drove from the airport (which is south of Seattle) to their home in Everett (which is north of Seattle), listening over and over and over to Sam's favorite song about a happy elephant.

Sam, who is now two, seems so much more grown up and talks a lot, although not always in the same intelligible English we are used to. He is a happy little boy. And was very excited to see his grandma and grandpa.

Chris had finished Camilla's shift at their Great Harvest bakery so she could come get us, but he was home by the time we reached their apartment in Everett. We visited and ate and went to bed.

Chris worked early Saturday morning. Camilla fixed us breakfast. We called to wish Peter a happy second birthday. He was having a great day. Then, before the morning session of conference began, we walked over to the bakery so Mom could be taken on the grand tour. (Although it rained much of the day, it was not raining when we walked over to see the bakery.) We returned to their apartment and somewhat listened to the first half of the morning session of conference, but the Internet connection kept dropping, so we went to their stake center to listen to the final hour of the opening session.

We got sandwiches from the bakery for lunch. Chris stayed with Sam while he took his nap, and Camilla, Mom, and I went to the stake center again to watch the afternoon session. Their stake center, far closer to the apartment than the building where their ward meets, is just on the other side of I-5, so it only takes about 5 or 10 minutes (depending on how you hit the lights) to get there.

Reference was made in the afternoon session to five new temples announced in the morning session. We had not heard the announcement, so we called Michael (actually we called Eliza first, but she didn't answer her phone) to find out where they were. He told us they were in Calgary, Cordoba (Argentina), somewhere in the Kansas City area, Philadelphia, and Rome (Italy).

Chris and I went to the priesthood session together. Afterward I took everyone out to dinner. Originally we were going to try the Olive Garden, but the 45-minute anticipated wait seemed too long, so we went to Red Robin instead. Their wait was only supposed to be 5 or 10 minutes, but actually it was much longer. And then it seemed to take a long time for our food to come after we had ordered it, and Chris's and Camilla's burgers were actually cold, and they complained about that, so the waiter took theirs back and brought hot ones the second time, and then the manager came out to apologize, and Chris told him he was the owner of the Great Harvest next door, and the manager said he'd never been over there but meant to, and they invited him to come, and he didn't charge us at all for their two meals, and it was all so wonderful.

We tried calling Margaret for her first birthday, not that she would really have known we were calling, but Rachael did not answer her phone. So we hope little Margaret had a wonderful day. Vince and Mary had gone up to help them all celebrate.

Sunday morning we participated in the Taylor family tradition of having breakfast burritos for the Sunday morning of general conference. Then we listened to the morning session streaming over the computer. It worked fine for the morning session, but it deteriorated again for the afternoon session and, though we talked about going to the stake center again, we just toughed it out at home and heard much but not all of the session.

Sam was still taking his afternoon nap, so Camilla took Mom and me on a little driving tour of the Everett and Mukilteo area. Chris and Camilla fixed us a delicious dinner that consisted of Parmesan chicken, mashed potatoes, salad, and fruit. And cookie dough ice cream for dessert. Yummy. Then around 6:30 we all left for the airport. It was raining some, but the traffic was good, and we got to the airport a little earlier than we actually needed to. And then our plane left about a half hour later than its scheduled 8:30 departure. They must have flown faster than they would have otherwise, because we landed in Salt Lake pretty close to our scheduled 11:25 arrival. We were home by about midnight.

It had been a delightful weekend. We appreciated visiting with Chris, Camilla, and Sam. We were grateful for the spiritual uplift from general conference. And, as always, it all went by so quickly.