A Birthday, Ferry Ride, New Job, New Time Zone

On the way from Arizona we passed through Zion and Bryce national parks. Stopped in Salt Lake City for a night where the next morning the guard near the Mormon tabernacle eyed me suspiciously as I drove slowly past the gate towing my U-Haul trailer. The church is surrounded by a high concrete wall with guarded gates. It was strange to see a church guarded in such a strong manner.


We made a two day stop in Boise to visit with Dan and Fran. They took us to one of their favorite haunts around the corner from their house. We were eating heartily and catching up on each other's lives when Shane grabbed my arm and announced something about his corn dog. Leaning in I asked if he had stated he had the best corn dog he had ever had.

"No" he corrected me. "This is the worst corn dog I have ever had."

Having eaten half of it I couldn't imagine the meal was too terrible and he said, "here feel it"

Curious, I reached down and touched the icy center of his worst corn dog ever. The meaty parts were still frozen. We passed the thing around for every one to express their appropriate levels of disgust over the worst corn dog ever and the waitress offered to replace his and Sophia's corn dogs. Sophia;s was just as frozen. Apologetically the waitress returned bearing news of a corn dog crisis. The corn dogs couldn't be heated properly from their frozen state. They were not refrigerated but frozen and the kitchen couldn't get it right. Minutes later a replacement was given to Shane and Sophia and we all went about our business eating, Shane a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and Sophia finished with chicken strips.



We visited the Boise State Prison, a derelict prison site last used in 1973. The old structures gave some insight to the conditions endured by the prisoners. There were a fascinating transportation and electricity exhibits housed in different sections of the prison making it possible to cover plumbing, mechanics, psychiatry, light bulbs, telephone communication, internal combustion, and old west transportation among other subjects in one convenient stop. Some of the displays were antiquated. The children were overcome with fascination when they found the working rotary phone exhibit. The exhibit paralyzed them with curiosity as they phoned each other from two feet away. Each child had to experience the innocence of years gone by through the clicking self retracing circular dial, 3..click, click, click, 4..click, click, click, click... They had to be forcibly removed from the exhibit.





We have been trying to settle in here. Edmonds is a quaint town running right to the Puget Sound with a couple of beaches on the sound and the launch area for the Edmonds-Kingston Ferry. We happen to have a great view from our living room window. It has become our habit to walk down to the beach or park and play in the evening, while the sun rolls on behind the Olympic mountains across the sound. The sky goes through so many patterns of rounded clouds, silhouetting sharp mountain peaks with the pinks, oranges and yellows graduating to purples, blues and greys across the curtain of clouds and snow capped mountains. The show is different every night. As the sky darkens the sparkle of lights from the ferry and passing boats brings a new form of entertainment for the eyes. The place has a busy charm.

Shane has lived to be seven. He has outgrown most of his pants and continues to play imaginative scenarios of space fighters or wizards. His latest fascination is Bakugan, a game similar to Pokemon played with marble like toys rolled across metal cards to coax them into a new form via a magnetic switch. Once the toys have transformed they can battle each other based on the number of points the toy has printed on its body. I have played a couple of times and he has won most of the battles. He was at the park today climbing the rock wall toy. Two girls were climbing next to him. His hands slipped their grip and he fell off landing hard on the ground. One of the girls leaned down and asked if he was hurt. Shane, standing and casually brushing his clothes off stated "well I meant to do that."