Turkey PNW style

Well it had been two years too many since we had been spent time with our dear friends and family on the west coast, north end. We didn't have a lot of time but we squeezed in quite a lot. We began with a visit to my dearest ladies from Alaska. Megan lives in Bellingham, Susan lives on San Juan in Friday Harbor, and Catherine recently moved to Portland. Convening in Friday Harbor for a night was a fantastic foreground for merriment.  

Merriment is often hand in hand with a bit of round the table shenanigans. Stella, Susan's daughter, is a bit of a game board enthusiast and introduced us to the game Codenames:Pictures. Here we are with Brandon and Catherine is a rousing psychological romp.

Matt joins in.

After a fabulous meal of chili...Susan gets some Alice squish and Jeremy gets a point across.

So yes, Alice was very sleepy. Almost...too sleepy. Turns out she was on the verge of a ruthless cold. But she was still rather pleasant at this point.

This is Brandon's house that he generously gave up to us including coffee and fixings for a large breakfast we pilfered (with his blessing) from his fridge. There were a great many specimens about his house including antlers, shells and a hot tub! Brock was enamored of the antlers, and Brandon said that one can find them laying about the island. And Brock did!! Two of them. They made a great share when he got back to school.

The next day before we head inland, we go for a walk on the beach. Brock and I find a lovely little driftwood lean-to. 

And Megan gets a swing with the lady who is now looking a bit sicker...

By morning we head to Bellevue to spend Turkey with Matt's sis's fam in their stunning home with an even more stunning view over the mountains and a shining lake. We are so beyond excited for our new house here in Chicago, but our alley, awesome as it is, just can't hold a candle to the scenery here. So excited we get to visit!

  Here cousin friends Max and Madeline catch up over a glass of sparkle.

 Alice gets a new friend...

 and a new hat!

I might be out of sequence. I don't know when these were made and eaten but they certainly were both. Thank you chef Madeline.

 
They are all gone now.


Yaaaasss. The moment of truth. Oh sweet turkey time. Jim leads the momentum of the feast with a scrumptious grilled bird.

Insert epic soundtrack here.





 Alice's first turkey! Snot once for joy. Joy it is!!

Even vegetables are good here.

This is not a vegetable. But it. is. good.


Raise your shoe if you like pie!

Now let's get a photo of us.

This reflects the inner monologue of our digestive tracts.

After the feast, we head to the diamond to bat away a small portion of the calories.

Matt is just so baseball coachy with the stash and the hat that I had to capture.

 Did you know that dancing a jig is almost as effective as catching?



No, no, we don't approve of jigging.

 Less who's-on-the-ball and more jigging would have resulted in a highlights reel. I'm very sure.

The cousins were in Project Greenlight mode and aired the premiere of their new Netflix show:

I didn't catch the title, but there were some interesting visual effects.

Costuming was solid.

 Or lack of costuming.

  Now let's eat ham.

With dignity and class.

Presents for all! Thank you G's of Omaha for goodies!

 

Then we head to a lovely BBQ joint for some snakes in the face.

 

Then off to a place with fun things where I played my first laser tag.

These people are cute.

But don't be fooled, they are fierce on the table.

Everyone had a blast except poor diseased Alice who melted into a blubbery grumpy ooze. She was quarantined while the others rallied on with the funs.

Such as bowling (which I hear and see might are considered fun).

Later we play a enormously engaging game of Telestrations. Brock was very fussy when it came to games this visit but we managed to finally get him to play. 

This was an art installation that was the pre-show to another Project Greenlight presentation from the kids. No, despite the temptation, we the audience did NOT fire those Nerf bullets (nor any tomatoes).

Time to jump into fun. Except, once again, Alice is the fun rebel choosing to be pretty crazy until she crazied herself to sleep whenthforth uncle Mark kindly guarded the snoozing beast while the rest of us had a kinetically fine time.

 We take an afternoon off to visit Matt's dear college friend Chatan and his lovely family in Seattle.

 We go for a cold nature walk and discuss school, how old I am, and why men more often marry younger women. Those girls are truly delightful. I think I'll jump off the bluff now.

We find a friendly tree that everyone, especially Alice wants a part of.

We head to a local joint for sour beer and then Chatan treats us to homemade Indian food while we discuss how we are not discussing vasectomies with Andrea, Chatan's fabulous other half.

I don't have a great end photo for this awesome trip, so I have chosen this fantastic one of Melinda as a finale. This is a both a homage of thanks for once again, taking all the photos and not being in any and also to showcase the glory of the PNW that is right outside the window of the Knight's dining room table. Thank you all my dear friends and family over there for being so fun, cooking so well, and absorbing my daughter's germs with grace. Love ya!