Hi, everyone!
This summer, every time I write, I feel like I’ve been busier than before. That’s especially true this time! After all the work on the shoreline at the bay, Grandma decided we should have an adventure closer to home! We got a Perinton Trails passport at Wegman’s and started to take hikes! We started with the first hike in the passport, Beechwood Park! Grandma and I had never been there, so even finding it was an adventure! I liked the wide trail through the woods and the bridges over the creek. The trail marker to rub as proof you’ve done the hike is at the farthest point of the trail from the entrance!
We had time for another hike, so we went to the High Acres Nature Preserve. The trail map looked interesting and I liked the trumpet vine at the trailhead. Once we got on the grassy trail, though, the mosquitoes attacked! Grandma said we’ll do that hike when we have bug spray with us!
On our way home, we stopped to see the Main Street canal bridge. It’s finally open again! I was surprised to see that there’s a second level under the deck!
Grandma was trying a new recipe for Greek meatballs, so she invited Uncle Steven’s family to come over for dinner. That gave us a good excuse to make another AWACS cheesecake! I think I did an especially nice job of marbling the batter on this one. After it was baked and cooled, I covered up all my nice top design with chocolate ganache! Thomas liked the new meatballs. James wasn’t too sure about them. Of course they both liked the AWACS cheesecake! Grandma put what was left of it in the freezer “in case of emergency”.
We still didn’t know when the contractor was going to pour the concrete on the south boathouse deck, but there was some work we could do to get ready! Grandpa fastened the north wall to the concrete with special bolts. I helped him drive the plate under the north front boathouse wall. We put all the trimmings from the south boathouse wall in one place for the contractor to pick up. The branches were starting to get in the way of the stairs to the boathouse, so I helped Grandma trim them back! I made some wild sweet pea friends. Something is still eating the wild blackberries before they are even close to ripe!
The contractor called to tell us that he planned to pour the south boathouse deck concrete on Wednesday, August 4. I was excited about being able to watch again, but Grandma said we would be having a different adventure that day. We got up really early and headed for the airport. Grandma said we were going to visit Uncle David’s family outside of Seattle, Washington! The air was hazy because of the western wildfires, but we could see Mount Rainier as we approached SeaTac airport!
Uncle David’s new house sits on a hillside and has a lot of balconies and porches. There’s a good view of Lake Washington from the top deck. Right now the middle deck has a nice view, too, but another house is being built right down the hill. I got to watch another concrete pour after all! When we took a walk around the block, I saw lots of ripe juicy wild blackberries that nothing had eaten!
At Uncle David’s house, his piano that used to live with us has its own one-bedroom apartment! We stayed with the grand piano! Grandpa and I were jet-lagged and took a morning nap. I had my own special sleeping nook in the closet.
Last Thursday, we took a picnic lunch to the Bellevue Botanical Garden! There were lots of friendly trees! We had lunch at a pavilion close to a pretty pond with waterfalls. Grandma recognized many of the bushes as rhododendron and azaleas and told Aunt Emi to be sure to visit again when they were in bloom!
The flowers along the pathway were planted in masses of color! Hydrangeas were having a good year in Bellevue, just like they are in Rochester. I especially liked the mass of orange flowers, but I also liked the planting of pink and purple ones!
At the end of one path, there was a dahlia demonstration garden! I made so many flower friends there! Aunt Emi and Bill and Karin all used their cell phones to take pictures of the blossoms they liked best. Grandpa used his cell phone to scan the QR codes that identified the various plants!
On the Lost Meadow Trail, I found a bench with a hole big enough for me to sit in! Then we found a bench with a big enough hole for Bill and Karin, too! We found an dome made from salvaged grain elevator lumber that played with light! In the native species garden, I made an owl statue friend. There was a gnome house, which was originally a root cellar for the couple that started the gardens.
When we got back to Uncle David’s house, we could see Mount Rainier through the haze from their deck! Uncle David said that doesn’t happen very often! Mount Rainier is 65 miles away and there are usually clouds in between!
Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle David’s family went out for dinner. I stayed with Mocha (the dog) and Shadow (the cat)! When everybody came back, Karin was the barista and showed me how to make fancy coffee. Aunt Emi made sure the coffee mugs she bought were just the right size to keep from spilling foam! Then we had a movie night in the home theater. We watched Jungle Cruise! Uncle David went to college with the movie’s star!
Friday had a rainy start! It was a good time to stay inside and answer all Uncle David’s questions about the shoreline work at Sodus.
Friday afternoon cleared up, so we went to the Juanita Beach Farmers’ Market, just down the hill from Uncle David’s house. I made flower and vegetable and berry friends!
We had an afternoon snack from the crepe maker! Cooking crepes reminded me of the roti makers in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. This stand was named after the Russian version, blini. I guess some foods really are universal! It was fun to watch the process. The lemon and powdered sugar crepe was yummy! Grandma reminded Aunt Emi that we had the same flavors on the beaver tails we had in Ottawa during our November visit in 2018.
On Saturday, we took a trip into Seattle, proper. I could see the Space Needle between the tall buildings! We got a picnic lunch at a Starbucks in South Lake Union with an Italian bakery inside. There was a little urban park next door where we ate. Then we walked around the Amazon headquarters buildings nearby. Part of the complex is the Spheres, a set of geodesic domes with plants growing inside. Aunt Emi said there were tours, but we would have had to reserve in advance. We went to the Amazon 4 store. It sells items that Seattle Amazon on-line shoppers have rated with 4 stars. Then we passed the Amazon grocery where your smart phone keeps track of what you have chosen and checks you out. Before we went home, Aunt Emi and Karin chose a pup-eroni squeaky pizza toy for Mocha. It happened to be International Cat Day, but Mocha got the present!
When Grandma checked Facebook after our trip to Seattle, there was an invitation for me! The minister of our church was asking everybody’s plush animal friends to come to church for the children’s message! I couldn’t be there in person, but Grandma and I got up early to watch the service on-line! I helped sing “All God’s Critters’ Got a Place in the Choir” and clapped my paws right along with everybody else! Then I had a yummy chocolate croissant for breakfast!
Sunday, we had a party planned! Uncle David and Aunt Emi had invited the daughter and sister of a friend from Japan to come for a barbeque. The sister lives nearby and helped Uncle David find a house to buy. The last time I saw Brina (the daughter) was when we were in Japan for Thanksgiving. She’s been staying with her aunt to go to school in the United States. I was excited to see her again! Grandma said we had time to take a walk before the party. We went all the way down to the bottom of Uncle David’s neighborhood and walked back up. The name of the neighborhood and the sign at the intersection of their road tell the story: the local road is very steep and twisty! There are three switchbacks in three quarters of a mile, and in lots of places the road is only one lane wide. Drivers really have to cooperate to stay safe! When we were almost all the way back up, we met Uncle David driving down! He was picking up party supplies at the grocery store and gave us a ride back down, then all the way home.
While Uncle David was making his signature pico de gallo for the party, Grandma took me down to the next street to see where the concrete pouring had been going on. It takes a lot to anchor these houses firmly on the hill! We also stopped at the spot where Grandma had picked wild blackberries the other day. She turned them into blackberry puree that went on Aunt Emi’s cheesecake for the party!
When we got back, Uncle David was grilling steak and corn for the party. The menu was burritos! Everybody got to build one to their own tastes. They were yummy! It was good to see Brina again. She and Karin and Bill had a good time together!
Monday morning, it was time to leave for home. Grandma and Grandpa got a text in the middle of the night that their flight would be leaving an hour late, so we had time to eat Aunt Emi’s fresh scones before we left. Then we got texts saying that the weather in Chicago was stormy, so we might want to fly home by another route. Grandpa checked, but there were no other routes available for us. The pilot said we had been assigned a round-about route. The southern detour gave us lots of looks at Mount Rainier! Although we got a late start, the flight to Chicago made up some of the time en route. We arrived just in time to catch our scheduled Rochester flight but discovered it had been delayed. There had been a tornado watch declared, so boarding passengers had to get back off their planes and the control tower shut down and evacuated the controllers! Our Rochester flight finally boarded again three hours late. We arrived in Rochester just as today was beginning at midnight!
During our party on Sunday, Uncle Steven called. He said that James had fallen off a swing and broken his wrist! Aunt Krista was there and put on a splint right away. Then James went to the hospital and had a cast put on from above his elbow down to his hand. Grandma texted back that this was the sort of emergency that called for the rest of the AWACS cheesecake and told Uncle Steven to pick it up. This afternoon, I got to put a heart sticker on James’ cast! Grandma talked to James about a special project – a book about me that James and Bill will help her write! James can work on that while his arm heals. When I got back to my front window, I discovered that something has been eating the impatiens right in front of my chair! Maybe now that I’m back, that will stop!
Love,
Lion-san
WOW! New local adventures at parks and under lift bridges. Trying out new recipes and honing old standbys. Then a big surprise …. off to Washington for a visit and new adventures with Uncle Dave, Emi, Bill and Karin. New hikes, new parks, new visits, new farmers market, and new food finds. Then a big adventure coming back home. Welcome back!