Hi, everyone!
The area where Grandma and Grandpa live is sometimes called the North Coast, because the border between the United States and Canada goes right through Lake Ontario So my adventures at the bay are North Coast adventures!
I’ve watched a lot of hazy sunsets at Sodus Point, because there are wildfires burning in western Canada and the United States. The smoke makes the sun look very red as it sets!
Grandpa’s project at the bay has been cleaning the bricks in the sidewalk. The last part that needed doing was the area under the picnic table. Grandpa used his new brush and some deck cleaning solution to clean that area. Now we can see that the bricks are three different colors!
While Grandpa was cleaning bricks and pruning trees and shrubs, Grandma took me on a kayak adventure! The county weed harvesters had cleared most of the water lilies and water chestnuts south of the Old Ridge Road bridge a week or so ago. That meant we could kayak under the bridge and head to the South Bay Recreation Area. Last time we were there, the area had lots of narrow channels connecting ponds. Now, there are mostly channels about as wide as a weed harvester cuts. Either way, it is fun to explore and figure out a return path! While we were there, the harvesters started clearing weeds just north of the bridge. I made sure to say “thank you” when we paddled past!
Starting on August 17, I had a very busy week! Uncle Steven always invites a high school friend and his family to go to the Renaissance Faire at Sterling (also right on the North Coast) and spend the night afterward at the bay. This year, another of his high school friends was in town because his son was enrolling at RIT! They went to the Renaissance Faire, too, and came back to the bay for dinner. That was a lot of people to eat together on the porch! On Sunday, Grandma and Aunt Kara took my friend Annie for a kayak paddle to Clark Creek. It was a windy morning, but Annie did a great job of paddling!
My cousin Bill was supposed to fly in on Monday from Kirkland WA to visit RIT on Tuesday. He couldn’t come as planned because of flight delays. Instead, Grandma and Grandpa and I picked him up in Buffalo on Tuesday morning. We made it back to RIT just in time for his tour and admissions interview! James and Thomas were happy to have him stay with them!
The next morning, we all got up very early! Grandma and Grandpa and I were flying back to Seattle with Bill to spend time with Uncle David’s family! Seattle is on the West Coast, close to the Pacific Ocean. When we got to Seattle, it was cloudy! Only one mountain peak was sticking up out of the cloud cover!
Uncle David’s house in Kirkland has a nice view of Lake Washington. Sometimes you can even see Mt. Rainier, too, but it was too cloudy on Wednesday for that. After dinner, Bill and Karin practiced playing badminton. I helped Grandma and Bill work on a jigsaw puzzle that was already started.
On Thursday, Uncle David and Grandma and Grandpa took me on a walk around the neighborhood to pick blackberries. New construction since the last time we visited Uncle David took away some of the closest blackberry patches, but we found some nice ones. We went to an Indian restaurant for dinner. There were lots of yummy dishes! Karin learned about this restaurant from her friends at school.
Friday, it started raining! Aunt Emi and Karin went shopping for dinner ingredients and came home with a watermelon. Karin peeled the watermelon before cutting it up! After that, I helped Grandma make another sour cream peach pie.
For dinner on Friday, Uncle David and Aunt Emi made okonomiyaki. That’s a Japanese egg and cabbage pancake with toppings. We had one in Hawaii last year, and before that we had one in Shinjuku after our day trip to Mount Fuji. This one was yummy! After dinner, we looked at old family photos.
On Saturday, it was still raining! Uncle David had planned to take Grandpa to an exotic car show, but that was canceled. Fancy sports cars don’t like to be out in the rain! It was still drippy in the afternoon, when we all went to the Boeing factory tour. Boeing builds big airplanes in Everett Washington. The assembly plant is the world’s largest building. Before the tour, we visited the Boeing Future of Flight museum. I got to see models and pictures of Boeing planes. There was even a section of the International Space Station! I didn’t know the CV-22 was a Boeing plane! Uncle Steven worked on them when he was at Edwards AFB.
Little lions weren’t allowed to go on the actual factory tour, so I stayed in a locker with the cell phones and cameras. They weren’t allowed either! After the tour, I went to the gift shop and made some new friends. Then I went up to the sky deck. There were lots of interesting planes parked around Paine airfield, the Boeing test airstrip.
After the tour, we drove to Bellevue to have dinner at a seafood restaurant. Karin ordered a Dungeness crab! Aunt Emi’s father taught Karin how to get the meat out of it! There was a Chihuly chandelier in the shopping mall that reminded me of the one in the Eastman Theater. When we got back to Kirkland, Uncle David turned on the gas fireplace!
On Sunday, it was finally sunny and dry! Uncle David was glad he had a chance to take Grandpa out for a drive in his sports car. While Uncle David and Grandpa were out for their ride, Aunt Emi took Grandma and me and Karin and Bill shopping at the Cottage, a bakery that makes sourdough bread. Then we stopped at Shake Shack to pick up lunch. It was nice enough weather to eat on the porch!
After dinner, it was time to go to the airport for our trip home. First, I said goodbye to my Jellycat cousins in Bill’s bedroom. Then Bill set up a family photograph on the roof deck. Guess what? The clouds finally lifted enough that we could see Mt. Rainier!
We had an overnight flight from Seattle to Washington DC, then a short flight to Rochester. Uncle Steven and Thomas picked us up and brought us home. Today, the crew came to seal our driveway. I’m happy to stay inside and watch!
Love,
Lion-san