Colorado Cruiser: Washington, Oregon, Idah, Utah, Home

Touring the Tacoma mission with Kyle

On Wednesday we went to visit areas on the Olympic Peninsula where Kyle served. We started by taking the ferry from Edmonds to Kingston, then going to the home of my cousin Tom and his family. Tom kept his sons out of school to go with us.

We drove across the canal bridge to Port Townsend. There was a line of traffic about 2 miles long to cross the bridge, but we eventually made it over. There was a wonderful boquet aroma coming from the paper mill outside of town. It reminded me of Kim-chi gone bad.

The town itself was picturesque. The main street had little shops with the bay behind them. We were headed for a special pizza place that Kyle loved to eat at, but it was closed for cleaning. We walked around a bit and decided to eat at a seafood place with a window on the bay.

After lunch we wandered the shops and found a great 50s diner place to get ice cream and shakes. We all got something for desert then took pictures out on the board walk.

Tom and his family went home, and Mike headed to the airport to fly home, but we went to Silverdale to visit a guy that Kyle really liked.

Brother Vidnhar was recently made the Bishop of the ward. He and his wife are from Hawaii and Kyle enjoyed going to their home.

We rode the ferry back to the hotel and decided just to stay in and order pizza because we were all tired.

At about 10:00 we told Kyle that Mike's flight was cancelled and that we needed to go to the airport to get him. Our daughter Klair was flying in, but Kyle didn't know. So we got in the van and headed towards Seatac. As we got close, Kyle pulled out his cell phone and called Mike. Fortunatly we had actually told Mike about the plan so when Kyle told him we were arriving, he only fumbled for a few seconds before saying "Oh yeah, sure, I'll meet you by the baggage claim".

Klair called as her flight landed and I told her where to meet us. Kyle spotted Klair and they hugged, but it was nearly midnight by then, so they didn't jump around much. We drove back to the hotel and went to sleep.

On Thursday we checked out of the Hotel. We didn't get out until nearly 11:00 so we decided to skip breakfast all together and went to Baja Fresh for lunch. We sat around the table eating tacos, salads, burritos and chips laughing about old family jokes.

After lunch we drove South to Orting where Kyle ended his mission.

There was a huge wind storm starting to blow. There were winds around 40 mph and many of the bridges were closing.

We got to Orting just as the power went out.

We visited 5 or 6 families and even ran into the missionaries at one of the homes. Kyle had left his bike, a bag, and some other things (including a hockey stick?) at one home. So we squeezed even MORE stuff into the van.

We went to one home that was at the far south end of his mission at the top of a steep gravel road. Kyle told us about riding their bikes up and down that road, and how they could nearly coast all the way back to town without peddling, or using those pesky brakes.

After Orting we went up to Pyuallup (sic?) and saw his area and apartment there.

We stopped for the night in Olympia. The front desk recomended a chinese buffet nearby, but it wasn't very good.

Kadi was tired of all the driving and decided to stay in the hotel so we got her a sub sandwich.

Looking at the map on the ferry