Sunday Salon, January 15, 2017

Mt. Rainier, photo by D. Bennett, Jan. 15, 2017

Weather: Clear and cold, below freezing.

Glass art in the Tacoma Art Museum, Jan. 8, 2017

Australian visitor: On Friday, Jan. 6th a group of Australian students and teachers arrived in Graham and our school for a ten-day home-stay visit and tour of our area. Don and I are hosting one of the teacher/chaperones, Lyn Wicks. She is from New South Wales, about three hours north of Sydney. We've had lots of fun getting to know each other.  Last weekend we went to the Tacoma Art Museum, but it was raining so we skipped the glass bridge. I hope to get back tomorrow before she leaves town. Yesterday we drove up to Everett and the Boeing Flight Museum. Lyn's dad used to work for an airline and he was assigned to Boeing for a short while in the 1960s. Lyn was keen to see the museum and we had a wonderful day. The Boeing plant is so interesting and vast! On our way home we stopped in Bellevue and drove past the address of the house where she lived with her family for a few months.

Anne and Lyn W. at the Boeing Museum, Jan. 14, 2017

Today: After church we put on our warm clothes to head out for a visit to Northwest Trek to take a look at the animals of the Northwest. A sign at the gate said the the park was closed due to bad weather. Undeterred we drove further south to go to Paradise on Mt. Rainier. When we got to the gate we were turned around because we didn't have any chains for our car. Zero for two. On our way back home we stopped in Eatonville for a pastry and hot chocolate at a bakery in that small town. We called our son-in-law to come and join us for a quick visit. The day wasn't a total bust but it was disappointing to do all that driving and not get to our destinations.

Weather (two): The weather has been unprecedentedly cold for weeks, but we have had very little snow.  Our neighbors to the south (Portland, Oregon) had horrendous weather this week with snow and ice. Our neighbors to the east (Boise, Idaho) had a blizzard with twenty inches of snow. We've just had freezing temperatures which makes the roads a bit slippery in the morning. One day this week we had a two-hour delay to the start of school. Every weather report predicting snow has been wrong or we just had a very small amount.

The North Cascades from Boeing Museum, Jan 14th

Weather (three): The good news about having cold temperatures we are also having clear skies so we can see the mountains of Washington. This has been a wonderful thing for our new Aussie friend. Mt. Rainier has been showing off her lovely winter coat. Yesterday when we were at Paine Field and the Boeing Museum we could see Mt. Baker and all the mountains of the North Cascades to the east and the Olympic Mountain range to the west. Gorgeous.

Books: It is the middle of the month and I have only read one book this year so far: The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon. Gulp. I am in the middle of the never-ending book, The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner. I am not kidding I think this book may never come to an end. The other book I can't seem to make myself read is Rani Patel in Full Effect by Sonia Patel. I think I may have reached maximum overload on YA books for a while. The usual cure for this is a good adult book or two. Unfortunately The Big Rock Candy Mountain is not fulfilling that need.

Don appeared to be stepping on a plane.