Part Three - The Travel Part

In addition to having to get our acts together to leave town with little notice, we found an opportunity to rent our condo for a couple of months during our absence.  This meant that we would need to reorganize and move a lot of the stuff we've been leaving there out of closets and cupboards so renters will have space for their stuff.  Scrambling commenced and we got windows washed, carpet cleaned, closets emptied, garage tidied, and new dining table finished and set up (and old one gone.)  We also had to pack up the stuff we wanted to take home with us (the car might never have been so full and heavy.)  Pat had his final dialysis in the desert early on Friday morning, I went to my final exercise class and we were ready to leave a little after noon.  It was actually a bit rainy, so there were rainbows galore that morning.

Our original plan was always to drive to Vegas this weekend to attend the UNLV graduation.  Our SIL, Mike, graduated with a degree in accounting and we wanted to support him and let him know how proud we are.  The graduation was Saturday morning at 9 AM and we thought we would see the kids Friday night, go to the graduation, and then leave for Seattle without staying for the party as was our original plan.  However, there was snow forecast along our route home and especially over Snoqualmie Pass by Sunday and we decided that leaving early in the morning on Saturday would be our best bet.  So we drove to Vegas on Friday and most of the drive was very windy but otherwise uneventful.  (Except for the broken windshield wiper that we managed to get replaced in Yucca Valley.)  We went to dinner with the kids at our favorite Mexican restaurant, then visited a beautiful cactus garden with them.

We got on the road early Saturday morning and Mike managed to graduate without us.

We headed north and planned to make Boise.  This was a long day of driving but very beautiful.  The first sign of snow was in the high peaks north of Las Vegas

and as we drove we saw more and more.  After awhile, snow by the roadside was a common sight.  We were lucky that the snow had fallen the day or two prior so the highways were clear.  We stopped for lunch in Ely, NV and had our first experience with snow underfoot.

The lunch was indeed worth braving the cold!

It did continue to get colder, though, and by the time we got up to leave Boise on Sunday morning, it was below zero.  We really enjoyed the views, though.

We stopped in the Tri-Cities area of eastern Washington to have lunch with a friend of Pat's from high school and his wife, and had a nice time.  Those kinds of stops were the only cases of driving on snowy roads and we were glad of that.  The snow on Snoqualmie didn't happen on Sunday and we made it across before dark in any case.

We got home to our lake house in the late afternoon, with time to unpack and pick up Thai food for dinner.  It was cold in here despite the fact that I'd bumped up the thermostat about 3 hours prior to our arrival.  We appreciate this house much more as a summer house, now, since the bare floors, high ceilings, and huge glass windows and doors can get a little chilly.  Here's mostly what we'll see on our walks around the lake in the next few months.  Pretty, but damp, dark and cold.

I filled up the bird feeders and we are having a great time watching the birds again, and also seeing all of the different varieties of ducks that are here in the winter.  Doesn't take much to keep us amused!  It's supposed to snow this evening so right now I'm enjoying the smell of the big pot of chili I'm making.

Our early arrival at UWMC for testing and pre-op visits on Monday will be the next post.  Happy holidays!