Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Visit to see family

On Friday morning I started out from Alsea early to go to Grandma's Attic in Dallas for the $5 Quilt Club. I signed up for two colorways in the next quilting year that will be star blocks that celebrate First Ladies in the White House. Rachel will concentrate on one First Lady a month with stories about these great women. I wonder if Rachel will continue the great original redwork to go along with the star blocks. Maybe flowers for each First Lady? Her creative and talented son draws the original designs enjoyed by all the quilters.

Then I headed on into Salem. I stopped at Starbucks for coffee and to brainstorm ideas for my mystery novel while waiting to meet my daughter, Gretchen for lunch at Applebees. I noticed that the cups at Starbucks publish flashfiction and short nonfiction essays. I wish I had remembered to keep my cup.

I arrived early to see Gretchen at Applebees on Liberty in North Salem. We had the best time over great salads talking about her work and my mystery novel. I don't get to see Gretchen enough so I thought lunch once in awhile would be great. Afterwards, I went over to volunteer at Liberty House for a couple of hours at her work.

In the afternoon I spent time with Jack and Liz at their daycare in South Salem. Gretchen has worked for the county and state of Oregon for the Commission of Children and the Family, and Child Care Information Services so she knows the best person in the area to watch her children. We spent the afternoon outdoors with water play--frozen and spashy wet in the hot sun.

Delicious pizza for dinner with Chris, Gretchen, Jack and Liz in their beautiful home in West Salem. Early to bed for me after a long day. I'm an early to bed, early to rise kind of person.

Then up at 5:30 for a shower. When everyone started getting up, we headed on over to A.C. Gilbert House Discovery Village, an amazing children's museum. www.acgilbert.org The mission statement for Gilbert House is "to provoke curiosity, inspire awe, foster enjoyment, encourage learning, and enable understanding in all youth." This is a fun place to visit with children and is probably would be one of the BEST places to work in Salem. A.C. Gilbert earned a degree in medicine from Yale, earned the Olympic gold metal in pole vault, and invented the engineering toy for children--the Erector Set.

After Gilbert House on the river front, it was off to a great lunch at Baja Fresh and then I needed to start heading back to Alsea. It's hard to live so far from family. I wish all my kids lived on the same street in the same city but that's unlikely. It would be fun to bring over homemade bread, have dinner at least once a week at my house, and find ways to be supportive and encouraging.

On the way home I stopped at the Bi-Mart at the Independence/Monmouth junction for a great 50% off sale on plants. I noticed the last time I came there were lush, healthy plants. They have a great grower in Junction City, it says on the tag.

Many fun memories, great photos, and sad to have it end so soon. Till next time.

No comments: