Christmas in Rochester, WA

I know, I know. I'm very late in updating our recent travels. I'm going to start this weekend to catch up, so look for multiple updates.



We celebrated Christmas 3 times. Once in Irvine, before we left, once in Rochester, WA, where Rasila's mother and sister live, and once in Seattle, where Rasila's father lives. We flew from Orange County to Portland, OR, where we rented a car from Dollar Rent-a-car, for the 2 hour drive to Rasila's mother's house. It was a wonderful little Ford Fusion, which we liked since I invested in Ford this year. We arrived, after a stop for lattes and a snack at a bakery on the way, in the early afternoon. It was wonderfully cold and clear, unlike the rain I was expecting (but did foresee).

Rasila's mom has a nice little house in the country, with a guest house that her sister Cyrena lives in. We had a nice dinner and played with our nephew, Alec until he went to sleep. Then Rodney assembled his new trike for the morning.

The next day was Christmas Day. We celebrated Christmas after breakfast. It is always fun to watch kids enjoy Chirstmas and this one was no different. Alec got lots of lego-like blocks and a great train set that Rodney played with more than Alec. We left for Seattle about 11, since the car had to be dropped off at Seattle-Tacoma Airport by 1 PM. While we waited for Rasila's mom, we hiked up the hill to a nice little coffee shop that was open on Christmas and allowed us to take Ziwi in since he was good. We then all went up to Rasila's father's house and had a nice Christmas turkey and another Christmas!

Rasila's father, girlfriend, and brothers headed to Whistler for the week, while we went back to Rochester. We spent the time helping entertain Alec, which was quite a task. A 2 1/2 year old can wear out 4 adults easily! We did take one day and go skiing at White Pass Ski Area, which was a lot of fun. We had been there once before to attend a wedding of one of Rasila's friends in the summer, so it was fun to ski there. It is undergoing a major expansion and will be interesting to visit again sometime.

About 2 days before we returned, we went skiing at Crystal Mountain, on Mount Rainier. Rasila's dad and girlfriend joined us. Both days were snowing all day, but classic Cascade cement, so we would have really preferred the cold weather to stay.

We flew back out of Portland with a day to take care of the garden before starting work again.