3 Weekends, 2 WI weddings, and Dale visits

Hal writes:

The past three weekends have been full of travel and adventure. Here is a recap of the last three weekends, but if you are a Facebook friend you can find even more photos. Anna was in two weddings in Wisconsin, but in between the two she was able to spend some time in Indiana. Here she is visiting Grandma and Charlie in Indiana.

Anna's mom met her in Madison to spend some time together.

The first wedding was Steph and Dan's. Anna was a bridesmaid for the wedding. She and Steph were classmates in PT school and carpooled together every day for three years from Platteville to Dubuque.

The women of the wedding party being transported through Platteville in a carriage.

Hal joined the fun for the second wedding. Hal and Anna were personal attendants to the bride and groom, so there were chores amidst the fun during the weekend. The photo below is of Matt and I at the wiffleball field where we played a game during the wedding weekend. It was a scaled down version of a baseball field with artificial turf for the infield and real grass for the outfield. Official rules say to play six vs six, but we went nine vs nine so everyone could play. In addition to hitting safely each time up to bat (including an unexpected bunt I threw down), I turned the only triple play in the game.

The morning of the wedding decorating the amphitheater in Governor Dodge State Park. One of my many "tall person" jobs.

The bride's mother made a quilt backdrop to hang over the screen.

We spend the early afternoon helping with the photo shoot. Here is Personal Attendant Anna carrying the bride's bouquet and other items on the way to a waterfall shoot.

Personal Attendant Hal carrying the ladder and photography equipment through the state park.

A picture of the wedding party in one of the fields.

Jen and Jason.
A picture with our good friend's Matt and Kim. (Anna and I actually had time to change just before the wedding.)

After fighting through colds this last week, we started to feel better in time to have weekend adventure's with Anna's dad. Dale grew up in the Ballard area of Seattle and we went to see the house he grew up in, his old elementary school and looked for (but did not find) the Lutheran church his family attended. Additionally we say the homes where other extended family once lived as well as eating fish and chips down by the locks. One of Dale's memories included walking to the beach with his family down a steep staircase before going under the train tracks to get to the beach.

Anna, Dale, and Riley at the beach.
We later went to visit some state parks on our way to visit Dale's Aunt Carol (mother's sister) and Uncle Lee in the Kitsap peninsula area. Unfortunately we didn't get a photo with Carol and Lee, but we hope to visit them again soon. Here is my wife, in middle child rebellious fashion, ignoring the warning signs and going on the wrong side of the fence at the state park.

Anna, Dale, and Riley by the bay.

Where's Waldo? Hal and Dale in the Jurassic Park themed state park.

Our journey also brought us to "The Spit" at the Dungeness National Wildlife refuge. In the backgrounds are some mountains. Here is Dale enjoying the walk at low tide.

Hal and Anna on some drift wood. The Spit is five miles long with a lighthouse at the end accessible either by walking or by boat. We didn't have enough time to talk the ten mile round trip.

Anna and Dale at Port Ludlow, where Carol and Lee live.

Again, some more photos to be found on Facebook. This week will be exciting for me as it is PLU homecoming week and I will be the M.C. for the talent show on Thursday night. So, I get to entertain the crowd in between the lip sync acts that evening. Also, PLU is playing Gustavus for their football game on Saturday and there will be a GAC gathering that day where I will get to touch base with some other Gusties living in Washington.

Western Washington Fair

Hal writes:

Anna and I went to what would be the equivalent of a State Fair for Washington. Based on the geography of WA, there are three distinct regions of WA and each have their own fair. But the size of this fair ranks in the "top 5" size (up there with MN and TX) and is pretty much a State Fair.

On a tip from the locals, we drove a few miles from the fairgrounds where some friendly Kiwanis were giving shuttle trips to/from the fair from a Days Inn parking lot in a 1982 Ford 15-passenger van. It saved us time and money not having to fight with the traffic.

Some things to know about the fair we went to. First of all, mini-doughnuts do not exist. Crazy, right? Which leads me to believe this is one of the main reasons they are not considered a true state fair. They did have elephant ears, but it's just not the same. I had it in my mind that I was going to have a corn dog, but no such thing existed. Although their "crusty pups" were probably what I was looking for, I just couldn't bring myself to spend money on food that is specifically labeled "crusty". In addition to not having food on a stick, this fair is not known for any deep fried foods. Their staple item, since 1915, has been coffee and a scone. Here is a picture of Anna enjoying the treat. When in Rome...

After wondering around the food area for a while I decided to support the local chapter of Young Life and buy a turkey leg.

I know that I'm getting older when I look forward to seeing the displays. My informative years were spent applying my father's scientific knowledge in an attempt to beat the Carnies at their own game or wing at bingo with my grandma while my siblings took advantage of the all-you-can-ride wrist band times. But this time around Anna and I walked around to see the bunnies, birds, horses and even listened in on a 4-H speech contest. Pictured below is one of the top displays from a "small farm display" category. All that you see was grown my one family on the Midwest equivalent of a hobby farm.

The fair was a fun way to spend the Saturday afternoon, especially since I had a long, late Saturday evening. This being the first weekend after classes have started (and my first weekend on call), I responded to several scenarios between 9pm - 3am. I hit the trifecta: mental health call, alcohol call(s), and marijuana call all in the same night.

So, Seattle is supposed to be the rainy area, right? Well, it has only rained twice since we moved out here three months ago. So, for you Midwesterners who want to come visit, the 10 day forecast calls for sunny skys, high of 78 and no humidity. Anna took advantage of today's warm weather to give Riley a haircut outside. I estimate 1/3 of his body weight has been cut off. If the PT thing doesn't work for Anna, she can always go into dog grooming.

Move-in weekend

Hal writes:

This weekend was move-in and orientation at PLU. The fun started Thursday and kept going until classes started on Monday. Here is a picture of my colleagues and I on move-in day.

One of the fun events during orientation is "sound off". During this event, each hall does a hall cheer and tries to be the loudest, most spirited group. The picture below is of one of my halls during their cheering.


The PT Cruiser went over 100,000 miles this weekend. Anna was on the highway when it happened, so she wasn't able to take this photo until she got back to campus. Also, we made our last car payment (2 years earlier than the loan required!) so instead of having to send in money for the car each month we can now save money each month towards a future car purchase (but hopefully not for another couple of years). Hooray for budgeting!

On Saturday of orientation I actually had minimal responsibilities, so Anna and I drove up the Kitsap Peninsula and ended up visiting Poulsbo, WA. This is a small community with roots in the Norwegian tradition.

A picture of some of the shops, bakeries (at least four different ones in two blocks) and businesses down the main street. The store fronts all had Scandinavian architecture.


Anna down on the waterway in Poulsbo.

Our hodge podge lunch from a Norwegian bakery. In addition to the soup and sandwich, we had some amazing butter cookies and a slice of strawberry-rhubarb pie.

We decided to drive across Bainbridge Island and take the ferry across to Seattle on our way back. This was an attempted self-portrait with the Seattle skyline in the background. We were also going for the "wind swept" hair look.

Clouds over the hillside? Look again, that's Mt. Rainier poking up through the clouds in the middle.

A closer look at downtown Seattle.

And, of course, the Space Needle.