Seattle trip

As I start this post we are on Amtrak Empire Builder about an hour from Chicago returning 17 days after leaving on the same train the other direction to Seattle.  Because travel time is about exactly 2 days each way, we had just one day short of two weeks there. We had a great time.  Abby took off the middle Friday and we rented a car to spend the weekend on San Juan Islands. This is a group of islands in the Puget Sound about 2 hours north of Seattle.  


While we spent most other evenings with her, the rest of the time we were exploring on our own.  Abby had helped us create a list of things to see.  Also the last meal on the train before arriving in Seattle we happened to sit across the table from a couple from Seattle. When they found out we were about to spend two weeks there, they created a whole list of things not to miss.  They overlapped with Abby's list a lot. We got to most of them.  


One highlight for me was getting to spend an evening with my first cousin Rich Nafziger (uncle Ezra's son), his wife Kristen and Ez's widow Margie. They live in Olympia about an hour south of Seattle. I don't remember ever meeting Rich before. Some time ago Eldon suggested him as a friend on Facebook.  I contacted him a couple weeks before leaving. I was surprised to hear that he spent a term with MCC in Washington DC.  He also connected more with Melville but also had fond memories of Dad. He said Dad took him back to college one time when Dad was visiting uncle Ez while Ez was battling cancer. Interestingly, Abby met someone at a conference while we were out there that knew him. He teaches economics at Seattle University.