A Whirlwind Trip to See Sarah and the Counts Boys

It was a whirlwind trip to the West Side.  Sarah was scheduled for a homeschool conference this past Friday-Saturday in Auburn, WA.  Rick had a meeting scheduled for Thursday in Kennewick, or so we thought.

I had lists of my lists and everything was packed, or so I thought. We left home around 7:15am Thursday morning to head for Kennewick where Rick’s meeting was to be.  Nathaniel and I had made plans to meet Rod Garretson, an old friend we knew from our previous church for a short time.  

We were a halfway up Alpowa pass when the phone rang.  Rick’s boss wanted to know where Rick was. He informed us that the meeting had been canceled.  So Rick asked if he could have the day off.  

We arrived in Kennewick around 10 am and went to the public library where we met Rod.  We had a wonderful visit, and Sarah called and FaceTimed with Rod for a few minutes.  

I asked Rod if he would like to have egg salad sandwiches with us...a picnic.  When I went out to the car I discovered I had left our lunches all at home.  That was sad.  We ended up going to Subway instead.  After lunch, we headed out on our way to Sunnyside where we planned to spend the night.

It was nice Rick’s meeting got canceled and he got the rest of the day off.  That meant we could arrive at the hotel a little early and enjoy some time resting before the hectic part of the trip set in.

The hotel was one of the best Best Western’s we have ever stayed in.  It was located next to a vineyard and everything was themed around the vineyard including Bible verses in the lobby about vines and vineyards. They even served a light dinner here.  It was cream of broccoli soup.  A shame neither Rick or I could eat it...dairy and gluten ingredients.  But it was a nice offering. At breakfast, they served made to order omelets plus a variety of other items.  Nathaniel and I enjoyed the pool and hot tub.  We had two queen size beds and queen sized hide a bed that Nathaniel said was comfortable.  I enjoyed photographing the big barn out front and the vineyards out back.

Friday we left around 11 am and headed for Auburn, WA.  We used WAZE to navigate.  That proved very useful.  There was a gigantic traffic jam just before the exit to Wenatchee that WAZE rerouted us around without me even having to ask it to.  It just detected there was a mess ahead and said it was rerouting us.  We had a very nice scenic drive on Hwy 97 that took us all the way around the traffic jam and put us back on the freeway a long ways ahead of where it was. Another time WAZE detected a bypass to skirt around road construction.  Everyone was coming to a complete stop and we whizzed off to the left onto a single lane in the East Bound traffic side that took us around the construction. Only one time WAZE blew it for us when it routed us two miles back the way we came after a gas stop and landed us in a terrible traffic jam waiting to get off the freeway at Auburn.  I have a feeling it didn’t matter what exit we used they were probably all jammed up.  It’s just the way they roll over there.

Sarah flew in around 10am to Sea-Tac.  Our dear friend Wes Sorstokke picked her up and brought her to the hotel.  Thanks, Wes!  We love you!

As we got closer to Seattle and crossed Snoqualmie Pass traffic got really ugly.  I don’t do ugly traffic well.  We almost got rear-ended twice and nearly got our front bumper taken off once.  The drivers drive like idiots over there!  I’m thanking God for keeping us safe!   

So we got to the hotel around 3:45 or so and rested until around 5:40.  Then we started out to find Green River College and to find Sarah and her coworker.  After some texting and calling, we finally found them in parking lot 8.  We had parked in lot 7.  It was so good to see her again!

I navigated Rick back to the hotel with the help of WAZE and we dropped Chris off and then we went to Las Margaritas across the street to meet Jon and Paul Counts for dinner.

We had an absolute blast visiting with those two guys!  They are so fun!  Jon had asked Sarah, "When do you go back?"  Sarah misunderstood and said, "Chicken Mole!"  She thought he said, "What’s that?"

Sarah was telling us about how her company is developing an art book (art appreciation).  Paul thought they were developing a coloring book! LOL!

Later Rick described how his boss never uses a calculator but does all his math by hand and Paul asked, "What does he do, pull out a hibiscus?"  He meant abacus.  We all laughed really hard about that.

When we were outside taking pictures, Paul went over to the window and took a photo.  Jon asked, "What are you doing, taking photos of the people eating inside?"  Paul said, "No, I wanted to get a picture of the penguin for the kids."  We all burst out laughing because it was a flamingo!  

It was fun to listen to Sarah and the boys talk because they all do or have done marketing, but each one has done different aspects of it, so they each had something new the others haven’t done before.  

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and Sarah came to our room and hung out until around 10:30pm.  We had such a good visit with her.  She and I slept in the same room since she had an extra bed and Rick and Nathaniel slept in the other room.  That worked out well.

I got up earlier than her on Saturday, so I went to the other room and packed our things up and then met Rick and Nathaniel in the dining room.  Sarah joined us later.  Her coworker showed up a bit later.  After he ate we packed up the car and took them back to the college for their conference day.

There was a funny sign on the building of the college.

Saying goodbye was a hurried bittersweet affair.  It happened fast because Sarah and Chris were late to their venue.  My voice caught as I said good-bye and I was fighting back tears.  It was all so short and surreal.  I didn't even get one last picture in. At least we have the one from the restaurant. 

From there we headed for home.  Rick drove for about an hour, then got too tired to drive further, so we traded and I drove the last four hours home.  I was so exhausted it was all I could do to keep my eyes open.

Home never looked so good.  DJ was happy to see us and everything was in order.  The lunches I had forgotten on Thursday had been put back in the fridge by our next door neighbor, so dinner was all ready.  It was nice we didn’t have to spend any more money eating out or me spend energy making a meal after that long drive.

Last night I sat down and made up my menu plan from a template that was saved.  Went on the Walmart Grocery app and ordered what I needed.  This afternoon I will go pick up my groceries that someone else has shopped and bagged for me.  That is so nice!  What a time and energy saver it is after a long trip home and too many nights of little sleep!