7/11 to 7/18
This week was filled with new adventures as Blair continues her surgery rotation in Tacoma. I got to play soccer on Thursday with Blair and the staff of the surgery department, as they got their weeks' PT in. We had a blast, even though the odds were stacked against us. The docs and residents all play on a team against the students, interns, and spouses. The Staff are outnumbered, but all seem to have college level soccer experience. Needless to say, the interns, students and spouses get whooped each week. In spite of playing a loosing game, we have fun and get a solid 2 hour workout every Thursday.
On Saturday the 17th we went to our friend's baby shower in Seattle. Jim and Laure are having a baby in August, and we went to celebrate in style. Blair had fun playing baby games, seeing all the neat presents for the future parents, drinking mimosas and having cake with all the ladies that came in support of Jim and Laure. Meanwhile, Jim, his brother Darren, father Rick and myself walked with Sammy down to the local pub and had our own party. After the shower, and dinner with Jim's brother and wife, Blair Sammy and I went back to Jim and Laure's and played board games and spent the night.
7/19 to 7/25
Blair's second week of vascular surgery was a success, she got to see some cool procedures, and we had a ton of fun! Blair noticed that Lacey, WA has an Elks lodge when she was surfing the web. It turns out that the lodge is fairly close and they have Bingo every Tuesday. We decided to go on the 20th to see what it was all about. These people get into their Bingo. We arrived during the first game, into the main hall which was completely silent, except for the rhythmic voice on the PA calling out a letter and a number. Blair and I bought a Bingo packet, consisting of a new Bingo sheet for each game to be played that night, which we split. As we played through the night, we realized that groups of little old ladies came decked out with their own Bingo paraphernalia- custom made bags to hold Bingo marking pens, stickers, snacks, and probably flasks. Blair overheard some of the ladies gossiping about adding a little something “extra” to the free tea and coffee offered at the event (the Elks closed the bar because this is open to the public). Blair and I were just ONE number away from winning a $500 jackpot for a blackout, but unfortunately our number was not called fast enough :( But, for 8 bucks two hours of adrenaline pumping, blood pressure raising excitement was well worth it.
Thursday 7/22 we were graced with the presence of Todd Heron, a fellow PA student from Pacific, who is currently completing his rotation in Chehalis, WA about 30 minutes south of us. Dinner was wonderful, and the company was even better. We stuffed ourselves and had delicious chocolate cake for dessert, complements of Todd. After dinner we walked around our little slice of heaven here in the trailer park to help get the digestive juices flowing. Todd and Blair compared surgery rotations (Todd was at Madigan just before Blair) and both exchanged stories of cases/ treatments/ and other cool stuff they have seen during their first rotations.
Friday morning was filled with excitement as I took Blair to work, I kissed her and told her to have a great day, and said that I would be back this evening with dinner ready to eat so we could get on the road to join my old roommates Lola, John, Irina, and Peter for a camping excursion in the foothills of Mt. St. Helens! I usually go back to sleep after I drop Blair off at work at the butt-crack of dawn every morning, but this morning I could hardly stay still long enough to shut my eyes.
I packed all of our camping gear, food, water, sundries, and swim clothes, and loaded it all up into the truck. After triple checking that we had everything, including two sets of the ten essentials, the truck was ready to go. I made s picnic dinner that Blair and I could share on the road, and I was rip-roarin' and ready to go. I looked at my watch and it was 10am! After running a few errands, reading, facebooking, emailing, and checking Steep and Cheap religiously it was finally time to go pick up Blair from work.
At this point, Peter had barely found a site to camp in. He had gone up early to Mt St Helens, after calling the ranger station to see what the regulations are for camping in the undeveloped region of the forest, to claim a campsite. It turns out, coming from Hwy 5 on the West side of the mountain, everything is closed to overnight use (sad day!). Flustered, Peter was informed he had to travel back to the 5 (approx an hour drive) go north a few more miles and take a different highway that lead all the way around to the other side of St Helens to get into anything open to wilderness camping. As he made his way down the mountain, he stopped at every turnoff to find a gate, barricade, or sign post informing that no overnight use was allowed. Crossing out of State land, into the Werehauser logging company lands similar signs greeted Peter. Luckily he stopped in the the gas station and asked around about local camping and was informed that there are many sites along the river that runs out of the forest lands and towards the 5. So he backtracked a few miles and found a great spot along the river, with a nice swimming hole, plenty of space for all our tents, and a fire ring. After he made contact with us explaining where he found the campsite, he unpacked and basically set the whole campsite up himself.
Blair and I were the next to show up, around 730 and the three of us got our truck unloaded, and by the time we were done, the last group had arrived. Dinner, beer, and a campfire all made a great start to the weekend. Saturday morning the 6 of us drove all the way up to the end of the highway to the St Helens visitor center. The views along the way were fantastic, and mind blowing to see a valley that 20 some years ago was about 500 ft deeper than it stands today. We stopped at a lake for a little hike, and the girls went swimming, about ¾ of the way up the mountain. Continuing on, we reached the summit, and were greeted by hundreds of tourists and a large visitor center. This visitor center charged $8 a person to come on premises and hike up another 100ft to another view point. This was a little steep for 5 minutes of picture taking, so we decided to head down the hill to the Werehauser meusem (which was amazing and free) to see a film about the blast and formation of todays Mt St Helens, walk through an interactive timeline of the buildup, explosion, and recovery efforts for the national forest and land beyond. There was even a room with hands on displays of animal pelts, tree stumps, seedlings, and anything you could possibly imagining living in a forest ecosystem.
After this educational, and fun journey, we headed back to the river campsite to spend the afternoon basking in the sun, having a few cold brews, trying the Bluemoon-esque beer the guys brewed while I was still living there, and floating up and down the river. Sunday we woke up and started all over (minus the beer) and played games in the river for several hours before packing up and heading home.
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