Glenn and Carol Sorta See Seattle
In honor of my brother's impending OHSU graduation my dad and step-mom have made the trip out to the coast. Luckily for me it was cheaper for them to fly into Seattle than to Portland, so I have had the pleasure of their company for the last couple of days. Neither of them are crazy about flying and that fact combined with my grandpa living in Arizona until last year resulted in them spending most of their vacation time doing long drives from Minnesota to Arizona to visit grandpa rather than jetting around to see the kids on the coast. The only other time my folks have visited me in Seattle was just after Chris and I bought the house in 2000.
Unfortunately, the timing of this trip is really not the greatest for my step-mom. She's been struggling with a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis for a long time now and eventually had to go to the Mayo Clinic to get a decent treatment plan. Sadly, at the same time she's been really suffering with arthritis in both her hands and in her back. The two dueling treatments haven't necessarily worked well together and she's been putting off surgery on her hands for a long time in the hope of getting the UC treatment sorted out. Right before this trip a window of opportunity to get one of the surgeries out of the way appeared and she went ahead but that meant that she'd only just gotten her stitches out and been put in a cast the day before they left to come out here. Between being on percocet (with a back-up Rx of vicodin) and dealing with a UC flare-up, Carol hasn't been up to doing much.
My parents also both get up insanely early in the morning. Carol's job starts at 6am or something like that and my dad is always up before she is (just by internal clock, I guess) so he goes in about the same time so their schedules can be close. They're usually having lunch about the time I'm getting up in the morning, and when you take the time zone difference into account, they're usually in bed and sound asleep HOURS before my family is getting dinner on the table. We haven't all been on the same schedule here in Seattle, that's for sure!
Friday, while Kate was in school and Carol was recovering in the hotel from the trip out here, my dad and I headed to the Museum of Flight to "kill a few hours" until Kate got out of school. We ended up spending about three hours going through the museum. I had been out there many years ago but not recently, not since they'd made many improvements and expansions, and we had a good time. I was on my usual schedule (which has me getting hungry for lunch about 2-3pm) but my dad and step-mom were struggling to get to a dinner time of 6pm Pacific. Dad and I had "lunch" about 3:00 at the Hangar Cafe, only to have to turn around and meet Carol for dinner at 6:00 (and that left Carol sitting around feeling hungry and trying to touch it out for about an hour). Awkward!
Although I'd cleared my schedule for the three days they'd planned to be in Seattle my parents' schedule (along with my step-mom's medical situation) has left me at loose ends any later than 7 or 8 at night (which is about the time I'd normally be starting to make dinner). Today we tried to get Carol out to see Pike Place Market and to have lunch at the Steelhead Diner, which a guy on the plane had told them about and which I could vouch was good food. The whole excursion lasted about two hours, including driving in traffic to the Market, having lunch, deciding the inside of the market was a madhouse and not any fun to visit on a rainy Saturday, walking back to the car and driving home.
I joked with her when she arrived with a cast that the last group photo I have of her, Kate, and my dad together was several years ago of her on crutches because she'd broken her ankle and now she'd been in a cast. I'm not sure what the schedule is going to be like for my brother's graduation celebrations but I'm hoping Carol won't be feeling too badly during them. It really hasn't been much fun for her so far.
Unfortunately, the timing of this trip is really not the greatest for my step-mom. She's been struggling with a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis for a long time now and eventually had to go to the Mayo Clinic to get a decent treatment plan. Sadly, at the same time she's been really suffering with arthritis in both her hands and in her back. The two dueling treatments haven't necessarily worked well together and she's been putting off surgery on her hands for a long time in the hope of getting the UC treatment sorted out. Right before this trip a window of opportunity to get one of the surgeries out of the way appeared and she went ahead but that meant that she'd only just gotten her stitches out and been put in a cast the day before they left to come out here. Between being on percocet (with a back-up Rx of vicodin) and dealing with a UC flare-up, Carol hasn't been up to doing much.
My parents also both get up insanely early in the morning. Carol's job starts at 6am or something like that and my dad is always up before she is (just by internal clock, I guess) so he goes in about the same time so their schedules can be close. They're usually having lunch about the time I'm getting up in the morning, and when you take the time zone difference into account, they're usually in bed and sound asleep HOURS before my family is getting dinner on the table. We haven't all been on the same schedule here in Seattle, that's for sure!
Friday, while Kate was in school and Carol was recovering in the hotel from the trip out here, my dad and I headed to the Museum of Flight to "kill a few hours" until Kate got out of school. We ended up spending about three hours going through the museum. I had been out there many years ago but not recently, not since they'd made many improvements and expansions, and we had a good time. I was on my usual schedule (which has me getting hungry for lunch about 2-3pm) but my dad and step-mom were struggling to get to a dinner time of 6pm Pacific. Dad and I had "lunch" about 3:00 at the Hangar Cafe, only to have to turn around and meet Carol for dinner at 6:00 (and that left Carol sitting around feeling hungry and trying to touch it out for about an hour). Awkward!
Although I'd cleared my schedule for the three days they'd planned to be in Seattle my parents' schedule (along with my step-mom's medical situation) has left me at loose ends any later than 7 or 8 at night (which is about the time I'd normally be starting to make dinner). Today we tried to get Carol out to see Pike Place Market and to have lunch at the Steelhead Diner, which a guy on the plane had told them about and which I could vouch was good food. The whole excursion lasted about two hours, including driving in traffic to the Market, having lunch, deciding the inside of the market was a madhouse and not any fun to visit on a rainy Saturday, walking back to the car and driving home.
I joked with her when she arrived with a cast that the last group photo I have of her, Kate, and my dad together was several years ago of her on crutches because she'd broken her ankle and now she'd been in a cast. I'm not sure what the schedule is going to be like for my brother's graduation celebrations but I'm hoping Carol won't be feeling too badly during them. It really hasn't been much fun for her so far.