For the last couple of weeks, The Wife and I travelled out west to meet parts of each other’s family. The Brother joined us for the first week. This is going to be a bit of a long post, so don’t feel to bad if it’s TLDR. The gist is that we had lots of fun, but damn were we glad to get back home.
The Wife, The Brother, and I flew out Friday, October 7. That was a long day of travel. Essentially, it was Tampa to Seattle, long layover, and then onto Boise. About a 20-hour day.
Saturday, Oct 8, was one of the main reasons to come out. My maternal grandmother passed away back in April, and Saturday was the memorial service. Anytime I meet relatives out west, most of them I don’t or barely remember. The difference this year was that included “the littles”, or the children of my first cousins. I imagine by the time we get back out there, the next generation will be included.
Sunday, Oct. 9, the family went up to Sun Valley to see “The Trailing Of The Sheep.” If I’m remembering local lore correctly, the local sheepherders had some trails to move their flocks. At some point those paths got paved (not clear who was responsible). At some point, bikers and hikers started using those paths for their activities. These newcomers got very annoyed that when the flocks were moved, “their” paths were littered with sheep dung. They complained to the authorities, who pointed out that, the bikers and hikers were technically in the wrong, and no, they weren’t going to tell the ranchers jack shit. Someone on the sheep rancher side came up with the idea of a parade to raise money for some charity or other and to bring peace to both sides. It’s evolved since. It was interesting to watch contingents from the local Basques, Peruvians, and Highlanders marching. There was also someone in a slightly disturbing sheep costume that may end up in one of my urban fantasy novels.
From the rest of Sunday through Friday, we did sightseeing around the Twin Falls area of Idaho, as well as meeting family. The Wife got to see my family’s farm, try my uncle’s homebrewed mead (first time trying mead for her), and go to some local antique/second-hand shops.
On Friday, Oct. 14, The Wife and I travelled up to Lewiston, Idaho. We had to make a short stop in Meridian (which I think is kind of a suburb of Boise). The jacket I brought was good for rain, but crap for wind. So, we found a 5.11, and I picked up a new jacket. Along with other stuff, because I can never get out of that shop for cheap. We also found out that a doughnut franchise we’d found in Williamsburg had expanded to Idaho. The drive was mostly nice, but I don’t like driving in the mountains. It makes me nervous when I we’re doing turns with a several hundred foot drop on the other side. We did see a couple of A-10’s flying around Mountain Home, so The Wife learned the BRRR meme.
Friday night and Saturday was meeting The Wife’s family around the Lewiston and Clarkston, Washington area. This included everyone meeting a “new” cousin. I don’t have my scorecard to keep all of my wife’s relatives straight (I’m getting better, I promise!). From what I gathered, this new cousin was the daughter of some folks the others had a few interactions. New Cousin was discovered when she moved in near some of The Wife’s cousins and relations were discovered. So, both New Cousin and I got to hear a bunch of family lore. While we were in the area, The Wife and I went around to found old family houses and other areas she remembered.
Sunday, Oct 16, we drove to the Tri-Cities in Washington. There was a stop over in Pomeroy, a small farming community in Washington. MIL’s family was from there, so we stopped to visit some graves and find old houses. There was some detective work on that last bit using an old photo and Apple Maps.
From Sunday until we left on Friday, there was a lot of meeting The Wife’s family and going around the Tri-Cities to see places The Wife lived, her relatives lived, and other areas she remembered fondly. It was also a chance for The Wife to catch up with her childhood BFF.
We made a trip out to Fort Walla Walla, which was a neat museum and historic village. That was really neat, particularly the display of a thirty-mule mechanical combine. Then, The Wife made a couple of the workers slightly jealous when she told them about where we got married in Florida (since it was kind of a similar thing). We also made a trip up to Leavenworth with The Wife’s BFF and BFF’s husband. From what I understand, it was an old logging town that was facing hardship as logging fell off. So, they decided to go the tourist route and converted their town into a “Bavarian Alpine village”. I use the quotes because apparently BFF brought a German foreign exchange student who was amused by the attempt. Anyways, Leavenworth has a bunch of nifty little shops and restaurants. We had some really good German food and bought a bunch of stuff. The only drawback were there were some nasty fires going, so the smell of smoke was heavy in the area and the mountains were obscured by the haze. BFF’s husband pointed out a bunch of neat stuff on the trip up and back.
The trip home wasn’t quite as long as the trip out. The only major hiccup was making our connection in Seattle, since that entailed having to travel across the airport. It was so nice being back in my house, my bed, driving the Ward Wagon, and playing with the clowder.
