Luck 'o' the Irish

My Ancestry.com DNA test identifies me as more than 30% Irish (I assume that includes the Scottish and Welsh mixed in).  We celebrated St. Patrick's Day with a corned beef and cabbage dinner on Sunday, March 12, 2017.  I felt very, very lucky to be surrounded with family and good friends, eating good Irish food and celebrating my heritage.

I never take for granted the luxury of having Mike and Heidi as neighbors and frequent visitors.  My former assistant, Katie Peterson, also joined us with her husband.  Katie is now "Dr. Davis," with a Ph.D in nursing from the U of U.  She is a nurse practitioner at a clinic in West Valley, where she specializes in the treatment of diabetes.  Katie's husband, Rhett Davis, is a former investment banker with J.P. Morgan who now manages his real estate investments, and wanted to meet Mike, a kindred spirit.  Katie is expecting baby Grace in June.  I was delighted to remember, once again, how very fond I am of Katie, and how proud I am of all she has done with her life.

Other guests were the missionaries from our stake.  They were an eclectic group--one elder from Jakarta, Indonesia, one elder from Wichita, Kansas, and the third elder an Australian who is awaiting his Indonesian visa so he can begin serving in that predominantly Muslim country.  We shared good food with the elders, but they shared something more precious--faith, goodness, and optimism.

 I decorated the table with shamrock plants, covered with three-leaf clovers.  I also bought green carnations, which reminded me of the green carnations my dad often bought me for my birthday.  He also wore green socks on St. Patrick's Day in my honor.

The entree was corned beef and cabbage, served with "champ," a Northern Ireland dish of mashed potatoes, butter, and green onions.

 Of course, we had Irish soda bread.

Dessert was a British raspberry trifle, with homemade pound cake, whipped cream, cream cheese, and lots of frozen raspberries.  I will definitely make it again!

Vegas

Dave had a conference in Las Vegas on post-traumatic stress disorders during the last week of February.  I joined him on Thursday, March 2.  Besides posing with the omnipresent slot machines, we squeezed into a packed Coliseum at Caesar's Palace for a concert of Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn.

I loved the country music.  I was also fascinated with the culture represented by the singers and their audience.  It was rural, southern, and patriotic. Reba told about her childhood growing up on a ranch in Oklahoma with a father who was a rodeo star.  She sang a ballad about a Tennessee girl who went to New York City and came back home to marry.  The girl caroused in a bar the night before her marriage and ran off with a guy she met there.  "You can take the girl out of the honky-tonk but you can't take the honky-tonk out of the girl."  During the final song, flags waved, red/white/blue confetti fell from the ceiling, and military vets marched onto the stage.

Country music tells stories, mostly about love and loss.  I thought of the Eyring ballad, "Aragon gypsy girl," passed down through generations from England.  It tells the same sort of "love and loss" tale as the country ballads.  They both have British folk tunes in their DNA--the Scots-Irish settled Appalachia, and the hill billy music of Appalachia morphed into "country".  

Dave's and my seats were so high that we couldn't see the videos projected above the stage!  It was like the night we came late to a Deer Valley outdoor concert and sat at the top of the hill next to the garbage cans, but this time we paid $250 for two tickets. It was still worth it.  Maybe we finally found where all those Trump voters came from.

Dave and I spent one evening at the Coliseum and the other in the Spring Valley Hospital emergency room.  I had a pain in my upper leg which Dave was afraid was a blood clot.  I assured him it was nothing more than one too many "pain in the butt" experiences at work...  The doctors agreed.

A Soak and a Steak

We have a hot tub on our porch, but that wouldn't do.  We were off to Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, on February 25, 2017, to soak in the real deal--a huge pool filled with mineral water from hot springs.

Half the fun was stopping at Maddox for dinner on the way home.  Maddox, near Brigham City, holds so many memories.  Dave and his high school girlfriend, Diane Smith, routinely stopped there for dinner on their drives to Diane's parents' cabin at Bear Lake.  Over the years, Dave and I have eaten at Maddox many times, virtually always choosing steak (or prime rib) and pie.

 Maddox is always crowded, but the wait is worth it.

 The rolls with raspberry butter are nearly as good as the steak.

 After two or three rolls apiece, we had to use doggie bags for the steaks!

Seattle with the Flindts II

"Let's go to Friday Harbor," Dave suggested, as we thought through how to spend our precious Saturday in Seattle.  Taking the ferry to the San Juan Islands is an iconic Northwest adventure.

Before we left, we attended Bryce's Young Men basketball game.  Several experienced members of Bryce's team were gone, so Bryce's team really needed him.  He made several baskets.

Bryce's coach was amazing.  He yelled encouragement to each boy and stayed upbeat and optimistic all through the game, even as the other team pulled ahead.  Bryce's team included one very short boy who was an aggressive and excellent player.

 It was an overcast day, but that made the ferry trip from Anacortes to Friday Harbor all the more atmospheric.  We sailed past dozens of fog-shrouded islands.

 Friday Harbor was filled with yachts--the San Juans are a favorite boating trip from Seattle.  The sun came out just long enough to get a bright picture of Dave and me.

We drove around the island and then ate supper at a cozy inn near the harbor.  The fish and chips were fabulous.

While we waited for the ferry back to Anacortes, north of Seattle, Dave snoozed in the car while Lisa, Bryce, Alyssa, and I wandered the nearly deserted, off-season streets.  We settled into a booth at Vic's Drive-in for a root beer float.  Pure Americana.

Seattle with the Flindts I

Dave and I are always thrilled for a chance to visit Lisa and her family in Seattle, and we never run out of new things to do.  We spent President's Day weekend with the Flindts, from February 17th through 20th, 2017.

On Friday morning, we drove to Tacoma with Lisa, Bryce, and Alyssa, to visit the Washington State History Museum.  It was full of treasures.  Alyssa discovered a niche depicting the mining era in Washington.  There were other displays on the ethnic groups that settled Washington, such as Japanese, Chinese, and Swedish.

 Displays portrayed pioneers crossing to Washington in the 1840s and 1850s along the Oregon Trail.

 We also enjoyed the model railroads.

 After spending an hour or two at the museum, we stopped for lunch at the Magical Sandwich Makers Deli (MSM), a top rated "cheap eatery" in Tacoma.

 Bryce and Lisa tried the "Mike's Deluxe" sandwich, layered with meats and cheeses.

When Gretta mentioned that she had just finished reading "The Boys in the Boat," telling about the University of Washington rowing team that won the Olympic gold medal in Berlin in 1936, Lisa suggested we go see the boat they rowed in.

 The 1936 Olympic Gold boat now hangs from the roof of the "crew", or rowing building at the University of Washington.

 Next to that new facility is the old boathouse that may date back to 1936.

 This was the bay where the University of Washington crew team practiced their skills.

 And there is now another generation of athletes using that crew building.

 We met Kyle in downtown Seattle, near Pike's Market, for supper at our favorite Thai restaurant, Mae Phim Thai.

There was a bit of drama as a waitress came dashing down the street towards us with Gretta's camera, after we'd left the restaurant.  And, as usual, we parked in the parking garage underneath the downtown Target, and had to figure what to buy for $20, so our parking would be free.  We then drove back to the Flindts' home in Sammamish, where Dave and I tried out Lisa's luxurious new guest room.