Christmas with family

I'm following my usual Christmas itinerary again this year.  Last year I was in Mexico City for Christmas and, while it was interesting, I missed being with my family so I braved the cold and the interstate and the United States again this year and headed to my family's places Washington.  First stop was Seattle after a very lovely ferry trip.  I don't think I've ever seen Mt Baker so clear.  

My son lives in Seattle and I spent a few days there with him and his family. 

 








Despite the usual miserable Seattle weather, I got out on my bike every day, went for a nice hike with my son, met up with old friends, attended my grand daughter's gymnastics meet,

Lily in the middle

sampled some new and interesting restaurants and enjoyed being with the family. 

From Seattle I drove down the dreaded I5 to Portland.  A terrible drive in the pouring rain on a crowded freeway with next to no visibility.  Strangely enough, it was quite nice in Portland when I arrived there.  They had had high winds all that day and, other than bringing down a lot of big branches, it cleared the storm away and the sky was clear.  In Portland I stayed overnight with my cousin, Cynthia and her husband, Ed in their lovely 100yr old home in a fine old part of town.  The next day I drove up the Columbia Gorge 60mi or so to my daughter's in the wee town of BZ Corner.  There are two highways up the Gorge on either side of the river, an interstate on the Oregon side and a small, two lane highway on the Washington side.  I wasn't in the mood for freeway driving so I chose the north side and it was a beautiful drive, the broad river and big dams, steep cliffs with waterfalls cascading over, Mt Hood to the south, Mt Adams to the north.  

Columbia Gorge

 

Mt Adams

I spent the next few days at my daughter's and enjoyed my time playing her 7yr old Lucien and hanging out with that family.  

Lucien

There was snow on the ground there, leftover from a big earlier dump but it was mostly raining.  Not far up the road it was snowing though and we had some good sledding and a very nice cross country ski outing.  

White Salmon River

 

Lucien and Daddy Ryan

 Some crazy kayakers using the rails set up to assist rafters and kayakers negotiate the steep trail to the river.





My son and family arrived late Christmas day and we enjoyed a complete family Christmas celebration including my cousin from Portland who joined us.  A fun time.  Then the not so fun drive home complicated by me forgetting my guitar and having to go back for it adding a few hours on to an already long drive.  Though it had snowed a little in the night, the roads were still bare and the weather was pretty good all the way to Portland.  From there it rapidly deteriorated and just a few miles into Washington it began to pour which it did until I got to Canada.  To further complicate matters, there was a big traffic accident going north on the freeway that delayed me another couple of hours.  So I was sweating it, wondering if I'd get to the ferry terminal in time to get a boat home.  But, as it turned out, the border crossing was easy and quick and I caught the 7:00pm ferry.  That was my Christmas.  

How about you?  I hope you all had a fine time.  Happy New Year!!