by Sybil Johnson
I feel a little like I’m writing one of those grade school essays on “what I did on my summer vacation.” I don’t remember what I wrote back then, but it probably involved visiting relatives. Every year we drove from Washington state to Minnesota. I did a lot of staring out the window, which I enjoyed, and reading on those trips.
Here’s what I did last week:
We flew to the Seattle area to celebrate my mom’s 103rd birthday. It was nice to see family and also get away from the construction going on next door to us. The new house they’re building has been going on for a while. I could look it up, but I think it’s around 2 years so far. Probably will be done next February. Better than the last house they built on the same lot, which took 5 1/2 years to build.
One thing I miss about living in the Seattle area is the sight of Mt. Rainier in the sky, when it deigns to make an appearance. It’s often obscured by clouds. The mountain was out for most of our trip so that was really nice. I’ve tried taking a picture many times, but haven’t been particularly successful. The husband took a good one on one of his many walks so here it is. BTW, you know someone grew up in Washington state or has been there for a while when they talk about “the mountain being out.”
Besides celebrating my mom’s birthday, one of the things we did was visit a Cat Cafe. I’d been to one called Catffeinated when it was in Tacoma. It has since moved to Puyallup. The one we went to this time was a fairly new one in the outlet mall in Auburn run by the Auburn Valley Humane Society. There are two enclosed spaces with 4 cats in each one.
It was so much fun. We haven’t had cats in our lives for a while now, so it was good to get some kitty time. We spent an hour with 4 kittens (Poppy, Leo, Onyx and Winnie) all about 2 months old. All of them had been adopted and were just waiting to go to their forever homes. It cost $20 for the hour. All proceeds go to the humane society. You’re not allowed to pick them up, but can pet them and play with them.
I pet some of the cats, then sat down to see if one would crawl into my lap. They crawled over my lap to get to my husband. The others crawled into my sister’s lap. So here I am looking bummed out that no kitten would curl up on my lap.
The person who works there took pity on me and placed the black kitten, Onyx, on my lap. That seemed to give him the seal of approval and he stayed. I told him all about the many black cats I’ve had in my life: Squirt, Squirt II, Dog and, as an adult, Maleficent. He seemed to enjoy it.
Here I am looking happier with Onyx. He stayed with me for quite awhile before departing for greener pastures. Then one of the other kittens decided my lap was okay..
It was great fun. Other than seeing family, the highlight of my trip.
We flew both ways on Alaska Airlines. On the way back we ended up on a 737MAX. I usually avoid that particular plane because, you know, those problems they’ve had. I thought we were supposed to be on a different plane, but ended up on a MAX anyway. Still, one cool thing I hadn’t seen before was, if you fly Premium (gives you extra leg room), they have a cup holder in the tray table so your cup doesn't have to be on top of the tray. If you look at the first photo in this review, you can see the cup holder in action. Very nice touch. https://news.alaskaair.com/alaska-airlines/new-cabin-interior/
Happy to be home. Happy to have had a break. Now, it’s back to writing for me.