Adventures of Beth and Dan: As Taylor Swift says “Settle Down”!!

Well I guess that is what we have been doing for three weeks. We settled down into a very nice RV park called Pioneer Trails. It has huge trees, lots of beautiful flowers including hydrangeas and it’s quiet and close to lots of places. We were able to get the monthly rate but even at that it’s quite high. Our sites are large with fire pits and tables. The office has no supplies other than ice and firewood but the laundry is clean and so are the bathrooms and showers if you choose to use them. Since being here we have gone somewhere about every day. We have met sone lovely neighbors and enjoyed learning about where they are from and what sights they suggest we see. There is quiet an extensive drought here. They haven’t had rain for over a month. This area is full of agriculture including potatoes, grapes for the many vineyards, berries, cherries, apples and all kinds of fruit. There is also a huge oil refinery here. And for sure lots of seafood. The docks look full all the time with huge personal fishing boats. We have enjoyed the tides going in and out and watching people go out looking for clams or oysters. The weather has been FINALLY perfect! The days are usually in the mid 70’s and nights down to high 50’s or 60’s. No AC really. We have a few fans and if the mornings are a bit cool we turn on our fireplace which creates some ambiance while we have coffee and watch the news. A lady across from us who is from Texas has been coming to this park for 7 years. She is a wealth of information. She asked me if I wanted to go to water aerobics with her so about three days a week she takes me. Dan has tried to find pickleball but no one shows up to the one here at our park and no one showed up to the city park courts so he has been hiking and birding. A highlight fir me was attending one of my previous superintendents 90th birthday in Newberg Oregon. He was in Kamiah when I taught 3rd grade there. He was such an inspiration and overall great man. We took the weekend and stayed two nights around the Portland area. Traffic was horrible. This was the big Taylor Swift concert in Seattle amd then a huge soccer tournament too! But we had a good time catching up and meeting members of his family. His wife died several years ago and he has a new special friend Evelyn. She is a sweetheart. His three daughters put on the party. The food was very good with fresh fruit and sub sandwiches from a caterer.

We have about another week here to enjoy local concerts in Anacortes and LaConner, both very cute towns. I also had a great get together with two of my colleagues from Kamiah, Mindy Espinosa a speech therapist and Sandy Munoz a special education teacher and first grade teacher. Both moved on but our friendship has held together all these years and I’m blessed. I just wished I would have gotten a photo but we talked so much we forgot!!