There’s something about June that turns us to birthdays. Specifically for our son Christian who was born on June 22, 1981 and for Karin’s mom Milly, who was born on June 26th, 1922.
You just did quick math in your head, didn’t you. Yep, Christian turned 40 this year and Milly had her 99th birthday.
First up was Christian.
His party was a few days before the “technical” date. Hey, it’s what weekends are for. So his friends got together to honor his impending middle age at Jakes BBQ in South Seattle. That’s the cool joint where Stew Navarre, one of Ashley’s buds from the CIA, is an executive. I’m guessing he had a hand here.
It was all Christian’s extended friends in attendance, but we were invited as honored guests….since we made him. It’s kind of fun since we actually know a lot of these folks and are friends with them outside of his being around. I’m not sure how he feels about it when he learns, “Wait, you guys had my parents over…or you visited them on the boat…and I wasn’t invited?” Actually, we do know what he thinks about it.
Second, but no less important, we celebrated Milly’s 99th birthday. Holy Moly!
We headed south on Friday for Suzy and Tom’s place, Halo Hills Ranch in Yoncalla, south of Eugene to prep for the big day. Needless to say, Trixie and Bella, their yellow lab sister, were happy to greet us. Of course, they are happy to see and smell any body. They just want to be with you. Really WITH you.
This was the weekend that the weather in the Pacific Northwest went stark raving mad, and tried to kill us all with extreme temperatures. Lucky for all of us Karin and Suzy had already decided on exclusively cold food to beat the heat. Even better, Tom and Suzy had just installed 4 air conditioner units. As the temps outside crossed 100 degrees+ we were all able to hang out inside to beat the heat.
Even though it was hotter than hell outside it was a lovely party with the grands and great-grand, Theo (what a cutie. Holy Moly!-he liked that term). Milly seemed really pleased and everyone enjoyed themselves.
With the world still coming out of the pandemic, the Hadley’s decided not to travel and to join the party via ZOOM call. We’re planning a BIG 100th for next year when everyone can be there.
The manly men did go outside at some point, but it was so hot they stripped shirts. Only Tom made that look like a good idea. My, we do have a beached whale kind of look. Get the sunscreen before we beet up!
Tom wins 
Not the high temp that day, just the start
My eyes. I can’t unsee that.
Karin and I got up early Sunday to beat the heat as we drove to see Dennis, Carol and the boys up near Astoria…mistakenly thinking the river might hold down temps. Nope. Hot as hell there too. So we sat around the living room near their AC units chatting.
Monday morning was forecast to be the worst yet, so we decided that being home, on the boat, on the water would be the best idea. We left Knappa at 5am, and were in Anacortes by about 10am. It got hot again. In Seattle Monday the 29th it was a new record high of 108 degrees. In Western King County it got to 116 degrees. In Anacortes, thankfully, the high was only 95.
Thankfully, the next day the high was 20 degrees cooler, back to normal. That was horrible, and they are still adding deaths across the region. We are not built for this kind of temperature.
Sailing in Endless Song 