Our family is filled with great joy.
Reflecting this, my blog tends to stay mostly with happy memories.
Even during this odd Covid-19 Era, I have for the most part steered away from dwelling on darkness, though in looking back, I did write quite a bit about my personal frustration with health protocols.
Our family has been touched by Covid-19, with my nieces Kendra and Kelsey having it touch each of their beautiful families, but with little more impact than a normal seasonal flu.
My nephew Brett lost his senses of taste and smell for six months after getting the vaccine while he probably already had a mild case of Covid-19. My son Jay ended up in the hospital with a blood infection mere hours after getting his Johnson & Johnson jab, though it was attributed to a bad batch of vegan cheese. Like many, I had a bad headache after receiving my J&J "one-and-done." so you might say in our family the cure seemed to be worse than the disease.
Nonetheless, all of our children, nieces and nephews have not only survived but prospered during the pandemic. Other than the cruise business, those in my generation have also seemed to do quite well through it all. In fact, new opportunities to work remotely by Zoom and online have opened up possibilities for domestic travel, including our recent family gathering in Seattle.
While health issues brought us together, it had nothing to do with Covid-19.
Julie's sister Cheryl learned recently that she has cancer. Perhaps because medical care is focused on that virus, the doctors failed to properly diagnose her symptoms of pain in swallowing and extreme acid reflux that forced her to eat nothing but bland broths and oatmeal. It should have been obvious that this could be something serious.
By the time medical professionals ran the proper tests, the growth at the top of her stomach had reached the size of a plum, a depressing diagnosis that resulted in Cheryl reaching beyond her strong church support group to her siblings.
While we thought perhaps she would be better served by stretching out the visits, Cheryl wanted both of her sisters there simultaneously. Their brother John couldn't immediately get away from his booming entrepreneurial enterprise in Colorado without time to complete several jobs and lay the groundwork for time off.
Sister Jacque's husband Mike, two of their daughters and their husbands and children decided to join her at a rental house, arriving a couple of days before Julie and me.
Jay has always had a close relationship with Cheryl and her son Jered, who was the best man at Jay's wedding, so he, Sasha and puppy JoJo also committed to go, arriving about the same time as Jacque to stay at the Marriott Seattle Bellevue.
When in grad school in Seattle, Gina formed a special connection with Cheryl, so she jumped in, as did Amy, both of whom had to fly across the country to get there. They shared a room at the SeaTac Wingate, where Julie and I also got a room during their stay. They missed overlap with Jacque's family, but I would say the changing of personnel kept the social interractions fresh and upbeat.
Despite the sad motivation for gathering, we once again had a joyful reunion, with no tears from Cheryl until we bid farewell on our last evening. Fortunately, John and his family will come for a stay with Cheryl next week.
For the most part, we simply chatted and shared meals during our reunion.
This being a travel blog, I should mention that Seattle has lots of great restaurants, including the casual, waterfront Agua Verde Cafe where we shared our last dinner and seemed to be the favorite.
Then again, we loved at-home meals at Jacque's rental house in Woodinville.
On our first evening in Seattle, Jacque's husband Mike grilled burgers served with lots of side dishes, and then the next night we ordered a huge takeout meal from Carolina Smoke BBQ in Bothell that proved to be not only delicious but also more food than it at first appeared to be.
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