Washington 2023:
Day 14 - Kirkland, WA

	Saturday, August 26, 2023: We love camping, but it was very nice to sleep in a bed in a hotel after twelve straight days of sleeping in a tent. We slept in, then headed over to Doug and Susan's to ride with them to Stewart and Lyndsay's rehearsal dinner, uh, lunch. Marty the cat made a brief appearance and allowed himself to be petted before disappearing to the basement.
	Lunch was at Ivar's Mukilteo Landing. It is right on the pier where you can watch the ferries travelling between Seattle and Whidbey Island and beyond.
	They had a gorgous private room reserved. We have gotten takeout from here before but have never been inside the restaurant.
	There was a beautiful sign marking the occasion, ...
	... as well as custom-printed menus hand-made for the event.
	There was a large charcuterie display, veggie skewers (not shown), ...
	... plus coconut shrimp and Ivar's famous clam chowder for appetizers.
	When lunch was served, we sat at the table with Lyndsay and Stewart, Doug and Susan, Lyndsay's sister Leila and her boyfriend, Lyndsay's parents Lisa and John, and John's parents Lynn and John.
	When the Caesar salad was served, Stewart demonstrated once again how lemon magically gets added to his food.
	For an entree, there was a choice of fish and chips, salmon, grilled chicken, or a hamburger. It was Ivar's, so both of us choose the fish and chips, of course.
	After lunch, Stewart and Lyndsay piled into a booth with their friends at the back of the room. Remember when you were young and could fit ten people into a booth? No, we don't either.
	While everyone else was saying their goodbyes and discussing last minute details for the wedding tomorrow, Debbie and Tom took a walk outside along the pier. Here's the view looking back at the restaurant and our private room.
	We thought long and hard about getting ice cream, but we passed knowing that we would be heading to Lisa and John's house shortly where there would be plenty of desserts.
	Out on the pier, we looked for fish in the water without any luck, ...
	... and then at the hotel right on the waterfront where several of Lyndsay's family members were staying. We made a mental note to maybe stay here sometime when we were visiting.
	In front of the lighthouse, there was this cool statue balanced on one corner of its cube. It was fish in the design, but it also looked like waves. Very cool.
	In the distance, we could see the long line of cars backed up waiting to be loaded on the ferry. We both decided that it would be hard to live on an island where you had to depend on a ferry for transportation to the mainland.
	Have we mentioned that Debbie loves the ocean? Loves it. Loves. It. How she ended up in Indiana is a mystery that may never be solved.
	Here's the lighthouse. It was open to the public if you wanted to go up and see the actual light, but were getting short on time and needed to get going to ...
	... Lisa and John's house for the open house festivities. Stewart was in the garage when we arrived and showed us the custom-lettered signs that Lyndsay and John had made for the wedding tomorrow.
	Tom only drooled a little bit looking at John's collection of tools. He was playing "need it, need it, want it, got it" until they pulled him away toward the main part of the house.
	Lisa's sister Kristen was busy cooking and baking when we walked through the kitchen and everything smelled wonderful.
	The view from their main floor is just incredible, looking out over their manicured backyard and into Possession Sound in the distance.
	They had three glass display cases spread around the room filled with gorgeous pieces.
	Downstairs, there were trays with cupcakes and Kristen's amazing sea salt-caramel-chocolate chip cookies, ...
	... and then another table with pasta salad, pastries, and sliced meat and cheese.
	John gave us a tour of the recent additions to his workshop, including this new milling machine.
	His workshop is gorgeous, and even his tape is organized beautifully on a custom display he 3D-printed.
	We each got something to drink and a few desserts and headed outside to the patio, sitting at a table in the shade. In the two hours that we sat there and talked, the only picture that we took was when Stewart brought Doug a can of Mountain Dew without being asked. That's a good son.
	Aww. Aren't they a beautiful family?
	As we were leaving, we noticed that there were gift boxes on a shelf near the front door.
	We found one with our names on it, ...
	... and discovered a beautiful votive cup printed with the "L | S" logo that Lyndsay and Stewart were using for their wedding.
	When we getting into the car to leave, we had stop and admire the Polestar 2 that was parked beside us. One of John's friends had flown in from San Diego for the wedding, and the Polestar was his rental car. This was the first one we had ever seen, and we had to admit that they were every bit as beautiful as a Tesla.
	Back at Doug and Susan's, Doug was trying to draw for Debbie the layout of the first train set that their dad had created back when they were kids.
	Here it is. It makes sense to them.
	Marty came to the back door to join us, but Susan gently told him that birderers (bird murderers) were not allowed out in the backyard anymore.
	Doug presented us with a box of treats that they had picked up on their recent vacation to Alaska. There was salmon jerky, more salmon jerky, beer brittle, a sourdough starter kit, a chocolate bar, blueberry jam, and a jar of ointment guaranteed to cure all of your ailments.
	Doug showed us a box from Raffles Hotel in Singapore that we'd previously sent to him for his birthday many years earlier to remind him of the time when he had lived in Singapore.
	Inside it was a vintage box that used to contain card catalog cards from the library at Augsburg College when both he and his mom had worked there.
	Just before we left, Susan wanted to show us something that she had stumbled on at the end of a movie on TCM that she had been watching. It was a short film titled "Facing your Danger" that had been filmed in 1946.
	It opened on a scene of the Grand Canyon, with a group of boaters at Lees Ferry about to run the canyon in wooden boats.
	The ten minute film shows many shots of Norman Nevills and his crew running the rapids, ...
	... and violating, I mean, visiting the graneries at Nankoweap. He shouldn't be doing that, should he?
	When we were leaving, we got a nice view of the sunset as we headed back to the hotel. It had been a full day, and we were very much looking forward to the wedding tomorrow evening. Day 15 >