My brother-in-law, Scott, had the honor as a fire fighter to go back to Ground Zero to help with the search, rescue, and clean up of the twin towers. That's Scott on the left. It might have been tough on him, but the stories he brought home will live on with those he shared them with for many generations. Thanks to Scott and all the other Scotts that answered the call of duty.
Here are a few photos Scott took while he was in New York.
The site was still hot and smoking when Scott arrived on the scene.
This crew is saying "Just exactly where do we begin?"
To see the more of Scott's up close and personal photos, check out his Facebook post at:
As there is no smooth segway from the 15th anniversary of 911 to anything. I'll just make an abrupt change of subject here.
A couple of weeks ago while I was in Silverdale meeting up with Carissa and Reagan. As we were there a few minutes before the new DSW store opened we went and nabbed a cache that just happened to be in the same parking lot as we were. It was hidden in a cute little ammo box. You can see how small it was in comparison to my pen.
A couple of days later I got one in the old pauper's cemetery in Tacoma right by the Tacoma Mall. I've lived in Tacoma and have frequented that city for almost 40 years and never knew this existed. I knew of the current fancy ones, Nope. Not caching there. But this was basically an abandoned field. There were a few very old headstones from the turn of the century and several Japanese stones. No, my cache was not anywhere near a grave!
Bob prefers to stick to the traditional cache finds in the dark woods instead of sunny fields. We hiked for about 45 minutes and practically up a sheer cliff to find this cache. It sounds overly adventurous but it was only a mile or so from the house on the Green River Community College campus. We knew where the cache was according to the coordinates but we couldn't find the trail to take us there. All in all, if we'd used the correct trail to begin with it was only several feet from the parking lot and not too much further to our own car. That was one of our goals when we began caching; Exercise. We sure got it on this one!
You know how the safety of the water in schools has been all the rage lately? Well, Auburn tested it's water and all the schools passed with the exception of a couple of old drinking fountains that have since been replaced. I've never been a fan of the water there and have always been skeptical as to it's safety. This is what our sinks look like after dripping all summer. It sure looks like there's a heavy metal - obviously copper - in our water in my area but tests show it's fine. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I haul water from home each and every day. You won't find me drinking this stuff.
Our dripping sink has a fine looking green stain in it as well.
Another cache site in the Tacoma waterfront area. Ribarski Pripovijest ("A Fish Story") is about a Slovenian fisherman bringing a fish home to his wife. The cache box was Velcroed to the bottom of the lady's skirt on the frame of the statue. I gotta say, it was kind of weird reaching up under a statue's skirt in full daylight on a busy sidewalk. The things we do to entertain ourselves!
The sunset on the Tacoma waterfront. It was a beautiful warm night. I took about a million pictures, but unlike my pictures of Reagan, you only need to see one of them.
Speaking of Reagan, they came over for the weekend and spread some Walker joy. Reagan likes YouTube children's songs on my laptop and Bear likes to be wherever Reagan is. What a pair.
One of our activities was going to Costco. I swear these giant bears are getting bigger and bigger! I don't know who'd want a room-sized bear for $189 but there sure were a lot of kids hugging the bears, wiping their nose on the bears, and parents taking pictures of both. Can you find Reagan buried in this picture?
After Costco, we went to Remlinger Farms. Back in the day when our kids went, it was basically just a pumpkin patch and fruit stand. Now it's a full-on amusement park with rides, restaurants, and a store. It's amazing how things change in the 25 years I haven't been there. Reagan enjoyed a pony ride on Coconut. Although it was the "all Mommy channel" today, Reagan was able to enjoy a nice pony ride on a little trail they have there. It's much better than sitting on a horse plodding in a mindless circle.
Reagan is waaay more excited to go on the trail ride than the guide is to take her.
She LOVED the canoes. She called them kayaks so they were kayaks today. They were free-floating on a little waterway and since there was no line she went around and around.
and loved every lap she went on.
There's lots to see on a canoe ride.
Reagan got to stick her head through a sheep's face them promptly hit her head on the sheep's ear and started to cry.
Back home and after a VERY short nap, we went down to our local park so Carissa could play on the toys.
Carissa went out with Eileen for her annual birthday pedicure. Reagan was still not wild about anyone but Mom and even baking banana bread was not going to break the cycle. Really? Who doesn't love to make banana bread?
After banana bread we went to the "tractor park" and Target. Getting Reagan out and about seemed to improve her attitude (and mine). Notice that all activities were participated in while wearing her jammies. This was a mountain I was not prepared to plant a flag on today. Rule Number One of parenting: Pick your battles...carefully.
Appreciate your honoring Scott in your blog.
ReplyDeleteLove all the stories and pic's about your cache collecting but you forgot to answer one important question--did you get any shoes?