8/11-13/11 – George’s 50th Class Reunion

One of us graduated from high school in Spokane, WA; one of us graduated from Las Vegas HS.    Guess who wanted to back to Washington for the 50^th class reunion???  Yep, got it in one!

George graduated from Rogers HS in 1961, and had been planning to go to reunion before we even left on our trip.  I wasn’t quite as excited as he was...  

One of the reasons we stayed at the RV park near Colonial Beach, VA, was its decent proximity to Reagan National in DC, with storage for the truck and trailer while we were gone.  For that we put up with heat, humidity, no internet connectivity, and lousy phone reception. 

We flew to Seattle on the 4^th.  Our house sitter “moved” to his sister’s for the duration.  That meant we got to stay in our very own house!  It was a little weird seeing someone else’s stuff there too.   Lots of new growth in the garden, especially in the designated weed section—the area I used to call the herb garden…

For the next few days, we caught up with family & friends.  I had lunch with people from Panasonic that I used to work with.  After lunch, I wandered around the office to gloat a bit.  People kept asking me if I was coming back to work.  HHHAAAAAAAA!

 

                           

We also got decent haircuts while we were in town.  Couldn’t we get haircuts elsewhere in the US, you ask?  Ha!  While we were in Texas, we got the worst haircuts ever.  George’s was lopsided and stuck out on one side in a Bozo style.  I was almost scalped with sort of a young Mia Farrow look. I wore hats for months.  (I think the moral is to never tell the person with scissors that you’re travelling and won’t be back.  Gives them way too much power!)  

We drove to Spokane on Wednesday, and stayed with friends, trying to be the most unobtrusive house guests we could be.  (I think it worked because we mostly weren’t there.)

We had dinner with George's daughter Judy & her family.  (Here are pictures of the grandkids.)

Brendan



    

Zachary

Alexis

George and his friends played in two golf tournaments.  (I don’t do golf—but we have a deal:  any money he spends on golf, I get to spend the equal amount on anything I want.  J )  There was a BBQ after the 2^nd one.   

While George was on the greens the second day, I had a 2-hour lunch with a friend who also used to work at Panasonic.  (All ex-PAC employees who have escaped toast our success!)  Wonder if that's why I wasn't very hungry at the BBQ?

On Saturday morning there was a tour of the remodeled and renovated high school.  Small groups of us were led through the hallways by the current cheerleaders (really young and bouncy—oh, wait!  That’s the definition of “cheerleader”. J ).  I decided it looks a lot like a high school, which may have been their intent.  As expected, I lost my direction immediately (even without the GPS) but we had guides.

That evening there was a reception, followed by dinner and dancing at the historic Davenport Hotel in downtown Spokane.  The entire event was funded by one of the class graduates, who obviously wasn’t much worried about social security.  That was really nice—it let people attend who couldn’t afford to come otherwise.  Since I knew a grand total of 6 people there, I practiced small talk about our trip with dozens of strangers with whom I don’t even have a yearbook in common.  I think George talked to everybody.

The next day we drove back to Seattle, then flew home a couple of days later (“Home is where you park it!”).  George had a great time, but it’s nice to be back in the RV to continue our trip.