My phone offers me a route update. We can save four minutes if we take this route:

We take it! Somehow, somewhere, this sunny Saturday finds me out near Yelm, making my way slowly but surely to Portland. We have friends in Portland, really good friends. 

I will go to the ends of the earth for these friends. 

There was a “Police Activity Lacey, Use Alt Route” warning on the freeway signboard just north of Tacoma, so not knowing what sort of police activity and of course not wanting to put Lake in danger or get stuck on I-5 if the road was closed (I’d experienced that before when the police cars in front of me began weaving lanes and slowing down incrementally until they were stopped and the entire freeway was halted. A police chase having progressed to a foot chase by the side of the freeway)… so we exited the freeway inTacoma in search of this vague suggestion/mandate of an an ALT ROUTE. It was so hot I was getting temperature warnings on my phone and I was worried it would “freeze” on me and I would be lost. Literally lost. We have no A/C in our trusty 98 Honda Civic, the Egg, and I really didn’t know where I was going save following the GPS map directions prompts. 

We did make it six hours later, after our tour of Yelm, and Rainier, and after losing and finding my car keys in the grass at a rest stop near the Oregon border (Thank you Ramona Shore!)… It was all worth it to see our friends. 

 

Next stop, Kindrick Family… Tolle’s best friends and now Lake’s best friends too! We arrived! We slept really well that night!

Lake loves playing with his sweet cousins. They spoil him and call him “Baby Lake”, though Maicy did acknowledge that he wouldn’t always be a baby and that maybe they could then call him “Big Baby Lake”. He loves climbing up or sliding down the slide and being pushed high on the swing. 

Thank you Portland Friends for a rejuvenating weekend. Against all odds! We will travel to the ends of the Earth to be with you!