So I went to Yakima, Washington..........
.... I felt I kinda owed it to Jon, since he went to Ontario, Michigan, and Indiana with us; and that was for ten days! Besides, I wanted to see Jon with his high school friends. For insight, I suppose. So voila - the Eisenhower High School Reunion.
   The plan was to leave on Thursday night so I could have the whole day Friday to do Yakima stuff, since reunion activities would consume most of the weekend.
   We ended up leaving late since it was a good Six Arms night (every Thursday Jon's college clan goes to Six Arms - they've been doing this for years now!) Anyhoo, Fernanda and Scott L and Shin and Scott S and Stacy and Bill (and and) showed up that night, and they aren't there every Thursday like we are, so I was trying to absorb everyone in the two booths that we had stocked. I use this as an excuse for why we left at ten p.m.
   The memorable event of the drive was a spot in Cle Elum, where the freeway was completely closed and they were directing traffic off I-90. I groaned to Jon "Why is the freeway closed off?" because I knew that usually means a fatality occurred. Sure enough, I see a body in the road with a bloody sheet over it, and bare feet sticking out. I was horrified, to say the least. It certainly set the tone for the rest of the evening. The story in the Yakima paper is at the following link, with this title: Man Struck By Vehicle Crossing Highway Dies (you have to scroll down a bit). Turns out he was crossing the highway on foot and got hit. Keep in mind I didn't know this until two days later, when it was finally printed in the paper. Up until then, I was going crazy trying to find out who it was (a name) and how it happened. I don't see dead bodies every day (thankfully).
   On to rosier stories....the Hall house, built in 1925, is a big corner lot house with awesome birch trees and roses and a pond etc etc.

    
The front of their house - and their roses.
   
The back of their house, and the storage/playhouse in the back corner (by the pond)

Okay, so lemme tell you the story about Starbucks. We're having our coffees and I see two spaniel-mix type dogs tied to the stucco column of this shopping center. They are barking like mad and basically your average hyperactive stupid dogs. I say to Jon "Dogs like that shouldn't be tied to a pole out in public" because of the commotion they made whenever someone walked by. Just then, a teenage boy walked by, the dogs went loopy, and one broke from it's wimpy little chain and started biting the boy's leg. It was a nasty sight. So what does the owner do? She comes tearing out of Starbucks, grabs her dog and smacks it across it's jaw, yelling "bad dog!"
I wanted to kill her.


Jon patiently waiting for me as I was taking the picture of the Starbucks lady.

Here's a shot of the blocked entrance to the lower (closed) level of the mall. I found it kinda spooky. It was pitch black down there. 		So Jon takes me out on the town for the day... we hit Yakima Mall, which is doing so poorly, the bottom floor is closed off and empty. But you know what? We had to pay for parking there. $2 the first hour and $1 every hour after that. Even the JCPenney moved out of there, and the Bon is leaving soon too. So why are they charging for parking?? To further discourage shoppers?
We hit the Bon for some clothes for Jon (so he could donate his part to the Yakima economy while he was there) and I had a great lesson on dress shirts (seriously!) from the woman working there.


If you need any giant silver marijuana leaf necklaces, the Yakima Mall is the place to go.


This painting was hanging up in the mall.

When I think of mufflers, I think of guns. Don't you?

This painting is in the Hall's dining room. Jon's parents have about 12 different interpretations for it, depending on what was going on in their lives at the time.


Jon's old Junior High School was rebuilt but this old entrance portion was preserved. Cool, huh?

Friday night we had the casual reunion night at Grant's Pub near the local jail (how fitting, haha). I met Brad (who still envies Jon's playhouse in the back yard) and Daniel and Marnel and Robin and Brian and another Brian and some wives and some significant others and some just others (such as myself). A bunch of them live in Seattle or the vicinity.
The special for the evening at the pub was Grilled Egg Salad Sandwiches, which still has me confused.
We got home in time to watch one pop-up Brady Bunch, then crashed.

So the next morning it made perfect sense to get a television for Earl & Lisa for their anniversary/Lisa's birthday, especially since they said they were getting each other a new VCR that day. We just had to make sure we weren't spotted at the same stores as them. We also bought a heart shaped cake pan and stuff to make a great cake. It was pretty dang warm that day and I had a lot of pictures I wanted to take.
The woman at Shopko was so excited to see Jon! She went on and on about Jon as a child, and when we finally got out of there, Jon said "I have no idea who that was." I said "Of course you don't. When you're eight years old, if they don't want to play or go ride bikes, you have no reason to remember them."
We found a great TV, but we had to get it into my car....

....the guy who helped us is Ryan. I got to sit comfortably in a cubic foot of space in the back on the HOT ride home. Then we realized we forgot the cake stuff in the back so Jon had to climb in, since the TV wasn't about to move for a while. It was time to make the cake and get ready for the reunion.
So we made the cake and got ready and gave Jon's parents their cards and rushed off to the reunion. The whole reunion story is here. After the reunion I was craving macaroni & cheese (the mom kind, not Kraft) so we went to the store and got the fixins and I finished icing the cake and Jon hooked up the TV and VCR.

Jon making icing

Earl & Lisa reading their cards

Me icing the cake around midnight that night

Before

During

After!
The next morning we had a lovely breakfast with our cake for dessert. Then they watched the Mariners game on their new TV! We hit a couple places for vegetables and tortillas (in preparation for my birthday party that Tuesday) and at sundown, we hit the road home.
Somewhere just past Selah, the air smelled like dirt and water and cool air after a hot day. This was while we were driving down the highway listening to Juno. It was a great moment.

I really look forward to going back.....