Hi Gram,
We had another fun day today. I had a hard time sleeping last night, tossing and turning all night, so I got up early and got my day started. Feeling more comfortable after a fun day with friends yesterday, Howard wanted to stay and have breakfast here instead of going to Denny’s. That doesn’t sound like much, but it made me happy. After breakfast, I did a little yoga with a few people while Howard went and did a little reading.

Once the tide came in a little, Eric brought the boat over while everyone lounged about and had a relaxing day. The winds were out of the south, which is normal most days and makes the water choppy. We were lucky to have a north wind day yesterday that gave us smooth, calm waters. Howard tried the flying couch one more time, but with the waters so choppy Eric made it a short slow run. We were all glad to see that Howard wanted to try the flying couch again after getting thrown from it yesterday and were happy it went well.

After an uneventful day of lounging about, I walked down to the courts and tried my hand at pickleball. I’ve only heard of pickleball in the last year or two as the sport has swept the country and many tennis courts have been converted. The sport has a much longer history, though. Jesse tells me that his family has been playing it for decades. In fact the court we were playing on was built in the 1970’s and his grandma was a champion player throughout her life. Some of his family members are really good and can get intense in their play, but eased up for my introduction. We batted the ball back and forth, suspending some of the rules to make it a little easier to just have fun and get the hang of it. I felt I did pretty well, considering my lack of athletic skills and coordination. I was appreciative for the opportunity and the fun, relaxed play. We all headed back so they could start making dinner and I headed to the Marina to pick up Eric and Deb.

After dinner, we played a little more Rummikub and joked around all night. I succumbed to temptation and snacked a little more than I wish I had, adding to the relaxed fun nature of the whole visit. We called it an early night – well, earlier than the previous couple of nights anyway – and headed to bed early. We planned to head to Olympic National Park in the morning and stroll along a path named “The Staircase” and I wanted to be well rested!