Well, now it's done: First Annual Family Vacation. Complete with personalized water bottles.

Everyone but me stayed in the "Riverside Vacation Home," most of them Monday night and everyone last night. I only went out there as a day-trip visit yesterday, there for roughly six hours, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. I haven't had a chance to even tag the photos on Flickr yet in the full photo album (58 shots, not bad for only six hours), but at least 14 of the shots do have captions, copied and pasted from the email travelogue I did manage to write up and send out last night. I might have gotten a little more than that done last night, but for a bunch of issues I had with my computer, with non-responsive apps refusing to close down completely and forcing me to restart the computer something like three or four times, on top of the Photos app not recognizing the new shots in iCloud. I tried sending the photos to my download file via AirDrop, which usually works, but they had funky default names on a bunch of them, and Flickr wouldn’t recognize them as legitimate photos, even though I could see them. So then I re-opened the Photos app, and finally they were visible, and after exporting them from there and then renaming all those photo files a second time, then Flickr recognized them properly.

Anyway! How about I just paste in here the paragraph I wrote in the photo digest email, offering quasi-justification for the family gathering event happening at all?

Here's the thing. My parents, my sisters, and all of their grown children and their families booked a 7-room vacation home in Leavenworth for two nights, when they decided a couple of months ago they wanted to do a First Annual Family Vacation. I would have been so, so much more comfortable with this idea if, say, what we all booked were something more like separate huts or yurts for each immediate family group—something to that effect. This sharing of a single house for what ultimately was 22 family members was not something I would ever have recommended, but, it was happening whether I liked it or not. I simply declined to go in on booking a room of my own this year, for what I felt were pretty obvious reasons. Side note: these nitpicky details could be argued back and forth in terms of justifications, but all but two of the aforementioned 22 family members were coming from Thurston County, which is in Phase 3, and allows for gatherings of 50 or fewer people. Now, Leavenworth is itself in Chelan County, which remains in "Modified Phase One." That said, the vast majority of time was spent at this house, and limited time spent in the main part of town was with masks on.

For me personally, my primary concern was being the single person there from King County, which is both still in Phase Two and still contains by far the highest case counts of COVID-19 in the state. That alone kept me from feeling comfortable booking one of the rooms this year, and sharing unmasked indoor air with all those other people. But, I also could not stand the thought of the first year of a new annual family tradition happening without my participating in any way at all. And when I looked up Google Maps and saw that Leavenworth is barely more than two hours' drive from Seattle, I landed on a compromise approach: I would take a day trip there, and spend a few hours hanging out, socially distanced, outside. So, that's what I did.

Now, counting myself, this "First Annual Family Vacation" wound up with a total of 23 people. Let's run them down!

1. Dad
2. Sherri
3. Angel [my sister]
4. Brandi [Angel's daughter]
5. Nick [Brandi's husband]
6. Jaycee [Brandi and Nick's daughter]
7. Gianni [Brandi and Nick's son]
8. Enzo [Brandi and Nick's baby]
9. Ricky [Angel's son]
10. Rachael [Ricky's wife]
11. Raiden [Ricky and Rachael's son]
12. Ruby [Ricky and Rachael's baby]
13. Britni [Angel's daughter]
14. David [Britni's husband]
15. Alex [Angel's son]
16. Caitlin [Alex's girlfriend]
17. Amira [Caitlin's daughter]
18. Alena [Alex and Caitlin's baby]
19. Gina [my sister]
20. Beth [Gina's wife]
21. David [Gina's son]
22. Jackie [David's girlfriend, who is pregnant with what will be Dad and Sherri's fourth great-grandchild born this year]
23. Matthew

Twenty-two of them stayed in the house. I never saw Alex, because he had to work, and he drove out there late last night, well after I left, and was apparently set to drive back to Olympia again this morning. Until recently, everyone thought Alex's family would not be making it, which is why until I got there, I thought there would be 18 in the house. In fact there were 22. Even better!

I'm pretty sure I saw everyone else, though, although several I only saw very briefly. When I arrived at around 10 a.m. yesterday, Ricky, David, David and Nick had all gone to play golf. Later when Dad and I were walking through the main part of the town of Leavenworth, we passed by both Ricky's family and Britni and David; the few seconds I saw that David there was, I think, all I saw of him. I saw Gina's David a few more times, as he and Jackie were back at the house some of the time I was there.

I might have seen more of certain people had I spent any time hanging out inside the house, but as promised, I only ever went inside for a brief tour of the place or two use the bathroom, in either case with a mask on. Dad was the one who guided my tour of the house, and he also put a mask on during that. It was the single time I saw anyone else wear a mask inside this massive, seven-bedroom house (eight bedrooms if you count the hide-a-bed in the upstairs family room, which apparently Jaycee and her brother Gianni did indeed sleep on). The place really was huge, bordering on cavernous, which probably provided a false sense of security for the rest of them. But, indoors is indoors.

There was another point when Jaycee went up to give Sherri a hug, and Sherri let it happen, without having her mask on (which, to her credit I suppose, she did have handy and did put on when I once got close enough to show her a photo on my phone). Sherri made a comment along the lines of, "Just don't breathe on me," which kind of suggests a lot of people still think of COVID-19 the same way they do the common flu, even though there is a very clear, huge difference between the two when it comes to degree of contagion. Ultimately, so long as none of those 22 people have it, they should all be fine. Let's hope. Also, let's hope that when the Second Annual Family Vacation comes around again roughly one year from now, the risk of sharing a space won't be so high.

That said, Claudia sent me a link "for next time" of a place we could have booked that had separate cabins. I had to explain to her that next time will be in a different location, although had I known about this place, I might have suggested it when everyone was debating where to go on Facebook a couple of months ago. Also, even if I had been able to suggest it, I likely still would have been outvoted; money was probably saved by having everyone share the cost of a single structure rather than each individual family in separate cabins. (On the other hand, I just checked the rates at the place Claudia had suggested, and they were comparable-to-cheaper. Hmm!) Another thing that occurred to me this morning, though: what the fuck was to stop me from simply booking a different place in the same town, if I didn't want to share the space with everyone? I should have done that! And if restrictions and risks are the same next year, if I have to then I'll just do that! Problem solved. There were suggestions yesterday for next year of both the beach and Lake Chelan; I am very Team Lake Chelan because I hear it's beautiful and I've never been; Dad says it's expensive; but, I bet anything between the two, the coast will win out.

But, we'll see. I sure hope we can get to a point where we can invite my brother and his children, and holding this event in Central Washington rather than the coast makes it easier for them coming from Spokane and/or Idaho. I hate the idea of them being left out. On the other hand, Christopher almost certainly would not make it, and among his kids, only Nikki and TJ have even moderate probability of making it—and they've made their own treks to the ocean anyway, so I'm not sure restricting it to Central Washington makes all that much difference anyway. I'm still Team Lake Chelan for 2021.

As for the specific six hours I was there yesterday, I had a great time, totally felt taking the day off work for it was worth it, and I really rather wish Shobhit had been able to come too. Perhaps next year. I did worry, just slightly, about any kind of political discussion coming up; I already went there with the Vacation Home being a "Politics Free Zone" in mind, and evidently everyone else felt the same. I wonder if anyone ever said anything to that effect when the rest of the group was on their way there on Monday? This would have been harder to enforce with Shobhit there, but it still could have been done even then. The truth is, I was more concerned about anything coming up between someone like Gina and myself, given her employment with the Olympia Police Department and my very focal anti-police stances (generally to be more specific, anti-Seattle Police) online. In fact, although Shobhit is demonstrably anti-Trump online, he has said nothing on social media about the police or Black Lives Matter or anything related to those things, sort of ceding that territory to me, I suppose. Still, with all of that in mind, I wanted to spend some peaceful time with family, in a zone explicitly designed for that, which therefore would have to mean the exclusion of any discussion of politics whatsoever.

And, the few hours that I was there yesterday, that's how it went. There was plenty to talk about otherwise. I did spend a hell of a lot more time one-on-one with Dad than I did with anyone else, mostly because Dad had said he wanted to walk into town to get a soft pretzel at a brewery, and I told him I would go with him. Icicle Brewing Company thus became the single business establishment there that I actually went inside. Dad and I did sit at the same table with masks off long enough to eat and drink, though we sat on both opposite sides and opposite ends of the table, and it was outdoor seating. Not even Dad wanted to sit inside, even though he does regularly with Sherri at restaurants in Olympia. But, Sherri is part of his household and I am not.

That wasn't even the biggest time-consumer with just Dad, though. He wanted to walk the trails through nearby Riverfront Park along the Wenatchee River. We had already walked about a mile to the brewery itself, and then it was another mile or so along the park trails. Once we got back to the Vacation Home, I Google Mapped it, and the round-trip walking was a bit less than four miles total, maybe three and three-quarter miles. In any case, the pretzel and drink and then the walk took upwards of two hours, a good third of the total time I was there.

Otherwise, I sat in one of the chairs around the (not-lit) fire pit in the backyard, socially distanced, for a lot of the time I was there. As you can see behind Dad and Sherri in the great photo of them above, the view of the Wenatchee River from right there was spectacular, alone worth the trip out there. There were also two or three separate trails right down to the river bank, one of then to a little beach, complete with sand that must have been hauled out there at some point. At one point Gina went down there to practice casting lines with a fly fishing rod.

Closer to the time for me to leave and go home, no one was out back because the patio area had no shade. Dad and Sherri were sitting in a set of chairs just inside in the living room, and I pulled up a little bench from outside and sat just outside the sliding glass door there. So, that worked.

I also baked banana muffins on Sunday and packed a dozen of them in pairs separated in Ziploc bags. I turned out a ton of other food, candy and snacks and such, had already been brought; I did not want any of the muffins to go to waste and so I took four of them back to bring home with me when I left. They're all gone now.

Oh, and I actually walked into town with Dad twice, come to think of it. The first time was shortly after I arrived, really grateful I had brought my hoodie as it was still early enough to be chilly even though it was set to get near 80° later, and it was with both Dad and Beth. Beth needed a new tire for her bike, and we went to a local bike shop. There as well as all other businesses, all staff and customers inside had masks on; I was glad to see that generally speaking everyone there was complying with the state guidelines.

It was actually 10:01 a.m. when I finally found Sherri, Beth, Caitlin and Dad out back behind the house, all but Dad having a smoke break. Both Sherri and Dad made a quip about me being "late" since I had texted I would be there at 10:00; in fact the first photo I took right after parking had been taken at 9:59. So there! I was early! I was just slightly tentative walking around the house, hoping I hadn't arrived at the wrong one and was skulking around the doors of a group of strangers.

Caitlin, who is Alexi's girlfriend, sure was quiet. I think I only ever heard her speak one time, and that was when Dad was giving me the tour and she was in her room where Dad asked if we had met before. She noted we had met at Christmas; I honestly couldn't remember. She's one of the three women who have had babies this year; one of four by the end of the year—Jackie is very pregnant with David's baby and set to deliver in December. I may have to use a photo of an ultrasound for that date in December on the calendar.

If we go by strict genetics, the four great-grandchildren (grandnephews and grandnieces, for me) born this year actually double that number for Dad and Sherri. They had four as of last year—five, counting the little girl, Amira, who came with Caitlin when she got together with Alex. So I really have five new birthdays to add to the calendars; I don’t think I had put Amira's on last year's. Damn, I really need to start working on those things.

So, I left the Vacation Home at 4:07, and made it to the Interbay Total Wine & More just a few minutes before Shobhit got off work there at 6:30. I had left driving his car on the way out to Leavenworth at around 7:45, and Shobhit took the bus. I came back when I did for two distinct reasons: so I could pick him up at work, and so I would barely have time to upload the day's photos. And a couple of videos.

[posted 12:22 pm]