Visiting Hours

BACK AT IT: We were back at the hospital in Clackamas a little before 8 this morning. It's quiet around there then. We beat the rest of the family there by a bit, so we continued the Monopoly game which was left untouched in our absence (a fact that made the kids very happy).

This morning, the kids started piling houses and hotels on their properties, which is when the game starts to get brutal.

We all visited with Gma around 8:30 a.m. Annabelle was happy to present more artwork for Gma's gallery (all of which was Annabelle's artwork). Bee was especially proud of a colored pair of elephants.

After our early a.m. visit, we went back to the hotel, the kids had a swim and we checked out by 10:30.

BACK TO THE BOARD: After checking out, it was back to the hospital for some unfinished business. The kids dove right back into the Monopoly game. Poor Uncle Jim, who had miserable luck rolling the dice, was bankrupt first. I went broke not too long thereafter, so it was down to just CJ and Annabelle.

They duked it out, but finally CJ landed on a property that Annabelle put a hotel on and we declared it a game, as his cash was wiped out and nearly all his properties had to be mortgaged.

The real estate bubble burst, it was time to hit the road. And what a miserable trip north it was. Windy and so, SO wet - raining sideways (right toward the windshield) a good part of the trip.

I knew we needed gas and some lunch for the kids, so I told them we could stop in Lacey (just north of Olympia) at a restaurant called Izzy's. I told them we all used to go there semi-regularly when we were commuting between Seattle and Vancouver before making the final move to Seattle. We stopped there, because Rick was in college in Oly at the time and it was a good place for us all to meet. CJ and Annabelle had no recollection of the place but when I explained to them it was a place you could go down a line and pick any kind of food you like, they got very excited. "That sounds like at a party!" Annabelle exclaimed.

Indeed, they were in heaven at Izzy's. Annabelle got to have fried chicken, mac and cheese, jo jos and pizza all on one plate. CJ had spaghetti, chicken and pizza. I had cautioned them ahead of time they should take tiny portions because they didn't want to be piggy, get too full and/or throw away food. Also, if they weren't full, dessert was an option. They were all over that, going very light on the lunch and wasting nothing. I was pleased with them. :)

For dessert they each had a steaming hot lil lava chocolate cake with a dollop of ice cream on top. They both declared Izzy's The Best Restaurant Ever. So, at least that part of our trip was good.

During the drive, Annabelle and CJ read several articles in Science News. CJ focused on ones about fossils and minerals, while Annabelle was less discriminating, reading everything. CJ also used my phone to do some research on the Great Star of Africa. He asked me about it and I told him I knew it to be a really big diamond but that was about the extent of my knowledge.

We found out that it's also called the Cullinan Diamond, that it was discovered in 1905 by miner Thomas Evan Powell in the Premier Diamond Mining Company site in Cullinan, South Africa. It weighed in at 530.4 carats. It is now in the possession of the British monarchy, one of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.

The nine largest pieces of the Cullinan diamond (after it was split) are pictured above.

BACK OUT: We were home about 30 minutes before it was time to pile back into the car (ick) and head to the University District for the first meeting of CJ's second session of acting class. He was happy to see his 'old' friends and afterward he declared the class "GREAT!"