Saturday - Monday, August 17-19, 2013 (Camano Island, WA)

Saturday

We worked around Brandon & Kris' until early afternoon when we started getting ready to drive down to Jeff & Sabrina's to spend the night.  We had targeted leaving at 4:00 p.m. with an arrival time of 6:00 p.m.  We actually got on the road before 4:00 p.m. and it was a good thing.  We hit stop and go traffic before we even got to Marysville - yikes this wasn't planned for.  I got on WSDOT and checked out the traffic cameras and yep, they were showing stop and go traffic until we got to Everett.  Hmmm we may have to call Jeff & Sabrina and tell them we would be late to dinner.  As we got farther along, they had a variable message sign that said an accident had occured and to expect delays, well that explains it. 

We finally got past the accident site and the traffic picked up speed and we were on our way again.  It always amazes us how much traffic is on the freeways and where are all these people going?  We've gotten spoiled being on the island and when we do head out, we typically have been going north through the countryside and only have to get on I-5 briefly to get to Mt. Vernon.  Well we made it to Jeff and Sabrina's and by our 6:00 p.m. timeframe, good thing we left early.

We had a very nice BBQ salmon dinner that Jeff prepared, it was very yummy.  When we first got there Jessie asked Grandpa if we could go to DQ for blizzards, so after dinner it was off to DQ. 

I had taken some very nice pictures of Jeff & Sabrina's back yard to post since I had forgotten to get pictures last month when we were there.  How come they aren't posted?  Read on.....

Sunday

Because Jeff was giving the message at New Community church today, he had to be there by 7:00 a.m. and Sabrina and the girls were leaving by 8:00 a.m.  This Sunday, Jeff, Sabrina, Jessie and Elsie were going to be part of all three services.  Jessie and Elsie along with two other girls were reciting "God and our story" they had memorized at Bible camp.  It was quite impressive and had a very good message for kids as well as adults.  So after they did their presentation at the first service, they took us on a tour of the church's campus.  It used to be a working farm and the church is actually meeting in the renovated barn.  The house, which is called the "mansion" was amazing and is being used for offices and the little kids nursery area.  The mansion was built in the early 1900's and was built of concrete which was unusual for that time since wood was so plentiful.  It had some beautiful wood working and the prettiest fireplace screen I've ever seen. 

Rich had invited his sister Connie who lives close to the area to attend church with us and she was able to make it.  It had been several years since we had seen each other and it was good to connect again.  We had a very nice visit before the second service which we were attending.  The church service was very touching and special for us.  It was the first time that we had gotten to experience Jeff speaking in person and it was even more special in the fact that Sabrina and the girls were part of the service.  Jeff had asked Sabrina to tell her "story" during part of his message. 

After church we visited with Connie a little bit more and then it was time for her to head home, we were staying until Jessie & Elsie were done with their part of the service and then we were taking them back home.  As we walked Connie to her car, we noticed that Gracie's leash was laying on the ground by the truck, hmmm that's odd.  I wanted to get a picture of Rich and Connie and so asked Rich to unlock the truck and walked over to get Gracie and the camera.  To make a long story short - I got Gracie but couldn't find the camera.  Now that's weird because we had it before church when we were walking around the grounds and took some pictures for the blog.  Well maybe it got put back into our overnight bag.  Where is our overnight bag?  What - it's gone, how can that be?  Rich and Connie walked over to the truck and Rich noticed that our Banks Power display monitor was gone also - yep it looks like our truck was broken into.  Thank you Lord that they didn't take Gracie, that would have been heart wrenching at least our clothes and other stuff can be replaced.  What an unfortunate way to end such a pleasant morning.  I did get a picture of Rich and his sister on my phone before she left.

Rich & Connie

After Connie left, we went back to the church to wait for the girls and then headed back to their house to wait for Jeff and Sabrina.  I got to check out some of the girls new school clothes and spent some time coloring with Jessie. 

Once Jeff and Sabrina got home, we took off for home.  We had to stop at Walmart to pick up some items like a hair brush, deodorant, mascara, etc. since ours had gotten stolen.  When we were waiting at the house, we made a list of everything that was in our bags while it was still fresh in our minds.  It's amazing what all you pack, even for a quick over night trip.  I guess we'll be calling the insurance company tomorrow to figure out what's covered and what's not.  It sure felt good to get home to the 5er. 

Monday

The early part of the morning Rich spent making phone calls to our insurance company and to Coachmasters in Bend who had installed our Banks Power System and Guaranty RV to get the rest of our warranty work scheduled.  It looks like after we meet our truck insurance comprehensive deductible, they will cover the rest of the cost for the Banks Power Monitor.  And our renters insurance will cover our personal items after that deductible is met.  Again, we are just so grateful that we have our little Yorkie Gracie and they didn't steal her.  We also got our warranty work scheduled for the middle of September, which is much better than October which was originally the date our service rep was quoting us. 

We also found out that the thief definitely did break into the truck and we didn't accidentally leave it unlocked.  Rich was outside and noticed the door lock on the drivers side looked crooked, he went to put his key in the lock and it fell down inside the door.  Well that solves that mystery.  We weren't sure if they got in through the windows we leave cracked open for ventilation for Gracie or if we had accidentally forgotten to lock the door this one time, we are usually obsessive about locking the door, especially when Gracie is inside in her crate.  Now we have one more thing to get fixed, but at least the truck still locks with the door clicker.

The rest of the day Rich spent painting and I spent working with the plants.  I got a couple nasty stinging nettle stings, boy they sure smart.  The shop is sure looking nice, Rich should have it finished up here in the next day or so, he sure does nice work, he's much more patient about painting than I am. 

We started watching a movie we had rented from the video store with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn - Breaking Up, but had to turn it off as it was too disgusting for us to watch.  Who wants to watch a couple constanting fighting and yelling - it was in the comedy section and I thought it would be funny but I guess if we would have paid attention to the title we would have made a better choice.