Spring 2022

 We aren't traveling abroad (yet!) due to Covid concerns, so we have decided to do small trips by car.

This year (so far) we finally went to the University of Washington to see the cherry blossoms on the quad.  For the past two years the UW officials have recommended that people not come and congregate. We found a nice spring day during the UW spring break, called Nanako Mimi (we had her as a student when we were teaching in Pakistan and she is now in the Pharmacy program at the UW), and met Nanako on the quad.  Here are some photos of the cherry blossoms!

As you can see, we were not the only ones enjoying the blossoms!

Since the weather was cooperating the first week in April, we went up to the Skagit Valley to visit with Clarice Trayler (we taught with her in Pakistan), and she is now living in the Valley.  Skagit County is north of Seattle and world famous for its tulip fields!

Since we were early in the season, the daffodils were still blooming as well.

In addition to viewing the daffs and tulips, we visited a few museums.  Our first stop was to the Heritage Flight Museum.  All the planes they have actually fly and they have a full-time maintenance technician to keep them in shape.  We got to see a couple that went up for flights around the airfield.  This is a 1936 PT-13 Stearman.  It was produced by Boeing and is a training plane.

We visited the Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum.  They have a great selection of quilts, and the building is beautiful!

We also went for a walk in Padillia Bay and visited the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.  Their exhibits were excellent.

As always when visiting Clarice, we go to La Conner, WA and have lunch along the Skagit River.  Since it was a nice day, we walked along the Boardwalk.

We would highly recommend a visit to the Skagit Valley!