The Blue Lady Travels to a Blue Land: Seattle, Washington

On a clear day, you CAN see Mt. Baker

I'm starting with this photo which my friend sent to me a day ago in order to say, 'See, the sun actually DOES shine here....at least sometime." I'm sure that is true. I did see a bit of the sun and the blue sky while I was in the greater Seattle area recently. But mostly it looked like this:

View of downtown Seattle from the Bainbridge Island Ferry

The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands: Things We Do In South Dakota, Part 2, Festivals of Trees

One of the corridors at the state capital building this year.
A tree for breast cancer people on the left.

I never realized how much of a "thing"  a "Festival of Trees" is until I lived in South Dakota. I imagine lots of places have them, although I do not recall actually attending any except in SoDak. But here, they really are something. Every little place seemed to have one this December, and it's clear these things are traditions in all those towns and cities.

At home in Lead I was an usher more than once for our festival, held at the Historic Homestake Opera House (HHOH) as one of their regular fund raisers for the place. The Opera House was one of many civic buildings originally built by the Homestake Mine Company to improve the daily lives of the miners and their families.

Restored Opera House entrance plaza.
The spaces on the left used to house the pool and recreation areas.
Now they are offices and an art gallery owned by the local Arts Council.

The Blue Lady Travels "Home" to Chicago

So many interesting buildings in Chicago!
You tell me what we have here. I don't know.

My last two short trips before I left Utah were to big cities, Chicago and Denver. I went to both for kind of business reasons, but did my best to enjoy each. I didn't succeed in doing everything that I had in mind, but both trips had real highlights.

Chicago was first, in order to attend the annual meeting of the American College of Nurse-Midwives, my professional tribe for my lifetime. I became a lifetime member this year even because they put in a special category for us retired folks. Several people have asked why do I want to keep going to work related things now that I'm retired? Well, midwifery is, for me anyway, am identity or a calling, not just work that I did. I'll probably never practice midwifery again, but I am a midwife until the day I die.

The Blue Lady Travels to Meet Some of Her Tribe at The March For Science

The president was in residence on Earth Day.
He tweeted something about loving our wonderful rivers and things like that,
and went to Walter Reed to present a Purple Heart to someone.
BTW, the garden is protected. It's under the care of the
National Park Service.

As soon as I heard it was going to happen, I knew I wanted to go. A March FOR Science on Earth Day in Washington DC. I did not make arrangements to go to the Women's March the day after the inauguration. I would have liked that, so I felt the need to do something similar at some other time. Bingo! Let's go to DC in April. I got a plane ticket and a hotel immediately.

The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands - A Tiny Vacation to Dinosaur Land

Got myself some fine new luggage mostly from Target,
pretty and just the right sizes,
so Sock Monkey & I can start to hit the road together.

I'm ready to get out of town again. This was the first of several upcoming short trips to a number of places. This time it was a driving trip in my little green car with my friend Jan Mi. We went east up into the Uintah Mountains to the small city of Vernal. We left on Saturday and returned on Sunday. The reason for the trip now was to attend the annual spring concert of the Uintah Basin Orchestra and Chorus. Two members of the Z family, who are friends of ours, were playing and singing.

The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands: She makes a Plan for a Road Trip

We had a long and glorious autumn this year.
This scene is driving up Cedar Canyon in southern Utah.
The colors were just shimmering which the photo can't show.

In early October I took my first big retirment trip. I took a road trip through northern Arizona, north western New Mexico and southern Utah that lasted 12 days. If I had just been moving the whole time, I probably would not have taken 12 days, but the kernal that began the trip was an accreditation site visit at the College of Nursing at University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands: The Next Buffalo

View of an edge of the Big Horn Mountains

Thursday dawned bright and sunny after a few days of cold & rain. I woke up and decided to do something that is not what people in the east do. I just wanted to take off driving for a couple of hundred miles to see what I could see.  So I did. I lit out for the territory.

The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands: Northeast Wyoming Road Trip 1

Wyoming has excellent Welcome Centers

I have to say I love Wyoming. It's right next door to both Utah and South Dakota, and when I drive from one to the other it's pretty much all Wyoming all the time.

The Blue Lady Contemplates What the Next Couple of Years Year Will Hold

Jul is over, and soon New Year's will old hat. I performed taiko again at the Salt Palace on New Years Eve, and on New Years Day I joined some friends for knitting. I'm already tired of the whole Christmas thing....sooooo glad it is over for another year.

Summer - Again

Packing in process

This is all I have to say...it's summer again. I am already miserable. I just have to live through it. It could be worse; I could be living in Yemen.

Planning to be Retired - Part One, MONEY

This is ON THE LIST

The Planning for Retirement Industry - it's a thing you know, as Sally, the Unbrave Girl would say. There is NO SHORTAGE of advice and other things you may or may not have any interest in. After awhile you just kind of tune it all out and say "Enough already! Leave me alone." But I keep going back to it, just to see if there is something important I have missed.

Travel My Way

I love to travel. There are so many places in the world that I want to visit. I am looking forward to being retired so that I will be able to have the time to go places I want to go. But I intend to travel the way I want to travel. I'm kind of set in my ways about this. I want to be able to fully enjoy my trips and that means I need to do them my way.

California Dreamin'

My very favorite poster of all times

I wish I were in California right now. Three years ago I got restless about this time of year and I just needed to get out of town. My friend Sheri helped me pick where to go. That turned out to be Laguna Beach, California.

Over the Mountains and Across the Plains or Beware Enterprises that Require New Clothes (maybe)

These made the cut for the suitcase. Notice all the sparkles?

Wednesday I'm about to do something I have not done in many, many years. I'm going home for Thanksgiving. It always seemed like far too much trouble and expense for just a big meal. If I were going to travel for a holiday, I always saved that for Christmas.

But this year is different, because this year is different and special. My niece got married in July ... a short civil ceremony at city hall with just a few family members who all lived nearby followed by a dinner at a nice restaurant for those same few people. Maybe she is like me, in that I hate giving parities and I simply don't do it. She debated about some kind of get together for those who could not attend the actual wedding and finally settled on having another dinner at a restaurant on Thanksgiving Saturday.

Refreshed and Gladdened

First of all, I am feeling much better. A few weeks ago I had my hemoglobin re-measured, and it was up to 11 which is much improved. No doubt it is higher now, but I won't have another test until April or so. My symptoms have mostly gone away, and now I just need to get some strength and stamina back.

The weather here seems to have turned a corner, and it looks like spring IS on the way in. I can go out and walk just fine now, and I have returned to my usual activities like taiko drumming and Tai Chi. Soon I'll be back to gardening at Red Butte too, and life will be back to normal.