Moving On

Dear Family and Friends,

Chuck and I are back in Cuenca now.  We were very pleased to find that we had no damage to our condo from the terrible earthquake.  The victims on the coast are continuing to need and receive aid.  This is a great country and we are so proud to be a part of it.

I found it hard to post while we were traveling.  I am now looking at the photos I took and want to share them with you now that we have good internet.  My preference is to post to the blog as we go, but despite my good intentions this does not happen most of the time.

I left Ecuador on March 24th and spent a couple of weeks in Columbus, Georgia. I stayed with my sister and brother-in-law and had time to visit with many of my friends and family members.  I posted about this before the earthquake.  You can review it here:  Boiled Peanuts, Cat Fish and Collard Greens

While I was in Georgia visiting family, Chuck was in Minnesota visiting our daughter and grandchildren.

Chuck and I met up in Seattle.  It was a perfect reunion because his plane and mine landed within minutes of each other.  He was very easy for me to find in baggage claim because he wore his bright green jacket.

We stayed with Chuck's brother, Larry and his wife, Carolyn.  We had a nice time visiting them and other family.  Larry was very generous and provided us with a car to use for the next few weeks.

We were able to spend a nice evening with our oldest granddaughter, Portia.  She is a student at Seattle Pacific University.  We are so proud of her.  Here she is with her proud Poppi.

While in Seattle, Chuck and I went to Pike Place Market, a Seattle icon.  This is a very popular tourist site in Seattle.

I snapped some photos in order to share our experience.

Seafood is plentiful in Seattle and the market is a great place to buy some quality seafood....although I did not see any catfish.  (smile)

Here is a vendor looking over his stock.

We pay $3 to $4 a pound of shrimp at our market in Cuenca.  Much of the time this is the price if it is already peeled. Of course, our shrimp is farmed.  Here is the price of wild caught shrimp at the Seattle market.

Can't get these in Ecuador.

We had a chuckle over what they called their brussel sprouts.

In our past, we would go to Idaho to find morel mushrooms.  Free for the taking. We knew they were special but I gasped when I saw the price they go for now.

Stripped, yellow and orange bell peppers.  Must be pretty rare at $9 a lb.

There is a life size brass pig at the market.  If you look close you will notice it is a huge piggy bank.

We saw many of these trucks around the Seattle area.  Amazon is doing the shopping and delivering groceries in some markets.  We saw this truck backed up to a stall at the market. Amazon is based in Seattle, so if you order from them, you know you are getting quality produce.

We drove east from Seattle, over the mountains, to Richland, WA.  We visited with family and friends there.

Here is our family having a fun time at a local restaurant.

We were fortunate to be there for a jazz competition that our granddaughter, Heidi, was playing in.  Here she is playing her trumpet solo.

Here are a couple of close ups that our son, Michael, shot of the kids while we visiting around the hotel pool.

This is Cannon...such a sweet little man.

and this is Heidi, our trumpet playing cheerleader.  Such a very busy teenager.

While in Richland, we helped Matt pack his suitcase for our two week California trip.  I will share about Matt's vacation in my next post.

It is so good to be back in Cuenca and going through our photos of our trip.

Love,
Nancy