Visit to my Parents in September

I took another trip out to Oregon just a couple of weeks after seeing them at the end of August.

I took some pictures of them in their every day lives. My dad stops to talk to everyone and tries to know all the names of the residents and the workers at their assisted living center.

They eat in the dining room with Harold, who is 100 years old.

Mom uses her walker to walk the over 500 steps to the dining room. Dad won't let her shuffle or walk slowly. Sometimes Mom gets tired and needs to rest on the walk back to their apartment.

                                      Dad bought this fancy Pacifica a couple of years ago since it's higher up and easier for my mom to get into. 

Mom and Dad on their way into church.

I put a picture of Mom and Dad's bed in here, because every morning my dad makes the bed and places all the throw pillows. My mom used to do it before her stroke, but now my dad does it since Mom isn't able to.

Here's my mom at her exercise class she attends every Monday, Wednesday and Friday after breakfast, and Mom visiting with another resident. My dad does a very good job of taking care of Mom, and I'm glad for the time I'm able to spend time with them.

August Visits to our Parents

In August, Elaine and I both went to Oregon to visit our aging parents again

Elaine with her parents

 Mom's sister Norma and her daughter from Spokane were also visiting 

Joe and Joyce were with me at the nursing home where mom is getting care until she gets over the infection she is fighting.

 Joyce with a Dalia flower  she grew at Moms house

 I bought her a milkshake she was craving.

She is so weak she cannot sit up straight.  We wheeled her out to the garden to see the end of season flowers and get her out of the room for a bit. 

Looks like the Garden Fairies followed me to Vancouver!

A group of us guys went to Lake Merwin to put a new temporary roof over the trailer. 

Nephew David Hassa constructing the trusses

 Marty and me assembling the truss sections

 Then lifted it all onto the roof

 Matching the two sections together

Stapling the tarp to the structure 

Joe with the sign we made for his wood pile.  He loves to bring up wood and make fires at the lake.

Mount Vernon Tour and Potomac River Cruise

My friend Nancy is a big admirer of George Washington and has season tickets to Mount Vernon. She received special tickets to tour the basement of Mount Vernon and could bring some guests, so she invited us.

This is a neat stained glass window with a scene from the Revolutionary War in the visitor's center at Mount Vernon.

Kent and I have been to Mount Vernon many times but had never been on the basement tour.

This is basically the view of the hallway that goes under the house.

Here's one of the symbols from the last 1700's on the masonry on the support beams.

One of the reason there's a basement tour at Mount Vernon is because it was featured in the second "National Treasure" movie, so Kent and I watched it the night before.

Another very exciting difference between this house tour of Mount Vernon and all the other tours we've taken is that picture taking was allowed!
The next three photos were taken in the largest room in the house, used as an assembly room.

These are close up photos of the marble fireplace in the large room.

Pictured below is the key to the Bastille in Paris, that was given to George Washington by Lafayette after the French Revolution in 1789. Cool, right?

       

                        
The dining room is below.

One of the guest bedrooms, which has recently been refurbished.

Another guest room, with a baby cradle.

This was George and Martha's bedroom,

 where George Washington passed away in 1799. 

Below are two views of George Washington's office and library.

  

                              
This is the view of the Potomac River seen from the back of Mount Vernon.

Another thing we did this visit that we've never done before is to take a Potomac River cruise that left from Mount Vernon. Here we are on the deck of the boat.

This is one of the views of Mount Vernon from the river.

Another view of Mount Vernon from farther down the wide river.

On the Maryland side and down some, of the Potomac, is Fort Washington, a fort built in 1809 to protect the city of Washington, DC, and is now part of a park. We've never been there.

We're very lucky to live so close to such an amazing historical home!!