Last week — May 5, to be exact — I flew to the Seattle area for some weekend Grandma time. Here are a few notable things I remember from my trip.

The dyslexic vending machine at the airport: I inserted cash and pushed “56” for a bottled water. The mechanical arm rushed with an important air to item number 51. Which was also a bottled water. Not having a mutual-trust relationship with vending machines, I’d made sure to pick a row full of nothing but bottled water.
I win!

My surprisingly spacious hotel room. We’ve stayed here before, in normal hotel rooms. Somehow I was assigned this suite with a living area — and a kitchenette by the entrance. It was, like, the Taj Mahotel or something. Not only could I sprawl and read (at least, I could have if I’d spent enough time in the room), but the coffeemaker was not in the same room as the toilet. A real step up, in my opinion.

This cool lighthouse that we were going to tour but couldn’t because somebody was having a wedding there. From the outside, it looks like it would comfortably seat about ten guests… if three of them were underweight.

Brother-sister luv. Enough said. (Sigh…. my heart….)

The exuberant display of flowers on this shrub on the lawn of the family’s church. It was a great place for the kids to enjoy their after-church cookies. Bonus: It’s big enough to climb.

The quick Caesar wrap I grabbed at Sea-Tac Airport before my flight home. In a commendable effort at maintaining freshness, someone had rolled the poor thing in Eight Layers of Micro-thin Plastic Wrap (yes, I counted as I unrolled) before encasing it in a cellophane overwrap. The overwrap was fastened with a sticker and roughly a teaspoon of Super glue. Seriously, I thought I wouldn’t be able to infiltrate to the actual food until time to board.

Anyway, I’m home now. Time to get back to work…. before my next adventure, that is.

Thanks for reading!
Jan

PS: Like many norteños, I was surprised to learn that Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day. According to this post on Vox.com, Mexico actually declared independence from Spain on September 16, 1810. Cinco de Mayo commemorates a victorious battle against invading French forces. This battle took place at the town of Puebla more than 50 years after Independence Day. Though the French eventually took over, the battle served as a symbol of resistance.
US commercialization of this holiday, as with many others, seems to have diluted its meaning.
jj