Camping and a funeral

The very next weekend (August 17) after the Bridge of the Gods half my family had planned our annual family trip.  We have always taken this trip in February, but after our trip last year, we decided we wanted to do something in the summer.  We planned this trip almost a year ago, with my Mom still in the picture.  Both my Mom and my Dad wanted to go to a campground near where I live, Bayview State Park, and I grumbled about it for a year because it was so close to my home.  However, it was really nice, and I would totally do it again.

So my Dad went from Oregon, up the coast a little way to Long Beach, WA for a few days and then up to Bayview.  He did that because he didn't want to haul his 5th wheel to Oregon, back home and then to the coast 3 days later.  So his plan was to be gone for a total of 11 days.

Well, he came up to Bayview on Thursday and then to my house for dinner and back to the campground for the night.  My sister called me Friday morning and said that our Dad had called her and he had gotten a call from my cousin.  My cousin said that they realized they hadn't seen my uncle for several days so they went looking for him.  My Dad, cousin, and uncle all live within a 2 mile radius, and my Dad and uncle worked together on the farm until they retired 5 years ago. And after that they talked every day unless one of them was gone.

My cousin went to my uncle's house and found my uncle on the floor of his room, still alive, but he had been laying there for 2 days or so.  He went to the hospital and they discovered he had a heart attack.  Plus he was having trouble breathing on his own, and his kidneys weren't working.  My dad decided to go home Friday night.

My sisters and I were already camping and had paid for the sites we were in.  Plus, my dad had really wanted to do the "tall ships"  and had paid for us to tour them.  It was quite a journey to get where they were, and the tickets were nonrefundable, so even though my dad wasn't there, we went anyway.  Besides, we knew he'd ask us how it was and we couldn't tell him we skipped it.

It really wasn't what I was expecting, but it was fun.  It was a long day with Maddox being tired and whiny, but it was okay.

There were two ships and they "battled" each other.  It was different . . . another 2 hour tour.  =) (I know Gilligan's Island is a "3 hour tour" but it still ran through my head for the second week in a row.)

We spent Sunday morning at the campground, one of my sisters, the one that lives in eastern WA, decided to go home a day early.  My other sister, her husband, Chris, Maddox and I all piled into a car and went to Anacortes, where we discovered amazing donuts, but not much else. We got back into the car and went to LaConnor and went through a couple antique stores and walked along the river.  It was okay.

On Monday my Dad called. My uncle needed a pacemaker, but because his kidneys had stopped working they couldn't put one in.  So they started dialysis, unfortunately because he was so weak already his heart gave out and he died.

I was not close to my uncle, I liked him, but wasn't close.  My Dad however . . . well, he lost his wife and best friend/brother in less than 6 months of each other.  So on Thursday I went to eastern WA for his service.  I came back on Saturday.