So yesterday I headed south to Bellevue to meet my mother to go a Valborg celebration.  Anticipating traffic I drove down early and, since there was no traffic, arrived early.  So I decided to check out my old home, from late elementary school through early Junior High.  The house didn’t look much different, and the cherry tree I used to climb is still there.  But the neighborhood has changed.  A lot of the smaller older houses have been removed and replaced with huge ones.  Many of the trees I remember are gone too. I didn’t get a picture though since there was someone in the front yard.

Then I spontaneously decided to look for old Japanese cemeteries described in this book I read.

The Pioneer Memorial Park doesn’t exist as far as I could tell.  It appeared to be taken over by medical office buildings.  I went to the Sunset Hills Memorial Park.  I couldn’t find the marker described but didn’t have time to walked the whole grounds.  It was beautiful though with nice weather and a peaceful atmosphere.  I did find this gravestone, but I do not think it is related.

It is sad how the graves of immigrants, slaves and Native Americans are destroyed without recognition.  This includes Alice’s gravesite which was destroyed on our neighbor’s land many years ago with logging.  The bay is named after her, but there is otherwise no memorial that I am aware of to her and her children who were lovingly buried there.

After my failure at find the Japanese marker, I met up with my mother, and we headed to the Valborg.  We had Swedish meatballs by Manic Meatballs over mashed potatoes with baked beans? and a dill cucumber salad.  We sat at a picnic table overlooking the lake and enjoyed our meals.  Then the Swedish Singers (who my grandmother used to sing for) came out by the bonfire.

They sang these tunes.

Mom and I tried to sing along.  There were a lot of people, young and old, speaking Swedish.  So that was fun.  It brings back good memories from my childhood and our trip to hear the language again.  There was a beautiful rainbow throughout the event as well.

We did see our cousins on the way out.  The day prior I had received my Evusheld shots so was feeling somewhat protected against Covid.  So I was even able to hug my cousins.  So that was really nice as well.

P.S.  I have restarted my You Can’t Eat Mount Rainier! blog with the cocktail recipes I found in the back of the book while we were at the cabin.  If you are interested, you can follow along there.

P.P.S.  In celebration of my Evusheld (and due to the fact that both Tom and I are exhausted) we went to the Train Wreck for a take out meal, and I had a drink I have been coveting for a while (and Tom had one as well).