“For the beauty of the earth,” words from an old hymn kept running through my mind on my recent trip to Seattle last week. Two of my widow friends accompanied me to attend old family friends son’s wedding and do some sight seeing.
Seattle is a beautiful city. We rented a quaint house through Airbnb. It was located close to the buses, rail system, lots of restaurants, grocery stores and a beautiful park. I was surprised at how steep some of the roads were, reminding me of San Fransisco.
We enjoyed the typical sight seeing one does in Seattle. On the ferry over to Tillicum Indian Village we spotted some whales!
“For the beauty of the skies, for the glory of the skies, for the love which from our birth over and around us lies; Lord of all, to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise…”
One day we took the Victoria Clipper over to Victoria, BC. I had booked the day’s activities through clippervacations.com. After the 2 1/2 hour ride we boarded a bus for a city tour and were dropped off to visit the beautiful Buchart Gardens.
“For the beauty of each hour, of the day and of the night, hill and vale, and tree and flower, sun and moon, and stars of light; Lord of all, to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise…”
One of the first things you saw as you walked into the Buchart Gardens was a giant chess set. 
I wondered at its significance. This is what I came up with: 
While in Victoria we had high tea at the famous Empress Hotel. 
Before dinner one night we did an unusual activity: Sherlocked Room Escape Game in Seattle. We joined a group of 4 other women and were locked in an office room for one hour. We had to locate 10-12 clues, solve them, unlock things, crack codes, find a safe that had the final clue. Upon solving all that we had to crack the code to unlock the door to let us out. We got as far as figuring out the code to let us out of the room. We were told there was only a 30% success rate!
“For the joy of ear and eye, for the heart and mind’s delight, for the mystic harmony, linking sense to sound and sight…”
After Neal died I prayed for some other widows closer to my age. God has provided Julie and Sherry, among others, who are great traveling buddies. They graciously went with me to the wedding. This wedding was an old friend’s son Neal first met in Zambia on a medical mission trip back in 1996. We maintained a friendship over the years them visiting us on numerous occasions. In 2000 our whole family went to Zambia on a medical mission trip with this family hosting.
“For the joy of human love, brother, sister, parent, child, friends on earth and friends above, for all the gentle thoughts and mild; Lord of all, to thee we raise our grateful hymn of grateful praise…”
Another highlight of the trip was visiting my mom’s oldest brother and his wife, my cousin and her daughter.
I am trying to embrace this stage of life I find myself in. Each day is a choice how I will spend my time. I am so blessed to have Julie and Sherry in my life to join my journey of traveling. Embrace where God has you….
On the journey,
Trish