Tuesday, March 24, 2009

A City So Nice, They Named it Twice

I can count on one hand the number of Mondays that we've spent with Brian since last August. Yesterday was the Monday that put the count to the other hand.

Brian usually calls in the morning to talk to us on the way to work. Yesterday morning he mentioned that he had left his name badge at home when he left on Sunday, and as he said this I looked over to the entry way and saw his tennis shoes sitting there as well.

"We'll bring them to you, " I volunteered, and with that we were getting dressed, grabbing extra diapers, and soon we were on our way.

It's only an hour drive from here to Walla Walla, and it is a beautiful drive. Farmland, rolling hills, rivers and cliffs. It's just beautiful. It's one of those drives where I would have preferred to have Brian driving so I could just look out the window and take it all in. We passed the paper factory and talked about how paper is made and balked at the stink. We drove alongside the Columbia River, which was a bright brown from all the mud being washed in with the Spring thaw. We passed farms with tractors out preparing the fields, and farms with cows and horses meandering through the pastures.

We borrowed my parent's GPS system, so it took us straight to the Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial VA Medical Center. We used the map I had printed out before we left to find the building where the optometry department is, and we went in to take Brian his name badge.

It was fun to see where Brian is working and to meet one of the doctors he's working with. We only saw him for a few minutes, then we went to the park to play until he got off for lunch. We also drove around town for a while looking at all the beautiful old homes, and we found four free rose bushes sitting out by a sign in someone's yard that we picked up for my sister. We spent the entirety of Brian's lunch "hour" in the drive thru at Ice Burg Drive In, where we got fabulous milkshakes and the best hamburgers I've ever had. Then we drove Brian back to the hospital real quick, and he said good bye and ran back in.

I had planned on going to the Witman Mission, but Marcus was sleeping, so we went on home. It was a very fun day, and we were so glad that we got to see Brian, even though it was only for a short while.

4 comments:

NaDell said...

That sounds great.
I'm glad you were able to have a fun day visit.
Did you go to Pioneer Park? They have a cool bird zoo thing there. And a duck pond too.

Brooklet said...

My parents lived in Walla walla before I was born and they always have liked it. Last year, we had our family reunion a little past walla walla and so we made that drive that you were just talking about- where we too, always balk at the smell and talk about how paper is made, even as grown ups. Glad that you were spontaneous and found some fun family time together!

Brooklet said...

oh, and we at the ice burg, too!

Johnsons said...

Is your tittle inspired by Madagascar 2?