Family Reunion Part 2

Sunday was the most beautiful day at Cle Elum. We woke up to sun and it didn't leave. We started the day with a family ping pong tournament, Aunt Lee and Uncle Don won the championship round. It was fun getting everyone in the family involved somehow. After that Josh, Matt, and I headed down to the lake again, this time hoping to find canoes. We knew there was a place you could rent toys but we could never find it. We walked up and down the beach over and over again, meanwhile cars and trucks lined up along the whole shoreline. It was crazy how many cars drove down the beach to launch their boats, jet skis, etc right there, kind of took the beauty and fun out of the lake. We finally found out that the rental place was down the road a bit off the lake and we'd have to go there, tie the toys to the top of my car, truck them down to the lake, and back when we were done. We decided to bag it and head back to the cabins. It was a good 90 degrees so we headed for the pool. Matt stayed for a bit, then Josh and I hung out with Aunt Judy, Heather and Garett. It was fun and I loved getting some sun finally! Sunday night was pizza and beer followed by the annual Texas Hold'em tournament, which Cousin Doug won.

Monday morning we woke up to clean up and pack. We were headed to Orcas Island with some of the family for a few days. Josh and I stopped in Seattle on the way and hit up the space needle, which I had somehow never been up in. It was odd but I actually felt like I was experiencing vertigo, it was gorgeous up there, but wow. Never felt that way before.

Family Reunion

At lake Cle Elum, WA


Well after our interesting adventure in getting to Cle Elum for the family reunion we finally made it and just in time for a thunderstorm. Saturday morning was cloudy as well, but it started to clear up a bit by early afternoon. After Josh, Matt and I went down to the lake to check it out I joined Josh, Matt, Wayne, Cousin Ryan, his gf Melinda, Uncle Ray and Heather's bf Garett on the golf course. I of course did not golf. The course was less than exciting, and shortly after making the turn, the weather turned as well. The rain was back and the thunder and lightening began. We were done. 13 holes in and I was glad to be headed back to the cabins. Saturday night was a great dinner at a local seafood and steak house, Mama Vallones. It was excellent, and they did a great job of taking care of all 31 of us! After dinner was the change game of call your own game poker. Didn't do too bad, didn't do too well, about even, we'll take it.

A very deceiving picture of the golf course, looks pretty, it wasn't

Where is the sun?!

It's the Berger family reunion in Cle Elum, Washington! We left our house at 12:30 thinking that since it was supposed to be a 4 hour trip, we might get there around 5 or 5:30 with traffic... well were we wrong. We headed up I-5 and maybe 10 miles after the bridge to Vancouver we were stopped. Nobody came to an abrupt stop or anything, we stopped just fine... but we both looked at each other and said... is that a truck on it's side? Well it was a Toyota Sequoia with (what was) a nice camping trailer all tipped over on it's side blocking all 3 lanes of traffic. And of course this was on a bridge so we couldn't go around anywhere. All this happened about 30 cars in front of us, we were there before any emergency vehicles. People started abandoning their cars on the highway to go see what happened. Josh headed up while I sayed in the car... I'm not about to leave my car on the freeway, even if traffic came to a complete stop! After he headed up of course all the emergency vehicles came up from behind us trying to get by, and had a heck of a time since there were abandoned cars on the highway, drivers nowhere to be seen. People were out walking their dogs, ridding bikes, skateboarding, etc. It was quite the scene... After 1 hour of sitting in the car with it turned off, they got everything back upright and opened the far right lane... we of course were in the left lane. We started up and saw an Explorer letting a bunch of cars in so we tried that route... it turned out the people in the Explorer were both asleep! We still laugh about that one. After hitting traffic in Tacoma, we finally made it, 6 hours after leaving our house. Here are some pictures Josh took at the scene.