A busy day

We’ve had 25 business appointments today, from at 8 am to 5 pm. Half of the people who had chosen to meet with us (we didn’t have a choice, but were assigned) were interesting, half were boring and just reeling off their promotional texts. We sat at our designated table # 55 all day, with a 1-hour-lunch break, in a huge ballroom with bad air quality and no internet. Got two invitations for the one night still missing on our way from San Francisco to L.A.: Solvang and Oxnard. Not sure yet what we’ll choose. And, received a couple more invitations, so that we started planning our second next trip already, to Colorado and the Four Corners region. Somehow we are always ahead of time, at least when it comes to trip planning…

Yesterday in the evening we attended a reception in the Tacoma Museum of Glass and met our japanese friend Hiro again. A couple of years ago we were on the same post fam tour to Yosemite NP and had a good time. Though we can’t communicate much - his English isn’t too good and our Japanese is even worse - it’s always fun to meet this very polite, good-mannered, calm guy – who always relies on our beer recommendations.



During the evening event we watched a glass blower create a big whale, a band was playing and we had a couple of bites and some beer and a lot of smalltalk. As usual on such occasions it was mostly standing room and therefore not too comfortable. Back at the hotel at 10 pm, but nevertheless just slept till 2 am and lay awake most of the night.

Sun was out for a change today for a couple of hours and for the first time we were able to admire Mount Rainier in its full beauty. Landscape is gorgeous. Wished we could explore the islands and Olympic Peninsula, but not this time. Already talked to some Washington tourism reps - perhaps we'll be back in fall 2015.

Still sorting through business cards and paper material and still have to answer emails - bone-tired.
Good night!