Mietzke's Holden Adventure

We went on our first out this week. Meaning we got out of the village. We went back to Tacoma to get some things out of storage and to see some friends. I was anxious in the preparation process and unsure of what to expect in returning to a place that I called home for 14 years, and not really belonging there at this point. We got on a bus at about 10:45 and headed down the road towards Lake Chelan and the boat. We hopped on the boat at 12:15 and headed up lake to Stehekin and stopped over for an hour or so and ate lunch. We had burgers and chicken strips and soda pop! Stehekin is an artist community at the top of the lake. I had never been there and I would like to get some more time there. We relaxed and ate burgers and looked out at the lake. The sun was shining and it was cold and beautiful! Then we got back on the boat for our two hour journey down lake and then our three hour car ride to Seattle. The sun shown about half way down the lake and then the blue fog rolled in coating the hills and blotting out the sun. It was a sleepy boat ride.
At 3:30 we reached fields point landing and had to dig our car out. Luckily they have shovels at the boat doc and a nice man helped us dig out. Then we were on the road. The passes were bear and dry so the drive was pretty pleasant. It took us three hours to get over Stevens pass and we were glad to pull into Keith and Karen’s place. On the way we lost the foot of snow off our roof in Monroe and its sliding off was such a weird noise. I thought that perhaps all of the stuff in the back of the car had all fallen out at once and was rolling about the back. Then Dave got a speeding ticket, which all in all wasn’t that traumatic. I also got a chance on the drive to connect with my parents and my grandmas, Auntie Kako and my brother Jason. It was so nice to hear familiar voices!
Our time with Keith and Karen was really nice but short. Lyla is at such a fun great age and is a joy to be with. She entertained us with hide and seek and little songs. We headed out at ten the next morning to go to Tacoma and run some errands. I won’t go into the errand details because they are long and boring, but we got most of them done with only a little stress and anxiety. Then we met Joy and Lauren and Sara at the Mandolin Café and had a nice lunch. The girls were so excited to see their friends and instantly were playing and talking in rapid fire succession. I had a great visit with them and then the kids went off to their sleep-overs.
I was relieved to be around people who know and love me. I had had some nervousness about coming back and it is so good to know that people just keep on loving you even when you aren’t around all of the time. It didn’t even feel like much time had passed. Dave and I then drove past our old house and on the way down the block I felt myself tensing. The house looked the same and so did the neighborhood and I felt such relief that I don’t live there anymore. I was expecting nostalgia and what I got was confirmation that our choice to leave was a really good one. I realized that the tension that I felt driving down my block was the same tension that I felt for the last eight years and I had just gotten used to living with a low dose of fear in my daily life. It is amazing to realize that I am actually free from that daily fear.
The next 24 hours went by like a whirlwind. We saw our couples group went to our storage unit and got our back packing gear and returned a few things then went and stayed the night with our friends John and Teri. It was so good to be with people and to be so warmly welcomed even for a short period of time. It is strange to belong to people but not a place. On our drive from Chelan I kept feeling like we were just going to go home and I kept expecting to go back to my same patterns. It was weird while we were in Tacoma I got out of my van while talking on the phone to my friend Jennifer and walked into Target, something I did almost every week when I lived there and I had this flash of déjà vu and then realized that I don’t actually live in Tacoma anymore, I don’t work at the Tacoma school, and I don’t have a home here. I knew all of this on some level, but there is still grieving to be done.
Amidst the grieving, there is also a great deal of joy, because I also realized that the people who I love are still my people no matter where I live and I am one lucky girl to have so many great friends!
Sunday was also jam packed. We hung out with John and Teri for a great breakfast then met Dave’s sister and her family for coffee ran more errands which included a trip to Joanne’s Fabrics which was so overwhelming I thought I might cry. Then we picked the girls up and headed to Seattle to meet up with out friend Jennifer and played around at the Seattle center before heading to dinner with Keith, Karen, and Lyla.
It was great to see the girls with their friends! There is so much love and acceptance between them and such lightness and fun! Lauren, Kelly, Jordyn and Nyrie ran around the fountain in the Seattle center laughing and playing as always. They were wrestling touching and playing as if we had never left. The same was true of their time with Gwynne and Emily. It feels really good to be known and loved anyway.
We had a great dinner with Keith and Karen and headed out the next morning just before six. It was snowing when we got up and I was a little nervous about the drive, but Dave is a really good driver and got us through without any problems.
We stopped in Wenatchee to get some fish supplies; we bought another fish named Mana-mana and a couple of Snails that we named doot-doo and doo-doo-doo. They made it up and are now hanging out with Grover. We spent a little too much time in Wenatchee. We raced down to Chelan and the boat was already quite a way up lake by the time we got there. We raced along the road neck and neck for awhile and then broke ahead. We beat the boat to Field’s Point, got our things out of the car and made it down to the boat ramp just in time. It was a crazy half of an hour. If we had missed the boat we would have had to wait until Wednesday for the next boat to Holden. We were glad to make the boat and settled in for the ride back. When we came around the curve and saw the bus waiting on the dock for us we all began smiling from ear to ear! We were really excited to be going home!
The bus climbed up the hill and we all felt so joyful to be back! Lunch and a warm welcome were waiting for us and a hike up the kill with all of our backpacking crap. My friend Stephanie had stayed in out house and it was so clean when we walked in! What a treat!
About twenty students left while we were gone and the Village seems strangely quiet without them. The PLU students are leaving on Wednesday also; but we have the Augustana kids for another four weeks. It is amazing how much life the college students add to the village and we will miss them. We are having a woman’s retreat in February which will liven things up a bit, but as our power supply goes down, so do our visitors.
It is snowing again and we are excited to add to the snow pack which has gotten hard and slippery. We are expecting about three feet in the next few days.
It is good to be home! We fell asleep to the sound of a crackling fire and a thick pile of blankets. I am grateful for our time here!