Surprise Trip To North Carolina, February 19-25, 2004

  

 

 

Thursday, February 19

 

With much going on back in Charlotte I decided to book a secret flight and surprise the folks.

 

My Bellevue lodge as I set out for Sea-Tac. Just before leaving I was admiring Hiromi's impressionistic rendering of Mt. Rainer. Hiromi had given me this painting a month earlier, on the occasion of my birthday. The day Hiromi gave me "Mt. Rainier" turned out to be the last time I saw her...

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of hours later, 10 minutes into the flight out of Sea-Tac, I beheld the sun rising over Mt. Rainier. Thank you, Hiromi...

 

 

 

 

 

Coming into Chicago for a connecting flight...

 

       

 

   

 

 

Out of Chicago, Charlotte bound...

 

   

 

Over the Ohio River...

 

Over the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina...

 

 

On final approach to the Charlotte airport we flew over the Mountain Island Lake community where Sister Jan and her family reside...

 

Looking eastward toward Charlotte, over Mountain Island Lake...

 

Directly over the power plant across Mountain Island Lake from Hamilton Manor...

 

Over the Highway 16 Mountain Island Lake bridge...

 

Sister Jan's neighborhood on the shores of Mountain Island Lake...

 

 

 

Landing at Charlotte...

     

 

 

I drove up to Strawberry Hill in a rental car, got out and surprised everybody! They had no idea I was coming. The move from the Farmwood house to Strawberry Hill was well underway, but I found plenty to help with over the next 3 days. My biggest job was setting up the Strawberry Hill office... Father's computer, Mother's computer, etc...

 

 

Sunday, February 22

 

Since my last departure from Charlotte, on January 5, 2004, mother and father had moved out of the family home at Farmwood and into a much more manageable apartment at Strawberry Hill. The Thompson's built and moved into the Farmwood home in 1973, so "downsizing" to Strawberry Hill was a difficult process...  necessary, but difficult. Baby Ralip came to me as a tiny kitty back in February of 1991 when I lived on Greenway Ave. in Charlotte's Elizabeth neighborhood. I had relocated Baby Ralip to Farmwood in December of 1994 and for 10 years she roamed the grounds there, in feline paradise. It would not be possible to move Baby Ralip to Strawberry Hill, nor could I move her to Seattle with me, so it became necessary to find her a new home...  necessary, and difficult... Sister Jan ran an adoption ad in the local paper and arrangements were made with a couple form Cowan's Ford to take Baby Ralip in...

 

Back at the Farmwood house to get Baby Ralip, to take her to her new family...

 

       

 

 

 

I walked around in the almost empty Farmwood house. So many fond memories...  here, the coffee counter wall, with coffee bags from past Seattle to Charlotte visits...

 

Baby Ralip's final Farmwood moments. I drove Baby Ralip to Sister Jan's home at Mountain Island Lake, where we would meet her new family...

 

 

 

 

 

At Hamilton Manor...  the couple adopting Baby Ralip and my last glimpse of a kitty that I loved for 10 years...

 

 

 

Baby Ralip...

 

 

 

At Hamilton Manor...  life going on...  Nephews Will and Ryan, and Smithers...

 

   

 

 

 

Later that day with Carina and Pete at the Bayou Kitchen - nary a block from where Baby Ralip and I once lived on Greenway Ave...

 

   

 

 

 

Monday, February 23

 

Brother Brian with his new Toshiba laptop...

 

 

 

 

Father at Strawberry Hill...

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, February 24

 

My old friend Randy in his SouthPark office...

 

 

 

 

Young Ryan at Hamilton Manor...

       

 

 

 

Picking up a few odds and ends at the old Farmwood house...

 

 

 

 

 

While at Farmwood, I walked around the old place, stopping at the resting place of Koko and Teddy, beloved doggies. Koko was a Lhasa Apso and Teddy a black Pomeranian.  Mother and Father loved those little doggies so much.  Mother could look out from her kitchen table to Koko's final resting spot...

 

       

 

 

 

Nephew Will at Strawberry Hill...

 

 

 

 

 

Though gravely ill, Father kept his since of humor well into the struggle. As kids, we would beg Father to make his "faces"... and I guess that's where I learned the craft...

 

 

 

At Strawberry Hill...  Sister Jan and Brother Brian...

 

Pete dropped in for a visit at the new Strawberry Hill apartment and here demonstrates how a gentleman holds his Fig Newton...

 

 

 

Wednesday, February 25

 

Around Strawberry Hill...  Mother at her new office desk...

 

   

 

 

Father...

 

 

Mother in the new dining room, and the new coffee counter...

 

   

 

 

 

Father at his new office desk...

 

 

 

 

Mother and Father...

 

 

Saying goodbye to Mother and Father at Strawberry Hill. Pete gave me a ride to the Charlotte airport for the return to Seattle...

 

 

 

 

At the Charlotte airport... Pete saw me off...

 

     

 

 

 

Connecting at Chicago, Seattle bound...

 

   

 

 

 

Thursday, February 26

 

The day after I returned to Seattle, Charlotte was hit by a considerable snow storm. Father took these shots from the front door at Strawberry Hill. These turned out to be the last photographs that Father made. Father's camera, a Sony Mavica, served him well...