Goodbye...No - Wait - Hello!

Yesterday was a completely crazy day for our family. Let me begin to sketch it out for you, but with simple lines.

- Zoe and her fellow students spent the day at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. Their "farewell" ceremony was due to commence at 4:45 p.m. at the high school.
- My parents were due to arrive from California mid-day, and I was planning to pick them up at the ferry and drive them home.
- David had a golf tournament at a course about an hour from home.
- We had dinner reservations at 6:00 p.m. Burrata Bistro, with my parents.

The first thing that did not go according to plan was my parents' flight: a medical emergency on board necessitated that they return to Palm Springs. My dad called me as I was shopping for groceries, to tell me that he expected to arrive JUST as I was supposed to be participating in Zoe's "farewell" ceremony. Not going to work with my schedule

The second thing that went sideways was that they missed the ferry they were expecting to ride home. This was actually a good thing, as it meant that Gregg could meet their boat...except that there was a bomb threat at HIS ferry terminal. Gregg and everyone on his ferry were not allowed to disembark. They were held in the harbor, waiting for the bomb squad to do its work. My parents had to take a taxi home, after many phone calls back and forth. I called the restaurant to push the reservations out a bit later. No problems.

French students and their hosts

French Students & staff

The ceremony was simple and lovely. The staff spoke. We exchanged gift bags. Photographs were taken. By the time Zoe and I finished at school, Gregg was off the ferry, but unable to join us there. We headed home in separate cars, expecting my parents to join us there. But they didn't; they were late. So I called the restaurant to  move the reservation again. No problem.

David rolled in after we had been seated and eating hors d'oeuvres for about half an hour. Dinner was superb - fantastic. I highly recommend Burrata Bistro. Zoe loved it, and said that the flan was the best she had ever eaten. Hooray for Kim & Alfonso, owners of Burrata Bistro!

Today was a little crazy, as well. You might have guessed that the students' departure for Paris would be affected by the giant plume of ash and smoke from the Icelandic volcano. You would be right.

We arrived at the school just before 8:00 a.m. today, to learn that their flight was still scheduled to leave, as planned. There were tearful "goodbyes," and a brief walk to a local park, and then the group boarded the bus to go to the airport. They drove to within 5 minutes of it, only to learn that their flight had been cancelled. I was out running errands with friends when I got the call.

The good news is that the students were NOT disappointed to be returning to Poulsbo. I can't speak for their parents, but we are very happy to be allowed to spend more days with Zoe. The only difficulty is that no one knows how many days it will be, and no one has made educational plans for those days. We are "winging it."

Some of the students got together this evening, and Gregg and I used that time to make another trip to the grocery store.

It's going to be great to be able to include Zoe in our simple weekend plans.