Saturday was a bit of an adventure. While the events of the World Cup didn’t go the way I had hoped it was a good day overall.
The day started out early enough with my oldest son and I leaving in a taxi for the airport. Two major reroutes of traffic in Seattle altered our travel plans slightly. Originally we were going to get a ride to the airport at 9 in the morning, but we decided to leave at 8. We got to the airport in plenty of time, and were on standby for an earlier flight. We had hoped to catch this earlier flight in order to be on the ground and watch the World Cup game where USA played against Ghana. As it was, we missed the first half while in the air.
After landing and getting the rental car, we drove to my motel, caught the last half, as well as the overtime play in which Team USA lost. I’m well aware that I still need to write a post about why I care about the World Cup so much.
Early in the afternoon, Kyle and I drove out to Gonzaga to get him checked into his dorm for the summer program. We spent over an hour wandering around, getting lost, and not finding it. Gonzaga isn’t a large campus, and you can’t drive through most of it, so getting lost wasn’t a small accomplishment. Finally, after getting some directions from another student, we found the right residence hall, and got him checked in.
We checked out his room, then went to Costco for the first round of shopping. We picked up a cheap printer, a fan, and some other supplies, then we went to Fred Meyer for another round of shopping. This second location was where the bulk of the shopping took place. All manner of toiletries and dorm equipment were purchased.
Upon returning to Kyle’s dorm room, it appeared there were new occupants. A mix-up with keys brought Kyle into the wrong room. It took a while, but we got things sorted out and Kyle got into the right room, where his roommate hadn’t shown up yet, allowing him to have his choice of bed and side of the room. There wasn’t a lot of time though to set up the room, because we were off once again.
The next stop on our seemingly endless journey around Spokane was my cousin Sean’s house. It had been about a year, so it was god to see him again. He lives in Spokane, (Spokane Valley, actually, which is literally next to Spokane) and Saturday was his birthday. He was having a number of friends over for a barbeque, so we went over, had some food, visited, caught up, and had a good evening.
Actually, I’m really glad Sean will be close to Kyle. It’s nice to have family close by, and there is no better family than Sean. If there is any sort of trouble, Sean is the kind of guy you can depend on and want on your side. Though we are cousins, our relationship is much more like brothers. It turns out that Sean works just blocks away from Gonzaga, so he’ll be able to meet up with Kyle as time permits. Sean also extended an open invitation to Kyle to come over to his house. While this may “seem nice” and with many people it would be a formality, the thing with Sean is that he not only means it, but he’ll follow up with Kyle.
It was great seeing Sean, if only for a couple of hours, but we had to get back to the dorms before it got late. Not only did sleep need to take place, but Kyle’s room hadn’t been set up yet. I took Kyle back to his room, helped start setting him up, then I had to get to my motel room to get some sleep myself. The weekend was, however, far from over.