(Part 1 is here)

Saturday night, I got to talk to my friend Jessica. (This is not Sally's daughter, Jessica, but a different Jessica.) I met Jessica online through Sybil. Sybil and Jessica were best friends for many years, and Jessica was the link between Sybil and her online friends during Sybil's last months. Since early this year, I've talked to Jessica online more and more, and knew I'd love to meet her. And on Sunday, I got the chance to! I felt so awful that traffic tied me up so that I was thirty minutes late! But once I arrived, I relaxed, and we started talking and didn't stop at all, really, for a few hours! We talked about all kinds of stuff. And she even brought some really cute pictures of Sybil for me to see, which I thought was incredibly sweet of her. I had talked to Sybil a bunch on the phone and online, but had only seen a couple of pictures of her. It was so cute to see her being silly and smiling her radiant smile, and having a great time. Jessica said this, too, but it was kind of neat to wonder if Sybil knew we were meeting and to wonder what she'd think of it. I'm sure it would make her happy. As I told Jessica, I remember Sybil saying on the phone one time, "Yeah I was talking to my friend Jessica - you'd really like her, Meghan!" before telling me a cute story about the two of them that I can't actually recall anymore. And well, she was right! I am so happy I got to meet Jessica and that we had such a fun time talking to one another! (Next time I'm in Seattle or you're near L.A., Jess, we'll have to hang out again!).

The other thing that happened on Sunday (I was going to write that it happened Monday - I'm mixing up my days!) is that I took Mom geocaching. The batteries actually died before we ever left the house! Luckily Mom had others. I don't know why I didn't think to recharge any batteries before this trip. And now you know the reason so many of my pictures of Angela's wedding are camera phone pics! Anyway, I got the new batteries in and the GPS working and Mom and I headed out. And guess what? I FOUND IT!!! My first geocache find EVER! I was so thrilled! I took a little pink rubber alien as my prize and left a yellow bracelet from a band that played at UCLA. Now that I've actually found one, I'm more inspired than ever to go out searching for more! That's some solid geeky fun right there, man.

On Monday, I used Mom's elliptical machine for the third time. I wanted to make sure I got some good exercise while I was up there, especially since I kept eating way too much food at the yummy restaurants we visited! Then Mom needed to walk Fiona, so I headed over there with her. Fiona is mom's neighbor's new puppy that she's only had a couple of months. She's a cocker spaniel, and a real sweetheart. Mom got Flikka at the same time, and asked if we should try introducing them again. Apparently, last time they tried that, Flikka growled at Fiona. Which, in the doggy world, is not that big of a deal, but poor Flikka keeps being deemed "unfriendly to other dogs" because of this tendency to growl from time to time. I told Mom that we'd just have to talk in happy puppy voices. I guess Mom thought I had it all under control, though, because I was the only one doing it! Heh! But that's okay. As I said in my happy puppy voice, "Awww, good girls! Do you like her? Are you a good puppy dog??" to each of the dogs, Flikka and Fiona both did tons of play bows and ran circles around each other (which can get complicated with leashes, but we managed fine!). It was incredibly cute. After it became clear that Flikka was done paying attention to the puppy (she just started ignoring her completely), Mom took her inside, and I took rambunctious little Fiona for a jog around the lawn. I thought I'd get tired running with her, but I felt really good. It was cool! Afterwards, I kneeled on the grass beside her and scratched her all over, and she licked me and rolled around on her back for belly rubs. So. Freaking. Adorable. I love puppies!

Then Garth came down for a visit, and we had a lot of fun just sitting around talking. We went out to eat at a pretty good sushi place. Garth started to order a sushi sampler, but couldn't substitute something for what he really wanted, which was California maki rolls. I said, "Why don't we skip the sampler and just get four rolls?" Garth thought that was a good idea. So I told the lady, "Okay, scratch the sampler. Let's just get four rolls. California roll, unagi roll, crunch roll and spider roll."

"There's no spider roll," she said.

"Aw, sad!" I said. "Oh well, let's stick with the others then, and if we're still hungry, we'll just order more."

When the plate of sushi arrived, I didn't think anything of it at first. But after Garth and I, who were splitting this (Mom was eating teriyaki chicken), cleared off a top layer of sushi and there was still plenty underneath, we started counting what was left. And that's when we realized - for some reason, the lady misunderstood me and thought we ordered four California rolls (24 pieces)! Crazy!! So we ended up with not three rolls, but six! But, believe it or not, the two of us managed to pack it all away! I couldn't believe it, personally. That was a lot of sushi! But it was pretty delicious, so it's all good. Probably most astonishing of all is that a few hours later, we went out for ice cream at Baskin Robbins. But that was delicious, too. Vacation eating can be so weird! It's best that I'm home again, really.

Tuesday, Mom and I planned to go get her a tattoo. But on top of there not being enough time, the tattoo artist whose work she really liked in the binder was not there that day. So she made an appointment and we planned out the size, shape, and color of it, to leave for the artist. She's getting a red butterfly on her arm on August 3rd! It will be her second tattoo. Woo! Go, Mom!

Since the tattoo didn't happen that day, Mom and I went to lunch instead. Then I attempted to get a cool pic of Mt. Rainier. And after that, it was time to go to the airport and head home!

I had a fun time in Seattle. Things with the wedding were definitely weird. But a lot of other fun stuff happened while I was up there, and it's always cool to see my family. Oh, and Mom was right - Flikka was happy to see me. She slept with me every night! I love that sweet dog.

Since I've gotten back, Joe and I have resumed our watching of America's Funniest Home Videos together, in addition to our other fun, geeky habits. My sunburn is healing (and Joe's helping me apply aloe, which rocks), and I'm just generally unwinding from all the activity of vacation time. I've returned to Joe and Patches and Homer, and as they say, there's no place like home. It's good to be back!