Salut mes amis.

So I had a good time in Montana - Alice's reputation as a singer is richly deserved - and she kindly sent a batch of her gourmet caramels with me for the Seattle gathering.

Here I am again at Deckman's house. He seems like a whole new person now that he is recovered from his troubles, and Judy is charming as always. He said that he would take me along to work the next day and give me a tour of the Pacific northwest on the way. Privately, I didn't see how that would be possible - but it turns out he was right, a half hour drive was enough to see the Cascades, the Olympics, Mt. Baker, and Mt. Rainier. However, there seems to be a theme going on here - after watching Big Mick pretend to be Mr. Tough Guy Coach, I got to see Deckman pretending to be a deck man - but all he did was go and look at the deck for five minutes, then leave again. Heck, I could have done that myself.

So off we went to Seattle where Don and Barbara Firth hosted a potluck and hoot for Alaska Mike's visit. Mike did a very funny new song about the Iditarod. Next day, Reggie Miles took me to the Pike Place Market to show me around. I did some busking by myself, and with another guy I met there, as well as playing the straight woman for Reggie's novelty blues routines. We attracted a lot of attention as a saw/fiddle duo too.

I've mentioned that I was planning at this point to meet up with a friend from Ottawa and take a roadtrip to the Redwoods and Badlands parks. Unfortunately, she had to cancel on me for health reasons. So it seems that the Nelson house in Everett is both my first and last stop in the USA. I'm heading back to civilization this evening. I'll try to get a newsletter written and posted today, too.

Love, Marion (Everett, Washington)