Outside of Anacortes, Washington                                                  Photo by Chris Duffy

We had some very dear friends who lived in Anacortes, Washington; they were like family to us while we lived in Seattle, since our own parents were so very far away in Oklahoma and Texas.  One time they took us out to this park on the beach and slow baked fresh salmon with a pit fire dug in the beach.  Man, I had never tasted salmon that good before.  Herb and Elsie were wonderful people.  Elsie had been a cook for many years in the school system and Herb had worked in the local oil refinery, but both had already retired when we met them.  My husband was, at that time, a college music professor and had one of Herb and Elsie's grandchildren in his choir.  They were strong Christians and had a large close knit family and an even larger church family.  We visited with them many times over the 7 years we lived there and continued to correspond after we moved away.  They're both gone now, but I know they're in Heaven, along with so many other friends and family, waiting for the rest of us to get there.