We took Grace on her second trip to Alaska, and her first during the summer, over Labor Day Weekend. She had a good time seeing both my family and Aimee’s (visiting on vacation), and also discovered the world of stairs, since our house has none and my parents’ place has many. She took right to them, climbing up flight after flight of both wood and carpeted varieties.

Besides hanging out on the stairs, I also put in some quality time in the basement, as happens every visit, helping my dad get organized, which usually means more moving stuff around and less getting rid of stuff than I think I’d like, but we made some progress. We dealt with that corner of the basement I never used to venture into, where the garden tools, bicycles, lumber, and car parts were kept. A lot of that stuff made its way to the new garage, to be replaced by file boxes, which were moved to make way for more cornets… And the cycle continues. We also got in a run together along the bike trail, our first and probably last together before the Seattle Half-Marathon and Marathon we’re doing in November.

It’s always nice to visit home once a year or so, but it’s slowly becoming somewhat unrecognizable when compared with the place I grew up. The museums and restaurants are nicer, though the sprawl is worse, and I end up wanting to just spend time at home, with the family. We did get in another visit to the Moose’s Tooth, an annual tradition, though we missed out on Snow City and Sub-Zero, both closed. Aimee and I had a drink at Darwin’s, which isn’t necessarily a tradition we need to start…