Dazzle Me!

December's snow has turned to water, 

Christmas Days have come and gone; 

memories and dazzling colors are all that's left to linger on. 

[John Prine - sort of]

Sue and I paid a visit to dad, a two hour drive south to Tumwater, caught up with him in person and picked up a bedroom dresser that was mom's and mirror to haul back and put in the new house. We had supper with Sheri and Tony before driving back north on I-5.

The Tulalip Tribe has a large casino on I-5 in Marysville, just 12 miles from The Pilchuck. The Indians do have a flare for celebrating, 4th of July with the Swinomish Tribe in La Conner is spectacular and the Tulalip casino at Christmas is arrestingly dazzling in its own right.

Almost home, driving north at 9 PM on a frigid early January evening, to our left the winter's darkness is magically dispelled around the casino by light-wrapped trees. One can not help but be favorably impressed by the sight. One of the wonderful little things about having my wife with me is the opportunity to dash into a spontaneous adventure. I likely would not have deviated from my route home if I were traveling alone. It's different when you are traveling as a couple. It is fun to be married and to still look for chances to dazzle my sweetheart.

We sped past the display of a myriad holiday lights and some comments were made, something like, "I wonder how many lights are out there? How long does it take to put them up? They sure are pretty..."

I exited the interstate and made a U-turn across the overpass. My passenger shot a gleeful look at me, "Are we going to the casino?" 

I executed my U-turn, "I'm going to attempt to dazzle you, my love. Are you prepared to be dazzled?" 

She just beamed as we pulled into the parking lot. This was going to be a fun detour. We didn't have the warmest of coats for this 25 F night, but we could link arms and huddle close together as we strolled among the Tulalip Christmas Lights.

Beaming wife Dazzled by casino Christmas lights

Wandering the grounds was a bit of fun, post-holiday magic. I always liked taking a girl out at night to go look at the lights. It is still magic to do it with this girl.

I think I was told there are over 3,000,000 LED lights wrapped out to the tips of all of these thin tree branches. Impressive. We ducked into the casino, but didn't drop any coin there, just took a gander at the lighted slot machine rows and all of the players. Then it was back up the road to a warm, post-holiday bed. Impressive.

We were indeed dazzled.