Suneson Scenes

Saturday, June 18, 2022

Inga Moves Into her Hood

Inga with her Master's Diploma

Inga gets into her hood. She is a Master and does it like a Boss.

She put herself through two years of online course work and projects at Portland State University, School of Public Health. We are so very proud of her. Inga has always been the kind to make things happen her way and as she had planned. She did it again - she got a Certificate MPH, Master's in Public Health.

Zoom, Zoom at 200 MPH! Across the finish line!

Sean said it was an easy shot to get down to the convention center for Inga's ceremony. I am better than average when it come to navigation, but I always get lost in Portland. The 'easy shot' turned into a big loop over the river and through the hoods as Grant fired up his phone GPS and directed me, the driver, back to the targeted parking garage. We made it in plenty of time to meet up with Sean and his mother Annie and have a seat long before Inga paraded in to the canned Pomp and Circumstance so familiar to end of the year education.

After the speechification and hooding ceremony, it was time to break for the open public space in the greater auditorium where the hors d'oeuvres were placed and photo ops were available. I took advantage of both.

Masked Proud Mother and Degreed Daughter

Inga and Sean - Whew! That's finally done.

The party continues and the masks come off as the lemonade takes effect.

Recreation of an 'infamous' photo from Inga's University of Oregon Bachelor's Graduation in 2013

Another infamous pose recreation from 2013

With a cavalier toss of her mortarboard hat and salmon hood, it was time to head for the after party on our Airbnb's back porch. Inga and Sean would pick up a variety of their favorite takeout and Grant selected the beverages. It was a good time after a long time to get together for the first time in a long time and have a casual dinner party.

Grant pops the bubbly to get things started


Inga approves of the vintage, Sean gets the party fare ready.

A toast to the graduate and a word of advice - plastics

Sean delivers the goodies. Let's celebrate!

Sue, Kaileen and Annie wait for the word to begin the festivities

Dig in! Announces Sue

Kaileen makes her choices

Annie and Inga back for seconds

Mother and daughter having a good time.

Grant has an explanation that Kaileen finds incredulous.

Grant makes a believer out of all of us, including his wife.

Gifts are received by the graduate

Inga and Sean settle in after a big, exhausting and ultimately satisfactory day.

Well done Inga.

And thanks to Sean for his support.

Post Script: Inga started her job working with community groups in support of public health and and improved health policy at Oregon Health and Science University on July 11, 2022.

Yeah! It was all worth it.

Family Flocks for Fun & Pomp

She did it!

Inga made it through the pandemic and graduate school (at the same time) by isolating in her apartment and pulling long hours attending online instruction in front of the Zoom screen, which in these times counts for 'attending' classes at Portland State University, School of Public Health. The result; a Master's Certificate in Public Health.

All of the reasons above are enough to celebrate, and celebrate we did with the whole family. Once the hooding ceremony schedule was confirmed, everybody was in for the celebration. This included the special good news that Grant and Kaileen planned to fly into Portland for a few days from far away in New York City. Sue blocked out her summer schedule to arrive in Seattle a few days early and the two of us made the four hour drive from Arlington to Portland to meet up with Grant, Kaileen, Inga, Sean and Sean's mother Annie up from Salem. It was a grand gathering.

Kaileen & Grant on Airbnb porch in Portland

Grant and Kaileen are planners, and jumped into action and found and rented an Airbnb for us four out-of-towners, a few blocks away from Inga and Sean's place in the popular Alberta Street entertainment/dining district.

Inga still had some loose ends to attend to in order to finish some of her classes and get her degree, so she and Sean were allowed to keep their noses to the grindstone while the four of us footloose visitors settled into sampling the Portlandia dining landscape. Inga and Sean making appearances for sustenance and family fellowship at recommended brunch locales and eateries.

All the family joins for a leisurely, sophisticated brunch at The Tin Shed for Morning 1 on Alberta Street

Inga suggested a Thai place for dinner, so we all ambled a few blocks and brought our curry and soups and satay sticks to a picnic table on the curb. Good times.

Thai food on the street

We walk up and down the now familiar environs of Alberta Street, taking in the local ambiance, of political posters, sexual graffiti and street art and sculptures. It feels so 'West Coast 1960's' to me - but maybe it has always been this way? Maybe it was was just me who left the 60's and 70's behind.


Mark mirrors the Alberta Street Beaver Sculpture

Grant waits for his name to be called from the waiting list

Another day and another reason for brunch. This morning we make our way to Fuel, a brunch storefront that seems to have a reasonable wait time. Grant puts his name on the waiting list for a party of four and we hang out and watch the cool people go by.

Sue and cartoon cat pause in search for a fabulous brunch

Sue and Kaileen round the corner to join me and Grant for brunch

A hearty meal is enjoyed in Portland

We digest our meals and make plans tomorrow to go to PSU's School of Public Health hooding ceremony and cheer Inga as she walks across the stage and grabs her diploma.

Sunday, June 12, 2022

Camano Island Couple

Camano Island. A short, twenty-minute drive west from where we are building our home on the Pilchuck Creek; yet a half a lifetime of memories as a couple enjoying the shores of Camano Island.

I recall that Miss Sue Cook took me away on a private little day trip to Camano Island the first time I drove her back home to Washington from Austin, Texas. I'd been invited to meet her mother and her two younger sisters still at home. Much later I was told that all the ladies of the Pilchuck had looked me over and informed my grad school girl on the side (and behind my back) that they all had discussed it and unanimously approved of her fella. She was glad that I passed inspection, but kept my rating process among the Cook women in the kitchen to herself for a long time.

***

Sue Cook Suneson, stops to examine a glacial-transported igneous boulder on Camano Island

We always go to Camano Island. We always took our kids to Camano Island. Camano Island is a sacred place in Suneson family lore. With my wife, the former Miss Sue Cook, back in town and back in my arms; strong tradition and the lure of good times not forgotten found us back at Camano Island this June. There is something about the girl, the sweep of the long, clean, rocky shore, the forest behind and the sandy cobbled cliffs above that make Camano a special place.

Watching the tide roll in from one of our a longtime favorite 'Couple's Spots' on Camano Island, Washington

We kicked along the cobbled beach, looking at barnacles, shells of red rock crabs and always intrigued by the assortment of rounded and surf polished igneous rocks at our toes. We talk of geology, basaltic extrusions and phenocrysts; after all wasn't it the love, beauty and mystery of these types of stones that brought us together back in Austin?

Yes it was, and the nerdy romance continues.

We climb the trail up the cliff and leave the beach behind and below. We walk hand-in-hand and find a bench in the forest overlooking the Sarasota Channel of Puget Sound as we listen for the cry of bald eagles.

Oh! There are wild roses along the cliff-side trail to stop and inhale their powerful fragrance. Given a little encouragement and the opportunity, she will stop to smell the roses.

And at the end of another sweet day on the shore of Camano Island, we drive back to our Airbnb room and prepare a quick dinner. Tomorrow we go south to Portland Oregon to celebrate Inga's completion of her Master's Degree program and meet up with Grant and Kaileen.

Sue makes me a quick dinner at our Airbnb digs

Stop & Smell the Roses - A Respite in the Northwest

It's been too long.

My life has been occupied with building a house in Washington.

While my wife has been occupied with building a church youth program in Texas. I feel the separation in more than just the 2,174 miles.

I plead; "Sweetheart, stop and smell the roses. If you come out to the Northwest, I promise you we'll find some fragrant wild roses to smell together."

She tells me she will come out to see me and the house building progress later in the summer...

I wait for the definite dates. I hear, "It's been a hectic week..."

But, we have a common plan to get together; our daughter Inga will be graduating with her Masters in Public Health from Portland State University. The hooding ceremony will be on Sunday, June 5th. A definite date on the calendar.

Flight reservations are now secured and she will fly into Seattle right after Memorial Day. We'll spend a few days together and then we drive to Portland to be with Inga and Sean for the occasion. We are delighted to hear that Grant and Kaileen will fly from New York to join us. It will be a rare and grand family gathering, the first since the memorial service for mom's death in February, 2020.

Rose Time

Wild rose at the Skagit Tidal Nature Preserve

With a peck on the cheek and a hug, I grab her from behind as I sneak up behind her at Sea-Tac's baggage carousel 15. She smells like an airline cabin, but she looks first class. I whisk her off to our reserved Airbnb for the night.

In the morning, I take her out for something we both enjoy; a stroll in a quiet, natural setting. And I scouted this place ahead of time - it has wild roses there.

It is time for her to inhale the cool, coastal air and unwind with her husband. She has no trouble in finding a big, wild rose bush and she is now taking time to stop and smell the proverbial roses.

And then it is time to stop and smell the iris.

We walk along marshy paths, hopping over the muddy spots and tramping through the grasses until we come to a fine sittin' log. We listen to hidden wetland birds chirp and sing as we quietly hold hands and enjoy the silent company of one another.

The rain holds off and we wade through cattails, cow's parsnip and tall rushes reaching over the earthen path before we cross the timber footbridge, white with tidal salts.