Boise, ID

We lucked out with absolutely beautiful weather for the drive from Seattle to Boise......blue skies and sunshine the whole way. What a treat it was to arrive at Bill and Tracie's place, whom we haven't seen since last December. They are the perfect hosts and we had such fun spending time with them. We truly could not have felt more welcome in their home. Our room was made up more comfortably than the nicest bed and breakfast with tasty chocolates on the bed, fluffy towels and even my favorite vanilla sugar shower gel! And the bed…….oh man, we haven’t been in a bed that comfortable for I don’t know how long. As if that wasn’t enough, we were further spoiled by Tracie’s AMAZING gourmet skills in the kitchen and enjoyed a delicious meal of maple glazed pork loin, scalloped potatoes and yummy brussel sprouts with pistachios and Parmesan cheese (I’m not including all the ingredients, but you get the idea). In addition, we lucked out when Tracie made us some of her homemade granola and beef jerky for the rest of the road trip. Forget Denny’s – we’ve got Tracie’s! Even after having dialysis yesterday morning, she had the energy to make us a tasty spaghetti dinner – what a trooper for sure.
The best part, though, was just relaxing around the house with them and laughing, playing games and enjoying each other’s company. We played Phase Ten, which we realized should really be started much earlier in the evening since we didn’t wind the game up until 2:30 in the morning! Skipbo was also lots of fun, especially watching Tracie clean our clocks while Jim, Bill and I waited to take a turn. It was definitely her game yesterday!

On a more serious note, our friend Tracie has had a long and complicated medical history and is now in need of a kidney transplant. She is currently on the donor wait list and receiving dialysis three times a week while she waits. Due to her medical history her veins are not in the best shape and she now has a graft through which she receives dialysis. She's been told by her medical team that the expected life span of her graft is 2-3 years and the wait list for the kidney is currently 3-5 years due to her rare blood type, O negative. So if any of you happen to know of someone who has this blood type and might be willing to donate, please let us know.