Around Thanksgiving

This was not the best Thanksgiving Holiday for us.  The week before a dear friend, Pat, lost her fight with cancer.  She was the sister of my Sister-In-Law, Donna.  Donna and I have both lost our spouses (brother and sister) a few years ago along with our shared Mother-In-Law.  And now Donna lost her only sibling.  Since Pat lived near us in Spokane, those of us in North Idaho (my two daughters and I) rallied to support Donna and her two nieces during these hard times.  Pat moved to Spokane from Fairbanks Alaska several years ago to be near her daughter and grand-daughter.  We were the only other relatives in the area.  Pat never married but did adopt and raise two wonderful daughters, Margarete, from El Salvador and Stephka from Bulgaria.  Pat was also quite the athlete holding several records in Alaska as a marathon runner.  Please keep Donna and her family in your prayers and thoughts these next few months as they try to cope with this great lose in their lives.

While Mona and I were up in Alaska, we listened to the book, The Boys in the Boat.  It is a great read, or listen in our case, about the University of Washington Men's Crew that won the gold metal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.  Since then, Mona has wanted to see the shell (ie boat) they used to win the event.  It hangs from the ceiling in the UoW's Shell House.  

We found it hanging from the Cafeteria Ceiling

While the book is about the entire crew, it focuses on one crew member in particular, Joe Rantz, who overcame a particularly tragic childhood to row in the #2 seat on the Olympic winning crew.  That's his seat in the picture.  Note the lace up shoes.  

While we were there a group of junior high school kids came through on a campus tour.  Mona and I took the opportunity to tag along and see more of the facility.

Here is the trophy case with Joe Rantz's jersey and other memorabilia from the Olympic winning crew. 

Another main character in the book is George Pocock who built the racing shells for all the teams on the west coast as well as much of the rest of the states.  Mona and I also visited the Pococh Racing Center on Lake Union in Seattle.  There we met a staff member who said that the Pocock company continues on and builds some of the most elite racing shells in the world.  

At the University of Washington, they like to name their shells.  This one struck me as funny.  The Elwha happens to be a river on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington as well as the name of one of the Washington State Ferries.  That particular ferry is rather famous for hitting a rock in the San Juan Islands when it's captain was showing off to one of the passengers.  The ferry nearly sank.  There was a song about it afterwards along with a drink called "Elwha on the Rocks".  Hopefully this Elwha doesn't have a similar fate.

By the way, while we were there a film crew from the PBS program "The American Experience" was also there filming for a documentary about the 1936 crew.  We will have to keep an eye out for that episode.  We also heard that there may be a movie made about the crew too.  I can't imagine one not being made since the story is so inspiring.