How time flies...

This past weekend, Mark and I traveled to Seattle to attend our 40-year high school reunion. Yes, you heard right - 40 years since we graduated from Mt. Rainier High School! So crazy to contemplate how quickly the years have flown by, and how fun it was to celebrate that milestone with others from our class. One of our first stops after arriving in Seattle was to drive by the house (above) where my family lived while I was in high school, which is now mostly obscured by tall hedges. This was a very small home for our family of eight!
Right across the street from that house is the campus of Highline Community College, where I attended school the first year following my graduation from high school.
Mark and I next drove down to Saltwater State Park in Des Moines. This beautiful little park is on Puget sound, and Mark and I used to go there quite often while in high school. Fun memories!

Next stop was Mark's family's former home in Normandy Park. Many large trees and shrubs obscure the full view.
Friday night we convened with our classmates at the Holiday Inn Sea-Tac, where we were greeted by Doug and his dear wife Kathy. Doug is a lifelong friend and was the best man in our wedding 37 years ago.
A very special delight was seeing Verna, my best friend from high school. Like me, Verna is also married to a man from our graduating class.
On Saturday morning, we had a second reunion event, this time at our high school. Several years ago, the old high school building where we had attended was demolished, and a new campus built in its place. We had a tour of the new facility (very nice), had lunch in the cafeteria, and did more socializing. There are bricks in the entry way of the new school, and we found "our" brick, along with the bricks for Mark's sister Nancy, and their dad George, who was principal of MRHS for two years, including our sophomore year.
My friend Verna and her hubby arrived at MRHS in style!
I just had to take a picture of this airplane departing Sea Tac airport. One of my favorite memories from Mt. Rainier includes the loud roar from departing airplanes, so loud that teachers had to stop their lectures at times until the planes cleared the sky overhead. Apparently this is still the case!
The front entrance of the new high school.

Checking out the new gym. The banner painted across the wall above the bleachers reads: WELCOME TO THE MOUNTAIN - HOME OF THE RAMS (with a mural of Mt. Rainier in the middle).
Such a fun weekend. As one of our classmates said, "We were nice kids back in high school, and we are nice adults now."

"Our voices echo through the halls,
We sing to Mt. Rainier,
Of days gone by, of victories won,
And hours of good cheer.
We'll support the blue and white,
Our colors bold and true,
Both now and in the years to come,
We'll e'er remember you."