Nationals are 2019 World Series Champions!

On Wednesday, October 30, the Nationals defeated the Houston Astros in a thrilling Game 7 of the World Series to be crowned World Series Champions. Winning all four games on the road, they came from behind to win 6-2 in the final game, led by homeruns from Anthony Rendon and Howie Kendrick and five gutty innings from Max Scherzer. Steven Strasburg won the Series MVP thanks to his victories in Games 2 and 6.

John and Joseph had a chance to attend Game 3 of the National League Championship Series in DC, an 8-1 Nationals victory at Nats Park to give the Nats a commanding 3-0 series lead over the Cardinals, on their way to a series sweep.

Maybe next year the Mets can make it!

Trip to New York

Over Columbus Day weekend, all five of us travelled to New York to see family. We had hoped to get there for Lauren & Dave's wedding in August but weren't able to, however, it worked out that everyone had breaks over the same weekend.

We flew to New York late on Thursday, landing at JFK around midnight. We stayed in Midtown Thursday night and toured the UN and walked around Roosevelt Island on Friday, before heading out to Riverhead and going to dinner at a Japanese steakhouse (and watching Game 1 of the Nats-Cardinals series + UVA-Miami football: Nats win, Hoos lose). On Saturday we gathered at Janet and John's house with nearly all of the clan, before heading in to JFK for MJ, Henry, and Jack to fly out on Sunday morning. A quick but great visit!

Henry meets Jay Inslee

Governor Inslee of Washington ran a climate-change focused campaign for President, dropping out of the race in August when he wasn't able to gather enough support to continue in the debates, despite fervent support from Henry. In early October, Gov. Inslee held a fundraiser in Seattle and Henry, MJ, and John all attended. Henry had a chance to shake hands with the governor and talk with him for a few minutes. Gov. Inslee said Henry was "the smartest 15-year old in Seattle" (perhaps because he was wearing an "Inslee for President" tee shirt.

Mountain Biking Near Leavenworth

The first Sunday in October, Henry and Dad enjoyed a sunny autumn day by driving up to Leavenworth and doing the Freund Canyon trail. It was an intense 1.5 hour climb up about 2,000 feet. After a short lunch we rode down - the downhill was designed to get down the mountain, with lots of banked turns and not too steep of a decline. As a result, it took only 25 minutes to go down!

Kayaking (Partly!) Across Lake Washington

On one of the last Saturdays in September, John and Mary Jo took advantage of a few-hour window of sunny weather to take the kayaks out one last time, and kayak from Bellevue across part of Lake Washington to Mercer Island, where we enjoyed a picnic lunch before kayaking back!