Coffee Creek

My Aunt Mollie grew up in Trinity Center. Her father who acquired this cabin from his half brother's wife gave this property to Mollie and Dan so they would have a private place to stay when visiting.  I personally think he was a very smart man and knew this would be a ideal way to be sure to see his only daughter every summer.  Dan & Mollie lived in San Francisco during the school year as he was a work shop teacher and she was a school secretary.  Every summer they spent up at Coffee Creek at their cabin.  Talk about the best of both worlds!

My Uncle Dan was my fathers only brother and he was several years older than my Dad.  After serving in the military he settled down in San Francisco where his mother's brother lived and went to college where he met Mollie McDonald.  They married and had two sons John who is 6 months younger than I and Ron who is about 3 years younger than us.  

When we lived in Seattle my Aunt, Uncle, and 2 cousins came up to visit us and we all went to the World's Fair and up the Space Needle in 1962.  In 1964 my Father took my brother and myself down to Coffee Creek by car to visit them.  That was my first visit to Coffee Creek.  Lily refused to go as my sister Traci was only 6 months old and there was not any electricity in the cabin.  That might have been a little tough trying to wash all those diapers!  Lily definitely was not into adventure or being out in the country.  As she said she had enough of that growing up on a farm in Ireland.

My next trip to Coffee Creek was not until 1980 the year I graduated from college.  On the way to Arizona my friend Terry and I spent 3 weeks traveling out west and one of our stops was Coffee Creek.  Since we did not have a set itiniary I could not give my Aunt and Uncle a definite date.  We arrived the night before they had planned to head back to SF after giving up on us. Fortunately they were kind enough to wait one more day before leaving so we could enjoy being there at the cabin.

It would be another 12 years before I visited Coffee Creek again.  This time with Dan and the kids.  Emily was about 4 and Ryan about 6 months old.  What I remember most about this visit was Emily walking directly behind a horse that belonged to my Aunt's brother Bud and we were so thankful the horse did not kick her.

So here I am again about 16 years later with my kids who are now grown up.  Only this time my two cousins Ron and John are with me along with John's wife Sue and Ron's girlfriend Mary.  We have not been at the cabin together since we were little.  The sad thing is that my Uncle Dan is no longer with us having died back in 2008.

The bridge crossing the creek over to the cabin.

The water was pretty fast moving with the temperatures being on the cool side lately which has made for a late thaw.

Me looking down on the cabin and the garden from the hill going up to the water irrigation ditch.

The last picture of my Uncle taken in SF just a few months before he died.  I was there to run my first marathon at the Womens Nike event. This was my last visit with my Uncle.