A Wee Little Weekend Jaunt...to Seattle

Wow. That is a seriously LONG drive.  But we made it! My brother Adam and his fam moved to Seattle over the summer, and since Smith, Stomper's cousin/best buddy, was getting baptized we knew we needed to make the trek. We packed up the car and took off on Thursday evening, slightly later than we meant to, but hey, since we arrived just as my brother and his family were getting up, it was perfect timing.  Turns out that Troy and I have aged....missing a night or two of sleep takes a serious toll unlike the old college days.  But we survived, and wouldn't have missed it for anything.

There's so much to say about this trip - we were only in town for four days but had many adventures and expereinces.  Adam and Whit bought a beautiful new-but-looks-old cedar shingle house on the eastern coast of Bainbridge Island, just a ferry ride away from down town Seattle.  (Thou shalt not covet.  Thou shalt not covet.  I'm just going to keep repeating that and hope it sinks in at some point.)

My parents came as well as Whit's parents and sister, and we all had a great time together.  We walked down to the seashore a couple of times to dig for clams, hunt for sea stars, throw rocks and poke at all the squishy things on the sand.  We rode the ferry into town to have dinner with our beloved Durhams; we had these awesome Cuban sandwiches made in a pink plywood shack by the sea.  We toured the island's farmer's market.  We ate THE best ice cream I have ever had in my life. (Mora's.  I had the dark chocolate mint, followed by many tastes of my daughter's chocolate peanut butter with oreo.  Unreal.)  We played at parks and walked through the green forests of Bainbridge.  We went to Smith's soccer game, we went to his baptism.

Funny Story: at church on Sunday I noticed sitting on a pew a manuel written in Korean, but didn't see its owner.  At the baptism I saw who I assume is the owner of the Korean Sunday School manuel and it turned out to be a man who served in the same mission that I did - how random!  I've never bumped into a Korean person from my mission ever, then I go to Bainbridge Island and there is good old Kim Shi Oon.  It was fun to see him, not that we knew each other well on the mish, but hey - fun!  And he didn't even ask me to speak the language, which was a relief.  He did comment on the fact that I was slightly more slender way back when, which I appreciated him pointing out.  Classic. 

So yes, Troy and I are once again daydreaming about job-hunting in the north-west.  We so love spending time with my brother and his family.  Of course, that would mean moving away from my sister and parents, Troy's whole family, and being even farther away from my other brother Peter.  So, it has its downsides too, but man - what a beautiful place!  We had perfect weather all weekend, and then on Monday it rained the classic Seattle rain - very steady and misty and we didn't get as wet as I expected to.  We spent that day with Kathleen Durham walking Pike's Place Market, which the kids were enamoured with, then eating yummy seafood down by the waterfront.  Stomper chose squid.  That boy, I love him, I'll tell you!

I don't think I can do much else but post a slew of photos.  We had a wonderful time!