So, I went to Seattle. In April.
Part, the First: The Blathering
My trip was to meet up with internet friends, who aren't even "internet friends" at this point anymore, but just friends (thanks Hillary) who have an annual ladies weekend, and it has become a highlight of my year. It's a "conference" in the sense that it involves meeting people and having dinners and drinks and shopping and hanging out, so, that's to say, not a conference at all. Just a fun weekend with friends.
I roomed with Hillary and Sarah, both of whom I adore. They are smart and funny and wise and easy, which, for me these days, is about the best thing someone can be. A group of us rode the ferris wheel and looked at the seattle waterfront and I didn't even panic at all because I am a super cool and collected person in all situations.
We had a dinner party at Maggie's house and ate delicious food and had blathering signature cocktails and I spent some quality time with Elizabeth on the bathroom floor, not in a college drunk way but in a solid friendship Feelings way because hello, we are in our thirties. I am sad to say I did not exit Maggie's deck on the slide, because dat ass.
We rode a party bus called I Have a Woody or something equally phallic-and-trying-too-hard (I looked it up. Big Woody's. I juuuuuust realized the interior of the bus has wood paneling, and now I appreciate that this is a legit pun.
We ate dim sum (legit! I have never done that before) and had a wonderful hilarious talk about the ages of blogging gone by (ages of yore!) and laughed til we cried and also I would like to eat a whole plate of bbq pork buns right now, please and thanks.
We also went up into a skyscraper and looked down on the city, and look at that space needle down there! Can't you imagine how tall and futuristic it must have seemed in the sixties?
We had a farewell dinner with the most bizarre pie situation that has ever pie'd: pie by the slice, one per plate, served four at a time to a table of ten, with question marks on our faces. And then repeated ten minutes later. And then again ten minutes after that. And then I laughed so hard I cried. And I could write a whole post of just the pie, playing it out moment by moment, yet I still don't think any words could accurately convey the insanity.
Pie. If you say it enough times it gets really funny again, even months later. PIE.
And then everyone left town, and I had a day of quiet, which was lovely, and then Another Nathan landed.
Part, the Second: Another Nathan
A year ago when Nathan was in the throes of making a job decision, and I was signing up for the blathering, we loved the idea of a friendcation in Seattle, no matter where he was living come spring, and it turns out we actually made it happen! It worked great for him to fly out after church on Sunday right as my ladies weekend was ending, and we had a fantastic time together.
We had a foodie dinner with his favorite aunt (who lives in Olympia), we had top pot donuts for our coffee dates (more than once), we drank ginger beer, we walked through a sculpture park, we rode the monorail, and I told him a thousand more stories about Frasier than he actually wanted to hear.
And! We wandered through Pike Place market and made our pilgrimage to the original Starbucks.
We also went into this wonderful paper store, and I got lost in there for quite some time picking out letterpress cards and hand-bound books and notepads.
We had lunch in the revolving tower restaurant at the top of the space needle which was surprisingly kind of awesome in its cheesiness. We got to walk around outside (that viewing area at the top is outside, y'all) and then eat spendy cheeseburgers while spinning in a circle and reading post-it notes left on the window from other tables who had passed by. Pure tourist delightfulness.
We took a ferry out to Bainbridge Island and took a thousand pics of the skyline, including this wavy one Nathan took because panoramic pics are hard to do on a moving boat, yo.
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| oh, it makes me laugh |
And Bainbridge was lovely and calm and pretty, walked through town and down by the water and thoroughly enjoyed the walk and the boat ride alike.
One of my favorite things we did was take an Uber (ask me how many days it took Nathan to get over his Uber-cringing and concede that it's way awesomer than using a taxi) (all the days, is the answer) allll the way across downtown Seattle to the edge of Lake Washington, and into this tiny little glass-blowing store that Nathan'a aunt told us about, called Glassy Baby.
They make pretty jars for burning tealights, and they come out with new colors for different events and seasons, and they partner with a crap ton of charities and various cancer research fund, and the whole thing was very touchy feely fun and beautiful to see them blowing the glass and then light a bunch of jars to see which one makes you feeeeel what you want to feeeeel and then buy just the right ones for ourselves and for gifts and oh man it was just a lovely little shop and we had a delightful time, and they are such beautiful and warm souvenirs.
One of those things that makes me happy every time I look at it. Which is every day, even months later. I am watching it burn next to my computer as I type this, actually. Also, there is wine. That seems relevant, yes?
Anyway.
So it was a wonderful trip, and so great to be away from being a mom and a wife for a week. It was an awful trip home, a sleepless night by the Minneapolis airport before an early connection back, and a canceled flight, and so tired so many feelings much tears. But instead of dwelling on that I will just say that I've decided Seattle rain is a myth; it was sunny and gorgeous every day we were there until the last night, and then even the wet night was beautiful.
As Frasier would say: goodnight Seattle, we love you.
(Oh yes I did.)