Day 21: Seattle expanded

What a great weekend!



Friday night Paul and I joined Kari and her kids and Lyndsay for dinner. As soon as dinner was over Kari, Kaela, Lyndsay and I headed out for Seattle, while Paul stayed behind to be with the rest of Kari’s kids for the weekend. We love Kari and her family. For both of us this was a great weekend! Paul got to hang out with her two boys and her youngest daughter (who baked for them all weekend) and I got to hang out with Kari and her oldest daughter, Kaela. The only sad part was that Doug, her husband, was in Alberta working…we would have loved to hang out with him as well. Kari and Doug did our premarital and we so appreciate them.


Anywys, Friday night the 4 of us headed out to Seattle. We had the strangest line of questioning at the border. The border guard first asked Kari to introduce everyone in the van (I’ve definitely never been asked that before). When he asked how we all knew each other, she said we were friends from church. He asked the name of our church. Then the denomination. Kari said, “Charismatic”. He asked if it was kind of Pentecostal. She said yes. He asked if we spoke in tongues. Kari said “some people do”. It was all very strange. I’ve definitely never been asked that before! Not entirely sure of the relevance for ent4ring the country – though I assume he was trying to ask random questions to throw us off in case we were lying about anything. We arrived at our hotel in Bothell at about 10:30. We checked in and then hung out in the cozy beautiful lobby for a few hours, drinking free coffee and hot chocolates and laughing. We went back to our room for manicures and conversation and finally started to go to bed around 2:30am. It was great but oh so late!


Saturday we woke up and were overjoyed to discover that the free continental breakfast was actually a real breakfast! Eggs, Sausage, Potatoes, Waffles…it was an excellent surprise! After breakfast we headed to downtown Seattle to see Pike Place Market, the Space Needle and Elliot Bay Bookstore. We had a lovely time! I love Pike Place Market. If I lived in Seattle I would have a lot more fresh flowers! Some might say that the Market and Granville Island were similar but they don’t feel the same to me. Around two we decided to stop being tourists and headed to Everett for lunch at the Olive Garden (mmmm soup, salad and breadsticks) and Trader Joes. Afterwards we made our way to Marysville to go to Costco and Seattle’s Premium Outlets. We were all very successful in our shopping! I got all the groceries I wanted AND two dresses! We slowly made our way home stopping at Target and Jack in the Box in Burlington. I did not realize that Jack in the Box was so awesome. Also you get to order for yourself on a touch screen. It was excellent…and my pita wrap was better than any other snack wrap I’ve had at a fast food joint. We finally made it home around 11:30. We relieved Paul of his kid sitting duties, unloaded our vehicles and Paul and I were home, unpacked and watching SNL by 12:45.


The trip was not just wonderful because of all of our shopping and sightseeing but also because of the great company and conversation. It was such a treat to be away with 3 women I so enjoy! It didn’t matter how we split up or if we were all together all the time, we could all have great conversations. That is a rare and wonderful thing!


Today is very slow at work but I have tons of productive things to do for keeping my life organized, so it’s nice to get a head start on that. My arm is sore from typing so I’m going to sign off for now.