Seattle in a Hurry

We spent a long weekend in Seattle – primarily to go to a friend’s wedding but also to see as many family and friends as possible since this is likely to be our last trip until Thanksgiving – say wha?!

In all honesty, even though I keep referring to this trip as our “Seattle trip” we didn’t actually go to Seattle, proper. In fact, I didn’t even SEE the Emerald City from the freeway (locals – we took 90 to 405 bypassing downtown). I know what you’re thinking: What the f? I know, me too. I had lofty plans of spending time at Pike Place stocking up on my spices from Market Spice, snagging some fruit rolls from my favorite produce stall, getting a chicken sandwhich from Michou, buying myself flowers. I also had dreams of going to Uwajimaya, walking through Westlake, visiting the Fremont Farmer’s Market.

Beyond the Seattle scene, I had dreams of visits in the North End. Terracotta Red for Empress Chow Mein, wine tasting at Sojen, Port Gardner Bay and Wicked, craft beers and the hummus platter from Balefire, shopping at Country Village and Downtown Snohomish, a coffee from Espresso Avenue, soup from Sno Co-Op, blackberry jelly from Aldrich Farms, cocktails at Tulalip Resort.

These are some of the little things – the tastes and scenes of a place we used to call home.

I did none of these things. Except a little shopping in Snohomish before the wedding.

Am I sad? Yes. Do I wish I could have spent a month in Seattle instead of just four days? Yes. Do I miss the people and the places with all of my heart? Yes.

So what DID we do? Well, that my friends, THAT is the happy part. And in case you were wondering why we didn’t do any of the things I just mentioned, it’s because we were too busy doing all the amazing things we did get to do. Quite simply, there isn’t time for everything.

Back in the Sound

After driving 12.5 hours from Ogden, UT to Everett, WA I met my mom for early morning rowing. No big deal that I’d been awake since 5am the day before, a quick coffee and we were at the docks at 7:30 am to meet with the Everett Rowing Association for novice crew. My mom is going up for the novice level team and I was lucky enough to get to ride around in the launch boat with the coach as they did their practice/tryout. They do this three days a week and I believe the team will be chosen in the next few weeks. I learned a lot about rowing (and life, strangely enough – more on that to come) while I was out on the water with the team.

I thought perhaps a nap was in order after rowing but no-sir-ee-bob! We were immediately back on the water in Nick’s parents boat to go crabbing out on the Sound.

We had a blast fishing (I caught a shark!) and crabbing for a few hours out in the sunshine.

Crab for dinner? Yes please!

I’m Six Now

Mackenzie turned five on July 19th and we had a small celebration at our house in Utah. I kept telling him that we would have his “real birthday party” while we were in Seattle. Unfortunately, I didn’t explain this well enough and he was under the impression that it was a whole new birthday and he was now turning six.

He wasn’t too thrilled when the party-attendees told him he was five. “It’s my birthday and I’ll cry if I want to…”

After the you’re five/no I’m six misunderstanding was settled, the party was a great deal of fun. Angry birds, piñatas, and croquet – what’s not to love?

Wedding Bells are Ringing

Our friends got married at a small country barn in the outskirts of Snohomish. Because Nick and I both lived in the Greek system during college, pretty much every wedding we go to is a college reunion. This was no different and we had a blast seeing everyone. Can you believe these are the only photos we managed to take?

I love weddings. I cry at every single one and then I dance my butt off during the reception. By dance, I mean I hop around for hours upon hours because I don’t actually know how to dance but I do know how to have fun

Wash, Rinse, Repeat

We stayed the night at our friends’ house after the wedding and didn’t get home to the beach house until mid morning on Sunday. I don’t know what I was thinking on the way home. I was exhausted and wanted to sleeeeeeeep but I also really wanted a coffee. One iced latte later, back at the beach house and heading into bed, Nick’s mom asked if I wanted to go out on the boat. Yawn, stretch, slurp down that coffee. You only live once.

Showers are for the birds. I simply changed out of my wedding attire (yep, forgot to pack PJs for the night before) and headed to the marina. I did at least wash my face. Nick’s mom thought her new bait was attracting the larger fish – I know the truth. Aroma-de-Kim was more appealing to the fishies than any rubber worm has ever been.

Coolest boat launch of all time!

Nick’s parents keep their boat just up-river from the sound and you simply call and tell the boat host that you are on your way, they bring your boat out on a forklift and put it in the water, gas you up and set you up with any fishing/crabbing bait desired and you’re on your way.

Bring your boat back and they meet you at the dock and take your boat out once again. This way, your boat isn’t just hanging out in salt water all the time and you still have really easy access to your boat any ol time you feel like heading out – no getting it on a trailer, unloading, finding parking, walking back to the boat – ie: nonsense. None of that nonsense.

We caught a boat load of crab (no pun intended?) and headed back in to meet up the rest of our humongous family for a dinner at the great grandparents house.

A feast! Pot roast, crab, salmon… I ate five dinners worth of food – at least.

Salmon

Did I mention the salmon? We had salmon every single day that we were in Seattle. Salmon for Mackenzie’s birthday party, salmon for the wedding, salmon at the family dinner.

Salmon, salmon, salmon. Heaven, heaven, heaven.

Hit the Road Jack

Back on the road to Utah. Is it just me or does coming home from an adventure always seem to take so much longer than heading out on an adventure?

Even Muffin Dog was over the whole car ride thing.

Post-Partum Depression

Post- partum – as in post part-with-them, right? Admittedly, since coming home from Seattle/Everett I’ve been in a bit of a slump. It was so much fun being home having our family around, seeing our friends and just hanging out with people. I’ve tried meeting people here in Utah, tried making new friends. It is harder that one might have thought. The connections, they just… haven’t come.

A blog I read is called Homesick Texan – she recreates the tastes and memories of life in Texas as she currently resides in New York. I’ve written before about how tastes and recipes can carry a lot of emotion with them. Perhaps that is why I spent our first day back in Utah making Cabbage Soup. A hundred degrees out and I’m making soup as if its the middle of winter. It tastes like home. Close my eyes and pretend there’s a drizzle outside, a grey sky wrapping us up like a blanket, friends and family just down the street.

Someday… Someday we’ll call this place home again.