For this summer in Seattle, we saw and revisited a lot of sites with family and friends.
For a few days over the 4th, Nate’s parents, Nancy and John, as well as Nate’s sister Janine and her family gathered together with us at my parent’s place. We visited the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, took them to Pike Place Market, and also went out kayaking. For Independence Day, we had a great BBQ, and some friends of my parents invited us over to sit on their balcony and watch all of the fireworks going off.
Getting all three trailers in there was a bit of a tight squeeze, but we did it!
I’ll leave this section short, but suffice it to say, it was great creating a family reunion memory having everyone together.
At the end of July, we convinced our new friends Stacy and Justin (from optingoutofnormal.com) who we met at Hayspur, Idaho and traveled to Yellowstone with to come up and join us as well.
We went out and revisited many of the sites we’d seen to share with them, as well as several new ones, including going to the Market, Alki, Kerry Park, the Space Needle, the Locks, kayaking, and a ferry ride. We ate at lots of neat places, played a lot of Ingress while out exploring the surrounding area, and we got a lot of projects taken care of.
The Space Needle had just recently undergone a restoration, so it was a new experience for us when we visited it with them. The observation area is all glass now, and you can lean out against the glass and look down. The area that used to be the rotating restaurant is now a rotating glass floor section. Very cool for visiting late at night, which is when we went.
When we went to the Market, we planned the arrival before anything had opened so we could get some coffee (Joe Chocolate Co makes a great mocha!) and explore the area before it got busy, and then watched it fill up with vendors and become a bustling zoo of people.
We did things like visit several breweries including going for Trivia night, get Justin through a Ham Radio exam to get his Technician License, and eat Rolled Ice Cream.
We had a lot of fun. We were able to show them the more intimate side of Seattle, and then we left the area together over Labor Day weekend. We’re still with Justin and Stacy right now traveling to new places.
This trip to Seattle, Nate and I had VIP tickets to see Weird Al, on his Strings Attached Tour. We got to have a picture with him, and have a couple of personal items signed. The concert was in the Paramount Theater in Seattle, which was so beautiful. Totally awesome time.
AND… since this part is about Friends and Family… Mica gets an update too. The poor girl tore an ACL in her left back leg at some point between Newport and Seattle. So… she got ANOTHER surgery! She’s so worth it though. Hopefully it’ll be the last for a long time.