Seattle's Best

The last time I was in this city was, gulp, 22 years ago for a wedding of my mom's cousin, and it seems that wedded bliss would bring us back. An old high school friend of my mom's son was getting married, and my mom graciously decided to take me along. 

The plan was for my parents to pick me up and then from my dad's office downtown, my mom and I would hop on Marta for the rest of the trip. They arrived bright and early at my house by 7am, and due to the amazing lack of traffic, made it downtown to the office in 16 minutes flat. Unprecedented. So, unprecedented that I texted Ryan with the news of this amazing feat. I'm sure he was rolling his eyes all the way in Paris. Yes, he was in Paris, again. Without me. Again. But I digress.

We made it down to the airport with no trouble, but this was not to last. The line at security was longer than I am used to, but moving smoothly. Once past the ID and boarding pass checker person, I made, MADE, sure that we would not be in a line with the body scanners. Not that I mind the body scanners, they just take longer to get through. Anywho, so my mom gets through the metal detector just fine and just as I am about to walk through, I get the evil eye and redirected to the body scanner. D'oh! As soon as I get through the body scanner and the all clear, I see another evil eye, and this time, the evil eye was accompanied by blue latex gloves. Pat down. Double d'oh. Not horrible, but I did feel like shouting out 'Stranger, Danger' a couple of times. Finally, after a weird fingerprint swipe, I was allowed to move along. 

Luckily, since we were departing from the A gates, we walked to the terminal and got settled in. I purchased my obligatory Starbucks and magazine purchases that is my airport ritual. And then it was time to board. Thankfully, we got on early enough to be able to put my mom's carry-on in the overhead bin that was right over us. So, I'm sitting there watching people get on, and the person that actually ends up behind me is someone that works in my office building. I had actually had a meeting with her earlier in the week. Small world. Finally, take-off. I have mentioned that I LOVE to fly? Take off and landings are my absolute favorite parts. I noticed that we would have to go through some cloud cover and anticipated a rougher take off than usual. Call me a freak, but I even enjoy a little bit of turbulence. Apparently, this was rougher than normal as the captain had to ask that the flight crew remain seated. This is what we had just cleared after the announcement.

Can I just say that the weather was probably one of my favorite things about the city? It's almost July and the high for our stay was 68. Sunny, breezy and no humidity. LOVE IT!

After checking into the hotel and changing for the night's activities, my mom's cousin took us down to the marketplace. On the way there she asked if we were hungry. Well, der. Look who she's asking. She then asked the golden question: Do you like macaroni and cheese? A woman after my own heart. So she guided us into Beecher's Handmade Cheese, where I got sample fresh curds, and she bought me a serving of their mac and cheese. My butter literally melted when I tasted what could only be described as heaven. 

I'll spare the details of what my mom and cousin got from the market for the faint of stomach, but if anyone has ever been to dim sum with my family, then you get the picture. We then walked around the marketplace, saw the flying fish people, and the flowers, omg, the flowers. They were absolutely gorgeous. Bright, colorful, and the best part, CHEAP. There was nothing over $25, but would have been 100+ here. We also saw the first ever Starbucks, which, of course, was beyond crowded.

We finished out our night with a dance recital that my mom's cousin's daughters were dancing in.

We got an early start the next morning, making our first stop at Starbucks. Then they took us to the University of Washington to take look-see, since I mentioned that if the school happened to be on the job market, Ryan would be interested in interviewing with them.

School of Business

School of Art

After the university, we stopped for lunch at, what else, a seafood place. Unfortunately, I forgot my asian-ness for a bit and didn't take a picture of my meal, but it was great. We then continued our tourist trek and went out to the Space Needle. We actually spent more time in line than at the top. I'm not a huge fan of heights, but can usually handle them pretty well. I did get a little weak kneed looking over the edge a couple of times.

After the Space Needle, we headed out to the cemetery to pay respects to my mom's Aunt and Uncle, and after that my cousins asked if we wanted to go see Bruce Lee's grave. Bruce Lee is buried in Seattle? Who knew. On the way to that cemetery, we stopped at this hillside park with an amazing view.

And finally, the reason for why we were in Seattle in the first place. Wedding! I heart wedding

And because this post is already taken too long to write and too long to read. I will end this very succinctly. Don't ever get in a security line at the airport where the person at the machine is "in-training". 

A great trip with great weather and great people! Thanks mom for taking me along!