Hangin' in Seattle

First cousins - they are all 6 weeks apart in age.

A short entry from the hinterlands.....

I am currently ensconced at my mother’s house in Seattle, enjoying some down time, and spending a lot of time with family. (I have 7 brothers and sisters.) The boy is thrilled to be here, as he has a mess of cousins about his own age, so any activities he wants to do need to involve them. It is fine, but we have not been able enjoy some of the finer things that Seattle has to offer. We have however visited the Experience Music Project, the Science Fiction Museum, and the Space Needle, among others.

A view of downtown Seattle from the Space Needle.



The nuts that hold the Space Needle in place.

We are able to visit one of my favorite eateries, Ivar’s Salmon House, which specializes in what else but salmon. They use nothing but the finest, freshest wild caught salmon from the northwest. Everything is cooked over alder wood fires, as was the Northwest Native tradition. Needless to say, the food was excellent. The boy loves salmon, and has since his early childhood, normally when we go to a restaurant; he orders a grilled cheese sandwich. No so this time, instead he ordered the salmon ‘sampler’ with pieces of King, Coho and Chinook salmon on a bed of greens with local produce on the side. When ask by the waiter how he liked it, his reply was “If there is a heaven, I think that I have found it.”

I managed to arrange a together last night with a handful of old high school friends for a drink and a knosh at a local restaurant. A couple of them I had not seen in perhaps 30 years. Thanks to classmates.com a number of them have come out of the wood work lately, and I able to arrange a little gathering for a handful. The fun part was that a couple of them never really know each other in high school, it was a huge school with over 600 in the graduating class, but everyone had enough friends in common that no one was left out and we all had a great time. In fact we closed down the bar we were in and the conversations continued in the parking lot for some time afterwards. We vowed to do this again next year when I am in town, and also try to shake a few more people out of the woodwork. It will be my 40th reunion next year, so it may be easier to shake them out.



A few old friends mugging for the camera.

As I write this, I am about to head off to the grocery store to shop for the big camping trip. We head up north tomorrow to an area near Concrete, Washington. I’ll give you one guess how the town got its’ name. It is situated in the foot hills of the Cascade Mountains, in the shadow of Mount Baker, surely god’s country when it comes to beauty and ruggedness. But first before we drive up there I have to pick up Mrs. at the airport at 11am. She is flying in from Boston on a 6am flight, having returned today from several days in Washington DC at a training session. The poor woman is going to be in total exhaustion and culture shock.

Ok, it is off to the grocery for me …