Seattle, WA

My Dad has 4 sisters (Kate, Elizabeth, Ellen and Theresa) and a sister in law (Joyce) that made the pilgrimage to the Pacific Northwest at different times in the past 30 years. I have always wanted to visit and Bob and I were able to make that happen this past weekend.

My Aunt Kate and Uncle Jim graciously welcomed us into their home for the long weekend. Talk about an upgrade to our recent digs!—a great house on Puget Sound with a view and a downstairs guest apartment to ourselves. Even Deefur was allowed in, despite Jim and Kate’s obvious resolve to maintain a calm, clean, and dog free household. This gesture was very much appreciated. So we arrived on Thursday evening and sat on the deck enjoying some wine, chatting, and had a late dinner of Spaghetti with Clams. Like Grandma and the rest of the Cadwells, Kate can impressive spreads this weekend that really deserve their own blog, but Bob and I thought it a bit much to take photos at the table.

We slept in a little on Friday and then headed downtown on the bus to Pioneer Square. We had lunched at the Owl N Thistle Pub, which was quite good. I had also read online about a tour called the cook. She laid out some “Seattle Underground” that takes you below the street level in Pioneer Square where the city used to lie prior to the great Seattle fire (round about 1890? So much for learning something on the tour) The guide told lots of off colored jokes (toilet humor that knocked Bob’s socks off) and enlightened us to the not so savory beginnings of Seattle. Anyways, many details can be obtained when you too go to Seattle and take the tour, but in short it’s an underground walkway system that used to be the 1^st floor of buildings and they just built right on top of it after the fire. After the tour, we browsed around cute little shops, bookstores, etc. But, the real work was done in our quest to hit as many coffee shops as possible. The chill in the air really does inspire rampant coffee drinking and I was shaking when we arrived back at Kate’s.

Again we had another great meal and an inspiring discussion. Jim and Kate are our new adventure heroes! They are seriously tough with some of the backpacking trips they’ve taken. We called it a night and Bob got up early Saturday to play golf with Jim… I slept in and then hit the Pike Place Market with my Aunt Elizabeth and her two youngest children, Matt and Hannah. What a cool place! I thought it was going to be some fish shop on the corner and that’s about it. Instead I was blown away by block after block of stalls selling fresh seafood, fruit, flowers, pasta, coffee, fish and chip joints, bakeries. The works. Just about anything you could want. There was quite a crowd, but we weren’t looking for anything in particular so we just wandered. I picked up some souvenirs, including a Pike Place apron that I’m hoping legitimizes me as a cook, and we had fish and chips at the Athenian which is apparently an old classic.

On Saturday night Jim and Kate hosted all the aunts, their spouses, and children for a get together. Bob and I had fun catching up with everyone, drinking wine, hearing old stories, and sharing a meal. It was cool to see all the Northwestern Cadwell’s “in their element”.

On Sunday, Kate, Bob, and I went to the Ballard market where we picked up fresh salmon for our last supper and browsed for fruits and veggies. Then we headed to Discovery Park, which is a lovely walk from Kate’s house through the locks and fish ladders. (I’m still trying to understand all that business myself, so I won’t elaborate except to say this is how the salmon gets from salt to freshwater for spawning). The walk then goes through Discovery Park which is out on a point with a lighthouse and real nice views from the bluffs. That walk really took it out of Bob and I, but we mustered up the energy to catch some horse races at Emerald Downs in the late afternoon.

Big losers once again. We ended a great weekend with a salmon feast on Sunday night and then headed out early Monday morning. Kate had prepared some frozen meals and snacks to send with us, so we are at our new campsite on the Chewuch River tonight and we just had a delicious beef stew. Bob commented on our way out of Seattle that this weekend had been his best “guest/host” experience and I must agree.