Washington Part 3 - Huskers & Family

Ok, so finally we got to the whole reason we made this trip. Yes, I used Nebraska football to get myself to Seattle. It was Ben's entire reason for going and thankfully the Huskers did us proud. It was a logistical mess to get ourselves to the game, so nearly all of Saturday morning was consumed with getting ourselves to the place where a bus would transport us to the game. The bus system was running late but thankfully we made it to our seats with 5 minutes left until kickoff, phew!

There was a lot of "T-Magic"

and this is the stadium. It had an amazing view of the lake and although I didn't take any of these photos, it was actually a bright, warm and sunny day.

We sat on the side in the shade (in the photo above) about the 40 yard line and not too high up. They were great seats and besides for some odd folks sitting near us, we had a wonderful time.

The crowd was at least 1/3 red and by the end of the game (56-21 final score) there were more people wearing red then purple left in the stadium. It was pretty cool. We even had the wave going around the stadium.

Then, in the after glow of the win, we drove across the state, through the Cascades to Eastern Washington. The rolling, arid farm land that is home to my great aunt Dorothy, my cousin Kay, her husband Dennis and their son and his family.

I kid you not, I've spent many years dreaming and scheming how I could get myself to this place. Growing up, Dorothy and sometimes Kay would come to visit in Kansas. Dorothy and Kay were always "fancy" to me when I was growing up. They would FLY here and wear SILVER jewelry and they had a SWIMMING POOL and a house with an ELEVATOR. I thought they were amazing and beyond "cool". But, now that I'm an adult, I understand them so much better and while the "fancy" adjective has worn off, I would describe them as beautiful, charming and gracious.

It was wonderful to see their farm. Farming where it rains 5 inches a year and the soil is mostly volcanic ash is a far cry from farming in Central Kansas. With irrigation though, they have been able to diversify their crops which still include a lot of wheat and barley, but also potatoes, peas, cannola and rape seed.

Thanks for hosting us Kay and Dennis!

On our way off the farm toward Spokane to fly home, there was a crew picking spuds (or potatoes to the rest of us). It was fascinating to watch.

What a trip! And sadly, now that we are two weeks past when this trip began, it seems like something that happened a long time ago. Life keeps marching us forward and making time and space to enjoy these memories is not as easy as I would hope.

Washington Part 3 - Seattle Day Two

Our second day in Seattle was beautiful.

We walked a few blocks down from our hotel to Pioneer Square and stumbled upon a local bakery and coffee shop.

I think it took me a good 5 minutes to decide what to order. The pastry options all looked amazing.

In the end I couldn't make up my mind so I ordered two things. The cinnamon roll - I'm almost always a sucker for a cinnamon roll - and a peach almond tart, with a mocha to drink.

Ben had a sausage egg biscuit sandwich and a coffee. That food, plus a newspaper and an interesting atmosphere with local folks coming and going, it was the perfect start to the day.

Then, we walked just a little bit further down the street and came to a vintage pottery shop called Laguna Pottery and it was my heaven on earth. I think it was the highlight of my time in Seattle - call my crazy, but it's true. They shipped these items to me!

Megan, check out the LuRay!

It was wonderful and the owner was friendly and down-to-earth.

Then we were off to Pike Place!

There's a blur in the middle of the photo below...it's a flying fish. :-)

After we took in all of Pike Place - surrounded by Husker fans, seriously there were people wearing red everywhere. Then, we hopped on the monorail to head to City Center

which is where the Space Needle is. Did you know is costs $18 to go to the top? Yep, so we skipped that.

City Center is also where the Experience Music Project is. We didn't pay to go inside but the outside was pretty cool.

There's also an amazing (and huge) fountain there.

See, I told you Husker fans were everywhere. They even left their mark on a parking sign.

Back to Pike Place - this guy was nuts. Harmonica in mouth, spinning the entire time to balance the guitar on top of the harmonica, playing the other guitar and he kept the hoola hoops going the whole time.

Can you see the Nebraska flag hanging off the balcony in the background?

For dinner we met up with Christine Thimm, a friend from Bethel. She's new to Seattle so we came up with some options and finally decided on 88 Keys, a dueling piano bar. It was interesting, but in the end the performers were amazing. They could play and sing any song thrown at them, it was ca-RAY-zy.

Washington Part 2 - Seattle Day One

We got to Seattle around 10:30 in the morning, took the train from the airport to downtown and then walked the 5 or so blocks to our hotel. Even on the airplane we could tell there were going to be a lot of Nebraska fans in Seattle. There were probably 15 Husker fans on our flight alone that day. I hadn't realized it, but my red camera bag/purse helped to identify me as part of that crowd. We checked into our hotel, put our stuff down, checked out all the views and then decided to head out and see what was near by.

Just down the street was Pike Place Market. I bet every person who visits Seattle says this but I'll say it too - that place was amazing.

We had been told to make sure and get some Beecher's mac and cheese, so we did and it was AMAZING.

They make the cheese right there, you can see it through huge windows and Beecher's is just across the street from Pike Place.

We quickly walked through Pike Place, but since we knew we'd return the next morning for a full visit we moved on pretty fast to go and catch the ferry. We had planned to take a ferry across the lake to Bainbridge Island, mostly to get out on the water, see the skyline, and get a feel for how a ferry works.

It was cloudy and rainy, but at least we could see the entire Space Needle.

The ferry was very relaxing and Ben promptly fell asleep. It was quiet and rocked just ever so slightly. If I wasn't determined to take pictures, I probably would have fallen asleep too.

So, while he slept I snapped a bunch of photos of this sail boat.

On Bainbridge, you just walk about 5 minutes to get to all the shops on their Main Street. Very cute, well kept and expensive.

So, we looked around for a while and then decided we'd rather catch the ferry leaving in 10 minutes then stick around in Bainbridge for the next hour. So, we hightailed it back to the dock just in time to catch a ride back to the city.

There were wonderful houses along the water, it was fun to see them and wonder how life right next to a lake would be.

Back in Seattle we saw this fireboat and had to take a picture for our boys.

We walked through Ye Old Curiosity Shop, ate some fish and chips and then we went back to our hotel room to rest for a little bit. See, those are the stadiums - I told you we could see them from our room.

After we took naps, we headed out for supper and ended up at a Mexican restaurant. We were the only 2 there, which was weird and the food wasn't very good - I guess that's why we were the only two there.