Seattle Postcard No. Six - The Place

You thought I was done with Seattle? Hardly...(this is the last one)

Seattle Postcard No. 5 - The People

Ah, I know, this is so dragged-out, but we've been gone from home for five weeks - five weeks! - and so bear with me.  Our time in Seattle was absolutely about the people.  Space Needle? Too expensive. Ride a ferry? Didn't make it. We did share a lot of food, loved a lot on the baby, attended a backyard BBQ and made merry...

Bubs, Nils, and Helvi

Hey! We even saw my dad, Gramma Liz, Uncle Tim and Aunt Gen in Seattle!

Breakfast with Allie, who pampered us royally

Theo and Eliza

Breakfast at the Blue Star!

Rica Roo and Eliza

Darragh and Hans

the Rainier Beach crew, last night in Seattle

Leaving was almost as sad as the day we moved, and our car was nearly as full.  Driving south, toward Rainier, it was only easier because we didn't have anyone standing in the road, waving until we turned the corner, and we knew we were headed for more adventure on the road...like a wedding!

Seattle Postcard No. 4

These truly need to be postcards; we've reached our furthest point west - Oregon! For a wedding! - and I'm madly playing catch-up before we start our trip home.  These photos document our too-short time with friends we made while Eliza and their son, Cirrus, were yet-to-be-born.  The friendship was sealed during the first year of their lives, with long mama walks and the early days of figuring out together how to be parents.  The expectations were high for this gathering - the kids hadn't seen each other since they were five and "the littles" were two - but there was nothing to worry about.

Uneeda Burger

 We went to the zoo...

oh this picture...

We played games...

But mostly the kids made movies...

Puget Sound from Sunset Hill

 We took a short ferry out to spend the day at Jetty Island.  We had the most perfect weather...

Can you see Mt. Baker in the background?

A:  Mama, wanna make a heart with me?

M:  Mmmhmmm...Wow, you've drawn a pretty big heart for us to make...

A: It has to be big to hold all the love between you and me!

We were all maybe a little surprised at how well our families melded, and our hearts were heavy with the leaving.  It was a heavy joy, if that makes any sense...

Seattle Postcard No. 3

Just to be clear...we lived here for eleven years.  We decided to get married, had dozens of jobs, made life-long friendships, saw friends marry and divorce and re-marry, birthed our babies, all here.  It still feels like home.  Our youngest baby doesn't remember being here at all, but when I asked her what she thought of Seattle, this is more or less what she said:  all anyone would have to do is open their eyes and look and look and they would know what I love about being here - everything!  Ah, my heart. 

blackberry picking

Eliza and Finn

We landed with Bubbie's family, who I've written about here.  Bubbie was Our Person at our wedding, making sure everything on our list was checked off; she watched both of our babies be born, she's bossed Dan and I around at various jobs and will most likely be parked within earshot when we're all at our life's end.  Finding our feet with her and her sweet family was perfect, and I'm writing from her guestbed, having returned for a last refueling before we have our last weekend here.

Our next stop was with good friends who used to split their time between Wisconsin and Seattle, and we usually catch them on the midwestern swing.  The kids immediately fell into serious play - dress-up, stories, blackberry picking, art-making and general goofing about - while Jess and I run down our list of Things To Talk About, she with her i-phone and me with my notebook.  Food, books, self-care - I can't think that we got to it all though, talking a mile a minute, with all the laughing and food prep interspersed.  

They hosted shabbat dinner on Friday, with challah and crab cakes (remember the last post? That was a heck of a lot of crab...), salmon...

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We are really squeezing so much in.  Ani asked me the other day "what people are we doing today?" Oof.  For the rest of us who remember being here, we are reconnecting with our foundation, visiting places that live inside Who We Are.  Eliza and I visited our friend P, who lives in a magical garden apartment that used to be ours, and is where Eliza was born.  Friends met us at Seward Park to run around and share a sunny afternoon (see? sunny! in Seattle!).  So grateful for each of these opportunities to gather.

this captures it: eliza remembers our old neighbors, and ani is loving the dog.

We even managed to see friends that we made while living in Richmond! They were the other Seattle transplants in our neighborhood, and it was lovely to see them in their home.

These postcards are about all I can manage right now, to share a bit and to secure some placeholders for sorting through our memories after we get home! Thank you for bearing with me...