9. Seattle Weekend
The weekend started poorly. I arrived at National Airport about 90 minutes before my flight and discovered that US Airways had cancelled my ticket. I checked in on-line Thursday afternoon, but Friday I had no valid ticket. After several phone calls and a 45 minute wait, I had a ticket again and a crummy middle seat for the Philadelphia to Seattle flight. In Philadelphia, we sat on the ground in a massive queue of planes trying take off into the crowded Northeast US airspace. We finally took off 2-1/2 hours late and made it to Seattle at about 11:45 instead of 9:00.
As I said last week, I was more excited about spending the weekend with Paul than I was about Sock Camp. We've been friends since middle school. He was my first crush and first boyfriend. We were debate partners and orchestra stand-mates. He stood up in my wedding. Even though we haven't seen each other for 6 or 7 years, we caught up on the essentials in just a few minutes. As you can see, we've both changed a bit in the last 20 years (top: French IV class, spring 1988, bottom: last night). We had a fabulous time seeing Seattle, eating, cooking, sharing photos of our lives, and catching up.
Saturday, we joined 55,000 people at Safeco Field for Seeds of Compassion. His Holiness the Dali Lama was humble, insightful, and surprisingly funny. After the event, we enjoyed the sunshine and walked to downtown where we visited the public library and Pike's Place Market. Yum—snacks of squeaky cheese curds and Chinese buns, wild salmon for dinner and a glorious bunch of tulips for the table. I shared a picture of the Koolhaus hat I knit in December as part of explaining my glee at seeing the building that inspired a popular knitting project.
Sunday, Paul took me on a driving tour of his favorite Seattle places. We saw the University of Washington, the Fremont Troll, the arboretum, the 501st Legion in Gasworks Park, the Sip Canal Locks, boats, and rain. Paul cooked Saturday's wild salmon for dinner. Before dinner, we ate fabulous cheese and drank champagne.
After dinner we drove to St. Mark’s Cathedral for Compline. The service was a lovely contemplative end to a great weekend. After the service we took in a few more sights—the view from Queen Anne Hill and the Frank Ghery building at Seattle Center. Then we talked much to late since we had to wake up early this morning for Paul to go to work and me to catch the seaplane to Camp.
Edited April 15, 2008 to fix a few place names.
It looks like you haven't changed a lot in the last 20 years. Sure, your hair is shorter, but you're still wearing the same colored top and jeans.. And so is he!
Did USAir ever say what happened to your ticket? I had a flight delay on Saturday that got me stuck in SLC overnight due to "weather ground holds".. But I saw no bad weather anywhere along the route so I'm not sure what was up, really.
Posted by: Derek | 15 April 2008 at 10:51
Its so special to see your oldest friends.
Posted by: claudia | 15 April 2008 at 22:47
Hey, there's a picture of you on the Harlot's blog taking a picture of a sock monkey!
Posted by: Lucy | 21 April 2008 at 10:03
I wish I had been in town, it would have been nice to meet you - but I was in New York. Glad you had a good time - it's nice to see the touristy stuff of home. g
Posted by: gaylen | 25 April 2008 at 20:36
LOVE that older pic, I might have one or two laying around that have that same look :)
Posted by: Amy | 28 May 2008 at 12:51