A few days have passed since we returned home from Seattle. Time marches on quickly, but we’re trying to hold onto some of the good memories from the trip. The weather cooperated, we were able to connect with a number of relocated friends and get their Midwestern take on the Pacific Northwest. We didn’t get the sense that any of them were planning to leave any time soon – and it was easy to understand why.
As previous posts have shown, we hit a number of the top tourist spots – the Pike Place Market, the Space Needle, the ferry to Bainbridge Island, the Aquarium and even Ray’s. We (particularly James) enjoyed the various playgrounds that we found (Green Lake Park, Maple Leaf Park, Bainbridge Island and even at REI). I enjoyed seeing the surprisingly massive Mount Rainier looming in the distance when the skies were clear. I headed over the Redmond to visit the Microsoft campus – not surprisingly, it left me a bit confused and disappointed, much like most of their products. Our rental home was very good, which helped set us up for an enjoyable time – it was stocked with toys for James and kitchen gear for the adults – the location was very convenient. A good portion of the trip was spent just enjoying some quiet time, always important in our not-so-quiet lives with young’uns. Our massive GMC Acadia did the trick to get us around town, up and over the abundant hills and through the uncomfortably narrow streets that more often than not were the opposite of perpendicular … making it easy for us out-of-towners to get lost, even with GPS. When the time came to return to the airport, the Acadia’s girth helped inspire some confidence during a downpour in heavy early morning traffic.
We ate well, played lots, got a reasonable amount of sleep, and felt like we were going home too early. I don’t think that we could have really asked for much more than that.