Sunday and Monday, 03-Feb and 04-Feb-2019

 

Well, 2019 is turning out to be a pretty family-centric year, isn’t it?  We started out with Sarah’s family in Australia, and now my Mom and Steve are coming to visit!  Out plan was pretty ambitious, I’ll be the first to admit… but ambitious plans are the most exciting, right?

Our plan was to rest in Portland for a day, and then take the car up to Seattle for a few days, before heading back in Portland for a bit of rest and downtime before they had to fly back home.  Busy, but it’d be a chance for my Mom to finally see Seattle, and was a good way to make sure that we didn’t stagnate in one place too long.  And I’m happy to report that it went quite well!

 

Episode 1: Portlandian Adventures

Sunday and Monday, 03-Feb & 04-Feb-2019

 

The adventure began, as if often does, in the airport with a furry Wonder Woman walking at our heels.

Ollie doesn’t know that the airport is where people get on metal machines to thunder through the sky – all she knows is that the airport is a friend store.  We go there, and either pick up a friend who we haven’t seen in a while, or return a friend who’s been staying with us.  Either way, it’s a trip in the magic adventure box (the car), so she’s excited.  She’s less excited about the Wonder Woman costume that she has to wear… but I think she’s become accustomed to it by now.

 

My Mom and Steve landed in the evening on Sunday, so there honestly wasn’t that much for us to do that evening – aside from picking them up from the airport, the biggest excitement was making a quick dinner… which wasn’t that huge of an excitement, since they’d already had a snack before getting on the plane in San Francisco, but still.  Home cooked meals by Ben and Sarah!

 

The main game plan for the week was to relax, unwind, and go to Seattle!  My Mom and Steve hadn’t ever been there, so we were all super excited to spend some time exploring and seeing the sights.  Unfortunately Sarah had to stay home, in order to catch up on some work projects, but we still found a way to enjoy Seattle while staying out of too much trouble…

 

What’d we do in Seattle, you may ask?

• Chihuly Museum!  This was our main target for the trip – The famous Chihuly museum!  I’ll be honest and admit that I hadn’t heard of Chihuly before planning the trip, but once I looked into him I realized that I’ve seen his work everywhere!  Getting to see a full museum dedicated to his work, and specifically designed to showcase it, was an amazing experience.
• Space Needle!  We didn’t go up it, thanks to a slightly-ridiculous ticket price, but we wandered around the gardens at the base of the needle, and enjoyed the views that we got.
• The Seattle underground tour!  Bill Speidel, the probably-famous tour owner, puts on a great tour.  Or, I should say, his tour guides put on a great tour.  Our tour guide was amazing, is what I’m getting at.  The underground tour goes over Seattle’s history, including how the ground level was raised after a huge fire, and a tour of the secret tunnels underneath the city!  Though, there wasn’t a single necromancer, Chaos cult, or rum-running operation, so it was a bit of a bummer.
  Our tour guide rapped for us though, so that makes up for the lack of treasure I’ll say.
• Pike Place!  We explored Pike Place, and I learned that I was DECEIVED!  When Sarah, David and I went there I was lead to believe that it was only one level… conveniently the level with the flower vendors that Sarah wanted to see.  What I didn’t know was that there’s multiple levels underground!  With a comic book shop!
• So much food!  We ate a lot, and we ate well.  From diners to German breakfasts, from fancy coffee to awesome fancy dinners, we ate good food.
• I also got to play on the playground that Sarah and I played on when we were there – it was excellent, and I loved swinging around and climbing all over everything.  Obviously.  Because I’m me, and I have an inescapable need to climb everything all the time forever.