I got lucky and had the opportunity to travel to Seattle to visit with Bowman and John while they were house sitting for Julian’s neighbor for a month. The best part for them was it was free and right next door to Julian. My hope was that I’d be able to go out there for a week and work, but due to the new Team Effectiveness group, the kickoff of the Industry Leaders, and having a new kitten I didn’t think I’d be able to make it work. But things started to fall into place and I was able to buy nonstop tickets using my miles, so with seat changes it only cost me $84.00.

I left on Wednesday, May 8 at 9:50 pm ET after a three hour delay and arrived in Seattle on Thursday, May 9th around midnight PT. My flight home was also difficult because it was a red eye. We boarded around 10 pm PT, and are hoping to arrive 7am on Saturday, May 12 at 7am ET. So yes I only was there for about 3 days, but we packed a lot in during a short time, and had a lot of fun.

Thursday May 9

After John and Bowman picked me up, we went straight home to get as much sleep possible. That wasn’t easy since. I fell asleep on the plane for a few hours, but I was glad to get any sleep. Thursday was go to be a half day of work, but before we went into the office, we stopped a few places. First, we went to Sunset Hill, which is not far from Julian. It was a beautiful place to see Puget Sound and the Olympic mountains. Wecould see where our Celebrity cruise-ship from last year‘s Alaska trip was docked. The weather was amazing – blue skies, sunny and warm surprisingly.

Our next stop was Pike Place Market to get some chowder. Well, at least we got Bowman chowder. I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted and ended up with lentil samosas and a Moroccan lamb pie. But we got to see the fish flying through the air, and it was a cool market.

We were going into the office for a team meeting and the plan was to surprise Allison. She didn’t know I was coming and was only expecting Bowman. As her new counselor I had a meeting with her just a few hours before we went in, so she had no idea we were coming. She was completely surprised. It was fun to be in the office together, and the time just flew by. After work was over we made a few stops to see two trolls and a statue of Lenin. Yes that sounds a little strange, but here’s a little bit about them.

NWTrolls: Way of the Bird King features six giant hand-built troll sculptures by Danish environmental artist, Thomas Dambo. The publicly-accessible sculptures are located around the Washington in Portland where each whimsical troll sculpture is part of an underlying environmental story. The project celebrates the human experience of art by amplifying the connections of cultural heritage between Coast Salish tribal communities and Scandinavian traditions. Check this out.

The Ballard troll was his, but the Fremont troll was someone else.

We made a few more stops. Next was the Ballard locks where we saw a barge going through the locks. Then we drove by the famous Ray’s restaurant which we didn’t actually go to. And then we stopped by the Golden Gardens Park, on the sound. On this Windy day we saw a number of sailboats and windsurfers.

For dinner tonight, we went to Cutters Seafood in Seattle with Julian and Natalie. There was a beautiful view from the restaurant, but the food was just OK. After dinner we drove to Kerry Park, which had a beautiful view of Seattle and Mount Rainier. It was a little hazy, but you could still see the mountain. Do you see it?

Friday, May 10

We all took the day off on Friday, so we had a bunch of things planned. Our first stop was Starbucks headquarters where we went into the Reserve Starbucks. You could get cocktails, desserts and lots of things you don’t see in a normal Starbucks. This is one of the locations where they test out new things before it goes out to the field.

Before heading to West Seattle, we stopped at Jack Block Park, which when you first drive up to it seems a little sketchy not like normal park or greenery at all. But it’s an amazing location to see the entire city of Seattle.

We went over to West Seattle, Alki where we saw the statue of liberty, Lincoln Park, and another troll. I didn’t get a picture of the Statue of Liberty. That’s OK. It was very small like the size of a person. Natalie described this area as very similar to California coast Sausalito. But again another beautiful day with sun and blue skies. 

After the steep walk up and down the hill at Lincoln Park , I was exhausted. John was probably fine. But we headed home from there. Bowman found Duke Seafood and Chowder restaurant. Since I couldn’t get my chowder yesterday, we ordered a late lunch to go. It was tasty. I got a lobster mobster chowder and Bowman that are red seafood, and John ordered chicken fingers. He loves his chicken. later that night we ended up ordering Chinese food. Which was a lot of food for today. But it was still tasty.

We learned earlier in the day that there was a possibility the Seattle area was going to see the aurora borealis tonight. This was shocking to us, and when we heard the best place to view was either two or three hours away, we had little hope of seeing anything. Around 10:45 we went outside in the backyard to see if we could see anything. And we didn’t say anything. But I decided to take a quick picture and what the heck. What you couldn’t see with the naked eye was quickly captured in a camera. These are some of our photos. It was absolutely amazing.

Saturday, May 11

This was my last day in Seattle, but my plane wasn’t leaving till 10:45 PM. So there’s lots of things we decided to do. When Bowman asked me what my must sees were for this trip, my first two items were Pike Place Market and the Chihuly museum. So our first place to visit on Saturday was the Chihuly Gardens and Glass. Julian and Natalie met us there. This was a beautiful location. I couldn’t take enough photos. It was so gorgeous. We got to watch a few movies of Chihuly, also kind of cool.

After leaving the museum, we drove along Lake Union to find the infamous houseboats at Terry Pettus Park. I kept hearing about them, but we never could see them. But we found them finally and this weird little park. We hope we were going to see a float plane land, but that didn’t happen. We blamed everything on Biden today’s and he was in town.

Our last stop before heading home was gasworks park. I’ve seen this in things to see in Seattle, and I thought we weren’t gonna be able to stop there so it was a nice opportunity to pop over and walk around. It was quite a large part and there were people taking like a kung fu class. And lots of people sitting on the grass, enjoying this beautiful weather.

Next, we were homeward bound and somewhat tired. Everybody took a little nap and then we decided to go to dinner at Piccolino’s, which was within walking distance of Julian’s house but our lazy asses got in the car. We had a lovely Italian dinner and left full. That’s the way to board a plane. So much that when I got on the plane, I fell asleep before we even took off.

What a wonderfully unexpected trip. I didn’t think I was going be able to do it. Sometimes last-minute planning is just the best way to do it. But it wouldn’t happen without the kindness and generosity of friends. I had a wonderful time with memorable experiences that will last a lifetime. Thank you so much Bowman and John! Love you both!