Weekend in Seattle

Thursday evening DBIL and DSIL with two sons came in from Boise to travel with our gang to Seattle on Friday. On Friday morning we got out of town by 10 a.m. - amazing! The trip over was quick and uneventful, arriving at our hotel before 3 p.m. The weatherman called for rain all weekend, and except for a few little showers, we had great weather, even times of sunshine! Trader Joe's was high on the list of places to go. I had never been, so I went along to see what it was all about. It's a specialty grocery store, and I bought some different teriyaki sauces and marinades, chocolate (of course!!), and a case of $3 wine. Spent the evening in our room eating sushi, drinking wine, ordering pizza delivery for the kids, and enjoying the fine company!

Saturday we headed to downtown Seattle to visit the Pacific Science Center. The kids had a great time with all the exhibits and I especially loved the Butterfly Garden - a special room filled with many different species of butterflies flying all around you! We ate lunch, enjoying the performancess of Mexican dancers in honor of Dia de los Muertos, and losing Melanie to an art room when she was supposed to be buying her lunch! Jim, Paula, and Melanie headed down to Pike Market, while Gary and I took the rest of the gang and headed toward Queen Anne Hill in search of a couple of geocaches. Oh My Goodness! Tiny narrow streets at a 90 degree angle!! We never did find the caches, but had quite an adventure nevertheless - and what charming homes!! We made it over to Gasworks Park and watched remote control planes flying around, and did another geocache. Then had to head back quickly to prepare for the wedding - which is why we were in Seattle to begin with.

It was a lovely wedding for two very special people. Jesse is the oldest grandchild in the family and we've been waiting for this day for a long time - but Stephanie was worth the wait! It was wonderful to catch up with family and party a little! Ben flew in from medical school in Iowa, and Matt and Mystie drove over with the boys for this special day.

Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel and headed to Alderwood Mall to visit DAISO, a Japanese 100 yen store - the first here in the US. We read about it in the Seattle PI on Saturday and decided it was a must-see before we left town. What fun it was! Most items were $1.50 and I bought 8 rice bowls, various small dishes, some acrylic trays to organize my rubber stamps, and some things that Kirsten threw into my basket. The store was packed, but everyone was courteous and we got through the long line for the checkout in good time. I was impressed with the selection and value and look forward to shopping there again!