Friendly faces cont.

The weened after Krista's visit, we packed our backpacks and hopped on a plane to Seattle. We went to see Erin (Martin's sister), Jacob (Maritn's brother-in-law), Avah (Martin's niece) and Cole (Martin's nephew), who were in town for a conference.
We got in on Saturday around noon and took the bus from the airport to downtown Seattle. After grabbing some Thai food for lunch, we walked down to the Olympic Sculpture Garden. My favorites were a piece by Richard Serra entitled Wake and a piece by Roy McMakin entitled Love and Loss.
We headed back into town to check into our hostel - the Green Tortoise. When we got there, a street swing band and dancers were performing right outside. The hostel was right outside of the Pike Place Market, which was a neat place to wander in and through. We saw Erin, Jacob and the kids that night, but they were in a totally different time zone having flown in from Ohio that afternoon, so we let them get some sleep.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hostel. We got to meet a lot of people from all over the country and world - DC, Portland, China, New Zealand. It definitely was a much more friendly and open breakfast than those I have experienced at hotels.

That day, Martin and I walked to Lake Union and then to the touristy area - you know the place with the Space Needle (no, we didn't pay to go up). We found some good coffee (I know, hard to do in Seattle) while we waited for Cole and Avah to have a nap at the hotel. We met up with everyone at the Children's Museum where Avah and Cole had fun running, crawling, jumping, painting, etc.

We took the monorail back into the downtown area and put Cole to bed. Avah got to go with the adults to dinner. She and I had some fun trading incomplete, but hilarious knock knock jokes. I had a lot of fun playing with her and realized a little bit how much I really do miss teaching creative movement.

Martin and I caught a late showing of Burn After Reading once dinner was over. Those Cohen Brothers really are darker than I expect them to be. Amusingly, at a few points in the movie, they poke fun at Seattle.

The next morning, Martin and I took the kids for a walk with their grandparents (Jacob's parents) while Erin attended Jcaob's award ceremony.

That afternoon, Martin and I wandered over to Seattle's Chinatown. On the way, we stopped at the public library. And by the way, Seattle has the most kick ass library ever. I would love to go there to study, read, journal, sit and stare. It's really fun to wander around.
In Chinatown, we stumbled upon a community garden built into a hillside. It was nice to sit down outside and just chill. The weather in Seattle was really nice. I think it was because I went to the trouble of bringing an umbrella. Overall, I think both Martin and I fell a little bit in love with the city and hope to be able to head back there in the future. But we won't be losing any sleep over it.

PS - So, we flew Virgin Airways and apparently before each flight they have some sort of game to give away stuff (head phones, a free drink ticket, etc.). Before the flight home, the crew was playing music and having people come up if they knew the title and artist. Half way through they said anyone who also sang along with the song got an extra prize. Everyone who knows me knows where this is going. The next song they played was this one and I'm proud to say that I knew the title, artist, and sang my heart out so that my sweetie and I could have a free drinks on the way home. I love random karoke.