2For66

April 17-19, 2015

Jeff and Sarah moved to Seattle in March for Sarah’s promotion withe Peace Corps. We were on our spring road trip when they moved so this was the first time we had a chance to see them in their new digs. Their apartment is awesome and their cat Macho Nacho is slowly coming to terms with the move.

A little after we arrived Friday afternoon we walked up a steep hill to a park and got a fantastic view of the city.

Seriously; the hill was so steep it had a set of stairs. Notice the railroad in the bottom of the picture? The BNSF railroad has a yard near Jeff and Sarah’s place. It’s down below street grade so you can’t  hear it; but that didn’t stop me from going to an overpass and trying to grab a picture.

We had a lovely dinner at Mondello – a very nice Italian restaurant near their home. We watched a couple of episodes of a show I’d never heard about: Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt. It’s about a young woman who emerges into the world after having lived underground  for years thinking their had been a nuclear war. It’s on Netflix – try it out.

Saturday we headed over to Seattle Center – home of the Space Needle (built in 1962 for the World’s Fair), the Science Center and other events.

We haven’t been their in years; since the kids were little. We started at the EMP: Experience Music Project – a music and popular culture museum. We started by checking out some fantasy wardrobe items. My favorites were from the Wizard of Oz : Margaret Hamilton’s witch’s hat,the Cowardly Lion costume (made of real lion pelts) and a Reluctant Guard uniform.

I then headed over to the Jimmie Hendrix and guitar exhibits while Carla, Jeff and Sarah went to look at the Science Fiction exhibit. I scored! They have “Brownie” – Eric Clapton’s guitar from the Derek and the Dominos album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.

Look at that worn fret board; that guitar has been played.  I’m not that fond of museums; I feel like I’m mostly just looking at other people’s stuff. But that album is my all time favorite  – it’s just shy of being perfect in my estimation. It is real blues; you can feel his anguish in every lick. The most popular song on the album – Layla – isn’t even the best song. Have You Ever Loved A Woman is the real star I think.

After the exhibits we had a bite of lunch then wandered around the grounds.

The Seattle Center is a great place for people watching. With only captions for comment here are some of the people I saw.

Before too long Starr and Jim arrived from Portland to join us at the Pompeii exhibit in the Science Center. Pompeii is the village that was obliterated by Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. They have recovered some of the furniture and art work, most notably statues of the various gods they worshipped. The highlight is the set of casts of bodies found in various parts of the town.

We were intrepid travelers; with Sarah as our guide we took the bus downtown and back to their apartment. We weren’t done having fun for the day: we met Tomoka and Sumit for dinner at a pub near Sarah and Jeff’s place. We had a great time – really – even though I don’t have photos to prove it.

As luck would have it, my sister Laura was in town visiting her son Carr who just had a little boy, Gregory, with his partner Sarah. On Sunday morning we headed down to West Seattle for breakfast before we headed home.

Archer is a few months younger than our grandson Jurgen – he’s a cutie.

After a nice breakfast Carla and I headed home while Laura’s family and Jeff and Sarah headed out to a local Farmer’s Market.

It was a great weekend that we wished could have lasted longer; but we had to get home to prepare for our next adventure.