Seattle – Another Different Kind of Trip

Prior to our daughter and her family moving to Seattle, my wife and I had been to Seattle only two previous times.  However, since then, either one or both of us have been there 15 additional times.  And if you have never been to Seattle, one of the most surprising things you will find is how hilly it is.

While San Francsico is well known for its hilly downtown streets…

… this really surprised me the very first time I rented a car as Seattle is hilly not just downtown but out in the suburbs as well.

But of all the times we have been to Seattle, this I must say is the most different visit my wife and I have had there.

In many of our previous visits, we often traveled there to help our daughter with her two young boys while our son-in-law was off on a business trip.  If you have followed my posts for some time now, you have previously read about those trips.  But you may ask what made this trip so different?

This time, it was our daughter, a published author, who was off on a business trip at a writer’s conference.  And since the boys were off for spring break at the same time, our son-in-law needed an extra pair of hands (and driver) to help out.  So, we readily agreed.

We flew out there on a Wednesday morning and visited with them after we arrived but since we had gotten up extra early for our flight from Memphis and gained two hours in transit, it was a short visit that first day.

On Thursday morning, we hopped over to our daughter’s house to drive their oldest son to his camp that he had been attending that week.  It ran from 9 in the morning until 1 in the afternoon.  During that time, we had about three and a half hours to entertain ourselves and wanted to do some things we had never done before.

After dropping him off and my wife visiting a yarn store in downtown, we went to the National Nordic Museum.   Despite having been to Seattle 15 times, I had no idea how much of a large Nordic influence in the region there had been.  I learned in one display that in 1901, 25% of the population of Seattle was of Nordic descent.  It was not a large museum, but it was most informative and of course, I homed in on any models.

Afterwards, we had a delicious lunch at an historic seafood restaurant right on Puget Sound before picking up our charge from camp.

In the afternoon before dinner, we played a boardgame, LIFE, which was a much different version from the one we had played with our own kids a generation before (gone was the Poor Farm at the end).  And dinner that night (and the next couple of nights were a big part of what was so different) as while the boys enjoyed their “screen time” in the late afternoon, the three adults had an early dinner together.  We had especially nice conversations with our son-in-law over dinner since he was the one typically missing at dinner time.  While they had been married for almost fifteen years, it was the first time we had him on his own.  It was truly special times together.

On Friday, our day was very similar.  After dropping off our grandson, my wife and I went to the Museum of History and Industry.  It was suggested to spend between two and three hours there and it was truly packed with displays and information.

In the nearly two hours we were there; we learned a tremendous amount about the history of Seattle from the very beginnings through the heavy logging times up to present time.  We could have easily spent another two hours there if we had had the time.  My two favorite exhibits were this unusual motorcycle…

.. and of course, the life-size tribute to the “Boys in the Boat,” the UW rowing team that, in spite of many obstacles and setbacks, won the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

That afternoon, before another enjoyable dinner with our son-in-law, we played Monopoly with our grandsons in another updated version of the game we played with our own children.

Saturday, we had beautiful weather.  In the morning while we waited for the temperature to warm up a bit, we took the boys to Target so that my wife could buy them their toy of choice, something she always looks forward to on every trip.  Then later my wife went to an unusual antique store close by where she found 1970s Mexican feather art.

Then after lunch, we headed to a skate park where the boys had a great time on their scooters.

After that, they got out their R/C cars and raced them around the skate jumps.  I was amazed at how fast the cars went and how high they would jump in the air.  I then followed them as they drove them offroad up a dirt path.

We then returned to our daughter’s house where we had some great burgers and another enjoyable dinner conversation with our son-in-law.

On Sunday morning, we went to church with our son-in-law and grandsons for a most enjoyable Catholic mass.  Then after lunch, our grandsons had swim lessons.  Our son-in-law suggested that since it was extremely hot inside there, we should forgo attending.

So, we made our goodbyes.  Before driving to our hotel by the airport to check in, my wife went to another thrift store (she loves to go thrifting).  But we were in for one more treat.

Our daughter was flying in from her trip early on Sunday evening and our son-in-law kindly suggested that she should have dinner with my wife and me before heading home.  Originally, we did not think we would even get to see our daughter, so this was indeed a treat.  Over dinner, she told us all about her successful trip and we told her all about what we had been doing.  It was a joyous reunion as we had not seen her since last June.

Our flight home was particularly uneventful as our connecting flight through Salt Lake was on the same plane we had just flown in from Seattle so no worries about missing our connection.  So overall,  a very enjoyable trip.  But a very different one as well.