Kelvin turned forty last month and when I asked him if he wanted to do anything special, he considered an out-of-town weekend for us both (we did have a small winery celebration with our local friends but October worked better for travel). He decided that we'd come up to Seattle to visit our good friend Apurva (a former UCLA roommate of K) and his wife Natasha, who we last saw in April 2021 when we had a Pandemic Porch Reunion on our back deck amidst the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out and their coastal trip home from the San Jose area. We met Natasha at their wedding in 2018 , but hadn't really gotten the privilege of spending any significant amount of time with her, both due to distance and the darned pandemic. Actually, FB reminded me that precisely nine years ago, Kelvin, Apurva, and I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro together, one of the highlights of all of our lives, and which has bonded us forever.
We hadn't ever before left the kids overnight with a non-family babysitter, but Gloria, former LL childcare teacher to them both and wonderful person, was up for the task for three nights (as well as keeping an eye on ailing Pepper)! After dropping the kids at school on Thursday, we drove up to Southern Oregon, where we did a short hike Timber Riders in the Cathedral Hills Trail System outside of Grants Pass, where the weather was perfect and warm, before heading to the Medford airport (which flies direct, 1.5-hour flights on Delta, with which we had points/miles, to Seattle).
Apurva and Natasha recently bought and moved into their new house in the Wallingford district (with a nice view of the Space Needle!) and we enjoyed dinner and wine before retiring. The last time we were in Seattle was visiting Apurva in the
summer of 2013, when he lived in an apartment. I considered Seattle, which has a really cool rustic and progressive vibe, for FM residency and think I could have been really happy here but the weather is not as good as it is in (even our part of) California — it did rain
a lot during our weekend (as it tends to do in the winter)!
We found their tiny trash and compost receptacles charming!
On Friday morning, Natasha had to work but Apurva took us downtown to take a Pike Place food tour. We enjoyed riding the public buses around town--they were very comfy and convenient!
The food tour, guided by a quirky guy named Lucky, gave us some good history about Seattle and the founding of the public market and included samples at many of the local stands. Some of my favorites included Honest Biscuits.
Enjoying a raspberry bar at Three Girls' Bakery
Fresh eggs (ostrich on left)
Al pastor tacos
Cheesecake with a view (of Puget Sound)!
The famous flying fish market stand
Spot the mid-air fish!
This area is also famous for Sasquatch
We then walked quite a bit through some neighborhoods and visited the Starbucks Reserve Roastery, where Apurva and I enjoyed a warm cup of Joe.
We rode the bus again to the Washington Park area, where we strolled around the Japanese Gardens, which were peaceful and well-manicured.
The nearby Arboretum included wildlife, like this giant pumpkin-colored spider, matching Apurva's jacket.
We took this photo of a giant toad for Iver, who loves amphibians.
(iPhone for scale)
In the evening, we met friends for food and drink in the Ballard brewery district (Reuben's). Maya (another UCLA friend) and Ananth left their kids with a babysitter, and I even got to reconnect with my good friend Nicole from Mayo, who moved from Boston to Seattle last year (a fact which I only remembered when we boarded the airplane-- yikes! I'm so glad she was able to meet up on short notice). Her husband, Bay watched her three kids.
It had been probably eleven years (Kelvin/my wedding) since we'd seen one another!
On Saturday, we (like true Seattleites) braved 46-degree and rainy weather to head east out of town and hike the Rattlesnake Ledge trail.
The fall tree colors were lovely, but the weather obscured the views from the top and, despite raingear, we were wet and cold by the end of the ~4 mile roundtrip.
On our way back towards town, we stopped to see lovely Snoqualmie Falls.
We capped off the weekend with
delicious Middle-Eastern food at
Mamnoon, one of Apurva and Natasha's favorite restaurants (we certainly see why!), and drinks at Rumba.
The (belated) birthday boy!
We ate so well on this trip and loved reconnecting with great friends. Sleeping in past 7 a.m. was also a luxury! The kids did very well in our absence (despite waking up Gloria at 5:30 a.m.) and what a lovely getaway to the PNW it was for us (someone should turn forty more often!).
