To Seattle and back

Just call Aleene "Seattle Sue." She walked, drove and literally lived on the streets of the Emerald City for two full days while I did my number on the 42nd floor of One Union Center. Look, this girl shopped, looked, ate and did all manner of things during that time.

We ate a Japanese meal, a fisherman's feast, had great lunches and even did a breakfast on Fifth St. Today she even ventured out to Ikea for a look at the giant warehouse, yuppie-type store that has everyone talking. She knows downtown Seattle now.

As for me, I enjoyed teaching six pretty astute students the art of workplace mediation...and of course, I feasted with Seattle Sue.

Last night we ate at the pier adjacent to where the ferry comes in from Bremerton at the Fisherman's Restaurant and Bar. We ordered the Salmon Feast for two and they brought the food. First, a delicious seafood chowder, followed by a bucket of clams and muscles (which I alone consumed due to some obscure belief that she might not like them.) We then had salad and the entree was a huge cut of salmon served on a board with fruit and rice. Yikes, were we stuffed. But it was soooo good.

Our hotel was five blocks from the venue so "Sue" hoofed it back and forth either with me or alone several times to meet up for lunch or go have breakfast. Fortunately the weather was outstanding, so it was no problem eating lunch on the street or walking even in the early morning.

It is about 200 miles to Seattle from our humble abode...so we got started for home about 3:45 this afternoon...I let them (the students) out just a bit early...so we missed the heavy traffic. We were home by eight and that included a stop for supper in Centralia near the Outlet Mall. That is about the spot where you can see both Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens in one glance. We could even see the vapors coming out of the cone of Mt. St. Helens today. Rainier is a big mountain as compared to Hood...probably a good 3000 feet higher, so it is very snowy on top.

So life is good. We travelled, got paid for it and were back in time for "Sue" to get ready to spend the weekend at the coast (near Lincoln City) with some women from church. She is ready. I, on the other hand, will go it alone for the two days, but the family is around and football reigns on the weekend so I will be ok.

As we traveled up and back to Seattle, we passed Ft. Lewis, Washington where my dad spent the last portion of his active duty during WWII. We travelled past Vancouver (where he spent some of that time) at the Vancouver Barracks...whatever that duty was. I do want to go through the Ft. Lewis museum. It is not that far away.

We had a great trip and Seattle Sue is ready to take any visitors that show up on our door step to the Emerald City for a guided tour.