Seattle

It was hard to look too far ahead to the great time I knew we all were going to have when we had about twenty hours of flying and layovers ahead of us with Luca and Scout. Luca was great on the long haul from Sydney to San Fran but Scouty was a bigger issue, she didn't sleep for the first 10 hours of the trip and it was with significant creativity and patience that Kelly and I somehow kept her occupied enough not to disrupt anyone else. We had a four hour layover in San Fran which was too much for Luca, we now had two tired, bored and disoriented kids to get across the line. Thank goodness we were flying Virgin America to Seattle, the super gloss white interior with blue neon lighting allowed Luca to convince himself he was on a space ship and Scouty finally just crashed. Seattle! We made it.. all luggage and people in tact.

We invaded Kelly's sister's place and now we were in town things just kept getting better with Tiff and Jeff having a case of cold Pacifico ready followed by dinner from Red Mill. Ohh yeaah!

Thinking back I am confused about the exact shopping order but I know Kelly hit the trifector of U.Village, The Rack and the Marysville outlets all in the first two days. We were already eyeing a new suitcase to carry the stuff home and we had only been in the U.S three days.

On Saturday afternoon I caught up with some good mates Bret Anderson and Chris DiRe, with Bret arranging tickets to the Sounders game. Football (soccer) in Seattle has become a huge deal, I enjoyed the game but better still was the chance to catch up with a bunch of friends. A quick stop into Cowgirls Inc. after the game was amusing. The next day we spent the afternoon with Chris DiRe and his wife Barb - I miss my friends in Seattle even more than the food and beer, some quality, quality people.

The following week saw us hit some of our favourite food options, some more than once (Dick's), go to the aquarium, do even more shopping but mostly hang out with Kelly's family and get to know Luca and Scout's new cousin Abe. Uncle Jeff worked a miracle with Luca who was totally fearful of dogs, getting him to become great friends with their dog Gus. Scouty took great delight in using the sternest voice she could muster to tell Gus to "sit" or "vacuum" (clean the floor) - as much as I can imagine Tiff and Jeff were happy to get their house back when we left I bet Gus was even more relieved to be rid of Scout.

Seattle is full of great memories and some even more special than others. Part of the reason for coming to the US at this time of year was so that we could make it to our friends Steven and Renaun's wedding and we had a fun night out with them at La Carta Oaxaca in Ballard. An awesome restaurant (the food was even better than I remember), but even more important to Kel and I it was venue for our first ever date.

We visited some cool playgrounds and I took Luca to see my old house and to Gasworks Park. It was great to show the kids around and have time to spend with them, the only downside is it gets harder to catch up with people at night.

The end of the week and we headed north to Burlington where Kelly did much of her growing up. I know Kel enjoyed showing the kids around a little bit to add a bit of balance given we live in the middle of where I grew up and see every school I went to on a weekly basis.

While Scouty and Luca bonded with their grandparents Kelly and I relaxed on shuttle back to Seattle on our way to four kid free days in Manhattan.