Seattle

What a wonderful weekend! My son was at a conference in Seattle last weekend so my niece and I drove down to spend some time with him. It had been almost 5 years since we had visited with each other in Chicago...Covid delayed all plans to visit.

Between Mereille and Mitch they organized every detail of our visit.

UBER was a new method of transportation for me and very efficient!

On Good Friday we wandered down to Pike Street Market

and viewed the tasty displays like GUM ALLEY...

...and fresh produce.

Unfortunately the Art Gallery was closed but this sculpture

outside the entrance was very powerful!

Marika and Adrian joined us on Saturday

and shared the exciting news of their pregnancy!

On Saturday afternoon we enjoyed a fun time

at a downtown Ping Pong game centre.

In the Ping Pong Hall we were surrounded by a gallery

of interesting art that continued into the washrooms.

Downtown Seattle seemed sad due to retail and business closures as well as a large number of homeless people on the streets. When we travelled to other areas it appeared that small businesses were trying to recover from covid. 

The first night we shared dinner at Ron Mai, a small Thai restaurant owned by friends of Mitch in the Capitol Hill region. On our last night we revisited that area for a Mexican dinner at La Cocina Santiago owned by the same family for over 40 years. Both meals were very good! Mitch also took us to Shaker and Spear, a 5 star restaurant in downtown Seattle. The fish and seafood were amazing!!

An ANIMEE conference was taking place over the weekend so the hotel and the streets were full of weirdly costumed attendees. Their conference mandated mask wearing so the combination of costumes and masks created an interesting flow of pedestrians on the street. 

Covid restrictions have been totally relaxed so most people were unmasked. We chose to wear masks in the elevators and in congested public areas. At Spear and Shaker we were asked to produce proof of covid vaccine. I was pleased that mask wearing is mandated in all UBER vehicles...drivers and passengers.

After dinner, in the evenings, we reconvened in the Club Lounge on the top floor of our hotel and shared a nightcap along with stories about covid experiences, family updates and plans for the future. It was a very special weekend! Hopefully we will gather again soon.