Spring break in Seattle- part one

Last year we enjoyed a trailer week in this Emerald City. This year we were only there for three days, so we got a suite at Residence Inn on Union Lake with our Marriott points. It cost us a lot of points, but it turned out to be an excellent location for enjoying walking and using public transportation on a sunny and high 65 weekend.

Scott stopped at the Rockler store, the one store he had been looking forward to checking out since he started being interested in woodworking.


When I went into the store to see how he was doing, he had the same big smile as I do when I am in a nice fabric store. He saw some things he wanted, but found out that Amazon prime has most of them for less. Now he knows what they look/feel like and it is easier to make decisions.


We convinced the kids to forget about the museums so we could soak up the Seattle sun. They finally agreed when we said we would take them to Archie McPhee and let them buy some things. It was a strange store full of gag toys and novelty items, just as they claim to be.



They sure didn't lack in variety of weird candy. Wasabi, anyone?


Quinn walked around the store with octopus fingers most of the time.


Sunday was Easter. We didn't want to miss an Easter program, so we chose a 9am church closest to the hotel. It turned out to be Seattle 5th ward in the same building we used to go to when we visited Tom and Julia. What's more, we saw Tanya, Scott's friend from Pullman, and husband with their three children. We also saw Troy and Kathleen with their three children. Troy and Kathleen attended the same branch in Philadelphia while Troy and Scott went to MBA. What a small world! The program was excellent where about ten people from the ward came up to the podium in turns to read a scripture or a poem between musical numbers from different groups. I felt the spirit and really enjoyed it.

I got my "hanami" fix at the University of Washington campus. In 1976, the Prime minister of Japan gifted 1000 cherry trees to the city of Seattle. One of the places the trees ended up was this campus.



We packed lunch and ate it under the tree just like we do in Japan.