Seattle

Well, it's official: the Klein family belongs in Seattle! We had a wonderful marvelous time last week. In fact, turning 30 might have been the best birthday ever! The week was full, we tried to squeeze as much in as possible. Beware, this gets a little long...

Day 1
On Tuesday, we arrived in Seattle and went straight to visit Uncle Lindy. We all went to the Seattle Sculpture Park (which we'd never managed to see while actually living in Washington) and then we went back to Lindy's work for a grand tour. After leaving Lindy, we went to our old neighborhood to say hello to the neighbors and spy on our old house. It is still there, and still as cute as ever. The new owners have kept up the yard really well. After leaving our old neighborhood, we went to Willows Lodge, the lovely Woodinville hotel where Dan and I spent our wedding night many moons ago. We ducked in to the neighboring Redhook Brewery (which has discontinued Baja Salad, boooo!) and then retired for the evening at the lodge. Unfortunately for all of us, Nory did not like Willows Lodge and did not sleep for the entire night. I think the hotel room might have been too cold!

Day 2
Wednesday, Dan was in charge of Nory while I went to work. It was super fun to be in the office! I had forgotten how much I like my co-workers. It was also extremely busy, since I hadn't been to the office in 6 months. Meanwhile, Nory was having an evil day at the lab with Dan. Apparently not sleeping the night before had done something miserable to her, causing her to be a screaming banshee for the entire day. Sorry Daddy! That night Nory and I went to our friend Taryn's house to have dinner with the Pilates Small Group. Nory was still miserable and screamed until I finally got her to sleep. Is that what a colicky baby is like? I only had one day of it and I was pulling my hair out! Dinner with the girls was wonderful.

Day 3
After a very lovely night of real sleep, the three of us woke up much refreshed. We went to our favorite bagel spot for breakfast, and then Dan took Nory into Seattle to spend the day with her friend Susanna and my friend Abby. I went to work again, and Dan headed to the lab. Thursday evening we all met up at Abby and Caleb's house for a yummy dinner, after which Dan went to Cafe Ladro (the sentimental study location of many a Monday nights). I had tea with some of my favorite girls. Nory was still a little grouchy and screamed for a half hour or so before turning magically into her normal happy self. Day 2 of fussy baby = mommy is ready to put baby up for adoption (okay, not really).

Day 4
Friday we hit the bagel shop again for breakfast. Dan watched Nory in the morning while I worked, and then we switched at lunch. Dan took Nory to one of our favorite parks in Kirkland. Unfortunately when he dropped her off at Areva, I wasn't quite done with work, so I attempted to work with the baby. I had a slew of volunteer babysitters yet somehow Nory was still ornery (day 3 of fussy baby, mommy seriously going crazy at this point). It turns out she had been catching up on her sleep and hadn't eaten all morning, so when she was seeming hungry every hour, she actually was! Eventually she became cheerful and it was super fun to have her at work, where she got to meet everyone. We all stopped at our old neighborhood park on the way to dinner. Dinner was a fantastic meal at Thai Kitchen with lots of work friends and their families. Santa Barbara doesn't have Thai food so we ate until our tummies were bursting. After dinner we headed to Bainbridge Island to stay with our dear friends Chris and Alison and their new puppy, Gus-Gus.

Day 5
Ugh, 30. Well, that's what I felt like in the morning anyway. But after spending a wonderful relaxing morning with two of our dearest friends and their new puppy, including but not limited to an exquisite brunch and play time at the beach, I was feeling a lot better about hitting middle age. That afternoon we headed into Seattle where my friends threw me a fabulous birthday party at Paul and Tarah's house. I love having friends that I love! The food was phenomenal and the company was even better. And finally Nory was back to her normal self. Phew, reset the mommy-o-meter! We crashed at Paul and Tarah's home for a few hours before waking up early the next morning to catch a ridiculously early flight home.

A great vacation, but it just didn't feel like we had enough time, which leads us to...

Day 6
Oops, missed the flight. We're both pretty sure the alarm went off at 5:30 and we cursed it into silence. Anyway, at 6:30 I woke up panicked, and we jumped in the car and headed to the airport. Unfortunately by the time we returned the rental car and made it to the airport it was 8:10am, 10 minutes after the departure of our flight. The nice people at the airline put us in the standby queue for a later flight and we spent several hours at the airport. After not making it onto any flights all afternoon, they let us know that actually, all the flights to southern california were oversold and we probably wouldn't ever make it on one. So they rebooked us on a flight for the next day, and we left the airport. Unfortunately we had already checked our luggage including our car seat, so we were pretty stranded. I'm proud of us at this point, we hopped on the new Seattle Light Rail to downtown, and then bussed to Abby and Caleb's house. We spent a fabulous late afternoon/evening with Abby and Caleb, went out to Thai food again (did I mention we don't get it in SB? Seriously.), and had a wonderful extra day in Seattle, albeit a little on the grimy side since we didn't have any clothes (although not as grimy as it would have been without Abby and Susanna sharing clothes).

Day 7
Oh, Queen Anne. Is there a better neighborhood anywhere? We had a delicious breakfast at the Macrina bakery, before packing up our "things" (diaper bag, mostly) and reverse commuting back to the airport. We had an uneventful flight home, where we were blissfully reunited with our luggage, and our friend Jason kindly picked us up at the airport. Finally home, and we are still recovering, but it was worth every moment. Good-bye, Seattle!