Emerald City

Memorial Day Weekend could not have gotten any better for me. I wouldn't change one minute of it. The weather was beyond perfect, the company was fantastic and I have another adventure under my belt.
My friend David in Bellvue, WA wrote me a couple of weeks ago and said if I was interested he would fly me out for the weekend so I could go to a concert with him and also spend some time with my family. Not a momens hesitation!
I flew out of St. George (a first for me and now I'm spoiled) friday afternoon and met David (also for the first time) at SeaTac. My bag didn't make the flight so we hung out near the airport and saw Pirates 3 and had dinner at a fun Thai place. Have I mentioned yet how much I LOVE curry? Well, I do.

Saturday we went to Green Lake, a huge park with a lake and paved trail that is about five miles long running along the shore. My dad liked to take us there growing up when we went to Seattle for our yearly visits. He grew up right up the street from the lake. We had lunch outside at a fun Mexican grill. Afterwards we rented bikes and rode around the lake a couple of times chatting and watching all the dogs and people. We bummed around the rest of the afternoon, he treated me to my very first pedicure ever (AWESOME!) then we got ready for the John Legend concert and went into Seattle for dinner. I have a new favorite restaurant called Todai. It is an all you can eat Asian restaurant. Lots of fresh sushi, fruit, crab legs, salad and best of all, KIMCHI! I was in heaven!
We walked a couple of blocks to The Paramount for the show and it is now my favorite concert in the history of me. I had such a good time. John Legend is so incredibly talented.After the concert we drove across town to the Queen Anne area to a popular park overlooking the city. The view was really great because it feels like you are right on top of the buildings downtown. I tried taking pictures but none of them come close to showing how vibrant the cityscape looked. He pointed out a beach area called Alki in the distance and told me about how great it was there with sandy beaches and fun shops. It was pretty funny because I made the comment 'good view' or something like that and he thought I said 'good for you' and then there was a couple of moments where I was trying to figure out why he was looking at me weird and he was trying to figure out why I had such a bad attitude about some beach. We had a lot of fun teasing each other so this was just another thing to laugh about.

The highlight of my trip was Sunday morning when I drove up to Edmonds (in the beautiful rain) and spent the afternoon with my grandparents. I didn't tell them I was coming so it was a lot of fun to get such great reactions from everyone. My Aunt Bonnie was there visiting for the weekend and I caught her and Grandma before they left for 'the sales' so I tagged along since thrift store shopping is so grandma's element.
When we got back I sat on the floor by grandpa's chair and held his hand. We talked and laughed and made some more memories, something he says he is so grateful for.
Sunday night when I got back from hanging out with the family we went to David's parents house and played some pool and Cranium. True or False: The Canary Islands are named for the bird who migrates there every year.
He said false and asked what I thought. I said false also, since I had never seen a flock of canaries before. Such profound wisdom given with such seriousness had them rolling.

Today we went to Alki Beach, the place David had pointed out saturday night. We walked the boardwalk along the beach and had lunch from a deli while we watched some guys play volleyball. We still had some time to kill before he took me to the airport so we walked around more checking out garage sales and open houses.

The pace of the weekend was incredibly mellow and kicked back. It was one of those vacations that can be filed in the perfect category for the right amount of adventure, relaxation, conversation, destination etc etc etc. I don't think I can thank David enough for the opportunity to see my family either. (and no, he doesn't know about this site so I'm not just saying any of this to flatter him)