We packed up and had a very early breakfast at Frank’s Diner in Spokane. It is in a train car! We all loved it. The kids watched Princess Bride as we drive to Seattle. The last time I made this drive was with David when I was staying with him in the summer of 2006 while we were married and getting ready for our citizenship meeting. We went to a three day Dave Matthews concert in the gorge and camped with a million dirty hippies. We still joke about these guys screaming “Honey, Honey, come and daaaaaaaaance me” at 0200 in the morning as we tried desperately to sleep. David and I were married for three years and I really loved spending my summers with him. I knew I would come back with my kids one day and show them this beautiful place and my sweet friend. This drive reminds me of singing Mariah Carey and the Cranberries at the top of our lungs and eating more ice pops than any human should consume. Good memories. Elia is the most observant of the kids. She genuinely enjoys looking out the window and finding things in the landscape. She loves windmills, rivers, waterfalls, fighter jets, all animals, and mountains. I love her joy in seeing something new.
We got into Seattle and met David at his house where the kids destroyed and then cleaned up his playroom. We went to Ivar’s on the water for lunch and went back out to the van to find that our sliding door was full way broken, it had been half broken for many years. Called a tow truck, sat and waited while the kids played at a park. I got to sit in the van by myself for about an hour while David and Adam took the kids to the park to play. While they were there, they decided on the title of “husband-in-law” for one another. Adorable. It was very strange to be alone. I spend so much of my time alone in the OR, there are other people around but no one addresses me other than “anesthesia, bed up”. It is the way I like it, I can easily peer over the drape and start a conversation if I’m feeling social but most of the time it is just me and my patient and my thoughts. It was nice to have a little tiny bit of alone time on this trip. The tow truck driver showed up and loaded the van up on the truck. I probably could have driven it to the Pep Boys but it seemed unsafe to be going 30 mph with a wide open door. He was listening to NPR and we had a long talk about Fentanyl and opioid addiction. He was lovely and so helpful. We go tto Pep Boys and the service manager let me come into the service area and sit on a little stool while he messed with the door. At one point, he said he would have to cut something. He used a saw and the door still did not move. He asked me to come over to the door and hold it while the cut the door from its mechanism that held it to the car. We then picked up the door and slammed it into the hole that is the opening in the van. It is now locked and the handles are covered with duct tape to remind us all not to open it. I’m just grateful it is closed and that it happened while we were in Seattle with our spouse in laws. We will see how much damage we have done when we get back to Richmond. They didn’t charge us anything at Pep Boys.
Becky, David’s wife, picked them all up from the park and took them home while I was at Pep Boys. She fed them and Adam got them situated. When I got home we had some cocktails and put the kids to bed. Their son, Toby, got along very well with our kids. Lots of video games.
July 4, 2019
We had a little breakfast at Becky and David’s then packed up and headed to Seattle. David has a giant network of Aerospace engineer friends that I had the privilege of hanging out with while I spent my summers in Seattle. One of them, Aaron, has a houseboat on Lake Union and he is our of town for the fourth of July so he told David we could all stay there for the fourth! The biggest and most dramatic fireworks display in Seattle is on Lake Union in plain view of the houseboat. We got there and I was blown away by the beautiful houseboat. Aaron and his wife have a son about Judah’s age and he has an adorable baby room that was perfect for Judah. The boys slept on the couches, Elia slept on their guest twin, and Adam and I slept on our air mattress on the floor in the guest room. Everyone was trying to get into this area for the 4th and we were so incredibly lucky to find a parking spot that didn’t have any signs that was just a block away from the houseboat! We got settled and took a bus into Seattle to check out Pike’s Place.
The weather was so perfect- about 73 degrees, partly cloudy. We weaved through the shops and bought some cherries and raspberries while we waited for our table at Etta’s seafood restaurant. The owner was a guest judge on Top Chef Seattle so the boys were pretty excited about this meal. We were seated and had the most amazing meal- I had an avocado and grapefruit salad with a creamed hominy masa plate that was inventive and delicious. We wandered around a bit more, went to a comic book shop and got the boys a D&D book. We took the monorail to Artists at Play park while the kids somehow didn’t injure themselves. All of this equipment looked incredibly dangerous but the kids navigated it well. This trip has helped me trust the kids a bit more, they have a survival instinct and they are pretty intelligent so I should give them a little more space. Becky and I sat in the shade and watched the kids. So perfect. We took Ubers back to the houseboat, it was tricky to find someone who would let us take Judah without a car seat. I am usually VERY crazy about this kind of thing but there wasn’t really an option to carry around a car seat with us- just as it will be while we are worldschooling. Becky and I went on a little walk with our juice cups to the corner store to get some hotdogs, sandwich meat, cheese for a cheese plate, and more drinks. I really love her, I wish we were closer geographically so we could hang out more.
We set up on the roof of the houseboat and watched the drunk teenagers around us jump off of their roofs while their very fancy parents had sweater roof parties with their cocktails. The view of the sun setting was gorgeous. The kids played and watched movies while we talked and enjoyed the roof. It got very chilly as the sun went all the way down. The people in the neighborhood around us set off their own early fireworks display until the main event started around 1030 pm. People stay up so late on the west coast. Judah fell asleep right before the fireworks started but everyone else was mesmerized. We tucked in after the show and fell asleep in this incredible floating home.
Bourne Family Travels 