Greetings from the Amazon Spheres

Friday was drizzly on and off, but mostly a really nice fall day. I did a bunch of chores in the morning, then we went downtown because the Penn Club of Seattle had set up a tour of the Seattle Spheres by an alum who works at Amazon -- normally they're only open to non-Amazon employees two Saturdays a month by advance reservation. We'd seen them from the outside many times when older son lived and worked in Belltown, but had never been inside. There are more than 40,000 plants from several dozen countries, many flowering or growing fruit, plus several aquariums with fish and aquatic plants. 

The Spheres have a huge living wall and a "cloud forest" with wooden bridges and a sky lounge. There's also a coffee shop, lots of tables and couches, and a space for art displays. We stayed until they were about to close, then five of the seven of us went across the street to the Victor Tavern for burgers (they have veggie ones) and drinks (they have fancy non-alcoholic ones). It was a lot of fun and very low-key, unlike the Penn events I went to on the east coast -- we talked about possible future hikes and movie nights. Now we're home watching Suits and taking care of our neglected cats.