Greetings from the Massachusetts Turnpike

Attempting to post from the car driving home from Logan Airport, where we landed just before midnight Eastern time. We had a nice morning -- went with Daniel to Seahurst Park and walked on the beach before going to the airport, from which he took an Uber to work downtown and where we ate Great State Burgers and got Seattle Chocolate before boarding our plane. I spent most of the flight reading Hild. Here is a Theo lookalike we met by Puget Sound in the morning!

Greetings from Edmonds

We woke up to Seattle rain on Sunday, but it cleared up by mid-morning, when we headed to Edmonds to meet Cahaya's parents for brunch at Salt & Iron in Edmonds. After excellent food and some catching up, they headed out for weekend work and we walked down to the water, where the tide was coming in but we still managed to see lots of anemones and a few hungry gulls; then we walked around some of the shops, bought looseleaf tea and kitchen stuff, and headed back to Daniel's house mid-afternoon.

After feeding the dogs, we put them in the car and took them to Washington Park Arboretum, where we had a good long walk and successfully prevented them from chasing squirrels and bunnies. We dropped them back off at the house and walked to Zagol, one of four Ethiopian restaurants on one strip in Central District, and ate excellent shiro wot, lentils, and various meat dishes for those who eat meat. We got back to the house around 9 p.m., played Chai, and had to start getting our packing organized.

Greetings from Redmond

Spent another lovely nostalgic day in Redmond and Seattle, starting with breakfast in our hotel, after which we checked out and brought our things to Daniel's house. From there we drove to Redmond, where we met our former next door neighbors for lunch at Kitanda and a walk on the dock in our old neighborhood; we got to see one of the eagles, a great blue heron, some Canada geese, wood ducks, and grebes. 

Then we met Daniel and Cahaya at Marymoor Park with their huskies, who encountered several other huskies in the dog park. Cahaya had some stops to make on the way home, so we went to Idylwood Park to walk by the beach where we walked almost every day when we lived in Redmond. We also drove past the leaves changing color along West Lake Sammamish Parkway and the new light rail along the highway. 

In the late afternoon we drove to Seattle Center to get dinner at the Armory. Cahaya couldn't get anything she wanted, so she went to find sushi and the rest of us had Mod Pizza, then went to Chihuly Garden and Glass, which is sometimes open to the public at night when there isn't a wedding or special event. We'd never seen the gardens lit up before, and they're just as spectacular in the dark!

Greetings from Alki and Ballard

Quick sleepy post! Had a great day with Daniel and Cahaya: went over to their house after breakfast, went to Alki at low tide, saw lots of tidepool animals on Constellation Beach (sea stars, sea cucumbers, crabs, anemones, waterfowl), walked to Cactus for lunch. Drove back to their house to pick up the dogs, went to Ballard Locks, saw many seals and a couple of sea lions catching salmon, watched dogs dream of chasing Canada geese. 

Drove back through Seattle to Daniel's house, hung out for a while, walked to Bistro Turkuaz for dinner (I had hummus and grape leaves; others had kabobs) followed by Molly Moon's for ice cream (they were out of the apples and honey flavor for Rosh Hashanah at the location we were at, but the melted chocolate is amazing). Now back at the hotel half-watching the Boston College-Rutgers game and sorting photos of a lovely nautical day. Happy New Year!

Greetings from Seattle

Quick post after long travel day! We got up at 6 a.m. to drive from Worcester to the airport in Boston, where we had an uneventful flight (I was dozing and reading Hild around snacks and lunch), then a ridiculously long wait to pick up a rental car, which we drove to a hotel in downtown Seattle where Daniel met us on his way home from work. 

After helping me fight with the hotel wifi, he went with us to his new house, where we played with the dogs and hung out with Cahaya who's on call for work this weekend, then we went to dinner at Naam Thai and walked a bit in the nearby Madrona neighborhood. Now we're back at the hotel and I'm very sleepy even though it's not even 10 p.m. here! More tomorrow!

Greetings from Fenway and Kimball's

Quick post after our second Red Sox game in as many weeks -- it was both KPop Demon Hunters Day, with Huntr/x and Saja Boys jerseys for fans with special tickets and some decorations like at Heated Rivalry Night, and David Ortiz football jersey giveaway day, meaning that we went home with two new shirts apiece. We also got to see a really fun game in which Duran and Rutschman both homered, the latter hitting Pesky's Pole at over 112 mph, plus Bello pitching a good game and several other players getting hits, knocking the Angels out of postseason contention. 

We had sandwiches and fries at the stadium plus an excellent hot pretzel, and we stayed for the whole game plus the post-game hugs and high fives. Then we walked back to the car and drove to Kimball Farm in Lancaster, where we met Adam, Haley, both her sisters and their husbands, and her parents plus her father's parents to get ice cream for her father's birthday. We all had large scoops and sundaes, then we came home, fed the cats, and we're watching more of Marble Hall Murders while I sort photos of Red Sox players and Kpop fans.

Greetings from Miss Worcester

We had rain all day Tuesday, but this was the least inconvenient of the days when Cheryl was here for rain. We went to the Miss Worcester diner for brunch because of the stuffed French toast, then we went to the farm at Green Hill Park, where we met a cat we hadn't seen before and saw most of the barnyard animals though the goats and peacocks were trying to hide from the weather. It really started coming down while we were there, so we swung by the Bancroft Tower, then came home. 

We watched the filmed production of Hadestown, which is excellent -- I knew the show's music but have never seen it staged, and the cast is terrific, as is the music. Afterward, we drove Cheryl to the airport, where apparently she had a weather delay but is now on her way home. My Trek group watched DS9's "Facets" -- Sisko! Curzon! Rom! -- and we've spent the rest of the evening watching both the disappointing Red Sox and Orioles games, though they both had great nights last night.

Greetings from the Franklin Park Zoo

We had a busy awesome Sunday with Cheryl, starting with a drive to the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill, where we met Adam and Haley to walk around the fairy houses and see the sheep and goats brought in to trim the daffodil fields. Then we went to Panera in Leominster for lunch before going to see Coyote vs. Acme, which is a joy -- lots of Looney Tunes in jokes, lots of actors having fun, lots of swipes at Applemazon. 

We had dinner at The Friendly Toast in Chestnut Hill, then drove into Boston past the arboretum to the Franklin Park Zoo for the Boston Lights lantern exhibit, where we met Marilyn by the entrance. Inside, we saw leopards, penguins, jellyfish, horses, lemurs, and many other light animals, plus cranes, kangaroos, and camels who could be spotted sleeping in their enclosures behind the light displays. And my dad is out of the hospital!