Thanksgiving in Seattle

George, Nathan and I left the house around 8:30 am Friday, Nov 26th to head up to Bellevue.  We had given the neighbors the instruction for cat care while we were gone.  We got to the hotel in Bellevue around noon.  We met Dorothy and Ed there.  We went out to lunch.

It was a soup and sandwich kind of a place.  

We went back to the hotel to wait for Madeline and Roman to be ready for us to come over.  They were waiting for Ivan to wake up from his nap.  

The hotel is very close to their apartment but because we had a lot of food stuff to carry we drove over.

Dorothy, Ivan and Nathan

Ed, George, Ivan, Dorothy and Nathan

Ivan and Roman

We all had fun playing with Ivan.  Madeline was busy cooking.  We had a our second Thanksgiving dinner.  But I was not good about taking pictures.  We had duck, and Thai coconut salmon, sweet potato casserole, Nathan's stuffing, buckwheat, cranberry sauce, salad and wine.  Then later we had Nathan pumpkin pecan pie and what was left of the pumpkin cheesecake.  What a meal.

Ivan

He likes to put things in his mouth, chew them and then spit them out. Hasn't caught on to the whole swallowing thing.  It doesn't mean that he doesn't like it.

Madeline, Ivan and Roman

We looked at the pictures from Madeline and Roman's trip to the Ukraine to visit Roman's family. 

We played a game of Scattegories while Roman and Madeline were trying to get Ivan to sleep.

Rebecca continues to hang out at the San Francisco airport, baggage claim.  She is using her reloading Starbucks card for meals.

Rebecca's trip to India

 Rebecca felt like it was time to try to go back to India to visit her "children".  The borders were opening up.  The one snafu was that India had changed the rules about visas.  She had a 10-year visa and because of Covid they were not accepting those.  She needed to apply for a new tourist visa.  She had tried to do that but because her passport was to expire in May 2022 they would not issue her a new visa.  She decided to try anyway.  She left Portland Monday, November 15th at Oh-dark-thirty.  They looked at her passport and visa but let her through.  She got as far as San Francisco where they did not let her continue on her way.  She got her luggage, just one roller bag, and backpack, and decided to wait for another opportunity to try again.   

Debbie's Actual Birthday

We had a leisurely morning

.  Nice view of the Sound.

Chef Joe made pancakes.

Debbie with her birthday pancakes.

Belle and Phil

They both like to be close to Debbie.

We decided to take a walk along the dike, since it wasn't raining.

We did not walk far because it soon started to rain.

We went on a snow goose search.

Too far away but at least we could stop.

Joe has added more to his collection.

\Joe's car

We headed out to lunch in Edison.  Another quaint small town.

Much better snow goose pictures.  I got a couple of videos as well.  These were close to a place that Joe could park.  We walked up the street. Perfect.

Interesting decor

George and I shared a delicious wood-fired pizza and a beet salad.

After lunch, we were going to check out the SpeakEasy (distillery) but they did not open until 3 pm.  We did not want to wait an hour. 

Small art gallery next door.

Paintings on pizza boxes.

Free Birthday Starbucks

Once we got back to Debbie and Joe's, we packed up the car and left.  We were on the road by 3:45 pm

We saw a buck right close to D & J's. 

It was raining when we left but it looked like there might be some clearing ahead.

Sunshine through Seattle

We stopped for gas and the restroom.  We got home at 7:45 pm.  It was rainy and windy much of the drive.  Pretty miserable driving conditions and then it got dark, which made it worse.  Luckily, it was not bad all of the time.  I was so glad that we were able to go help Debbie celebrate her birthday.

A Birthday Weekend

Friday, October 22nd, was Rebecca and Nathan's birthday.  Rebecca cooked a delicious meal of Palak Paneer, Gobi Manchurian and chapati with Texas cake for dessert.  Yummy.  

The next morning, George and I headed up to Debbie and Joe's to be with Debbie on her birthday. It is on the 24th.  We had planned to come up last year for her 60th!! Since that was canceled we decided to go up this year instead.  

We left a little after 9 am.  It was pouring rain, traffic was slow.  There was an accident on Hwy 26 so we tried an alternate route.  Google maps led us on a very round-about way to get on to N405 via Burnside.  But we did it. Gradually, the rain slowed down.  Then we just had to deal with slow traffic though Seattle.

Some fall colors

We took the turn for Debbie and Joe's.  We got there a little later than what Google suggested when we left our house.  Instead of 1:52 it was 2:27 pm.  Not too bad.

View from Debbie and Joe's.  At least it was no longer raining.  We relaxed a while and then Debbie and I went on a walk to the lake.

They are a little behind us with the colors.  

Joe had made a reservation at a restaurant in La Conner for Debbie's birthday.  La Conner is a cute town of restaurants and shops.

Field of snow geese.

We got to the restaurant early, so we went to have a glass of wine first.

I had a Malbec and Debbie and Joe each had a Syrah.  It was very tasty.  

We went to the Nell Thorn restaurant.

Behind Debbie and Joe were mirrors, so that even though George and I had our backs to the water, we could see it.

George is not outside.  I was trying to take a picture of the boat going by.

Debbie and I each ordered the filet mignon. Delicious!!

Covid safe birthday candle, no blowing on food.

George and I shared the apple tart.  

After dinner we walked along the waterfront.

We walked along to the end of the decking, to get a closer view of the bridge and reflection. 

The boat on the right went under the bridge

I guess that caused ripples so there was no reflection.

heron

What a nice evening.  

We played a rabble rousing game of 10, 9, 8.  Debbie won.  It was her birthday, after all. Note Debbie's cards.  TWA cards with a very old design of airplane.  I guess she got them back in the days when they handed out free stuff.