Seattle

Early this year, we made a list of cities in the US we wanted to visit. Seattle was at the top of the list. My cousin lives there (and LOVES the city – the way I LOVE Chicago) and one of my best friends is going to move there. So when my cousin invited us (and her older sister and her husband) over for the July 4^th weekend we booked our tickets immediately. Since I am not bound by work schedules I flew in earlier than the rest of the party and stayed on for a couple of more days after they left. It was a fun week full of laughter, chatter, a LOT of dancing at the Bollywood party we celebrated my husband’s birthday at, some sightseeing and of course, excess eating and drinking. Here are my most fond memories from the trip:

Family Fun

I always have a great time with my cousins (and their significant others :)). We have the sort of easy going equation that comes with knowing someone for ages. Although I have two siblings, both of them are way older than me and left home when I was a little kid. My relationship with my siblings is very different from how most people interact with their siblings who are the same age as them (or at least in the same decade of their life). These gals fill that void in my life perfectly and I’m always pleasantly surprised at how relaxed I can be around them.

Unexpected Gifts

 In my more than three years of travel for work, I’ve very rarely received an upgrade on a flight because I always flew at the peak time of Monday mornings or Thursday evenings. This time I got a free offer in the mail to upgrade my Frequent Flier status (again, this has never happened to me before – very strange). I jumped to claim the offer and used my free upgrades to request for an upgrade on my flights in this trip. Since my flights to and from Seattle were on a Wednesday, I got upgraded to First class on both flights! It was a nice way to begin and end my trip!

Hello Seattle

My cousin has a condo in a prime location in the city and that made sightseeing very easy. We walked to Pike Place Market and I immediately fell in love with the gorgeous flower arrangements and fresh produce markets. Chicago has a seasonal farmer’s market but we can really use an all-year round indoor market. There’s also a fish market where there’s a bizarre fish throwing tradition that a lot of people seemed to be eager to capture on their phones. (not me – I’ll gawk at the flowers for a second longer instead of looking at airborne fish)

We drove a short distance to check out the stunning Snoqualmie falls. I was amazed at how you could go from the center of the city to finding yourself in a scenic, postcard-like setting in just 40 minutes!

On our day together before he left, PK and I checked out the Chihuly glass museum. I’ve come to love museums this past year and it was really great checking this one out. I enjoyed watching the videos played about Dale Chihuly’s artistic process, his love for greenhouses and his various installation projects around the world. This summer, we checked out the Garfield Park conservatory in Chicago and I was thrilled to see a Chihuly installation there.

I did a last bit of sightseeing on my own a day before I left for Chicago. I checked out the Experience Music Project (EMP) museum. The building was designed by architect Frank Gehry and is remniscent of his other works with it’s curvaceous stainless steel exterior that almost looks fluid. I loved watching Michael Jackson’s Thriller playing on the giant LED screen at the Sky Church hall, checking out the Nirvana exhibit celebrating the grunge movement and all the Jimi Hendrix memorabilia. They had a lot of sci-fi and other pop culture exhibits that I couldn’t get to before I left. I picked the music related exhibits first since I am a sucker for musicians and their stories. This was probably my favorite museum experience since we checked out the Newseum in Washington D.C. Highly Recommended!

Next Post – More Books!

-Nish=)