12th December 2013

Seattle

Seattle. We arrived at about 10 pm in the last of the long dusk. As we scrambled  through the crowd at the airport, suddenly there was Bek, looking just as if we’d seen her only the previous day. (It had been eighteen months.) Hugs, tears and laughter. Then there was Odyn, looking very trendy with a new hair cut.

We arrived home to a pretty house in an outlying suburb about 10.30 at night, just as it was getting dark. July evenings in Seattle are long and gently lit. Great for having out-door dinners. Over a cuppa and much excited chattering, including Bryenna who has grown into a happy and lovely fifteen year old, we exchanged news. Bryenna was thrilled because a family from their church had kindly offered to pay for her to have very expensive (and genuinely needed) tooth-straightening work.

Then, at last, bed, only to find sleep elusive after the flight.

My first impressions of suburban Seattle by day were: it’s very pretty. Hilly, with crystal clear mountain streams running right through the suburbs. It’s green, especially with conifers and maples. And everything, absolutely everything, is clean! The streets, the parks, the streams, the houses and gardens, the lake on which Seattle is built (Lake Washington), and the air! I suppose in a city which is the home of Boeing, the clear air is attributable to the rain that falls most of the year.

We’d chosen the warmest, driest month to go and it was fine every day. Fine and springy, about maximum 24-27 degrees but not at all humid. Incredibly pleasant. I loved the softer light, the gentler sunshine after the often-fierce sun of sub-tropical Brisbane.

We did all the touristy things. Odyn had taken a week off work to drive us around. We looked at the space needle from the security of the ground, then caught a monorail that whizzed through the maple leaves above the city to the far end on Puget Sound, where fishermen, florists and others sold their wares in fishy-smelling markets. We drove two hours along a lovely clear river with snow-capped mountains in the background to Leavenworth, a Bavarian township which has Bavarian music playing in the streets, huge hanging baskets with colourful flowers spilling everywhere, a tall snowy mountain peeking above all the shops. We tasted chocolate, fudge, cheese, ice cream and wine and bought souvenirs.

Friends of Bek and Odyn’s invited us out for a day on Lake Washington. How beautiful Seattle is from the water! We peered at Bill Gates’ mansion on the lake (all six or so storeys of it tucked into the side of a cliff). And the hardier ones of us (not including me!) dived straight from the boat into the clear, cold water and swam.

We did many other ‘fun’ things. But always we were aware of how freshly-scrubbed and pretty it all was. Admittedly we arrived on the 2^nd July, so perhaps we benefitted from major cleanups ready for 4^th July celebrations.

We had the fun of worshipping with Odyn and Bek and their team leading at Evergreen Church.

When we drove back to the airport a few weeks later, Mt Rainier towered above us, gleaming bright white in the early morning with its covering of snow. “It’s usually covered with clouds,” Odyn told us.  We felt God had given us special weather all the way.

A beautiful city indeed!

Bek and Odyn on the way to Leavenworth

Bek and I on the way to Leavenworth