Day 1, The plane didn't drop out of the sky!

Happy to say that the plane stayed aloft, and we've made it to Seattle. If you are following this blog, you are very kind. If it feels at all like you're stuck in someone's living room watching their vacation slides, please let me know.. or better yet.. you can sneak right off and I'll never be the wiser.

We landed yesterday, on the 4th of July. The hostel is privately owned and is an "art" hostel. I get what that means now. Each room has a room-sized mural in it. Spectacular. The hostel is new, all new appliances, new mattresses and artists staff it. The chef-artist in residence (really) prepared dinner tonite for any takers, for $5. It was fantastic, and Griffin slipped him a tip, I found out later. We ate dinner with a bright chatty woman from Italy by way of Holland who has almost completed her trip around the world. She's in her eighth month of nine. Just the dinner conversation that makes bringing the boys to a hostel worthwhile!

Made the obligatory trip to Pike's Place Market and dutifully stood around waiting for the fish guys to yell out in unison, and throw the fish. If you've never seen this, it's all theater and quite fun- once. Then it's like.. Ok I saw them throw the fish, now what (Griffin). I had a terrible jewelry accident there and tragically bought a necklace and matching earrings. Hematite from Alaska, like black pearls. No one inured, but nevertheless will take time to recover. The walk back to the hostel was dramatically uphill. I forgot that about Seattle, thought that was only the curse of San Francisco. But, that's why we have children to pull oneself up hills, twins are nice because there's another to push.

Went out on my own to a tea bar. Really. It was fantastic! They sort of pull you in by the collar and invite you to sit at the teak bar and brew any tea you point to on the wall. There were probably 30 jars of different teas. One I tried was "Blue People" .. $200 a pound. And they are happy to just keep pouring! It was a friendly scene. I chatted with a couple from outside Seattle who come once a month or so, and know the chinese staff by name. They taught me a bit about the teas. Did you know that you must rinse loose tea first, before you brew? So, of course I had to buy a special brew/rinse tea pot. Happily not out of hematite and has a much shorter recovery period. The Lychee tea that I purchased is another story.

Cesare had a rough night, and shaky morning, but got with the spirit of things as the day went on. He particularly liked all of the crafts at the Pike Place market. Lots of taste testing and he settled on a very rich local jar of honey. He's accross the hall from this computer room right now creating a "marble run" with Tom and Griff in the library. The hostel has it's own 50 seat movie theater, too! Ces is waiting his turn on the sign up board to get in and watch a DVD.

Tomorrow we're off to the Olympic Penninsula to stay at the Sol Duc Hot springs. I told the guys how cold it would be there and we all packed accordingly. This week a heat wave is forcasted and will likely be too bloody hot out there tomorrow to get into the hot springs. However, the other high point tomorrow, for Griff, is to see the movie Eclipse, the latest in the Twilight saga that takes place ON the Olympic Penninsula and was filmed there. He's beside himself.

Well, more slides tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in.