Golden Friends in the Emerald City

Me and Elizabeth at Snow Lake in the Central Cascades, Washington

One of the best parts of this adventure is having the opportunity to spend time with friends and family who live in far-flung locations around this country. We are lucky enough to have several friends in the Pacific Northwest who have graciously welcomed us into our homes, making this portion of our trip even more fun and relaxing. Breaking our habit of only staying with Smithies or family, we spent a long weekend with our friend Elizabeth who lives in Seattle.

The Seattle Skyline from Gas Works Park

Elizabeth and I met as classmates in an environmental clinic while students at Georgetown Law. We spent the entire semester sitting at a small table, not much larger than a desk for one, with two other people (four people total!) while we worked on representing a long-standing clinic client in their water rights lawsuits. There is absolutely no one better to share such close quarters with, and I feel eternally grateful that she and I wound up working on the same project that semester. After sharing such close quarters all those years ago, it felt natural to move right into her home for a long weekend. In addition to being a fantastic friend, Elizabeth also holds the honor of being the human companion of the world’s best dog. Seriously. All the dog owners out there reading this may argue with me and tell me your dog is the best, but I’d challenge all of you – and win. Radar is seriously the best dog ever. And Van agrees!

Two Boys in Heaven

While Elizabeth was busy bringing home the bacon for that cute pup, Van, Alan, and I struck out for the bus to the Pacific Science Center. Once again, we got great use out of our membership to The Boonshoft Museum in Dayton, Ohio. Free entrance to the Pacific Science Center and a full day of fun for the little guy (and us). This was a fantastically large and well-done museum. It took the promise of riding the bus again to get Van to leave voluntarily. Speaking of the bus, even though I’m generally not a city person, i do love me some public transportation. I always have. Taking the bus made me realize how long it’s been since I’ve ridden the bus or the metro, which used to be a regular occurrence during our days in the DC area. We soaked it all in while visiting the most urban-feeling city of our travels thus far.

Once we had Elizabeth to ourselves, we spent some time exploring an Asian grocer, checking out her neighborhood, eating Pho, spending hours catching up, and falling asleep in this beautiful hammock.

Home to my Saturday afternoon nap

We were also lucky enough to secure an invitation to dinner at another friend’s house, who also happened to be a classmate at Georgetown. She and her family were so kind to welcome us all into their gorgeous modernist home. Her boys were immediately welcoming to Van, and we had a great time chatting about our various travels (including their recent camping adventure in Yellowstone). It was so great to spend time with friends and see familiar and lovely faces on our journey. Thanks, Kymberly, Aaron, Lucas, and Jack!

Before our weekend was over, Elizabeth’s boyfriend Bobby rolled into town and Van was immediately infatuated. As background, Van named our recently deceased van, Bobby. He likes the name, yes, but this infatuation was about much more than the name. He did spend several days after we left Seattle asking for Bobby (and Radar, who he continues to ask for – sorry Elizabeth)! We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to see Bobby again as we continue to roll down the west coast.

Bobby and Van Hiking to Snow Lake

The six of us (Elizabeth, Bobby, Radar, Alan, Van, and me) struck out on a gorgeous Sunday morning for a beautiful but crowded hike in the Central Cascades. We decided to hike up to Snow Lake, and apparently many other folks had the same fine idea on the first Sunday after Labor Day. It was beautiful, seriously beautiful!