Seattle and Moscow

Oh yeah, the rest of the trip. Well shoot, it's been so long, but I'll give a quick rundown.

Summary of my Seattle visit: Workout Monday morning, nap in the sun in Green Lake Park Monday afternoon. Lots of editing wedding photos. Justin's b-day party Monday night (pics below, never mind the crawling and the whipped cream). More editing photos Tuesday. Reception Tuesday night.







I had to be in Moscow, Idaho, five hours east of Seattle, the morning after the reception, to attend the funeral service of a friend and leader/mentor. I could say so much about him, but here, I'll just say that he was a very early riser, and as I drove through Snoqualmie Pass, a drive I'd made dozens of times before but never during sunrise, I thought how pleased he'd be that'd I'd woken up before 8 am. And I smiled through a tear or two.



Leaving the details of the service and the emotions around it aside for a more private journal entry, I do have to say I don't remember a time when I've been in a room filled with so many familiar faces from every time of my life. It was a little trippy to meet up with old friends after years of little or no contact and to see faces I hadn't seen since I attended my home ward. There's something about going home that challenges and refreshes one's context and keeps things real. It was good.

I had thought I might go back through Seattle for a while before heading back to Utah, but I decided instead to loiter in Moscow, which I hadn't done for some time. Usually, I'd just be there for a night or two, but thanks to Miles and Allison offering their guest bed and couch, I was able to stay at their place all weekend, as were Javier and the little guy. Since Allison was gone most of the time, we were "batching" it like old times.

Over the next few days, I certainly crammed a lot in to the few days I spent there:

• had lunch with Jessie at Hawg's Grill (totally recommendable roadside BBQ),
  
• dinner with Lynette and C.C. and Leanna at Smoky Mountain (not so recommendable but where I kept gawking at the beauty around us in adjacent booths, to Lynette's chagrin, and think I might have seen an old acquaintance, a kid from down the street, but never could figure out if it was him),
  
• chilled at my favorite coffee house (One World Cafe),
  
• chatted with Miles about deep stuff late into the night,
  
• played games with a group of friends (where Javier introduced himself to Sidney because he didn't recognize her),
  
• had dinner with my sister-in-law and niece,
  
• visited my other brother and his family and learned all about my nephew's skating and my niece's MySpace,
  
• saw my nephew's football practice,

• ate pizza at Gambino's (the pizza's quite good, somewhat rubbery cheese aside, and everything else just "meh" in this recently rebuilt Moscow institution),
  
• saw a deep orange-red harvest moon, a moon so deeply orange that I realized I hadn't seen it so red since I lived in Moscow,

• went to Friday Forum ($1.50 all-you-can-eat-soup and speaker) at the Moscow Institute (the first of its kind in the world),
  
• played pool at the Institute (and sat in the lobby talking about how weird it was to be back there after so much has changed both in our lives and in the "feel" of the wards there),
  
• played Rock Band with Javier and Miles (Javier and I each rocked the mic, which was pretty much hilarious),
  
• ate dinner at Mikey's (always good),
  
• went to Elk River with Javier and the little guy and ate huckleberry ice cream, played in Elk Creek, and ran across a couple of Elk River standards: an old abandoned school and a "Redneck Men's Club",

• noticed that during sunset, the silhouette of the mountains showed a crisply defined tree line, something we only then realized we weren't used to seeing,
  
• rented Son of Rambow (better than I expected) from Howard Hughes video, which is one of the best video rental stores I've seen, with a huge selection of independent films,
  
• stopped in at the Moscow Food Co-op, which is apparently the world's only source of Javier's favorite pico de gallo tortilla chips (don't tell his family, but he's hiding a stockpile of them),
  
• ate lunch at Sangria Grille (one of my faves) and talked to my other nephew about his latest "adventure",
  
• went to the Farmer's Market (and bought bags full of all manner of fruit) where we ran into more old friends and their kids (I took pictures I like to call my first expose on Moscow street children),

• and other Moscowy things.

A few more random pics from Moscow:








It was a good visit.