Vacation: All I Ever Wanted

I apologize for the radio silence. Work got the better of me and then I was on vacation in Seattle for a week visiting some good friends from college. I had an awesome time and it was really great to see these wonderful friends after so long (5 years!). There was a lot of good food, a lot of Buffy watching, a good amount of drinking, and tons of silliness. It was a much needed break and a much needed time to reconnect to people who were an important part of making my college years a memorable time.

A quick recap:

• Flew out of Dayton Wednesday morning, passing through Atlanta (and a 4 hour layover) before reaching Seattle at 5:30pm. Wednesday evening consisted of a light dinner and catching up/hanging out with E&M (who I was staying with).

• Thursday morning I explored downtown and Pike Place on my own. Met up with A at Pioneer Square for lunch and catching up, and then back to E&M's to sit on the porch and talk some more as we waited for them to return from work. Dinner at a really good pizza place with gellato for dessert (yum!) and a very earnest waiter. Some Buffy watching that evening (the musical, I believe).

• Friday morning was breakfast at Glo's and a browse through Twice Sold Tales (a great used book store in Capital Hill that I'd been to on previous visits--my trips always include lots of bookstore browsing) before taking the bus downtown to see the library and then out to see the Space Needle.

• Friday evening was dinner at a brew house and then some excitement that included a smoldering parking lot planter and the fire department. Later in the evening we enjoyed the cool waters and sand (ick) of Lake Washington and reveled in watching the moon rise.

• Saturday morning I headed to Torah study and services at Temple De Hirsch Sinai. I ducked out after the Torah service to meet my friends and head to Cafe Flora for lunch with 2 more friends from college (another E&M couple, if you can believe it, so they shall be E&M2). Lunch was quite delicious and enjoyable with the addition of beignets and mimosas of the non-orange juice variety. It took a good 20 minutes for 6 Oberlin College graduates to figure out the logistics for the afternoon, which eventually included me going to the mall with E&M2 while E&M1 and A headed back to the beach for an afternoon of swimming. I got scolded by an old Jewish lady for wearing my tzitzits out while at the mall on Shabbes, which was quite amusing, and I reminisced about fencing with E2 while M2 got her computer fixed at the Apple store. The late afternoon/evening was capped off with take-out from a Thai/Vietnamese place and more Buffy watching.

• Sunday was breakfast at the Coastal Cafe (I had crab cakes, the first time I've had shellfish since January 1st, but I was on vacation and on the coast and decided that I was okay with that; I did wear a ball cap instead of my kippah and shoved my tzitzit into my pockets, though). After that A had to drive back to Olympia and E1 had a massage, so M1 and I went to the farmers market in Capital Hill where we ran into E&M2. Much yumminess was aquired (blackberries, tiger tomatoes, corn, and cheese, plus a sampling for me of Earl Grey Chocolate hand-made ice cream. We also browsed (and bought) at Bailey Coy (I was looking for She's Such a Geek!, which has a really awesome essay by E2; I would recommend it to anyone, especially those out there who are also geeks). The rest of the afternoon was nice and lazy capped off with a call to one of E&M's friends who moved to Kentucky so we could "meet" over the phone, and then a delicious dinner with our items from the farmer's market.

So, a not-so-brief recap after all. It was a wonderful time and I'll maybe post some pictures later in the week.