Seattle + a road trip

My dad and I were in Seattle a short while ago, and as part of our trip we visited some places with meaning to him and our family...some I had been to, some not.

Tai Tung

We started at Tai Tung in the International District, which bills itself as the oldest Chinese restaurant in Seattle, and is a place my grandparents introduced my dad to and that he went to in college. We had lunch with my aunt and uncle there...so fun to see them...

University of Washington and the Crew House

At the University of Washington, my dad showed me where he had had many of his classes (including the building below where he'd been on the steps when he heard President Kennedy had been shot), and we spent some time at Conibear Shellhouse where my dad lived and rowed crew. (He wasn't able to row the last years he was in college because of an accident.) He has such great stories about those days...

Seahurst Beach

The next day we went to Seahurst, just south of Seattle, where my dad had grown up right on (actually, more accurately, above) the beach. Beautiful place.

Tahuya

And then out to Tahuya, which is on the Hood Canal and is where my grandparents had a house when I was a girl...I went there every summer and have such fond memories of learning to ride my bike on what I remember as a BIG hill (which in reality is the most gentle slope imaginable) and getting oyster from the beach and raspberries from the bushes by the water's edge, mushrooms and blackberries out of the woods, going for a canoe ride with my grandpa every evening, jumping off the bridge on the way into town, watching the tide come in from the deck surrounded by the petunias my grandmother used to grow, her dressed up next to me with her sweet perfume...it was a magical place...

Hood Canal

We spent some time with a number of my dad's friends from high school and college, which was fun for me as they had stories about my dad that I had never heard...my dad told me lots of stuff too that I hadn't known about while we were on this trip, which was wonderful.

One night we spent in Union on the other side of Hood Canal with his friend Craig, whom he rowed crew with. Craig lives in an amazing house on the water and showed us such hospitality with oysters from the beach and a boat ride to dinner, local strawberries and ice cream for dessert, a beautiful sunset and stars, seals and coffee on the deck the next morning...I loved being there...

Birch Bay

We drove up the Olympic Peninsula, took a ferry, ate fish and chips so many times we couldn't eat them anymore (very memorably at the Shrimp Shack) and ended up in Birch Bay, at the beach house of Marsha and Allan, where I had gone with my grandparents many summers, sleeping up in the loft. Marsha's mom was a bit older than my grandma but they had been fast friends...I remember so well visiting them at this beach house and also their gorgeous home in Vancouver, Canada...was so lovely to see them again...

Everett

And on the way back down to Seattle, my dad and I spent some time in Everett, where he showed me Aunt Clara's house (where my grandmother had grown up and my dad used to come visit as a boy and where Marsha's mom and my grandma met) and where my grandmother had gone to high school, where my dad lived right out of college when he worked at Scott Paper (which is no longer there)...

Thanks, Dad, for such a great trip! Can't wait to do it again!

XOXO