A weekend at Kaia's house

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Bainbridge Island was Mom’s, John’s, and my first stop, before we went to the family reunion in British Columbia. We were there for two nights (7/26-7/28.) Uncle David, Aunt Susan, and Kaia went all out for us… it was an amazing weekend.

On Friday, we flew from Minneapolis to Seattle (as we flew in, we saw the Space Needle, so that was fun), and John got to take his first ferry ride ever. When we got to Bainbridge Island, we met up with Uncle David and Kaia and had a really great lunch at a restaurant. Then we walked around a little bit, admiring the town, and had ice cream (green tea flavored ice cream for me!) Unfortunately, Aunt Susan wasn’t feeling well and had to go to the doctor, so she wasn’t able to hang out with us that day. We saw her in the evening, though, so that was good.

On Saturday morning, we went to the farmers’ market and saw many beautiful, tempting things by local artists (blown glass, paintings, etc.) Uncle David took us out in his speedboat!! That was WAY fun, to say the least. John got to drive the boat for most of the way back to shore. He has been talking about that all week. Gus (one of Kaia’s good friends) and his mother Syckie came along, too. That night, Kaia, John, and I watched a rented movie while Mom and Uncle David went to a community theater production of “Oklahoma!” which was cool for them, being from Oklahoma.

When we weren’t at restaurants or on the speedboat, we spent very relaxing hours at their house, and had Aunt Susan’s incredibly great scrambled eggs, which I will never forget. She’s a great cook, in case anyone doesn’t know.

On Saturday night, Ann, a friend of theirs, visited for the night. It turned out that I had met her son fifteen years ago (when I was Kaia’s age!), who lived in a teepee in Julian next to Uncle David and Aunt Susan’s house. What a great coincidence that we were there when Ann was there! She was SO nice… just like her son!

Anyway, that’s the summary of that great weekend. I had so much fun with Kaia; she’s the cutest ever (from a feminist’s standpoint, it might be a good idea to add in the fact that she isn’t just cute… she’s smart, strong, energetic, and tells very entertaining stories)!

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Photos

John's first ferry ride
John and Mom in front of the Seattle skyline

The three of us on the ferry
As you can see, less skyline got in the picture. Oh well. :)

Kaia and me
Our tongues sticking out just adds elegance to this picture.

We all live in a yellow lifejacket
This is one of the few pictures of myself that I actually like!

A Chinese princess hairdo
Compliments of Miss Kaia the Hair Artist

Kaia and me...
unfortunately we were hugging goodbye :(

Comments

[Aunt Dianne]

Thanks
Alia, thanks for sending the blog on to me. I enjoyed reading about your trip and am glad all of you had a great time. David and Susan are magnificant hosts. I still remember the best salmon I have ever had that they smoked when John and I went for a visit. You said you went to the farmers' market. Did you see Pike's Fish Market? Aunt Dianne

[alia142]

Smoked salmon... yum!
In 2003, Sara and I went to Bainbridge Island for five days, and we had the best smoked salmon ever, too! They ARE amazing hosts; I love everything about their house. It was really fun to go again. Pike Place Market is great! I love it... when Mom, John, and I were in Seattle two days ago (it was when we drove back in our rental car from British Columbia, and stayed at a motel in Seattle for the night before flying to Mpls) we went to Pike Place Market for a little while. John had never been to it... well, he'd never been to Washington State at all. I love that market... it feels so much better than something stupid like the Mall of America... like you're buying real stuff.