Thanksgiving

It seems like just last week, we were enjoying long days and warm nights.   And before we know it, Thanksgiving has come and gone.  I've never had a year pass as quickly as this last one has, full of adventures with my two favorite things in the world, Ty and Vicky Lee.  

My parents decided to host Thanksgiving this year.   My sister, Laura, came up from San Francisco, and luckily we were able to spend some quality sister time together during her visit as well.

Tom, my Dad's oldest friend, also joined, along with our friends Mara and Jeff, and Mara's mom, Jeanne. 

Ty and Laura making the first difficult decision of the evening.... to start with red or white??  I think they ended up opening both.
 

This was by and far the largest group meal my parents have ever had at their house.  Dad built a special insert to extend their small round table to accommodate everybody.  And there weren't enough chairs in the house, so Mara and Jeff pulled the bench into the kitchen from the piano and sat on that.  They didn't seem to mind.



Mara and Jeff brought the turkey, along with homemade cranberry sauce.  Ty braved the unenviable task of carving.... 
 

By the end of the meal, I'd caught a mean case of the hiccups --  probably due to trying to swallow while laughing, a dangerous combination.  Laura kindly instructed me in some natural hiccup remedies.  One involved me splayed over the piano bench while holding my breath.   I became light-headed, but the hiccups didn't go anywhere. The other involved prolonged handstands....  

Although Ty and I look forward to many longer adventures on Vicky Lee, we will both miss spending time with our families and friends.   Because they are all so great.

Lake Union

On Sunday, we took Ty’s friend and co-worker, Kinnan, out for a sail on Lake Union.   (Kinnan is also a fellow knitter, so of course we spent some time admiring eachother's knitware.)

We’ve spent many Sundays sailing the perimeters of Lake Union, pointing out various sights: the “Sleepless In Seattle” house, Ty’s favorite Tugboat company, and the floating planes taking off and landing seemingly on a dime.  But no matter how many times we travel the same route, I am in awe of our city as if it were the first time I’d laid eyes on it.  

From Ballard Mill Marina, we travel east toward the Ballard Bridge, past the working Fisherman’s Terminal where boats come in from Alaska and further away, unloading their haul.   At the beginning of the summer, we watched as many of these boats and their young crews headed out to spend the season working in the waters off the coast of Alaska, hoping for a prosperous haul of fish.

We keep heading east toward through the Fremont Ship canal, its close-by banks paralleled by recreational trails on either side.   Without fail, somebody will waive at us from the shore, which gives me a feeling of importance and belonging in our city, for what would Seattle be without boats travelling its many waterways?

Kinnan took to sailing right away, figuring out quickly when to turn Vicky toward or away from the wind.    This gave me a chance to sit back and enjoy looking out at the city.  From Lake Union, you can turn one direction and see the University, turn another and see straight into Downtown, and then back again along the ship canal at the towering Aurora Bridge and Fremont Bridge beyond that.

The Lake itself sits below many hills and feels like a protected inlet in the middle of a bustling metropolis. From Vicky, we can see the lights and cranes of downtown, the radio towers atop Queen Anne, and the traffic speeding past along I-5 and Aurora.  From her deck, it all appears more calm and orderly.

Happy (Belated) Halloween

October flew by.  We were busy with projects and trips... not to mention our day jobs.... and suddenly Halloween had come and passed.    The weekend before last, we headed out to Ty's friend, Gary's place, for a pumpking carving party.  Gary sets up his entire workshop as a pumpkin carving zone, complete with power tools for cutting off the stems. 

I was very interested in making sure our jack-o-lantern came out perfectly.    Ty was a bit less concerned.

We stayed  in on Halloween night -- but did happen to catch some robots and a teenage mutant ninja turtle wandering around the marina.