Visiting friends

My friends from Chicago were in Seattle for the day before flying back home. They went to a small town in north-central WA near the Canadian border to visit his father. We hung out near the waterfront, again at Pike's Market since they hadn't been there before, had lunch and just enjoyed the nice weather and each other's company. Later that day, I met up with a friend from San Diego who was up in Seattle helping a friend's engineering company. We went to the newly renovated SouthCenter mall which was very busy. Walked around the mall and then had dinner. We had thought about going to a movie but I was getting tired and I needed to still pack, do laundry, etc for my week vacation with my family in upstate NY. Believe it or not, they still have a few drive-ins in WA which I would like to go to if I have the time...that would be so cool!

I spent the last week in a small town north of Syracuse, NY. My parents, brother, sister-in-law, nephew and I stayed at a rented cottage by the lake. We went shopping, to the state fair, drove around and basically just hung out. My nephew is growing up, talking a lot more, so much that I feel that he's so smart. He does things that makes me go "wow" but maybe most kids his age are like that. I had to leave earlier than the rest of them to make it back for a friend's wedding.

I landed, picked up my luggage, then my car in off-airport parking, went to the shopping center to change and get made up in order to make it to the wedding just in time. It was a mixture of western and eastern traditions. They sat me at the singles table and I was the only friend of the bride in the group. A group of us clicked and went to a local music bar afterwards and hung out which was nice.

It's now the day after the wedding and I'm trying to catch up on all the little things that have gone to the wayside since I've been away. I'm going to North Carolina for my next assignment so I need to get my license. I'll take a week to drive across and visit friends along the way. I was hoping to slowly make my way across but I've had to be flexible since I decided that I wanted to try and stick to outpatient jobs. So now I have four full weeks left and a lot more planned in that time. I'm sure time will fly by!