Hanging Out with Kanako in Seattle

Published on 01/10/2009

On the day after New Years I drove up to Seattle to see my friend Kanako who was in town. We had originally planned to get together a week earlier so she could come down and see my family again and we even had a snowshoe trip in mind, but the crazy snowy weather kinda put a damper on all that. The day I was planning on driving up most of the main roads were okay, but the side streets near each end of the trip were pretty treacherous and my little car wouldn't have made it. So we decided to just get together later when the roads were all clear and safe, and that's what we did. Ironically, it snowed again on the 2nd and there were cars (mostly trucks actually) stuck in the ditch facing the wrong direction all the way up. We made it okay, though. It just took a little longer than normal going slow enough to stay on the road. Oh yeah, I said "we"... my friend Hillary rode up and back with me to keep me company on the drive and to spend the day with her friends and family up there. It was nice having her along, and enjoying her parents' hospitality for a night so we didn't have to drive back home the same day. :)

So, I picked up Kanako at her former host family's house in Everett—it had been three years since I'd seen her, four since I visited her and her family in Japan. It was good to hang out again. We drove around most of the day, talking and seeing some sights in Seattle. We had lunch at Thai Tom—mmmmmm—then went over to Golden Gardens and Gas Works. The scenery in both places was amazing as usual. After hanging out and taking some photos at Gas Works we went over to REI for a bit, then met up with Hillary and a friend of hers for Indian food on the east side. After dinner Kanako and I went over to Barnes & Noble at U-Village (one of my old late-ish night study spots) and looked around for a while and talked before I took her back up to Everett. It was a short visit seeing as she had come all the way from Japan, but it was good nonetheless. I took a few photos at Gas Works and put them up in a slideshow here. The scenery at Gas Works is really amazing, so it's worth putting up, even though there are only four photos. Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Years. :)