Charming Seattle

I am smitten with Seattle after my fun, albeit short, weekend up north. All of these years I have known there is something cool going on up in Seattle, but my trips up there have missed it. Maybe I was in the wrong area or with people who also didn’t really know the city. But this time I finally got to meet the Seattle I’ve heard so many good things about.

My old high school friend Jim and his fiance Elizabeth were gracious enough to show me around Capitol Hill. He told me about these great pocket parks that Seattle is creating on just single city lots, turning them into little community gardens. People were there hanging out, gardening and using the communal barbeque. It looks like such a great way to use these little slivers of space and you can see such a wide array of creative garden ideas.

We stopped into this great apothecary called Sugarpill that carries all kind of cool goodies, including dozens and dozens of different salt and herb mixes. I also went to the perhaps the best Value Village ever and loaded up on new-to-me trendy clothes. My poor backpack was busting at the seams on the train ride home from my loot.

My signing at Elliot Bay Book Company was Sunday afternoon, which left a little time for ogling at the farmer’s market across the street. The signing itself went well, although it was hard to compete with a cloudless, 80-degree day in the northwest. I saw some familiar faces and some new ones as well.

The best part of the weekend for me was reconnecting with old friends. A mutual high school pal happened to be in town at the same time, so we got to pal around as a group. He has this awesome, really successful electronica band called Starfucker and spends the better part of the year touring. It was inspiring to realize that being restless youths in high school produced some really creative, smart grown ups. Thank you Seattle for bringing us all together!