20 years

Keith and I have been married 20 whole years.  It’s hard to believe.  We’ve been through a lot.  Cross-country moves;  lay-offs; chronic serious illness;  debt;  loss of parent;  loss of child.  Maybe someday I’ll be able to tell what those things really do to a marriage, but for today, I just want to celebrate.
I booked us a trip to Seattle to commemorate the occasion.  I’m really cheap—no frugal.  There’s a difference.  I spent hours looking things over online before booking.  I got airfare for 2 and 4 nights hotel for $800.  Yeah, I know!  I also bought us CityPasses to cover most of our expenses while we were there for another $150.  I think if I hadn’t found it for so little, I’d still be wishing we could see Seattle.  Here it is:

This is one of my favorite shots.  Of course Keith’s aren’t in the computer for me to choose from, but I got some really great pictures too.  We had dinner up in the Space Needle on the 2nd—our anniversary.  I had scallops, just like on our honeymoon.  In fact, I think I had them either 2 or 3 times.

This is where I bought $30 worth of smoked salmon to snack on the rest of the day (also a honeymoon memory).  Pike’s Market reminded me of both Faneuil Hall in Boston and Hong Kong.

There was a tulip festival going on so all the bouquets had tulips.  Some had cherry blossoms and some had pussy willows.  It was amazing.

This is my best shot from the aquarium.  This otter kept rolling under the water while he was eating the clams.  He would tuck them in his “armpit” not to lose them while he was under.

I love my cheap simple camera.  It does such a good job. 

I can’t remember what the name of this fish was, but it should have something to do with camouflage.

What kind of attraction is a gum wall?  If you can believe it, there’s no vendor there selling gum.

View from the Harbor Cruise.  Keith got some great ones with the Space Needle, but I didn’t.

Butterflies at the science museum.  It was especially fun to see them after watching the IMAX movie about Monarch Migration.

Museum of Flight at Boeing Field was so interesting.  I loved going up in the tower and seeing all the live blips on the screen where all the planes in America were at that minute.  I also loved the Concorde.  Our tour guide was really great and told us stories about so many of the planes.  We spent the good part of a day in this one museum. 
None of my pictures of the EMP turned out.  It was pretty dark in there.  It was probably my least favorite as I’m not a fan or horror movies or Kurt Cobain.  The art museum had some neat stuff in it but we were amazed by the blown glass at the Chihuly Garden and Glass right next to the Space Needle.

This is the inside and next is the outside.  Yes, those things in the background are blown glass.

We rode the Ferris Wheel.  In the rain.  It was great, no line, we got a car all to ourselves.

We went in the coolest hot shop where Keith looked at fedoras.

We went to the first-ever Starbucks;  Ate the “World’s Best Mac and Cheese” and tried donuts we’d heard about at Top Pot.  We shopped on 5th Avenue;  Visited Chinatown and did all our traveling on public transit, including the monorail.
We visited a glass blowing factory and stood there gawking for nearly an hour.

I even got a photo of them throwing the fish at  Pike’s—it’s just blurry. 

Finally, one photo of me—not the best one, I might add.  It’s taken riding the light-rail train back to our hotel at the end of a long day.

It’s been a good 20.  There have been some days lately where I’ve been surprised at how thankful I feel.