After Vancouver, I made my way back to Seattle, and settled back into Sarah and Lukasz’ house where I would be cat-sitting for the week. My cousin and his family also live in Seattle, so my aunt and my dad flew in to see everyone.

We visited the Ballard Locks, and checked out some of the beaches nearby. My cousin, James, had a couple of crab traps in the water near Edmonds. I went with him in his inflatable kayak him to check if he had caught any. There were only a couple of keepers (Red crabs) but it was interesting to learn about the regulations and rules for fishing in Seattle. Here in Seattle, you need a different license for freshwater vs saltwater fishing and there are different seasons depending on what you’re catching.

We also couldn’t miss going to Din Tai Fung, a Taiwanese restaurant chain famous for their soup dumplings. For some reason, they aren’t on the east coast yet, but there are 4(!) locations just in the Seattle area.

Luca, who came on the Smith Rock trip, and his girlfriend, Tien-Tien, came also to Seattle this week. I know them both from NYC and Tien-Tien was in town for a conference in nearby University of Washington. It was great to see them both and we had some delicious dumpling dinner with Geoff and Michelle in the International District.

The last day in town, I met my dad, cousin and his family at Green Lake for a little bit of inflatable kayaking and Geoff and Michelle met us later for a picnic and some frisbee throwing.

Sarah and Lukasz came back that night and we had dinner together before taking off the next day. This week was a nice break from the constant traveling, while catching up with old friends and spending some time with family.