Seattle

My sister moved to Seattle a few months ago, so I took advantage of the holiday weekend to go visit her now that she's on the same side of the country as me. My flight got in while she was still at work, so I met up with a friend who was nice enough to do all the Seattle tourist things with me:

We saw people throwing fish!

We rode a Ferris wheel!

Once I hooked up with my sister, we spent the rest of the day walking around and eating.

Giant homemade pop-tart of deliciousness.

The next day we went to the Northwest African American Museum, which had an excellent visiting photo exhibit and a really interesting permanent exhibit on the history of African Americans in the Pacific Northwest. Alas, no photos are allowed inside the museum - so you'll have to check it out yourself the next time you're in Seattle!

We then went to a different part of town for lunch, and found some really nice sandwiches. As in, we literally found them - they were sitting all packaged up on top of a newspaper stand. We waited around a while for someone to come claim them, but no one did, so eventually we just ate them. And they say there's no such thing as a free lunch!

After our sandwich harvest, we met up with more friends for some really great gelato. I had s'mores, which I didn't even know could be a gelato flavor, but now I will be sad every time I go to a gelato place and they don't have it.

We walked around a bunch more, and I had to keep stopping to take pictures because I was overwhelmed by how lush everything is in Seattle. Even random alleys with no one tending to them have huge bursts of beautiful flowers:

Yards that people are paying any attention to are even more extravagant:

Person-sized hydrangeas are all over the place

Also, blackberries are an invasive species in Seattle, so they are growing all over the place and you can eat them and they are tasty. The plants on the right of that alley picture are blackberry brambles that provided a nice snack for us.

Today I'm heading back to the Bay, and probably fireworks and hot dogs for the 4th. It's great being on the same coast as my sister again - I can't wait to visit again soon!