My cousin Joy from Florida visited for the weekend. She’s on her way to Montana for a ‘bible boot camp’, and was lucky enough to have some time to spend visiting family beforehand. My mom drove over to pick her up from the airport on Friday, and we all met up and started having fun after work.
Friday night after Joy had taken a nap to recover from the flight and Kim and I had finished work, we set out for an evening on the beach at Golden Gardens. We stopped at the Ballard locks to see the salmon swimming upstream to spawn. This was Kim’s first visit and the first time that she had actually gotten to see any fish swimming through the locks. They were big fish. The sun was setting rapidly so we made our way to Golden Gardens. It had already set by the time we got there and all the fire pits were full. Fortunately some people were nice enough to invite us over to their fire. I brought wood that had been sitting behind our shed and needed to be burned, bugs and all. We stayed until the full moon rose and they made us put out the fire, which is ridiculously early at 10:30. Since it was still so early we headed for happy hour and delicious pizza at The Pink Door downtown. They almost weren’t going to give us happy hour prices since they’re not sure if they’re doing late night weekend happy hour anymore, but Kim has a way of getting her way.
Saturday we took Joy climbing for her first time at exit 38. We finally bought a guidebook, surprisingly the first we’ve ever bought since we’ve been able to mooch off Brian’s books for so long. We went back to Grit Scone area since it was the closest hike in on the far side and Kim and I have led there before. Joy was a natural and was attempting and completing a 5.10a by the end of the day. My mom was overly comfortable looking in the hammock we brought and took lots of pictures. I tried to lead this 5.10c that I struggled on last time and struggled again. After climbing we went swimming at the bridge with the rope swing. Joy even worked up the courage to jump off the bridge. We drove back to Seattle for another awesome meal at Thai Tom’s. We had to wait about a half hour for food, but it’s always worth it. Joy had never seen Edward Scissorhands and I hadn’t for years, so we watched that to wind down once we got back home.
Sunday we went to the Ballard farmer’s market before going to see Henry V performed by GreenStage in Discovery Park. A lot of the same people were in the play as were in The Tempest, which we saw in Volunteer Park. The sword fights were great and the script was made fun by the talented actors. We went home briefly before heading back to Ballard to see Erin McKeown play. It was an excellent show.
It was good to get to know Joy a little since we’ve only been around each other on a few occasions in our lives and in Illinois. We all had a good time during our busy weekend. I think showing other people around Seattle really makes me realize how much there is to do and how much Kim and I do. There’s so much to do that I find that I have to schedule time to relax and not have an activity.