Hello lower 48!  My last few weeks up in the AK were somewhat trying.  Trying to stay motivated at work, trying to work out the logistics of dismantling the life I had just finished creating, and trying to be patient about getting home again.  I had an old car to sell, boxes to send back to San Diego, services to cancel- the usual moving issues.  I refused to make my air reservations until I had at least a verbal sale of the Audi, so I ended up buying my ticket just 3 days before departing.  On top of that uncertainty, I was being encouraged to make detours to spend time with family.  My sister was coming (with kids) to the US to interview, and my parents were planning to spend a month in Pompano Beach at the home of a family friend who invited us both to join them there.  Since Florida was a bit out of the way (between Seattle and San Diego, which was the route I was planning to take), I hemmed and hawed and tried to think of a reason not to go.  After all, I have a restaurant to open!

But ultimately, the beckoning of family was too strong for me to resist, and I do have a new 4-month-old nephew to meet!  I told my sister that if she were going, then I would go too, in order to make the Rivellino reunion complete.  Oh, and then she convinced me to fly to Boston first, in order to babysit for her while she interviews and then help her get to Florida with the two little ones.  How did that happen!?  So, I spent a wonderful and relaxing week in Seattle visiting with old friends and I am now enroute to my second corner of the country, where I will spend just a couple of days in Boston proper, a day in Gloucester, a day in Portsmouth NH, a day in Concord NH and a couple of days in Newburyport MA before heading south.  You didn’

t think my travels were over already did you?

So Seattle.  Cool, damp, grey and fairly depressing weather-wise, but not much in the way of precipitation and definitely warmer than Anchorage!  I was told there would be snow on the ground but there wasn’t.  I guess the mountains got several feet, but there was no trickle down effect on the city.  I arrived late last Tuesday and was scooped up by my good friend Shanon and delivered to my good friend Steve’s house in First Hill, just up the hill from downtown Seattle.  They’d both moved there from Boston, where I met them originally, not quite two years ago, so it was my first time seeing them in their new lives.  Steve moved to Seattle to take a job at Microsoft and seems to like it and Shanon is working at a small environmental/urban planning firm downtown and also seems happy there.  Steve has a beautiful young boxer named Ashley who quickly became the center of attention, and also became my companion during the day for walking (and running) around the city.  We were out for 6 hours on Wednesday, wandering through various neighborhoods and the entirety of downtown, Pike Place Market, Belltown, etc.  I stopped counting the number of times that Ashley was commented on or engaged in conversation by passing strangers, not to mention given free pieces of smoked salmon, which I wasn’t even sure she was allowed to have!  I enjoyed the views of Puget Sound and found a fabulous spiced chai at a cute little tea shop.  Shanon joined us on her lunch break and showed me where the dog park was.  I was sore from that outing for the next 5 days, and yet Ashley didn’

t seem phased in the least.  In fact, the next day, when I left to visit a childhood friend in Everett, she first followed me around the house as I got ready, then blocked the door when I tried to leave, and then slipped out of the door under my legs when I finally got it open!  I felt like a schmuck the rest of the day for not taking her with me…but then again, I did set the bar pretty high the day before!

I had an amazing time with Jennifer Cipriano though, seeing her for the first time in 20 years, meeting her husband Ben and their kids Viola and Vincent, and the added bonus of getting a chance to visit with her sister Jeanette and their mother Jackie, all of whom my sister and I were very close to back in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades (for me).  I’

d seen her once or twice briefly since their family left Germany in 1986 but not since visiting them in Livermore, CA a couple of years later.  After realizing how much more traffic there is down here compared to Alaska, and losing my way several times on the way to their place, we chatted nonstop for the next 24 hours.  She cooked spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, which we used to eat a lot of as kids, and made crepes for brunch the next morning- a recipe that she claimed to have learned from us.  Jeanette brought over some old photos of us all (including their brother Tony who I had been in class with) and we reminisced about The Busy Bees Club, birthday parties at the Hohenecken Castle (reached via The Witches Path of course- a steep hill of dirt and roots creating a slippery scramble to the top), and how my sister had been the ringleader/director of the group.  I remembered playing Atari as much as possible whenever I was over at their place, since we had no such electronics at our house, and they remembered our dwarf rabbit Snowy.

Viola was a riot!  A first-born personality for sure, a gorgeous girl dressing herself in a fluffy pink fairy dress every day, yet roughhousing with her brother and performing all kinds of acrobatics and antics constantly.  Endless energy.  I couldn’t get a picture of her without a goofy face being made.  Her brother was like Curious George, getting into minor trouble but so quietly that you didn’t notice until he seemed to fly from the ceiling, land on something hard, and burst into tears.  They both were incredibly resilient.  I shared a room with Viola that night, and just after sneaking in to my trundle bed, I heard her roll out of bed in her sleep and crash onto the wood floor.  She immediately stood back up and absentmindedly rubbed her head, but when I asked if she was OK, she didn’t answer (or even appear to wake up!) and instead laid right down again…on top of MY bed!  I had to extract myself from the covers beneath her and crawl into her bed, where we stayed swapped until morning.  (Note that I had to avoid hard-back books, stuffed animals and other sundries hiding under her covers.)  When I had first arrived, she wanted to show me the bed- she had made it up for me all alone, with her father watching but not allowed to help in any way.  Later that afternoon, when she was showing me her pet rat (which looked a spitting image like Ratatouille- those Pixar guys are GOOD) I noticed a nasty pile of poop sitting on my pillow, of all places!  When I asked her who had pooped on my pillow, she could barely contain her laughter before telling me that it wasn’t real, and went over to pick up the plastified poop prop.  She tried to give it to me to prove that it wasn’

t real, but I ran from her (like a little girl), acting disgusted, and refused to even touch it, which made her laugh even more hysterically 

 

        

Back in Seattle, I had a great weekend hanging out with Shanon and Steve.  Friday night I joined Shanon and a group of friends for happy hour, then we did some additional bar-hopping on our own, mostly to very polished, trendy spots until we hit the Rondezvous, where I was immediately much more comfortable.  And I thought Seattle was grungy!  The crowd was more casual and we ended up crashing not just one private party but two!  The intimate upstairs room was more happening than the lower floor, so we squeezed ourselves in to the last available table before realizing that everyone was together.  But they were friendly so we socialized with them for a while until Shanon ran into someone she knew in the restroom and we migrated down to a great basement area where they were celebrating a friend’s 40th birthday, complete with snacks and a DJ playing mainly 80s tunes.  We danced, met a few new people, and then called it a night.  We stayed at Shanon’

s studio condo so that I could see it, and she pointed out what is to be the new Light Rail station just one block away.  They were digging tunnels nearby where it will go underground, and then other parts of it are elevated, which makes perfect sense in a city of so many hills!  I always forget how hilly Seattle is- it reminds me of driving around San Francisco.  And then it also reminds me of Boston due to the many crazy, twisting, narrow streets and brownstone buildings.

On Saturday, we took Ashley for a walk along Lake Washington, which has a fair number of small parks and beaches along with views to Bellevue and Mercer Island.  We picked up a movie and cooked dinner in Steve’s lovely home, which is all brand new- a 2-story, 3-bedroom house with garage and small yard.  I was cozy downstairs in my own feather bed, tucked away from the morning activities above.  Sunday (I’m sorry, Super Bowl Sunday), we were invited to a house party in West Seattle, where the NY Giants fans were even more shocked than we three Pats fans at the outcome of the last few minutes of play.  Ah well, someone else should get a turn to win sometimes anyways, Tom.  Monday I dragged S&S to The Noodle Ranch for dinner, where I remembered having some tasty food on a previous trip to the area, and Tuesday we cooked bacon burgers (that’s with ground up bacon already in the beef patty from a local butcher), and wait, I’m talking about food again- what is wrong with me?!  The visit was really all about reconnecting with friends, and it was extremely successful.  I was lucky that S&S were able to spend so much time with me, even if Steve was writing code on his laptop some of the time.  And I’

m that much closer to being a dog person.  Thanks so much for hosting me, guys!