We are home from our vacation down the coast. Hopefully I will actually recap that later.

Today we rode the new light rail train to downtown to meet Eve and Karl for brunch. We walked to the station in Mt. Baker, which is perhaps 3/4 of a mile away.

The new station and train were very nice and new and clean, but it has only been open to the public for a week or so.

We got off in Pioneer Square. The light rail uses the old bus tunnel underneath downtown. I had never been in it as it had closed for renovations a month after we moved to Seattle (renovations for the new light rail trains).

We met Eve and Karl at the Elliot Bay Cafe at the bottom of Elliot Bay Bookstore. I don’t think I had been since I poked my head inside when Lainie first visited four years ago. Although I have been to the bookstore itself since then. We had breakfasty things and I took Lonan Kai out for walks when he got too fidgety. It was good to see them as always; we don’t get together enough but having kids does drastically affect one’s daily schedule.

We got a few children’s books for Lonan Kai. I also got an autographed copy of “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies“. I can’t wait to read it. I am actually on the wait list for it at the library, but I think I am like 500+ on it, which means I will never get it (they remove you from the list after a year has passed).

We had to run down the tunnel to catch the train on the way back, but we made it in time. Of course, another would have come in ten minutes, but Lonan Kai was about to pass out. Which he did walking home.

It was $8 round trip for us to take the train… $0.25 more per leg than the bus. It was quick and pleasant, though, and I think would be faster on average downtown (with the walk to the station) than even the express 7 route bus. If we had a transit pass it would be a no-brainer really to take the train, but since we don’t it is still better for all of us to drive downtown and pay to park if necessary unless we were going to be there for more than a couple of hours.
Lonan Kai is still asleep. We have been cleaning and unpacking from the trip. I do not know what the afternoon holds. It is hot, so perhaps we will walk to the Lake and have LK splash in the water.