Natalie was in town recently. She had a meeting to go to in Victoria, so she was able to visit. She would also visit some friends on Vancouver Island.
I picked her up at the airport last Wednesday on the 13th. She had quite the trip across the country. First, her flight west from Boston was completely canceled (she is currently living an hour away from Acadia National Park in Maine). Then her revised itinerary was very delayed to some some weirdness around Chicago… possibly storms. Her flights to and from O’Hare were very delayed. Once she got to Chicago, she managed to get on an earlier flight on standby to Seattle, but she forgot her luggage probably would not be following her and instead would still be on her original plane. We ended up hanging about Seatac to wait for her backpack; it was probably an extra hour-and-a-half.
Alaska Airlines seemed to be having a lot of trouble with the flights and the luggage. A lot of flight were coming in practically on top of each other, and baggage seemed to be randomly put in two adjacent claim areas. And there seemed to be a lot of bags without owners.
Before Natalie arrived, we had noticed a lonely forlorn woman watching a few lonely bags at another baggage claim; she eventually trudged over to the service desk.
Anyways, we eventually retrieved Natalie from the airport. Her flight was supposed to come in at 4:30pm or so, but we did not end up getting home until around 11pm. We knew that, of course, so we weren’t waiting to long at the airport (at least for her, not her luggage), but it was a long long travel day for her. Perhaps almost 24 hours.
I took her to the Victoria Clipper dock early the next morning, so we did not see her for long.
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She returned to town last Sunday on the 17th. I had thought I would be picking her up from the Clipper dock again, but she got a ride from someone would had driven up from Vancouver, Washington (i.e. the Portland area). We were going to go out to eat with Jen S. and her boyfriend, but we decided it would be easier to cook at home.
Natalie had finally gone to the gluten-/dairy-/soy-free diet, and it has worked wonders for her various body ills. She does not eat a lot of cooked foods anymore, though. I stocked up on fruit and various other things (e.g. gluten-free pasta) she could eat before she arrived.
We had a tasty dinner of salad made with veggies from our garden, mushroom risotto, sauteed swiss chard (also from our garden), and a gluten-free chocolate berry tart thing. Amanda made practically all of it. She was quite the chef. She put butter in the dessert, though, because “butter solids aren’t dairy”. Umm, I dunno about that.
We also had a lot of wine, port, and dessert wine. Quite a festive occasion.
Amanda got a call from a compatriot as one of her clinic patients was going to deliver a baby. She decided to go to the UW Medical Center (as Harborview does not do labor and delivery) to assist, so she took off around midnight. The rest of us talked for quite a while, but eventually Jen and Ryan (the boyfriend) left as well. We made plans to meet someone the next day.
Amanda ended up coming back home for a couple of hours at perhaps 5am (I heard her cursing her pager), but she left again at seven. She went back to help with the delivery; I guess the sports med people did not really need her.
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Natalie and I got up later on Monday morning. I would have slept as much as possible, but there was a mega racket outside as a lot of contractors were outside to put the gas lines in the new townhouses beside us. There was a lot of heavy equipment and dirt getting tossed everywhere… enough stuff that they effectively closed down the road in front of the house.
We got in contact with Jen and made plans to meet at Pike Place Market. Natalie and I took the bus downtown, but we were late meeting up with Jen and Ryan because we missed our intended bus. We had that bad feeling of seeing the bus arrive a bit early to the stop while we just a little to far away to catch it.
We had lunch at the market, walked about, and then just sat down and talked. We later walked up to Madison Market (Jen lives near our old apartment), got a few items, and sat down and talked more. Basically, our day was spent wandering about and talking. We walked Jen almost to her apartment and then intended to catch a bus back home, but Amanda called and came to pick us up.
Natalie wanted to buy us dinner, so we went to Tamarind Tree. A rice noodle bowl would be just the thing for her. Dinner was good. I like the Tamarind Tree, but it is usually packed and I do not like crowded restaurants. It eventually got that way, but it was pretty empty when we first arrived. There was an amusing moment when I was rapid fire eating stir fried beans off of the serving platter with chopsticks, but I had trouble grabbing one. A passing waiter deftly moved the little sauce bowl that had trapped the uncooperative bean (unbeknownst to me). Well, I was amused by it, anyway.
After dinner we just relaxed at home. We watched Hero and talked.
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I dropped her off at the airport this morning. Her trip back was much less eventful than the trip out her, which was good. I had a nasty trip back home, though, as it took an hour to return north due to the traffic and weather (very rainy).