fantastic fantasticness

Before time gets away from me too much...I had the most wonderful week in Seattle! It was wonderful in every way :) The weather was unbelievable - it was only cloudy the day I left and the day before that it broke a record at 79 degrees! The people, my friends, and family were soooooo good to be with! And I was really providentially taken care of in many, many ways.

I arrived in Seattle last Monday morning...not sure if I would be picked up. I knew the day might be an adventure - so I was prepared :) Since I wasn't picked up - I got to dink around downtown Seattle for awhile. It was a cool town - it felt a little like SF but smaller, cleaner, and friendlier. I did do touristy things like visit Pike Place Market (I didn't see any fish being thrown...they must do that early morning.) I sat at the park and ate some great food. And I found 2 Doc Watson records at an antique store (and also a sex-ed booklet from 1947!!...it's a trip.)

Later in that afternoon I boarded the bus and rode 60 miles north finding my way to Tierra Nueva...a place where a few Mission Year pals live. Tierra Nueva is kind of hard to explain - but it's a church/community that does a lot of work with immigrant farm-workers. I found Nick there, and he didn't really know I was showing up - but it worked out terriffic anyways(My other friend Troy who knew I was coming had been out of town.)

It was just so good to be with some great people - you know people who just automatically understand you and people who you can have really good conversations with. It was also really great to be in nature some - I got to work on an organic farm planting potatoes for half a day, visit the blooming tulip fields, weed some in their little community garden, and paint a little mural for it. And it was great to connect with friends - spending some time with Troy and also (surprisingly) getting to have a heart to heart with John and Jude, from the LA Innerchange team (they just got up to Washington for sabbatical!)

Time came to leave Tierra Nueva on Thursday - I was tempted to just stay there! But I journeyed back to Seattle to spend some time with the 'other' Christen, a friend I'd known in SF. It was great to see her life there and catch up and share together. I love when you can pick up with someone like you've never been apart!

Then on Friday my Uncle Allen picked me up and we ended up going for quite a hike! We climbed a mountain that paragliders jump off of. It was completely clear - we had a great view of Mt. Ranier and also got to watch the paragliders drift down to earth. Later that night I got to have dinner with his family and meet his wife and 2 cousins I've never met. It was so good finding new family! And they really were terriffic. (umm...sorry no pictures for this section!)

Unfortunately I came down with a bit of a cold and slept through half of Saturday. But, we were able to stop and see the boat locks before leaving. The locks are pretty neat, they move boats between the two different water levels of the Sound and the lake. I was so glad to get to spend some time with Uncle Allen and his familia.

And lastly...I actually got upgraded to 1st class on my ride home! Never has that happened to me before. I felt very fancy with service, leg room, real water glasses, good food, and a white linen napkin covering my seat tray! Way to go United!

So...perhaps this is a long description...but I just had such a great trip! I feel very renewed and ready to tackle all the decisions that I'll be wading through in these next few months :)

AND hope ya'll had a joyful celebration of Easter! My church had Easter in the park with picnics that followed. I got to hang out with some good friends and eat way too many deviled eggs!