Seattle and on to California by Tessa

If you aren’t singing the theme from the O.C. , or start to soon, you don’t know the program. I am going to force poor old Psyrixx to play it loudly on the way down to L.A. tomorrow night…

Right so Seattle was brilliant! I forgot to say we got held up for ages at the border by suspicious guards quizzing James on his finances and connection to Canada and whether he owned any property and what was the book he was reading… *rolls eyes* cos he’s clearly a drug dealer. AND we have had THREE supposedly random extra security checks in a row whenever we fly! Geez.

I enjoyed seeing Kingdom of Heaven. Except for the excessive violence and people burning to death all over the place *shudder*, and the admittedly poor script. I also greatly enjoyed the very American trailers teehee! And Orlando’s excellent acting of course. And seeing Alexander Siddig aka. Julian Bashir from DS9 acting his little heart out and recognising him against all the odds :D

James and Ben got on like a house on fire it was really funny! On Saturday Debbie Olsen took us out to some places in the mountains- beautiful lakes, rivers, waterfalls, forests. We had lunch at a dinky burger and chips place in the middle of nowhere that proudly dealt in ‘grease, salt, sugar and caffeine’. Yum! When we got back Ben and James jammed for a bit and I discovered how bad I was at the drums. Ben then went and picked up his friend Ben, and they took us down to the lakeside opposite Seattle as night was falling and we hung out on the pier for a while. James chatted up some 14 year old girls aaand ha sorry I’m kidding. He wasn’t chatting them up. Honestly. We swung by the supermarket on the way back. Back at the Olsens we went in the hot-tub in their yard for a bit. Yes yes, me and the three boys ya-di-ya :P it was dark and the stars were out. The boys then went off to watch Family Guy and I went to bed.

On Sunday 8th May they dropped me at the Catholic church nearby while they went to their church down the road. It looked like a spaceship on the outside, and a school hall on the inside, very amusing. It was ok, really not too bad. Aheh. Upon our return we ate a brunch, and Nate, James, Cyrus (the second), Debbie and I went into Seattle. We dropped Jimothy at the new library so he could admire the architecture, while we explored Pike’s Market- that wonderous place where they throw fish around (literally) and sell all kinds of groovy stuff like honey straws and PRETTY rings (ahem). Ben was practising with his band for a show on Monday evening meanwhile.

As it was American mother’s day, Leah, the only Olsen child I had yet to meet, came over with her husband Jason for supper. I had the most fantastic evening. We played Spoons which is always good for a laugh or five. Leah was great!

We left for San Francisco the next day- Monday 9th. Ben came home from school for lunch just before we left to say goodbye. Cy drove us to the airport, and we bid farewell to Seattle and HELlo to California! Even though Washington state had been cloudy and drizzly, as we approached San Fran it was brilliantly clear and we had a great view of the city and Golden Gate Bridge. The Dudros, who we are staying with here picked us up from the airport and drove us to their home via the coast and Presidio, and Lucas Film buildings! And the palace of fine arts which is gorgeously random.

Poor/lucky James has had a deluge of religious, philosophical, deep-and-meaningful discussions in the last week or so! With the Olsens for example. And the Dudros are outspoken Catholics and Vivian is really putting him and me through our paces. They work for Ignatius Press, the publishers of Cardinal Ratzinger’s books, so you can imagine what a hotspot this is at the moment! They have been wonderfully welcoming, like all the friends we have stayed with. The two girls, Mary and Therese are taking good care of us.

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