Time and the flying snow

Seattle by the remarkable Aly Lenon
Will was only in town for two days. On the first day we went to Bellingham, so on the second I wanted to show him Seattle, and why I love it here so much. But it's impossible! Cities can't be seen in a day. We had dinner with Ammen and Steph and I was discussing where I wanted to take Will. Besides Discovery Park and the beach at Golden Gardens, all my favorite spots are restaurants, and there's only so much you can eat in one day, am I right? Besides which Will doesn't really care about food the way I do.

Well, Ammen and Steph had some ideas. And some magazines piled up with all the best places and next think i know we're charting out the most ridiculous, ambitious trek throughout the entire city.
The next morning, we met Ammen and Ella at the Arboretum to begin our long day of walking.  "I totally thought you guys were just humoring us last night," she whispered to me as Will studied the Witch hazel. "I didn't think you'd actually do this."

Oh, we did it.  And it took nine hours.



After the Arboretum we walked through Montlake, up the interlaken trail to Capitol hill with a stop at Volunteer Park Cafe. 
 

We climbed the water tower at Volunteer park and then headed down the mossy staircases to Eastlake, where we walked down by the water and past the creaking wooden boats and their molding riggings. 
We walked all the way down town in the rain, through Pike Place Market with a cold wind blowing through, taking the proffered cherries and sugared almonds.
At the Confectioner I bought an apple covered in caramel, white chocolate and dusted with cinnamon sugar.  We cracked it into pieces and ate it on the ferry out to Bainbridge Island. The boat was filled with commuters and I nearly fell asleep on the window. It was dark when we docked, and raining steadily, and the streets were very silver. The island was quiet and covered in red paper hearts. The only place we could afford to eat was a cheerful diner where the waitress, in a short dress and tall cowgirl boots, told Will how very lamentable it was that he was so much younger than she. She kept an eye on him the whole meal.

I tried to catch a photo on the ferry home....clear, cold, and we shared a forty of Winter Porter out on the deck as the lights of downtown came into focus. 

I failed.

The return home was rough as we grew ragged and tired. Walking through city is far more exhausting than hiking through forest. A long wait for two city buses took us to the edge of the Arboretum. We pushed through the dark gardens and the Witch hazel back to the car, which sat forlorn in the empty parking lot. 

I started writing this blog long before I lived in North Carolina with Will, and during, and all the time after. And a lot of you have been reading that entire time, and I'm sure your wondering what it was like to see him again. And the answer was it wasn't bad. That's what time will do. As Gordon Bok would say: 

Time and the flying snow.
And oh, that foolish river
running by