Summertime in Seattle
If you’ve been to—or even just heard of—Seattle, you’ve probably gotten an earful about the weather. Drizzly and grey. Yes yes yes. It’s all true. But the other weather fact? Seattle in the summer is a playground of sunshine and water. It’s the place to be: temperate, bright, relatively bug-free. It is a common refrain that Seattlites don’t travel during the summer because it’s the season they really moved to Seattle for.
After my mom’s wedding in late May, we were able to head north to Seattle for a few days (and then to Portland, but more on that later) to visit our friends Kata and Barrett. Kata and I have been friends as long as we’ve been alive. Her mom Marit was my mom Courtney’s resident advisor at Seattle Pacific University back in the ‘80s and they became close friends. I was born in Seattle and got to spend my first few years near Kata and her family, growing together.
When my family moved to California, I was too little to remember much of the transition. But I do remember being away from Kata. We visited often then and throughout the years. Kata and I became official pen pals in elementary school (you know, after we could actually write) and we’ve exchanged letters regularly since then. We would fly to visit one another in high school and college times—and now we get to make it a priority since we’re adults. Kata is pure joy, an infusion of oxygen into my life, equal parts sassy, brilliant, and compassionate. She is a rare find.
Kata married Barrett on a crisp fall day in 2017. Their love is awesome and we’ve learned so much getting to be in our own marriage alongside them. What a gift it is to journey with friends through such meaningful experiences. Barrett and Jackson became friends by default, but really would have hit it off on their own, without any of our help. They’re both zany engineering types who love cats, traveling, games, beer—I mean, the list really does go on.
We were delighted to catch both Kata and Barrett this time (covid and work has made it difficult to wrangle all four of our schedules). We got to stay in their darling new home with a water view on one side and forest on the other. Jackson fell in love with Spicy Cat (see the beast below). We played games. We grilled salmon (as one does in the PNW) and enjoyed Paper Planes (the current Karrett signature cocktail). We sat out on their giant deck and chipped away at the summer daylight with conversation and laughter.
Barrett even took time to teach Jackson how to drive stick shift! J did pretty well: no grinding of the clutch, no stalling, and he handled a crowded intersection and a sharp turn with ease. And Barrett didn’t dig a panic hole into the floorboards with his feet like my mom always seemed to be doing when I was first learning to drive.
This visit, we didn’t do many classically Seattle things in the tourist sense. But we did experience our best version of Seattle: visiting dear friends and enjoying grilled veggies with a side of curious questions. Till next time, Karrett!
xo,
em
