This past weekend we embarked on our first house visit to another city. This weekend the city of choice was Seattle. After relaxing all day on Friday, the five o’clock bell rang and the crew returned home from work. The house turned into complete chaos as the eight of us showered, packed, figured out food for the next three days, made mix CDs, and filled the car with our stuff. Trips in this van, not fit for 8 grown adults, have always proven adventurous. The people stuffed in the back seat are too cold, the person in front likes Dashboard Confessional, the people in the middle are hot and hate the music, and on and on and on. The growing tension in the car can only be relieved by two things: Werewolves of London and Tiny Dancer - our two go-to house songs. We arrived in Seattle around 7:30, throwing our hosts COMPLETELY off-guard. Nonetheless, the good sports that they are, they started the party right away. There are 8 of them as well in the Cherry Abbey House, so it was really fascinating to compare notes, gossip about house drama, and see all these vaguely familiar faces from orientation. After a long night of cheap beer, Carlo Rossi, Simon & Garfunkel, The Dead, and the Allman Brothers - we passed out. Very, very happily. After waking slowly the next morning we strolled around Seattle, detoxed, saw some of the sights, napped, ate falafel, bought Travels with Charlie for $3 (yep- I haggled it down from 3.50 by pulling out the v-card ...volunteer) and waited for the bigger party on Saturday night.
Saturday night rolled in and so did a four other JV houses from Seattle, Portland, and Gresham, as well as some Lutheran Volunteers (LVs), and a few Mennonite Volunteers. There was a delicious keg donated by some FJVs (former JVs) and a lot more catching up to be done. The night flew by. Needless to say, we didn’t end up leaving at 8:30am as we intended. We rolled out of Seattle around 11am in the pouring rain (MY FAVORITE WEATHER!!!!!) and headed towards Whedby Island, where our landlady, Patty, and her husband, Pat, were waiting for us. They immediately took us out for DELICIOUS pizza and wine tasting. We came home after the wine tasting and 6 of us crawled onto the queen-sized bed and passed out in a nice little Yakima-spoon. When we stirred once again it was time for charades, bottomless wine, an enormous feast, and more conversation until 2am. Sadly we went back up to the garage apartment only to find that my hiking pack was sitting on a scorching heater, had melted completely, and that some of my clothes inside the pack were burned through as well. RIP my favorite bag in the world.
Sunday morning we awoke to another gourmet feast, went on a gorgeous hike over the Puget Sound, followed by another delicious meal of fresh fish and guinness(!!!!!). By the time we began our 5 hour drive home the 8 of us were pretty much DEADDDD. Finally home, we all passed out around 10pm, stuffed with food, flooded with beer and wine, and with huge smiles on our faces.
It was an amazing weekend. Thanks to the Seattle JVs, Thanks to Pat and Patty, and Thanks to God we made it home in one piece!
ps- pictures to come!
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