We had a such a great time in Canada where its nature never ceased to impress us. Nonetheless, it was good to be back in the USA. Yay, we could finally turn off airplane mode on our phones and get signals again!
We stopped by an art fair nearby the harbor before meeting Sunil’s cousin’s (Mark’s) family. We stayed with them for a couple of days until we flew to Minneapolis for the weekend to celebrate the birthday of two ladies, Sunil’s mom and my sister (Linda and SooMin, respectively).
Mark took us to Pike Place public market where we had amazing chowder, two kinds of fried fish, and Chinese buns! We also bought fresh oysters and salmon for dinner. The Salmon was very fresh and tasty. We did some sightseeing and were treated to fabulous dim-sum at Sunil’s other cousin’s (Paul and Heather’s) house along with his aunt Rita.
A few days later, the three of us took a flight to Minneapolis to celebrate two big birthdays for Linda and SooMin. We had a slight hiccup with the flight, which had to be diverted to Wisconsin, where we spent the night, before finally landing in Minneapolis. Mama Hong was reunited with her daughter, SooMin, and Sunil and I were reunited with Sunil’s family once more.
We had birthday dinner with SooMin at a local restaurant called Hola Arepa. It was a hot new spot that started as a food truck and had recently opened up a full-fledged restaurant. It was her first time trying Arepas and she really enjoyed them! We also had four different kinds of dessert for her special 40th! She certainly enjoyed all of them!
We had Linda’s 70th in her cute backyard. The choice of cuisine catered was Mediterranean, which everyone was very happy with. A lot of her relatives, friends, and new neighbors stopped by. We had birthday cake made by her grandchildren, followed by those close to her telling stories of the past. What a nice time we had!
After a short stay in Minneapolis, we came back to Seattle and headed to Olympic National Park. We had a rather unpleasant choice for lodging. It was a cabin in the wilderness, but unfortunately it was only half finished. The bathroom ceiling was exposed and the second bedroom door was cut a bit small, leaving one and half inch gap. When the tap water was brown color, we moved out to a hotel outside of Olympic National Park.
Nonetheless, Olympic National Park was lush and beautiful. The lushness of this national park could only be compared to that of Pacific Rim in Canada. We saw many different kinds of trees, covered completely with moss and hanging branches. The most interesting tree that we saw was a maple tree that looked nothing like maple tree because of its huge size and abundance of leaves and moss. Sunil was a little sad because he wanted to go for a backpacking trip and explore more of the park but he promised to come back for a solo backpacking trip later in the month.
After Olympic National Park, we stayed one more week in the west side of Seattle. We took day trips to downtown Seattle, the Boeing factory, and Mt. Rainer. It was mama Hong’s final week before she flew back to Korea. We strolled the last night by Alki beach where we enjoyed the beautiful skyline of Seattle, reminiscing the amazing memories that we had had together for the past month and half.
See you later back in Korea, Mama Hong!
SooJin & Sunil 