Blood In, Blood Out

The MOMMIETRON and I drove down to Seattle today to meet-up with some family!

Since we arrived in the city a little early, we decided to look for the Foster/White Gallery which Phen's family owns.

High-Fiving the son of one of the artists.

This location is much larger than the Bau-Xi Gallery in Vancouver!

Man, I haven't seen Phen in almost 10 years!

She was a trusted confidante of mine back in the day when she dated Phil, but we lost touch when they broke-up.  :-(

She's been living in Seattle and managing this gallery ever since.

 It's impressive to say the least!

Look, they even have a patio in the back.

Now, that's a good use of disposable cutlery.  ;-)

A foal made-up of human hair!

Sort of an optical illusion.  LOL!

This piece by Will Robinson reminds me of Superman's Fortress of Solitude.  ;-)

Thanks for the tour Phen!!!  :-)

They finally arrived!  My cousin Gloria and her son, Allan came up from Portland by train to meet us.

My mom and her niece were so excited to see each other.

I took them to Cafe Flora.

It's been voted Seattle's best vegetarian and vegan restaurant!

It's a great location.

Large and...

pretty!

We had to wait 20 minutes to get seated.

Mom and Gloria haven't seen each other in over 41 years!

Hunderd dollar bill...

No, two hundred dollar bills!!

Allan and I haven't seen each other since 2007!  He was living in the Philippines then.  Now, he and his wife have made Austria their home.

This Cinnamon Bun was super!

Bring on the food.

The sons got the Bennys...

and the moms ordered the Sopes.

LOL!  The girls didn't like what they ordered.  :-(

Holy smokes, it got busy here!

You've got three generations here.

Ahhh, a Segway tour of the city.

After our lunch, we drove back downtown...

to see the Seattle Space Needle.  The wait was over an hour, so we decided to peace-out.  LOL!

Instead, we drove over to Commodore Park...

to visit the Ballard Locks.

I never even heard of this place until Jeff's dad talked about it a couple of days ago.

You can't really see it in this photo, but under the water are a bunch of Salmon making their way to spawn.

Here's a couple taking their steps up the fish ladder!

More will come next month.

It's quite the tourist attraction...

and it's free!

Time to walk over to the locks.

The high side...

and the low side.

Here come some boats ready to get elevated.

Looking down the Lake Washington Ship Canal.

You can't stand on top of the doors too long.  ;-)

Waiting to watch the water rise.

These boats are going the other way.

There we go.

These boats are at the right level now.

Opening the doors.

Hey, that drawbridge went down for a train!

The Dalys were so happy to finally see Mom.  It was good to see smiles on their faces after losing John (Gloria's husband/Allan's dad) last week.

Time to walk back.

We dropped by Alki Beach for a group shot.  I guess Allan and I didn't get the memo from wardrobe.  ;-)

Aunt and niece.

You get a good view of downtown from here.  ;-)

Mom told Ate Gloria some old stories of our family.

That's a water taxi!  

Clan Gallardo

Sadly, our day together had to come to an end and we dropped-off Ate Gloria and Allan at the train station.  Blood in and blood out of Seattle in just 5 hours.  :-(

On the drive back, I made a pitstop for food and noticed all these charging stations for electric cars!

Hey, our Enterprise rental looks a little familiar!  ;-)  The tables have turned.  Now, I'm the one taking the wheel on our road trips.  LOL!

Big thanks to Ate Gloria and Allan for the mini family reunion!!!  

We had a wonderful time.  :-)