04.19.04 3:33 pm

i am getting to be a rather savvy seattle tour guide.

i have had my fill of visitors this past month, enough to last a long while. just dropped off sister, bro-n-law, and 15 mo niece at the airport and awoke from a short but much needed nap.

they flew in friday morning and my head has been a jumble since then.

to the list...

friday: egg dish breakfast in wallingford, unload luggage in ballard, seattle center/children's museum with my friend marit and olivia, the 5 year old. lunch at the center, the international fountain, merry-go-round, driving tour of queen anne, kerry park, the troll, back home for a nap, and waterfront dinner in ballard.

saturday: picnic at carkeek with dick's burgers (gene's request), drive to snohomish, antiquing and the usual ice cream parlor stop for root beer floats and zoe's third ever ice cream cone - a big hit with passersby. back to seattle for the mariners game at safeco field - a first time for everyone including me. hot dogs, garlic fries, peanuts, microbrews, the top open to sky... and they actually won a game! best part was zoe, pointing, clapping, baby chatter the whole time. infectious feel good.

sunday: lunch at luisa's, sun drive to woodinville bluesky greenmeadow whiteclouds and a brewery tour, zoe playtime on the salmon slide, watching the rain across water in bainbridge, karen gene and zoe on the teeter totter, her hair blow against laughter, blue eyes. sunday night pints at fados, kells and pike brewery for gene's pubcrawl and back home for a video passout.

monday: breakfast at 5-spot in queen anne, pike place meander tasting pepper jelly, tulips, le panir bakery, finally the rain in spurts between sun before driving back to the airport.

getting home to an echo house fall into bed with keys still in hand, quick to sleep, and alphonse curled into me one long sigh.