Seattle: Starbucks, Space Needle and self-induced sleep deprivation

My first impression of Seattle was far from positive: I'd just arrived back from Brisbane and was suffering from jet-lag, exhaustion, and overwhelming sadness.  While I was excited to see Emmelia and David again, I was still completely out of sorts and not really sure what was going on. Add to that the fact that some guy went postal the morning we arrived and shot  five people, one of those blocks from where we were staying (in an ordinary apartment, to say the least), and I was looking forward to leaving Seattle in a hurry.  After two days, we headed south to Tacoma for a few nights, en route to our next HelpX stay, with Leeann and Kayta in Olympia. Emmelia wasn't shy about making herself at home, and we were lucky that Leeann and Kayta were amazing with her. After almost two weeks in Olympia - filled with laughter, deep discussions and a gorgeous view of trees, with glimpses of Puget Sound - we headed South again, to Portland, Oregon. I loved Portland right away - we stayed in a gorgeous loft apartment, and the family who were renting the space also had a daughter, so Emmelia had some new toys. We spent our week in Portland checking out museums, Portland Zoo, and downtown. We spent only an hour or so in Powells, a downtown bookstore situated on an entire city block. Of course, I could have easily spent all day in this literary heaven. This was where we saw Jane Lynch (for most people, they think Glee, but I think Spencer's mum on Criminal Minds!).  After arriving back to Seattle and commencing our housesitting assignment, I was feeling marginally better than during our first Seattle experience, and the days out and about were keeping me distracted (as was Emmelia).  We haven't done too many "touristy" activities since we've been away, and our Space Needle adventure reinforced why: 20 minutes in the line just to buy a ticket - and then an hour in the line to ride up to the top! All for about 15 minutes up there. The view however, was gorgeous - Seattle is blessed to be surrounded by water and snow capped mountains - it's truly beautiful. We purchased our Seattle artwork at the gift store (we are buying a piece of art from each place we visit) and left! Our next tourist destination - Pike Place Market. The market itself was awesome - heaps of fresh produce, artwork and gifts. Had we not already bought art, we definitely would have purchased something here. We also decided to visit the holy grail of mass-produced coffee - the first Starbucks - just outside the market. This line, thankfully, was only about 10 minutes, and impressively, they got my coffee order right - but that issue is a whole blog in itself! We returned home to the house, about an hour out of Seattle, and after putting Emmelia down for the night, recommenced our NCIS marathon -this would be the self-induced sleep deprivation portion of my blog.  We haven't really watched television for about three months, and to be honest, I haven't missed it. But we decided, that since there wasn't much else to do after putting Emmelia down, to raid our home owner's DVD collection. We decided on NCIS - it's a pretty good show, easy to watch, easy to switch off - right? Apparently not. We got through an entire season in less than a week (we only start watching at 8pm at night).  Then, of course we had to watch the next season, which was not in the DVD collection. A quick trip to the shops, and we were holding Season 8 in our hands. Theres a chance that we may have watched the entire season in about three nights. In fact, there's a chance we stayed up until 2 am to watch the last episodes of the season, because we were heading back to Leeann's for a few days, and knew we couldn't wait. Shock horror - it also ended on a cliffhanger - well, it did for about five minutes of Googling. I'd forgotten how much I love Gibbs.....must be my thing for older guys....  So, all in all, Seattle has proven to be a pretty enjoyable city, the second time round. Even though Patrick Dempsey hasn't been walking around with perfect hair and clothes looking for me (old guy alert), I've had a pretty nice time, given the circumstances. The best part of our Pacific Northwest adventure though has definitely been meeting Leeann and Kayta. Having gone through a similar loss themselves, they really understood what I've been going through, and have made us feel like family. We are definitely going to miss them!  We leave the area on 27 July, and finally begin to head East! We are heading across to Chicago, where we have another HelpX lined up, with a few stops along the way - including the Canadian Rockies, and probably Yellowstone National Park.  As I sit here finishing this blog, it's 9.15 pm, and it's only just started to become dark. The trees are rustling in the wind, and I can see a glimpse of ocean. Emmelia is sound asleep downstairs, and David is next to me on the couch (watching something on Netflix - actually, maybe its been less than three months since he watched TV). While there are lots of issues at the moment, there are also lots of positives. And when I forget that (me, forget to be positive??), I look at my daughter - and feel like the most blessed person on Earth. She has that effect on people ' xxxx Veena