To Seattle

So! On with the adventures! I found someone on the Craigslist rideshare board who was driving up to Canada in a campervan and wanted a buddy for the road. We got on really well and it was a fun trip. I am now smitten with campervans.

I had a fab time in Seattle reconnecting with my friend Maxine who I'd not seen in about 5 years - she is 13 weeks pregnant, so i was present for her first purchase of maternity jeans! Got to meet most of her good friends (and her hubby). Ran into two people I knew at shabbat dinner on Fri night (olam katan - small world!) and we went for havdalah on the beach on Saturday night. Maxine is an educational consultant for an intentional Jewish community - so it was also very interesting to go along to their meeting and be exposed to some great minds and great questions as the parents are trying to figure out the curriculum for their kids and how to create a family educational environment. How to do it without dogma, what sort of values they want passed onto their kids, how to create community through their decisions and so on. It was such an interesting meeting! The community was set up by someone who worked for microsoft - made a fortune, retired and now in their 30s wants to community build. Maxine said that there are so many retired Microsoft millionaires around turning their hands to philanthropy and social action, that it is hard for regular social and community workers to find paying jobs as all these well-intentioned folk are doing it for free!

I realise that Seattle is home to two things that greatly impact millions of lives - microsoft and starbucks (the coffee shop phenomenon). I even saw the world's first ever Starbucks (full off Japanese tourists inside taking photos!!)

In short - a great and very liveable city! Leafy, conscious and lots of lovely neighbourhoods.