Endings and beginnings

Sunday, after the hangout, we went to a playground in Wallingford, very close to Rachel's school, to check out the playground as a possible site for Eric's birthday party next month. The kids played for a while, and evidently had some fun, but apparently Eric would still prefer Big Howe.

Next, we drove down to the international district to get bubble team from Young Tea. Rachel and I went in. The others drove around looking for parking, which was in short supply because of a Seahawks game, and maybe also because it's always scarce. Did you know that tea purveyors refer to the boba pearls, which sink to the bottom, as toppings? Confusion on this point led to Nicole's drink going without. She was a little disappointed.

Next stop, the Container Store in Bellevue for a couple more bins for the garage, these ones larger, to hold the camping gear. Then, when we got home, we set to work on a system for stacking bikes on the garage wall. That took a couple hours all told, but the result was a significant space savings.

Shortly after we finished cleaning up, Paola and family came over for dinner, which they had picked up from Red Mill. In the lead up to dinner, we heard thunderclaps, but it was still sunny at our house. However, shortly after we sat down, a cloudburst brought heavy rain and hail for the duration of dinner. It was more rain than we've had in months. Nicole was delighted, because it seemed to totally justify the garage project.

Paola brought a new Unlock! box, and we played through the first puzzle together. We're planning to do another next weekend. They also brought a big bag of books that they no longer need, and most of them were new to us. Rachel was excited about several of them.

After our guests went home, we wound down with another invalid COVID test and photos of Nicole's second cousin Maxi's wedding. He's from her German family; he visited us for a week or so when we lived in Pittsburgh. Rachel doesn't remember him, though.