International District...Seattle

This is my second attempt at this post.  I hit the wrong key and lost everything. I haven't done that for awhile, thankfully. 

Yesterday afternoon I went to the International District in Seattle with a couple friends from my Silver Sneakers exercise group.  This is them in front of the Vietnamese restaurant we went to for lunch, which was wonderful.  Wendy is on the left and Donna on the right.  Donna is the youngest of the group and the only one without any gray hair.  

I haven't been to the International District for years and it dawned on me last night that I started smoking the one time I'd been there.  If my memory serves me correctly, it was a high school graduation celebration dinner.  Even though my sister and I were only 17 we were given saki and cigarettes.  I remember feeling buzzed from the saki and don't know where the cigarette came from, but I inhaled without knowing what I was doing and that was it...an addiction was born.  So, I started smoking in 1966 and quit smoking in 1994.  Actually, that's not true.  I thought about it while I was cooking/eating dinner and I didn't start smoking until 1968.  I truly regret that I ever started and I'm so glad that I no longer smoke.

Donna invited Wendy and I to go with her to The Wing Luke Asian Museum to see a display about Filipino's that were married to Native American's.  I know that Donna is Filipino, raised on Bainbridge Island and I'll stop there with her history because I'm unsure of the rest.  To her surprise she found pictures of herself and her family taken when she was growing up on Bainbridge.  

We went on a tour of the museum and were taken into the part that's over 100 years old and housed unmarried Chinese laborers.  While we were being taken around I could hear the strangest sound but I couldn't figure out what it was.  Turns out it was a virtual stir fry on a 100+ year old stove.

After lunch we needed to go pay the parking meter and smelled something wonderful in the air.  It turns out we went right by a fortune cookie factory.

After we left the museum we ended up on a dead end street that ended like this.  I think it's the prettiest dead end I've ever come across!

Are any of you familiar with the book Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet? My friend, Kathy, who pet/housesits for me loaned it to me recently and I plan on reading it while I'm in California.  Turns out that the Panama Hotel, which is featured in the book, was to the left of that dead end picture and here it is...

This was our next stop.  Uwajimaya is a huge store and this one is the original in the International District.  We have one in our city but we wanted to check out the original for comparison.  The one in our city just moved to a new location and I'm going to check it out soon, or maybe I'll wait until I return from California.  It depends on whether I can fit it into my schedule or not.

On the street next to Uwajimaya, the telephone poles are decorated with dragons, as seen here...

I had a really nice time yesterday, we didn't get rained on, just blown away by the wind.  I'm thinking of it as sort of a precursor of what's to come when I take off in Olivia; seeing new and interesting parts of our country.  

Speaking of Olivia.   I went to the storage area today to check and see if some items I'd gotten at Camping World were actually not missing, like I thought they were.  I couldn't remember seeing them after I'd unpacked the bags to take photos for an earlier post.  I had my errands all planned out by location and going to storage was on the way.  I pulled in, parked and realized that I didn't have my keys, so I had to go home, out of sequence, and get the keys.  I was not happy with myself, but it turned out ok.  I'd forgotten that I put a bag in the bathroom and there were the missing items.  Whoopee, now I don't have to take the long trek to Camping World on Saturday.

I'm starting to realize that I still have a lot to accomplish between now and Wednesday when I fly to California.  Planning on being gone for a month is different that a week.  More clothes, bigger suitcase, etc., etc.  

For the second time I almost lost this post so I'm going to publish it now.

Sunshine please,

Jeana