If I am true to form, this should be a series of posts, but I'll try to restrain myself, lol.
I love Seattle. I've never known why exactly...just that the city and I seem to be on the same wavelengths (aside from the fact that Grunge music never did much for me). But I think people forget that this was the "hometown" of Jimi Hendrix, too. The musical history of Seattle started well before Guns and Roses and Nirvana.
We came out here to celebrate John's niece's graduation from Everett College of the University of Washington. It was a great graduation, with a few of the graduates acting a little strange (and yes, I'm being kind). Dianna is a vibrant woman who is a breast cancer survivor, as is her Mother. She's one of those women you can admire on a lot of different levels.
We spent most of the day yesterday with John's brother and his wife, and attended the graduation in the evening. It was fun spending time in Redmond with them.
The first time I was in Redmond was about 15-18 years ago, on business. The hills surrounding the town were heavily forested. Now, lol, they are heavily housed. Everywhere you look in Redmond, there are either houses or condos being built, office buildings being constructed, or changes being made to the roads to accomodate the growth. It really DOES make that area look like the recession hasn't hit them, but that isn't the case at all. We went shopping at the Redmond Town Center. Macy's is one of the "big" stores there, and there were few people buying. Some were window shopping, but not much cash being taken out of the wallets. Macy's is always a good place to judge the economic health...it appeals to nearly all levels of income, because their sales are to die for. What I got out of that trip is that people were out, but they were keeping a close watch on the money they spent.
