Family Time in the USA

Bom dia! .... from the Wandering Berkmans!

As Coimbra (coh-EEEM-bra), Portugal unfolds before us in all its hilly glory after our arrival this week, let's look back on the last month and a half as we continued our Family Frolic about the US.  

First stop-- Seattle to spend some great time with Javi and their friends.  Zach joined us early on and one of the first excursions-- a repeat of last year's food crawl in the U District.    

Always on our list-- Hong Kong style tea and coffee.  This time we added a salty preserved lime and 7-up drink that brought on the pucker but was surprisingly refreshing... kinda, haha.  They say it's good for a sore throat!

Also on our tour was a sampling of my newest Indian food jag-- samosa chaat. (You know who begged out of this stop and hit Joe's Coffee.)  Holy smokes is that chaat amazing!  Coupled with a mango lassi , we were in heaven. 

Camera shy:  More stops (where Don could join in!) included the requisite Korean food and a bagel with labneh za'atar-- shake up your morning bagel with that bit of loveliness.

We went on two ferries while Zach was in town, one to Bainbridge Island and the other to West Seattle where we ate Mexican food (he insisted, we swear! He wanted that Tex-Mex experience of cheese on everything shm) and pondered the waves at Alki Beach.  

As a goodbye gift to us and Javi's truly terrific friends, Zach (with sous-chefs Javi and I) cooked up an amazing Korean extravaganza of deliciousness.  Our guests showing their appreciation below:  

Lucky me to be able to go to a KPop concert with Javi to see Baekhyun from EXO (see here performing Bambi)! Check out my designer handbag, clear and suitable for concerts and ball games.  

Also lucky me-- Javi so thoughtfully gifted me a woodworking class from the art school where they work.  Anyone who knows me knows that it's been my dream to try my hand at woodworking and this experience lived up to the hype in my head.  Now I know you're all concerned-- "how are they going to travel with that??"  Javi will be the lucky recipient of the cheese board and Zach the utensils, all of which we can visit when we visit them!

We planned our stay in time to march for a 2nd time with the terrific organization PFLAG  at the Seattle Pride March.  Our hats bring out the floppy in floppy hats.

Professional sports played a surprisingly large part of our visit this time and it's so easy to do so with the stadiums right in the city.   We hit 2 games, one of the Sounders (men's soccer) and an oh so close match of the Storm (women's basketball) that left us like this... .  Sorry we couldn't eek out a win for your first match, Nico and Zeiva!

Something else that played a surprisingly large part of our Seattle visit-- trips to the dentist for Don.  Seems one of the implants he had placed under a year ago in Madrid just didn't take.  As in it came out of his mouth doh! This was one of the trickier ones that involved a sinus lift so surprising/not surprising.  Either way, he ended up with a root canal on an adjoining tooth and a bridge to replace the implant.  All in Seattle with no dental coverage.  Yeah.  Not how we thought we would be spending our time.  As always, Don was a trouper.  Here's the pesky bugger.  

When life gives you a neighbor with a huge fig tree, you take matters into your own hands... and a step ladder... and a curtain rod... and an umbrella.  The bounty was tremendous that day, my friend! 

We handed out slices of fig bread at the food distribution location that Javi and friends are a part of most Sundays.  

In the midst of all this fun and frolic the stars aligned and we had a great time hosting two couples we met on the road in Athens last fall-- Gina & Justin and Emily & Olaf.  Great conversation that went everywhere, with questions pondered and answered-- can dried ginger cure motion sickness?   Is it wrong that  AI wrote a pretty good country western song that included references to beef jerky?   And will Don ever stop trying to edge in his birthday even when it's someone else's birthday?  That's a no, an ugh and a definite no.   We hope to make this a regular get-together every summer!

Lately during our longer stays we've been renting a car for a week  to check out the surrounding areas.  This time we headed out to the capital of Washington, Olympia, to check out the capital building, stumble onto a wedding rehearsal by the reflecting pool like Forest Gump (another wedding crash??)  and take in a nosh.  

Some may call it a weed but the guasca, that magic green that was put in my ajiaco (chicken soup) by our very friendly and patient server at this Colombian restaurant, was heavenly.  Don was a sport, satisfied with empanadas and maduros.  

And then this happened...  

Kinda nice to ride around with 2 passports, not gonna lie.

We've been giving the no-alcohol life a try (or at least the less alcohol life-- let's not go crazy!).  Beer has been a non-issue-- there is already a lot of great tasting NA beer out there.  Wine?  Not so much.  The best we've had so far, and we've had to suspend belief, has been this one below.  Not the same grape juice taste as all the others.  Would we buy it again, at $30 a bottle?  Nope-- not worth it. The search continues as the wine industry works hard to get this right.  

 
After 6 amazing weeks, we bid our youngest "hasta la proxima!", see you at Thanksgiving in NM.  Our Seattle stays are one of our highlights every year.  And this time, like bittersweet icing on that lactose-free cake, we loved and shed a tear hearing Javi say "It's nice having you here nearby to hang out, do my laundry (hahaha) and go out to lunch." We'll always take that!  <333

Next stop-- a week in Ohio to see my dad,  Ron, sister Beverly and husband Frank.  After a birthday appointment to the dentist for my dad (fun!), this visit was game-a-rama.  In a brilliant move, Don arranged for a domino set to be sent to their house and it was non-stop from there.  Add a couple of Berkman rules (always!) and trash talk and a tradition was born.   The fun continued with Uno (Ron kicked everyone's butt) and finally Cards Against Humanity, always an interesting game to play with one's parents haha.  

Here Beverly looks on as Frank and my dad are, no doubt, cheating at dominoes.  

As an added birthday surprise our wonderfully kind Airbnb host was game to bring over his cute pup Nova to their home for a visit.   She was a tad shy at the beginning but it was nothing that a million treats and a belly rub couldn't cure.

 Hugs and "hasta luego!" and we were off to Wisconsin.  We brought the beautiful weather, as we are wont to do.  

We stayed in the Bayview section of Milwaukee with a walk to Lake Michigan and a view of the city.  Nice!  

 While some heady dominoes matches were also on the docket (Andrew unearthed the set we had when we were kids in the Philippines!  I only remember ever using them for Rube Goldberg-esque  shenanigans.) it seems it took a back seat to sketching.  I always remember my mom being a talented sketch artist but she hasn't picked up a pencil or paints in a while.  This visit, my mom and I spent some tranquil and lovely moments outside flexing our artistic muscles.  And when she bought me a travel size pastels set of my very own it all came to life!  She sketched my brother and a lake.  I sketched a brewery.  Very MKE.

Next stop-- Chicago, to see my sister Laura and help celebrate her birthday with her amazing friends......

and also meet up in person for the first time with a terrific volunteer group we're a part of called the Windy City Welcomers that aids LGBTQI+ immigrants in Chicago.  

 

It's been a whirlwind this summer but also  was fantastic to see much of the family (we miss you, Christina & Codge and Mary & Bob!), from ABQ to Seattle to OH to WI and Chicago.  But you know us-- time to hit the road again! 

Our stay in Coimbra goes until September 30 (Laura comes in for a week on Monday!), then a week in Lisbon.  We round out the fall in Nimes, France before heading back to ABQ for Thanksgiving.  Longer stays, just like we planned from the beginning.  

Don heads out to Madrid today to hopefully finish out his dentistry saga after 3 years of Invisalign, implants, a root canal and a bridge oof.    Can't wait to see his new pearly whites! 

Until next time-- Rube Goldberg, eat your heart out!  

Thanks for following along!

Don and Monica