SEATTLE

It was our first family trip since the Big Trip. We drove to Seattle on Friday and stayed downtown in the Red Lion Inn for two nights, a block from Westlake Mall. When we arrived, Macy's was shooting fireworks off the top of the store, just next to our hotel. The streets were thronged with holiday celebrants, and it took us over an hour to negotiate the six blocks from the freeway to the Red Lion. It wasn't much fun for Stephen, who was managing the slow crawl through traffic, but we three queens had a ball watching all the hullabaloo through the car windows.

It was great fun to be right in downtown Seattle, especially at the beginning of the festive Christmas season. We enjoyed strolling the streets, meandering through the malls, watching the lights (and marathon runners) through our hotel window. We visited Pike Place Market, of course, and walked down to the Olympic Sculpture Park and to the Safeco Field. I forgot to take my camera on our jolly jaunts, so you'll have to imagine . . . a clear, crisp, almost-Christmas day in Seattle. Lovely.

I went to see "New Moon" one night at Pacific Place Mall. (Movie review: better than "Twilight", flat acting, decent effects.) Grace grumbled mostly, I suppose because she's twelve; Gloria loved Pike Place and the hotel TV (we don't have TV); and Stephen worked on his Christmas letter (do we have your address?)

Seattle has a great vibe about it. Even though Portland is still my favorite city, Seattle has an unpretentious verve and variety that I always so enjoy.