Visiting Aunty Daisy

The main event for today was visiting Aunty Daisy at Scott & Wakana's house; Aunty Florence was also there along with Karen, David O., Justine, Ursula, and Tomiko. And, of course, Momotaro was also there. Wakana made some traditional New Year's food such as ozoni and nishime. We brought a dessert from Minamoto Kitchoan that was shaped like a rabbit.

L to R: Kai, Aunty Florence, & Aunty Daisy.

L to R: tea, ozoni.

 L to R: pickled carrots & daikon, green beans with sesame dressing, nishime.

Clockwise from left: kamaboko, mochi with kinako, & mochi with sugar.

After lunch we took a walk in the Bradner Gardens Park across the street; Scott says everyone that gardens there knows Aunty Daisy but none of them know who he is. While there we saw a bunch of Anna's Hummingbirds getting nectar from the Oregon Grape flowers.

Bottom right : Momo, L to R, front row: Ursula, Aunty Daisy, Wakana, Tomiko, & Scott; back row: Karen, David, Justine, Aunty Florence, Kai.

Watching the Anna's Hummingbirds; L to R: David, Karen, Tomiko, & Justine.

At the old apiary, L to R: Scott & Aunty Florence.

Runoff from the basketball court runs in to a rain garden made to look like a rock-lined pond.

We also walked around in back of the house to look at the garden beds Wakana has been putting in on the slope behind the house. We ended the visit by having everyone choose omiyage.

Wakana shows Ursula the different garden beds.

Tomiko chose the homemade furikake Chex mix.

As we left Scott's, Kai & I followed Tomiko over to David T.'s apartment where her cat Cub was hanging out while in Seattle. Cub has traveled several times between the West Coast and Wisconsin by car. I figured I would probably not make it out to Wisconsin to see him, so I should go and meet him now while we are in the same city!

The front gate at David T.'s apartment building.

Apparently there was a problem with birds perching over the entry door.

Kai climbs up the stairs to the 3rd floor.

At least they give you a nice place to rest on the landings!

Cub is not too sure about us.

The treat bag changed his cattitude ...

... but only until he was full.

Before we left Seattle, Kai wanted to visit the Daniel Smith art supply store to pick up a couple of things. He got some pencils, a case to hold a bunch of his smaller art supplies, a color wheel, and another drawing pad. I also picked up a couple things: a collapsible water container, a case to hold my limited palette watercolor supplies, and the book Colors of the West by Molly Hashimoto.

Kai was also wanting a backpack that was large enough for his laptop to fit in so we made a stop at REI. I was so engrossed in helping him find the right sized backpack I forgot to take photos of the process he went through to find it (and he would not re-create it for me to photograph) so there are no photos of that. But I did take photos of the cold weather gear that I bought to keep my hands, ears, & feet warm. All my gloves & watch caps are on the Big Island in a box somewhere in the house! The REI membership does not expire, so even though I had not shopped there in years I was still in the system; it was under my phone number from over 30 years ago!

Kai checks out the artificial stream and waterfall at REI.

I do my shopping in the kids section for some things.

I wore them out of the store!

We stopped in Everett at A Pizza House to see Gulshan and also get some dinner. I had Kai contact his housemates to let them know we were bringing pizza home for everyone; only Dustin was home. We got a large Chicken Tikka Pizza and a large Pepperoni Pizza; Dustin is not very adventurous when it comes to pizza.

I forgot to take a photo before we devoured the pizzas.

While the pizzas were baking, Kai & I made a quick trip to the Sno-Isle Natural Foods Co-op to pick up supplies to make some low-carb meals. We got almond flour, xylitol sweetener, cacao powder, and cheese. But I forgot to pick up granola for omiyage for Curtis! Aue!

After we picked up the pizzas we made a quick stop at Bartell's Drug Store to pick up some other supplies as well as omiyage; its where I usually get smoked salmon but there was none there today. I got some Seattle Chocolate instead. I also got a box of Applets & Cotlets for Ian as a joke.


After dinner we got to watch Bear as he patiently waited for his food. As soon as he was allowed to move from his place he promptly attacked his food! 

He acts like a baseball player trying to steal a base!