Seattle/Palouse
Seattle

6/9/2023 - 6/14/2023

Marc Konvisser

Zieva and Marc flew to Seattle on Friday, June 9, 2023. The main purpose of this trip was to attend our granddaughter Natasha's high school graduation which was scheduled for June 14 and help her with the preliminaries.

Brisket

Aaron and his friend Minh met us at the airport and took us home to Aaron's house for smoked brisket - which had slowly cooked for 12 hours since early that morning.

Since it was 1:00 AM in Detroit, I had planned not to have brisket, but it smelled so good and was so tender and delicious, I completely changed my mind and enjoyed several helpings - yum.

The next day, Saturday, was a lazy day and we got to enjoy the brisket again for dinner.

Sunday

Sunday was a busy day. It started with Natasha's graduation brunch at Pomegranate Restaurant in Redmond.

After brunch we had a few minutes back at Aaron's house and then went to his sysnagogue Temple B'nai Torah for a program in which Zieva was speaking.

The program started with Noah Weisel's (Rabbi Molly Weisel's husband) short film Goshen about a world where the State of Israel no longer exists. Zieva was the final speaker and discussed resilence and hope in the Jewish homeland alongside the external threats and internal trauma.

Monday

On Monday we each did our own things. Natasha picked up Zieva for an afternoon of shopping at the mall. Natasha said, the shopping trip "was better than the graduation." They did a lot of "damage" at the mall and, later, on-line.

In addition, Zieva gave Natasha the tube top she had crocheted for her.

Aaron went into work and I took a bike ride along the Sammamish Trail to Bothell.

Tuesday

Aaron and Marc took a nice walk and did some things around the house.

That evening Minh, Natasha and David joined the three of us for dinner. We had salmon, asparagus, rice and watermelon for desert.

Graduation Day

Wednesday was the big day. Graduation started at 4:00 at the University of Washington HEC Arena. The arena had graduations from different high schools scheduled one after another all day long - there was a lot of traffic going in and coming out. We left quite early and got there on time. Also, we were able to get handicapped seatting so Zieva didn't have to climb up and down lots of steps.

Before the processional started they projected a collage of pictures of each graduating student on the arena's jumbotron. Here's Natasha's collage.

The graduation was very well organized and the graduates moved very quickly. Here is Natasha receiving her diploma.

After the graduation was over, we met Natasha outside the arena and took may pictures.

We finished the evening with pizza at Diana's condo. We couldn't go out for a celebratory dinner because Natasha had an all-night school party which started at 8:30 (and ended at 5:00 AM).

She did get a moment to try on her graduation gift from Aunt Julie and Uncle Josh, a San Diego State football jersey.