After flights to Kenya, then Amsterdam and then finally back to Seattle I arrived on U.S. soil last Tuesday. The Malouf family graciously allowed me to ease my way back into the day to day living of the west by staying with them in Seattle for the week. I have known the family for about ten years now, originally getting connected to them when David was my youth pastor at Highlands. Since then I’ve grown to know not only David, but Tara, Luc and Mikaela. They are an amazing family and have been a huge blessing to me, used by God at many points in my life. Kathi, another good friend who connects back to the old youth group days, also flew into town from Phoenix for a few days. It was great having here there as well. I couldn’t have asked for a better environment to be in beginning to process my time in Rwanda.

Since returning from Seattle to Arizona on Sunday night I have been pretty busy. I am in a point in my life where there are a great deal of transitions. I am moving this week, while also looking to see where God is leading me next. I hope to continue to use this blog in not only processing my time from Rwanda, but in staying engaged and connected with the community as I venture into what is next.

All of that said please enjoy a few pictures from my time in Seattle. It was my first time there, what an amazing city. I loved it! I was also excited to shoot the below photos with Tara’s brand new camera. She upgraded as she continues to grow her photo business (check out her blog here, she has some beautiful photos posted)!

We spent almost an entire day in Seattle (about an hour away from Casa de Malouf). We started by driving through the downtown, looking at the public library, and then going to their famous market.

The fish market was crowded as eager spectators looked on to see the flying fish at the Pike Place Fish Market, but business was slow and the only fish I saw were on ice.

After walking through the market we emerged into Post Alley, the home of an enormous gum wall.

above: Welcome to Starbucks, store #1. They kept their old colors and old logo here and still manage to have customers lined up out the door. Under the logo a 4 man acapella group performed some great songs.
below: All guys should have a favorite hardware store, electronic store, and outdoors store. While there is no shortage of options my absolute favorite of the latter category is REI. I absolutely love this place from the staff to the products, from the return policy to the annual garage sales…they just do it right. The pictures of clocks below surround the outside of this REI, which like Starbucks, started in Seattle. Another store #1.

David showing his agility as he runs through the streets of Seattle, dodging his daughters reach.

Seattle from across the bay.

Malouf family thanks again for a great time of rest, conversation and fun!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 5:44 pm and is filed under Photography, Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.