This vacation brought to you by:

• running son's friends, who have stayed at our house and hung out with Bruiser.
• singing son and his friend, who have been ripping out the heinous paneling of death downstairs, thus preparing our next project for us--painting and making the downstairs, in general, an exemplar of sweetness and light.
• my colleague Jamie, who lent me two excellent detective novels, including the highly satisfying one I am reading right now.
• my friend Ann, who lent me another great novel to which I have referred earlier.
• bookstores everywhere in Seattle, which allowed us to buy even more reading material than we can possibly finish.
• my public library, which furnished copies of Ian Rankin novels, the always reliable Scots police procedural guy.
  
• my colleague Dr. Write, who suggested that we go to Serafina, which we went to tonight, and it was wonderful.
• my old friend Susan, who showed me her neighborhood, Green Lake.
• the historian's daughter and her partner, who showed us a swell time and in general, gave us recommendations to pursue, including a local maker of salt caramels, which are amazing.
• unforeseen difficulties, which sharpen the sweetness of happy moments.
• the new tires on the Camry of Power.
• La Grand, Oregon, which, because of its paucity of restaurants, made the embarrassment of riches, restaurant-wise, in Seattle more resplendent.
• my camera, which allowed me to snap self-important photos of everything.
• my friend Jen, who recommended the Seattle Underground tour, which, though we did not actually take it, inspired us to ask: "What about Seattle? And what is this 'Underground' we hear tell of?" which made for a tidy bit of conversation.
  
• the rain, which made it cool-ish and rather pleasant to walk around the unfamiliar city.
• summer, which needs no further explanation.
• the United States's system of interstate highways.
• the internet, which has allowed me to tell you all what I ate in Seattle, and even though I've heard it said that no one is interested in what you ate for lunch, your comments on my dinner posts have proved that at least some of you are interested in what I ate for dinner (tonight, at Serafina: seared scallops atop a ragout of fresh peas, pancetta, and something else delicious--yeah, a zucchini timbale; for dessert, an almond cornmeal cake with a lemon verbena semifreddo and a strawberry-vanilla syrup!).
• our MasterCard, God bless it.