One of the most recent events in my life has also probably been one of the most meaningful, at least to me. It occurred about a week ago. This meaningful event was my trip to the city of Seattle. I went to Seattle over Spring break to visit my mom, who lives there with my Grandma.

My trip started on a plane, naturally. Travis, my brother, and I flew a small prop plane to Minneapolis, where we had to connect to another flight to Seattle. While in MIA, (Minneapolis International Airport), we had three hours to kill. Back in Grand Forks, I had been looking forward to our little layover in Minneapolis. That was because I distinctly remembered an arcade filled with lots of video games being at MIA. My brother and I love video games, so I figured we could spend our time in there, playing games. Naturally, we bummed ten dollars off of Dad to spend there. Unfortunately, during the four-or-so years that I had been to MIA, they had taken out the arcade and replaced it with some sort of clothing store. Suffice to say, Trav and I were a little ticked off. I mean, now we had to spend three hours sitting by our gate! Well, it turned out that it wasn't so bad. Travis played his newly bought Game Boy and I stared at a wall until it was time to board the plane.

Our three hour flight to Seattle was pretty interesting, if not a bit annoying. We took a very large DC-10, which was cool because neither Trav nor I had ever been on a plane that big. I was hoping for a nice quiet flight that I could get some rest on, but I sure didn't get that. The man sitting behind us and to the left, (we were in the two window seats) had brought his two kids on board the plane with him. Normally this wouldn't bother me, 'cause I believe I'm a fairly tolerant person, (more-so than my brother, at least). However, after about three two-and-a-half hours of constant…loudness, I suppose would be the best word, from the little four to five year old boy, I got to be a tad annoyed. Boy, oh boy, were we glad to get off of that plane and away from those people.

When we finally got to Sea-tac airport, we were exhausted. It was only five o'clock or so, but we were exhausted and still running two hours later. (Time changes, plane rides and such will do that) So basically, after we greeted Mom and Grandma and got home, (which, by the way, lies only two blocks away from the airport) all we wanted to do was sleep. After talking and watching TV for an hour or so, I just went in and crashed on the bed.

The next day was pretty boring, which was a relief. We had nothing planned, other than to hang out and talk, and perhaps greet a relative if one stopped by. Oh, I should probably say a couple things about my mom's side of the family. I find that side kind-of weird, because it's almost an absolute certainty that you'll see a relative every day. They just drop by, sometimes staying the night, sometimes not. It's very strange to me, because I've always lived away from relatives, so I've never had that sort of…constant family contact. Another thing a bit odd is in the way that side of the family is structured. Apparently, Mom's side of the family is split into two halves. There's Mom and her sisters (and all their children), and then there's Laurel, Jerry, Rod, Sharon, and that side of the family. Forgive me, but I really don't have a clue as to how I'm related to the latter side. I suppose they're uncles and aunts, or something. Anyway, I never see the two sides of the family mix, aside from Grandma and Mom. It's kind-of strange.

Well, the first day was boring, other than a quick visit by Auntie Crystal and her children Carrie and Rueben. I visited, watched TV, and did some homework that day. All-in-all, it was a good day. The second day, Mom had made reservations at the Space Needle restaurant. This was all well-and-good, except for the fact that I was absolutely terrified almost the entire time I was in that giant needle. I didn't want to ruin it for Mom and Trav, though, so I just acted like I didn't mind. Personally, I don't think they bought it for one second. But we eventually got to our table by the window, which had a beautiful (yet for the first few minutes utterly terrifying to me) view of the city, the waterfront, and the ocean. You got to see all of these things because the restaurant revolves about once per hour. It was pretty spiffy. But what was even more spiffy was the food. Oh boy, was that food good! It was served beautifully with lots of garnishes, and the food tasted absolutely superb. My large French-dip roast beef sandwich quickly made me forget the fact that I was five hundred feet in the air. We ate and conversed for about an hour, then decided to go down (after quickly walking around on the observation deck, that is).

We were planning on taking a little tour of downtown Seattle and the waterfront, but it was getting pretty chilly and it looked like it was going to rain. It didn't help matters that Travis had only worn very flimsy shorts and a rayon T-shirt. So, we decided to forgo our foray into Seattle and instead spent a few minutes at the large arcade, then headed for home. It was only two o'clock, but we only missed the really heavy traffic by about a half hour. We stayed home the rest of the day and watched TV or played our Playstation (which we had of course brought with us for entertainment).

Saturday was spent out an our Auntie Misty's house. She lives way out near Mount Rainier. But we all made the journey anyway. It was the Mom's-sisters-half-of-the-family's Easter gathering. We all had a good time (except for Travis, I think. He doesn't like being around a lot of adults or family members who don't share his tastes. He's quite picky. Don't tell him I said that, though). Throughout most of the day, I helped Grandma cook. I like helping Grandma out. We don't get to do a lot of things together, really. Grandma's a loud sort of person. She yells a lot, whether she's excited or frustrated or whatnot. I don't think Travis gets that she does it inadvertently, and I think Mom is just plain sick of it. (She's lived with it all her life). She also likes to argue a lot. Trav and Mom don't particularly like those traits, but I've learned to deal with them. And…I don't really know. Once you get past those little minor faults and treat her with love, respect, and patience, she's a really fun person to be around. I really love her a lot…but I just don't know how to tell her that. So I help her out with stuff, and hope she understands.

Well anyway, I cooked most of the day, Travis played Game Boy, and the rest of the family…uh…I don't really know what they did. Stuff, I guess. They probably planned for Misty's upcoming wedding. About midway through our stay there, Carrie invited to take Travis and I to a nearby mall. (Trav and I had been wanting to go to a mall and hang out for the entire trip) So we drove off to the mall, where Carrie dropped us off. She had some stuff to get for her baby girl Mercedes, and we agreed to meet in front of a store an hour later. So Trav and I got to explore the mall for an hour. Once we saw what kind of stores they had in this mall, however, we wished we had asked to go there for the entire day. It was that good. There was a store for everything! I'd go into details about what all we did there, but that would take up another page. In any case, I bought a CD and a couple of action figures (Yes, action figures. I still like toys and cartoons and such. It sort-of lets me forget that I'm as old as I am and lets me be a bit younger. So there) before we left, so I was happy. Travis wanted to buy a shirt, but he had no money with him. However, I told him he could find the same shirt in Grand Forks for half the price, and could most likely make Dad buy it for him. He agreed with me, and we went back to Misty's. After that, it was only a short time until we ate a good Easter dinner of Ham and soup and bread, among other things. It was very good. Then, at around midnight, we went home, where Trav and I immediately conked out.

Our last day in Seattle was spent with the other half of that side of the family. The day probably would have been OK if Travis and I had known who anybody was. But we didn't, so the day was mediocre at best. We spent the day playing pool and avoiding contact with all of the unknown people whom we only saw once every couple of years. I swear, it was very awkward for me to stay at somebody else's house to celebrate a holiday and not have a clue as to how I was related to anybody. But in the end it turned out OK for me, and eventually for Travis too. I got to help out my mom and Rod with matters concerning the computer and the internet. I'm fairly knowledgeable in those areas, so I was quite happy to help out. A bit later (when I was upstairs and he was downstairs) Travis got accidentally hurt by (in my humble opinion, at least) a pretty rude relative. He had gotten word that we had brought our Playstation with us, and he was demanding that Travis bring it out and hook it up. I had earlier denied to take it out and hook it up, as I knew it would only cause trouble, but this guy didn't want to hear that. He allegedly picked Travis up, and then dropped him on his mildly injured knee. Trav was quite hurt, and I was quite mad at this guy for hurting my little brother.

Travis asked Mom to ask me to hook up the Playstation, but he needn't have asked. I was going to hook it up to avenge my injured brother. You see, I know that I'm very skilled at playing video games. I don't know why, but I am. I have only met a couple of people who have ever beaten me in any game. Travis is almost as good as I am. (He could be better in some areas, but I can't allow myself to think that my little brother to be better at me at something like that. It's a silly thing, I know, but it's the way it is.) Knowing this, I figured that I'd let Travis take out a bit of his frustrations on the virtual football field. It worked much better than I planned; Travis scored about seventy points in eight minutes, and hadn't let up one touchdown. Even I was impressed. Fortunately for the recipient of this ego crushing, he had to leave before they could start the second half. My plan had worked to perfection, and I was glad. We had no time to celebrate, though, as we had to pack up and leave as well.

Once we were back at home for a while, Mom and Travis suddenly had an urge to go and get some food. I wasn't hungry, so I let them go, while I worked on packing up all of my luggage for the early morning flight the next day. It wasn't too long, though, before I realized that I had left one of my games at Laurel and Jerry's house. This completely ruined my night for some reason. I was already a bit depressed, (because I was leaving my mom and grandma) and this just amplified the feeling. I didn't finish packing, I just went out to the living room and watched a TV movie with Grandma. After quite a while, Mom and Trav got back, so we immediately left to go pick up my game. That was OK, because Mom and I got to talk, and I got to talk to Laurel and Jerry a little bit in a more…one-on-one situation. I found my game, then finished watching the rest of the TV movie at their house. Eventually we went home, where we finished packing up all our stuff. After making sure we had everything, I fell asleep.

Five hours later, I was woken up. We had to get going. Mom, Trav and I stood outside the airport, waiting to check in our bags in upper thirty-degree weather. Thankfully, we got a fairly short line. Once we got inside, it was only a short trip to our gate, where we had to get on the plane. We said our good-bye's to Mom, then boarded our DC-10 for the ride back. It wasn't long after we had taken off when I realized I hadn't eaten breakfast that morning. It was an even shorter time after that realization that I began to feel very sick. Thankfully breakfast was served, but I still didn't feel too great for the rest of the flight. I thanked my lucky stars that we didn't have any loud children sitting behind us this time, though. After a very quick layover in MIA, (and an even quicker lunch of chocolate and chips from a nearby vending machine) we were back on another plane to good-old Grand Forks. Soon we were back home, and quite happy.

This whole trip was very meaningful to me. It was my first real large trip without my parents along. I was given the responsibility of taking care of my little brother, and the responsibility of traveling across half of the country without my parents. That was very reassuring to me that my parents trusted me. The trip was also nice because I got to see and spend time with my mom and grandma, along with various other relatives. All-in-all, my trip to Seattle was great, and I know I'll remember it for the rest of my life.