Mother’s Day Weekend x Seattle

For Mother’s Day, instead of buying my mother a present or sending her flowers like I normally do, I decided to take a weekend trip home to Olympia and surprised her by bringing my sister Tina along. We flew into Seattle on Friday night and when we arrived, my BFF Carmina (friends since we were 12 years old) picked us up from the airport with her husband Andre.

When we got to my mom’s house (same exact home that I grew up in) she made me favorite dish PHO - a traditional Vietnamese chicken noodle soup is the best way I can describe it. It’s definitely the most popular dish for people who enjoy Vietnamese food. My mom makes it the better than any restaurant though and I’m not just saying that because she’s my mom! :-)

(Pho - chicken with rice noodles, onions in soup broth)

(Violet that my mom is nurturing with her green thumb. She has plants all over the house that she really has a great talent of being able to take care of)

On Saturday, we spent the day in Seattle where we picked up my brother Tony (currently in college in Bellingham at Western Washington University) and then met some family friends for Dim Sim. 

(Dim Sum at a restaurant called JUMBO. Not the best that I’ve ever had but it was good)

(Waiters come to each table with a cart that have a variety of small dishes that they place on your table as you choose)

(A few of the dishes we picked included steamed shrimp dumplings, bean curd and steamed buns)

(Our friends Lan and her husband Hung with their beautiful daughter Sydney and son Etan. The happily married couple are extremely generous and kind. They have been really great, unconditional friends to my mother over the years, not to mention the fact that they helped me tremendously last year during my time of need. I truly have them to thank for helping me jump start my business. In addition to the support of my mom, I could not have done it without Lan and Hung.)

(my mom and Lan)

(Etan with my brother Tony)

Afterwards we spent the afternoon shopping around the West Lake area before meeting with another group of old family friends who I haven’t seen in over 15 years for dinner at a really great Vietnamese restaurant called Tamarind Tree that my mom suggested.

(West Lake Center)

(Fresh flowers my mother picked up for the house that was nearby)

(Tamarind Tree)

(Fresh papaya salad with shrimp. One of my favorite Vietnamese dishes)

(Shrimp summer rolls - lettuce, shrimp and rice noodles wrapped with rice paper)

(Jesse’s daughter Megan)

(Alice had chicken with broken rice. Another favorite dish of mine. Delicious)

(Tina had a sweet & sour type of soup that she ate with rice)

After dinner we drove back down to Olympia to meet Carmina and Andre to see Star Trek. We all really enjoyed it except for my mother who fell asleep, lol.

(Carmina and her husband Andre. They’ve been together for over 10 years now, since she was 18 years old)

The next day we all went to church before going back to the house for more of our mom’s famous PHO. After lunch she drove us to the airport to catch our afternoon flight back to NY. 

It was a quick trip, but we managed to spend a lot of quality time together - with each other and with friends, so it was well worth it. Miss everyone so much already!