Girl’s Trip - Seattle July 2023
Karen Ko, Michele Hoover, Shirley Chen and Melisa Martinez - July 20, 2023 - Bangkrat Thai, Seattle
2023 marks 15 years since one of our first girls’ trips to Santa Fe in 2008. We decided to visit Shirley in Seattle, in late July. She had started working for the Gates Foundation in late 2019. Melisa previously had a work project with Starbucks in Seattle and Michele had also been there for a conference, and I had an entire remote-work without once visiting the office in person.
As luck would have it, we went on the busiest sunny weekend of the year. The Blue Jays were in town and Taylor Swift had two nights of concerts. Shirley and her Shiba Inu Mochi hosted us in their very fancy highrise condo. We were able to walk to dinner, the Space Needle, the Pike Place Market, the Gates Foundation Discovery Center and Din Tai Fung.
We tagged along to Shirley’s usual Saturday afternoon volunteer work at the Food Lifeline, which almost didn’t happen due to a fire alarm shortly after we got there. Luckily there was no fire, and we spent a few hours sorting lentils into two pound bags for re-distribution to other local area food banks.
It was also fun to catch up with Michael Kleinkemper and Alex Wan and their baby girl Skyler, who surprised us with her Mandarin Chinese!
A lot has changed, but also remained the same. I’m super happy to have run around the globe with these ladies!
More photos of our Seattle Reunion: https://photos.app.goo.gl/bK5wTxY95M4q4oSt9
