Meetings and Reunions Under Overcast Skies

 

8/29/25 Gasworks Brewing on Lake Union

I don’t know if it was the weather (overcast and cooler), the location (Northlake), or that it was the Friday before Labor Day weekend, but USk Seattle had record-breaking attendance at our drink & draw!

The venue, Gasworks Brewing, is one that I had checked out several months ago for drink & draw potential. Although it is a fabulous location right on the north shore of Lake Union, it has one serious flaw: Very few of the plentiful tables have umbrellas. What were they thinking? Given some of the scorchers we’ve had this year, I had dismissed it as an option for most of summer, but the end of August cooled down enough to make me optimistic. It must have helped to keep my fingers crossed, because the day ended up mostly overcast and cooler – just fine for sketching the lake and each other without shade.

It was especially fun to meet Naoko, a sketcher from USk Tokyo, who has been traveling with her husband across the US the past couple of months and will continue on to further adventures before returning to Japan. I was thrilled when I found out Seattle was on their itinerary! It’s always special to finally meet someone I’ve followed for years on social media.

In addition, several sketchers who had not attended USk in quite a while (more than a decade for two of them) joined us at this drink & draw. It was a happy reunion for those of us who knew them back then. We also greeted several newcomers who made the drink & draw their first outing.

All in all, it was an ideal way to start the holiday weekend before saying good-bye to an excellent summer.

Naoko wears both a USk Japan T-shirt and a UW cap (her husband Nobie is a former Husky!)

We don't usually do a formal throwdown or group photo at drink & draws, but this one felt like a special occasion!

Good to see Jackie after nearly a decade!

Welcome back to Will, whom we also hadn't seen in at least a decade.

Naoko was on a mission to sketch every drink & draw participant!

Alice (foreground) is another sketcher we hadn't seen in years.