Washington, Part 1: Ear-popping, mountain climbing goodness
Last month, Patrick and I went on one of the most amazing vacations ever. Actually, I think all of our vacations are pretty amazing. This one was particularly exhausting, due to the fact that our host decided we had to work for our beer. And we worked hard.
Our friend Mike, who Patrick and I went to school with, moved out to Washington state about 6 months ago and works at this company that seems pretty cool doing renewable energy-related projects. (Not jealous. OK maybe a little. About the job, not Washington.) His girlfriend is still finishing up school in South Florida, and we all decided to pay Mike a visit and spend a week's vacation enjoying a state that is completely the opposite of Florida. I think my head was going to explode at one point because of all the ear popping I had to do to equalize while we were driving all over the state. And yes, we drove a lot.
Friday, August 12 (my birthday! 26... grrr) we flew into Seattle at about 2pm Seattle time. We went and checked into Hotel Pacific, a quaint renovated hotel that was probably more expensive than it was worth. But, it was clean and cute and gave us a place to sleep that night.
After checking in, we went and walked around the Pike Place Market. So awesome.
The only reasons I would ever want to live in a city is to walk everywhere you want/need to go, and to have a market like Pike Place. The flowers - oh, the flowers - were so beautiful! I would have one of those amazing $5 bouquet of flowers at my house at all times.
And the fruit was the most amazing fruit I've ever tasted. It's worth a trip to Washington just to eat the fruit. In celebration of all of us getting together, we went and had sushi and drinks that night at like 9pm. Which is like eating dinner at 11pm for me; I was starving. Luckily the sushi was pretty good and the company even better!
The next day we got up and went to breakfast at this amazing restaurant called the Bluewater Taco Grill. Probably some of the best food and coffee I've had in a while. We decided to check out the Seattle Aquarium, not only because it'd be awesome, but because Marisa will soon be graduating with a marine biology degree, so she was super excited to see the aquarium.
There were seals and otters, starfish, anemones, and lots of interesting exhibits. For me, though, the exhibit that I can't stop thinking about is the pictures by Daniel Beltra, depicting the Gulf oil spill. The tragedy of that spill haunts me, not only because I live and work basically right on the Gulf, but also because I work in the oil industry and can not imagine being even partly responsible for such a horrible event.
Copyright Daniel Beltra, from here
Back to happy thoughts. After we checked out the Seattle Antiques Market where we all bought a Playboy magazine from our birth year and month (hilarious, btw), spent some time by the waterfront, had lunch and beer at the Pike Brewing Company, bought some delicious cheese, bread, wine, fruit, and salad fixings at the market, we decided we'd had enough of the "concrete jungle" and made our way to Mike's brother's house.
At that point I had sore everything from hiking up those mountains in Seattle (i.e., the sidewalk "hills"). Marisa and I took a nap and watched a movie while the boys were out riding bikes. That was a great afternoon.
To go with the wine, cheese, and fruit Mike's brother and his wife brought home these bad boys.
They were fun to eat, and we probably had like 10 bottles of wine. It was a good night.
The next day Mike's brother told us about this hike to Colchuck Lake we just had to do. Since Marisa and I are most definitely not avid hikers, but are up for a good challenge and some nature-taking-in, we agreed. We packed our camelbacks, stuffed some granola bars in them, and started up the damn mountain.
Yup, that's snow. And guess who jumped in? My genius husband. And now cue the best conversation of the entire trip:
Mike: (something like) ughh I really don't want to. But I guess I have to 'cause you did.
(Mike starts taking off pack.)
Mike again: You know what, I am at the age where I no longer have to prove my manhood. I'm not jumping in.
hah. Go Mike.
I forget how we got back. There were probably some tears and some cursing because 4 miles down a mountain is long. Especially after 4 miles up a mountain. I was dreaming about pigeon pose, and when we checked into the hotel in Leavanworth, and that wish became a reality, it was glorious.
Never heard of Leavenworth? Watch the sweet video below. We totally got our goomsba on while we were there. But the rest it to be continued, because I'm tired and want to go to sleep.