Week 30: 07/19-07/25

Week 30

     07/22 - Today was a fun day because it was the day that I got to show off my mini-putt course building skills. KPFF had all of the interns build a mini-putting course in their cubicles and mine was pretty sweet. It had a failure option as well as a shortcut through a pipe, which I thought was neat. We could only use office supplies that were lying around the office.

     07/24 - Today my work friend Kelly hosted a BBQ at here apartment rooftop. It was a lot of fun just hanging out with people and tossing back some brewskis. We eventually got rained out, but not until after an amazing TRIPLE RAINBOW that we had the most perfect view of. It was OK we were rained out though because we all moved inside and played some games then headed out to a cool bar called Woodsky's, a skiing/snowboarding themed place. They do "shot-skis" with a snowboard that was pretty nifty.

DOUBLE RAINBOW!

Profound Thought: Sometimes you have to get rained on to see a rainbow.

Week 29: 07/12-07/18

Week 29

     07/12 - Exciting and long day today. Thanks to Ryan's parents having a rental car, we finally had the chance to do some exploring outside of the city! We decided to head out to Olympic National Park, the only rainforest in North America. We too the Bainbridge Ferry across the sound to Bainbridge Island. From there we headed out to the north side of the Olympic Peninsula. After a couple of hours we made our first stop at Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. The views were breathtaking (once the clouds blew out a bit) and we met some very friendly deer....so naturally I took a deer selfie. I would suggest going to Hurricane Ridge for sure, particularly on a clear day.

Hurricane Ridge

     After Hurricane Ridge we headed back down towards sea level and drove over (another half hour) to Lake Crescent. This was a cool lake pressed right up against the rainforesty area. Which leads me to the next activity, the rainforest. Where we were, it was easiest to go into the rainforest area by Marymere Falls. The rainforest was crazy cool and the trees were ridiculously huge...ridiculous. It was a nice little hike too, with soft moss, loam, and cedar sawdust underfoot. Also recommended.

     After leaving the rainforest we had a decision to make, keep going around the peninsula or turn back...we kept going, with an ultimate destination of Ruby Beach in mind. However, we got hungry so we stopped in Forks, WA to grab a bite to eat. Luckily, we ate at the only bar in the very small town that wasn't "Twilight" themed, because that's where they filmed those movies and it's all that town really does....other than logging.
     Eventually we arrived at the Pacific Ocean. At long last! Ruby Beach was a really cool place that was covered with large smooth stones, as well as big rock scarps. Because it was a bit overcast, the beach was cool and spooky, giving an ominous power to the ocean's crashing waves.

     After Ruby Beach we began our long drive home, passing through Aberdeen and Olympia on the way south around the peninsula. It was a long day, resulting in around 7.5 hours of driving overall.

     07/15 - Today after work I went with some work people to Food Lifeline, a Northwest food bank. We volunteered packing watermelons! It was a lot of fun and for a great cause, win win win. All in all we set a record by packing 40,000 pounds of watermelon in under two hours!

Before

After

     07/18 - Today Ryan decided it would be good to join me on one of my weekly excursions. We started off by heading out to Volunteer Park in Capitol Hill, one of the few parks I hadn't visited yet. It had a cool water tower and is the location of the famous "Black Sun" sculpture. I also played a "Piano in the Park" art/music piece. From here, we walked over to the cemetery where the one and only Bruce Lee is buried! It was kind of weird to see a tourist attraction in a cemetery, so I didn't take pictures....I'd rather not have the ghost of Bruce Lee haunting me...

      After all the park stuff, Ryan and I jumped on a bus and headed out to Bite of Seattle, an annual food festival. Most of the festival was pretty typical but the actual "bite" part was cool. You get a plate of several different bite-sized versions of local restaurant specialties. My favorite was the steak topped with a blueberry-and-corn salsa. I also really liked the fresh basil/strawberry cheesecake, but everything was on par.
     Keeping the day rolling, I decided that Ryan had to check out Discovery Park (he doesn't get out much due to the GRE). We bused over and chillaxed on the beach. We ended up playing "tide chicken" -- a game we made up where two people sit in the sand, build up walls, and wait for the tide to rush in. The first person to get wet/bail is the loser. It was childish and fun haha. After Discovery we ended the day as all days should be ended: with 8 oz. of grass-fed American beef, fries, and mac n' cheese at 8oz. Burger and Co....still the best burger in the world. It was a long week.

Profound Thought of the Week: Get outside. Now. Just go outside and enjoy it.

Week 28: 07/05-07/11

Week 28

Little Grapes!

07/05 - A perfect day for wine. Well, that's really any day. Today the lovely Melissa and I ventured out into the wine lands just outside of Seattle, Woodinville, to be precise. We headed out to Chateau Ste. Michele winery via a first-ever Uber ride for a free tour and to see the grounds. It was a really really really nice place, perfect weather and everything was just great. We began as all good winery tours ought to begin, with hummus.

      After a fun tour and three free wine tastings, we determine that it was hungry time. After little searching, we decided to eat at our next stop, Redhook brewery. Filled with delicious pub food, we hopped on over to take the tour. It was a lot of fun and a great deal for only $5! You get a bunch of ice cold beer fresh from the factory and a logo glass. I would definitely recommend it.
     07/06 - Despite all the fun, I still had to go to work on Monday. After work we decided that a ferry ride to Bainbridge would be the best way to spend a Monday afternoon. By the time we got there, it was dinner time and we were hungry. However, apparently life shuts down on Bainbridge after 5, so most of the cafe's and restaurants were closed! That's ok though, because it helped narrow down our searching to the only open place: Madison's Diner. This diner was a classic, literally. It was a diner from the 50s in Pennsylvania that was transplanted across the country and rebuilt. The food was good too! Yet another excellent day in and around Puget Sound.
     07/07 - Today I had to take Melissa to the airport. It was an amazing visit and I'm so thankful that she flew all the way out here. We took the train from downtown all the way to the airport, a great way to get there and something I'll do when I move out a month from now.
     07/11 - So Ryan's parents came out for a week or so and today they all went up to visit Vancouver. I would have gone but I've never left the country so I don't own a passport! It's unfortunate really. I still managed to have a great time and went on over to Ballard (again) to check out their Seafood Fest. The festival was cool but I'm not so sure about it's namesake. There was like only a teensy bit of seafood, which was quite surprising. Mostly the place was just full of greasy carnival food stands you would find at any festival. The only seafood that that they maybe were serving was a salmon burger...but everyone had that and they didn't look very appetizing. The beer was good though, per the usual.

Week 27: 06/28-07/04

Week 27

     06/28 - Today I visited the weekly Farmer's Market in Ballard. It's supposedly one of the best in the country. I think it held up to it's reputation. There were a ton of quality stands to buy fresh produce as well as craft booths and whatnot. For lunch, I enjoyed some delicious BBQ at Kickin' Boot. I will definitely go back there (because I was unable to pay! They didn't take Discover and my debit card hasn't arrived yet!). SO I'llllll be going back to pay my bill haha. Oooops!

     07/02 - Guess what today is! Today is the day I picked up the lovely Melissa Raney up from the airport :) She has arrived to visit with me for 4th of July weekend. I woke up bright and early, skipped work, and hopped in a Zipcar. The airport was really easy to get in and out of. They have a "cell phone lot" that I chilled at for a little bit as I waited for her plane to land. It made a lot of sense because it kept the traffic down right by the pick-up zone. Anyways, everything went smoothly and she arrived in one piece and we headed home to regain some well-needed rest.

     At this point I began my new job as a Seattle tour guide, and it was quite fun! We headed on over to MOD Pizza downtown to grab some Made on Demand pies. I'm not sure if this place is up on my restaurants list yet but I intend to put it there, it cheap and fun and delicioso.

    After lunch we headed on out to explore the classic downtown Seattle touristy stuff. We started with Pike Place Market and I took the opportunity to horrify Melissa with the famous Gum Wall. I did manage to finally leave my mark on the wall, however, when I added one of my KPFF business cards.

...horror...

     We continued our journey through the market with a fresh carton of strawberries in hand, eventually wandering on over to Seattle Center and the Space Needle. It turns out the best way to enjoy a visit to the Space Needle is soaking wet. "How might one accomplish this?" you might ask. Well it's easy! Simply pre-order your ticket for the SN about an hour and a half in advance, then head on over to the International Fountain within the Seattle Center Park. Once there, laugh at the antics of confused children with pool floaties (it's a fountain, not a pool) and sit far enough away from the fountain that you build up too much confidence. It will get you somehow, be warned. We got ridiculously soaked and ended up looking super ratchet by the time we got up to the Space Needle observation deck haha. We had a blast though.

Ratchet but happy :)

     We eventually escaped the hustle of downtown and headed back to the apartment to relax and chat with Ryan. For dinner, we walked up the hill to Capitol Hill area for some yummy Mexican food at Barrio. All in all, a solid first day with Melissa in town, but I had some big plans yet to come...

     07/03 - Today was beach day! After a big mid-morning rooftop brunch, prepared by myself and expert strawberry-slicer Melissa, we hopped on a bus to Discovery Park. As I may have mentioned before, I like this place. It's technically in the city, but you would never know it because it's so isolated from everything. We trekked along the bluffs to arrive at the beach, where we enjoyed the sunshine walking up and down it. Eventually, we plopped down exhausted and both fell asleep. When we woke up the tide has moved in quite significantly, to the point that if we had slept much longer, we may have had some wet toes.

     After hiking back through the park, we headed on over to the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks to check out the fish ladders and skip on over to Ballard. When I mentioned the "fish ladders" to Melissa she was rather confused as to what I was talking about. It was more fun to just not explain and let her see for herself haha. In Ballard, we quickly came to the decision that we were starving, and that the only fix to this problem would be pasta. After some smartphone searching we decided to try out Palermo Pizza and Pasta. It was amazing and they dished out large amounts of food, something uncommon for the prices in Ballard. Even though we were starving we still had a good deal of leftovers to take back with us. Once our hunger was satiated, We wandered around in Ballard for a while and ultimately hit up D'Ambrosio Gelato. Another successful day as Seattle's newest tour guide.

'merica breakfast

     07/04 - Happy Fourth of July! I'm very blessed to have Melissa here to spend it with, she's really great like that. The plan for today is simple: 1. 'merica 2. Party 3. Fireworks. We headed on over to a BBQ/party held by some of my coworkers and it was a great time! I brought my signature chocolate chunk banana bread (still need to add to the blog). It was a rather long day, but a fun one. My friend has an apartment right by Gasworks Park, where the main fireworks viewing is held. They launch the rockets off from Lake Union so our spot was ideal. At one point we mozied on down to Gasworks to see the mass quantities of people there...there were a ton. My "picture of the week" is from this venture. Though it was the first 4th of July that I've broken from family poolside tradition, it was a really really great one, especially with Melissa by my side and my new friends to hang with.