Habitude

I've been having blog withdrawals. My computer has been acting up and has been unmanageable. Unfortunately we just got a diagnosis for an unfixable computer. I'm hoping that we can manage to get my files and photos off of my machine. Robb is able to get it to turn on and work every once in awhile. So now I have to start using his (well, now our) computer. So, on to my first blog posting on a different computer....

In early November I finally cashed in my March birthday present from Robb. I went to the Habitude day spa in Ballard for a morning of pampering. It was my first spa experience and it was heavenly. I arrived mid-morning and was shown the locker room. It's really inadequate to call it a locker room. It's more like a quiet oasis with a place to put your clothes. I put on a luxurious robe and flip-flops and went to a private room for and hour-long facial. After the facial I moved on to another room for my massage. The full-body massage included a hot scalp treatment. My hair was brushed, oils added, scalp massaged. Then I moved on to the hot sauna and enjoyed a smoothie. Finally I headed back to the locker room and took an incredible shower. I got home mid-afternoon and just hung out on the couch the rest of the day so I could ensure my zen wasn't interrupted. It was an awesome experience. I can't believe I've gone 25 years without having a massage or facial before. Unfortunately, it will probably be another 25 years before we can afford sending me to the spa again. Man I wish I was rich....

The Zoo, U-District, and Capitol Hill

The actual weekend of Robb's birthday we had a Seattle extravaganza. On Saturday we headed first to Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo. It was a very nice zoo with some interesting exhibits. I thought it was strange that there was such a large area with farm animals. I guess city folk see farm animals as a little exotic. Robb was also excited to go into the aviary and feed the birds. We like the gorillas, the bears, and the various aviaries the best.

After the zoo, we headed to the University District. The U-District is where the University of Washington is based and is a hip, cool, young area. The first place we had to find was Cinema Books. Robb is a movie fanatic (we have well over 500 DVDs, not including TV shows), so we had to check out this bookstore that he had read about. This store was amazing. Every book that had ever been written about movies, movie-making, movie stars, directors, etc. could be found in this cute store. The store was literally filled to the brim and overflowing with books (first picture) We spent quite a bit of time in there and then headed to a video store that Robb had read about. Scarecrow Video (second picture) turned out to be the biggest video rental store in the Northwest. We walked around a bit and looked at the different genres and niche movies and imagined what it would be like to actually live in Seattle and have that type of coolness available to us on a daily basis.

We then walked around the U-district, popped into a few more book stores and music stores, and then went to the Neptune movie theater. This landmark theater is a one-screen, revitalized, gorgeous movie theater that tends to play independent films. We saw the documentary Religulous (which was very funny and very good) because we've been wanting to see this Bill Maher film, but of course they don't tend to show that type of movie in the suburbs. The movie ended around 9:30 and we still hadn't eaten dinner so we started walking the streets to find out what was still open. We decided to try a bar/restaurant called Flowers. You could tell that the restaurant used to be a flower shop and they kept the sign from decades ago. It was a really nice, mellow atmosphere with phenomenal food and great prices.

After a very long day of the zoo and the U-district, we finally headed home, only to get up the next morning and drive right back to Seattle. On Sunday we went downtown and walked around Pike Place Market for awhile. We got our favorite Pike Place Chowder for lunch and stopped at a used DVD store. Then we walked from downtown all the way up to the Capitol Hill District. This neighborhood is another one that we hadn't visited before. It's a very eclectic neighborhood and is known as the gay district. It had a neat little main drag and there is probably a lot of the neighborhood that we didn't get to see.

We finished the day with buying our favorite cheesecake down in Pike Place Market and stopping in a coffee shop for cappuccino and wine! We finally made it to the Seattle zoo and to two new neighborhoods for us! All in all, a good birthday weekend for Robb (and I didn't mind it either!)

Kayaking in Skagit Bay

Robb turned 29 this month. (Don't tell him I told you. He doesn't like that. It means he's even closer to 30. He's been worried about being 30 for like 7 years.) So this was the last birthday in his 20s and I wanted to make it extra special. I was trying to figure out what we could do and I thought I need to take him kayaking. All he's talked about since moving here (well actually he was anticipating this the day we decided to move to Washington) is going kayaking. And we've been here for a year and while I got to go kayaking with my Mom, Robb had never been. So I started looking up kayaking day trips close by. I found one that was scheduled for only a week before his birthday and it even included birding. For those of you that don't know, Robb has become quite the bird enthusiast. We have a book on Washington birds and several bird feeders in our yard. So this kayaking/birding trip looked perfect for Robb's birthday celebration!

So I only told Robb that I had a surprise for him and he needed to take that day off. The night before the trip I presented him with a waterproof camera and a synthetic quick-drying shirt to get prepared. He was very excited to go kayaking and we couldn't wait for the next day!

We got up early on Kayaking Day and drove north of Seattle to LaConner, Washington. This was the cutest little coastal town! It's definitly a tourist destination (in the spring the town is surrounded by tulips), but it still felt like a real town with its own local personality. After the kayking we were able to walk around town and pop into a few local shops. We'd like to go back one day around tulip time and also try some of the restaurants. (And notice the salmon shaped bridge that was in town -- super cute!)

We met for the kayaking trip under the Rainbow Bridge. (That's us in front of the Rainbow Bridge which was actually just orange.) It was a small group, 6 people total including our guide. The weather was cool in the upper 50s, but it was sunny and we had dressed appropriately.

The bad parts of the trip: There were not very many birds and the guide didn't seem interested in stopping to look at the birds we did spot. Additionally, while the guide was nice, he didn't seem interested in teaching us how to kayak or even basic safety skills. We often would be behind the rest of the group (or get stuck on a rock) and our guide never looked back to see if his group was with him.

The good parts of the trip: We stopped at an island for lunch and to wait for the tide and we got to explore. There was some type of predator on that island because we found interesting feather/bird remains. While kayaking we saw a few bald eagles flying overhead. We saw some herons and kingfishers (a type of bird for you non-bird-savvy types.) We spotted a raccoon along the edge of an island (aren't they supposed to be nocturnal?). And we saw tons of sea lions swimming in the water. It was fun to spot a sea lion's head bobbing along. We also kayaked along LaConner. It was fun to kayak along town and wave to people and go under footbridges and see town from a different perspective.

And Robb and I had a good time kayaking. He loved the sport as much as he imagined he would. We worked fairly well together as a team. And it was great, as always, to get out and try something new, do it together, and experience Washington in an athletic way.

Of course, kayaks cost like $3000. So I am now taking donations so that you can feel that you're part of the Robb and Katherine Kayak Washington team! We'll make up t-shirts to send to contributors.

Issaquah Salmon Days Festival 2008

The first weekend of October we went to the town of Issaquah (about 15 miles east of Seattle) for the Salmon Days Festival. In 2007 we had planned on attending the Festival because we were poor, jobless, and couldn't afford many other activities. So we thought that a free festival would be fun. However, after a serious discussion, we decided we didn't even want to pay the money for gas and parking to go to the Festival. (Yes we were that poor after we moved here.) So, now that we're gainfully employed, it's been a goal of mine to head to the Salmon Days Festival.

Salmon Days celebrates the salmon returning to the Issaquah salmon hatchery to spawn. During the course of the Festival, you can see the fish in the river trying to jump up the fish ladders. After they make it up the ladders, they end up in the hatchery tanks (where they were initially 'born' about 4 years ago) and spawn thousands of pink eggs. It was pretty neat to see the fish trying to jump the ladders. Although the ladders were "closed" at that time, because the hatchery was controlling how many fish could come into the tanks at a time, the fish obviously didn't know that and were making valiant attempts to make it "home." Hundreds of people were lining the river and bridge to see these fish jump. It was pretty mundane and spectacular at the same time.

And of course, a festival wouldn't be a festival without tons of food. For some odd reason, every fair and festival we've been to since moving to the Northwest has a very popular food item I've never noticed in other US festivals: corn on the cob, grilled in their husks. Robb and I haven't quite understood the popularity of this item. Everyone seems to buy it. The longest lines at the food areas are always for the corn booths. So I decided to try it. Let me tell you...it was just corn on the cob. Very odd that so many people are "into it." If someone knows the secret, let me know. After the corn, I was on a mission to find salmon. Believe it or not, at the Salmon Days Festival we only found two areas that sold Salmon. We decided on the Kiwanis' Salmon Barbecue, even though we had to stand in line for a good 20 minutes. But let me tell you, it was phenomenal. Finally, I have to say that this is one of the best festivals I've ever been to. A few weeks ago I lamented about the lack of artisan crafts in today's fairs and festivals. Issaquah Salmon Days is apparently not in that "sell-out" category. There was booth after booth of truly unique crafts and art. We didn't actually buy anything, but it was nice to have the option. And just looking at the various booths is entertaining by itself. This is a festival that we will be attending again, maybe even annually. And it brought back my faith in festivals. I'll keep going to different festivals, I am reminded that not all are sell-outs!

Kelly's Triathlon and Portland

In September I went to Portland for the weekend to support a friend as she competed in an amazing test of endurance. Kelly a friend from my grad school days in sunny Florida started competing in triathlons just over two years ago. Actually, I'd like to take the credit for her jumping into a sport that she now loves. I said to her one day, "Kelly one day I'm going to do a triathlon." She says, "Wow, that sounds like fun, I want to try that too." Before I even competed in my first (and only) sprint triathlon, she had completed several and was placing in her age group. And she has kept going and training and traveling all over the US to compete. (And mind you, this is for fun. She trains after work and on the weekends.) So she recently won first place for her age bracket in a Florida triathlon , which qualified her to attend an Age Group National Triathlon which happened to be right outside Portland. So she flew up to the beautiful Pacific Northwest, along with her Mom for support, and I drove down to stay with them and cheer her on.

It was a pretty amazing experience. At the hotel where all the athletes were staying, we ate dinner in the restaurant and at the table next to us were Olympic triathletes. These professional athletes there to support the amateurs on race day and compete in an elite competition to demonstrate what Olympians can do. On race day we woke up before 4:00 am to get to the race site before dawn so Kelly could start setting up and getting prepared. The race itself was amazing. Thousands of athletes competed. The most famous athlete that everyone was talking about was Sister Madonna. Sister Madonna is a 70+ year old nun who has been competing in triathlons for years. It was fun to watch her finish. And Kelly did amazing; she hit all of her expected times for the 1.5K swim, the 40K bike ride, and the 10K run. It was great to watch her and cheer her on, "Kelly, you are a machine!" That evening, after a nap, we went out for sushi and celebrated. The next day I met up with another friend in Portland (also a former Floridian) and she showed me around the city. Angela and I walked around downtown, checked out the Pearl District and Nob Hill, and walked by some beautiful churches. Oh, and luckily in the City of Roses we found a rose garden so I could take a perfect picture to commemorate the day.

Alcohol in hand....

I've noticed that in several of the last few pictures I've posted of myself, I always seem to have a drink in my hand. Believe it or not, I'm NOT a big drinker. I think if you average it out, I probably have 1 or 2 glasses of wine a week. I guess that's probably why I post pictures of myself in public places enjoying some wine (and typically those wines are from Oregon or Washington!) because it's fairly atypical. A picture of me with a glass of wine or a cocktail in hand demonstrates a special occasion/day. And of course, since this blog is supposed to focus on exploring and enjoying the Northwest, most of my posts are about special days that are out of the ordinary "work, chores, work-out, eat, sleep" type of days.

Just thought I would point this out; I don't want anyone thinking I'm a lush!

The Puyallup Fair - 2008

Every September in the city of Puyallup (you're not a real Washingtonian until you can pronounce it) is one of the biggest events of the year. The Puyallup Fair is one of the top 10 fairs in the entire world! It seems like most people in this area don't ask "ARE you going to the Fair this year", it's more like "WHEN are you going to the Fair this year?" So even though Robb and I weren't in a particularly Fair mood, we decided that we must head over to Puyallup (about a 15 minute drive) to partake in the experience.

We headed over on a Sunday afternoon. I expected to be there about 3-4 hours, max. How silly am I? Eight and a half hours after we parked (and parking is a whole other matter -- it took an hour to get through the traffic and find a parking area that had an open spot) we finally went home. And there were whole sections of the Fair that we hadn't even gotten to yet! I really wanted to see bunnies, which we didn't get to. We didn't ride the Fair rides because by the time we got to it, it was dark and cold and I didn't have a jacket. Again, who knew that we would be there after the sun went down?

What did we see? Livestock, 4-H arts and crafts, square-dancers, a very fake hypnotist, flower arrangements, award-winning vegetables, and scones. Oh the scones are quite famous. Everyone talks about the scones. While we were waiting in a very long line to pick up our scones, we started talking to a couple in their 70s who had been coming to the Fair since they were kids. They remembered the scones being $0.10. Now they're $1.25. These buttery scones are filled with a strawberry jam. And I must say, they were quite delicious.

Now, let me vent for a little bit. I'm not a huge fan of country/state fairs in general. However, the reason I go and the reason I love going to festivals is because I adore looking at different booths of artisan crafts. The last few festivals and fairs I've been to have been very disappointing. Instead of booths upon booths of crafts, there are booths upon booths of window sellers, gutter cleaners, and croc shoes. There are usually a few craft tables, but not a lot. And I have to say, that the Puyallup Fair also has embraced this massive commercialization. We saw rows of window installers, frying pans, jacuzzis, and people selling kitchen knifes. Robb told me that he thinks the price for renting booth space just keeps increasing, and the normal artists can't afford the booths anymore, while the commerical companies can pay those prices. My parents just visited Texas again and chose to fly in on the weekend of the Pecan Street Festival. We used to love the Pecan Street Festival when we lived there. Just a weekend after I was moaning to my Mom about the commericalization of fairs and festivals, they also were very disappointed in the Pecan Street Festival. In only 10-15 years, the quality of festivals and fairs have really gone down and it's such a loss!

But, Robb and I did manage to find a couple artisan booths. At the blacksmith's booth Robb found a meat turner and skewers. I found a pottery business card holder for my desk. And Robb even bought something from one of the more commerical vendors. Now that we are in a house, Robb has been researching composting. He found a great worm composting bin at the Fair for a fantastic price. So now we have to order a pound of worms and then we can start composting! (Robb's already bought a book on composting and worms. He says to me, "Katherine, I want you to read this book too. I really want us to do this together.")

So, in the end, the Puyallup Fair was certainly an experience and we had a good time. It's not something that we need to go to every year, but when we want to go again, at least now we know to block out a lot more time and take a bus so we don't have to play the traffic game!

A cute pygmy goat!

A display made entirely of farm food (grains, eggs, fruit, veggies.) These displays were fascinating and beautiful. This picture shows this year's winner!

Fisher's Scones

I love finding a wine garden!

The handsome hubby!

Mount St. Helens

So in early September Robb and I finally made it to Mount St. Helens. It was forecasted to be one of the last nice weekends of the summer and we decided we had to make it to at least one touristy thing this summer. The drive was about 2 hours and we finally made it to the Visitors Center at Silver Lake. We really weren't planning on stopping at this visitors center, but drove past it and turned around to check it out. We are so glad that we stopped! We watched a video about the events surrounding the 1980 eruption and looked at different exhibits and learned so much! We then headed up to the Johnston Ridge Observatory which is only 5 miles from the volcano with absolutely perfect views. We watched another video and listened to a couple of ranger talks. We also went on a 1 mile interpretive trail with a ranger who taught us even more. We saw that the average visitor time to Johnston Ridge Observatory is 90 minutes, but we were there for hours. All of a sudden it was after 6:30 and we knew we had to start heading home (and we saw a coyote on our way home, which was pretty darn cool). But we were so bummed because we wanted to look at more of the exhibits and hike on our own for a few miles. We will definitely be going back one day.

Here are a few things I learned on our trip (and there's so much more that I learned, these are just the highlights!):

1) When the volcano blew, it was a lateral blast, which means that the blast came out the side of the mountain.

2) About 90% of the mountain came down in the blast. It was the biggest landslide ever known.

3) Since the blast, a lava dome has been building inside the center of the blown up mountain. It is still a very active volcano with smoke coming out of it!

4) Two devastating actions happened when the volcano blew up, a landslide that covered everything, and a blast of hot air and ash that turned areas hundreds of miles away to dark as night.

5) Not everything in its path died. Snow still covered the ground in April of 1980, so that snow protected creatures living in the ground (mice, groundhogs, etc.) These animals that survived helped irrigate the earth so that plant life could grow again.

We both loved Mount St. Helens and found it utterly fascinating. I would highly recommend it to anyone who's thinking about going.

This is a zoomed in shot of the center of the mountain.

This shows the lava dome growing and the smoke escaping!

The day was perfect, so anything that looks like a cloud is actually smoke.

New House

Over Labor Day weekend we made the transition from apartment living to house living. The week before Robb and I had been taking carloads of our stuff over to the house and sticking it in a giant family room. We just figured that on actual moving day, the less that we had to deal with, the happier we would be. So then I took the Friday before Labor Day weekend off and we rented a U-haul to load our furniture and whatever else we hadn't gotten around to taking to the house yet.

At my urging, Robb hired a young man from his store who has experience loading freight to help with the heavy pieces of furniture. Robb was reluctant to hire someone and thought that I could handle lifting some of our furniture and moving it down the apartment stairs and into a truck. Silly man. Later he was glad that we hired someone. Robb didn't realize exactly how heavy some of our furniture is, especially the new bedroom pieces we bought in the last year. So, luckily we got help with the big pieces of furniture and then Robb and I finished everything else.

Then, the cleaning marathon began. I took all of Saturday and half a day Sunday to clean that apartment from top to bottom. Because Robb had to work those days, I couldn't get as much help as I'm used to. (Who am I kidding? Robb is the cleaner in this family. I had to clean this apartment and it was very unsettling. However, Robb came over Saturday evening after work to bring me dinner and help with more cleaning -- and possibly re-do anything that I didn't do well enough. Well I got Robb's seal of approval! He was very impressed with everything I did and didn't have to re-clean anything!) But, I finished everything up, turned in our apartment keys on Sunday around lunchtime, and then started the process of unpacking at our new house.

Overall, the house itself is great. It's got more space and more closets than we've ever had before. The gas fireplace is awesome because now I can just flip a switch and I've got instant fire and warmth. The yard is amazing and a few days ago I saw a raccoon strolling across my backyard! (Some people think that's bad, I think it's neat to have wildlife!) And we've already met some neighbors who are friendly and even gave us their telephone number in case we need anything. Apartment living isn't like that! There are a few negatives to the house, but we're trying not to focus on these too much. For one, I have never seen so many spiders living on porches before. We've seen a few in the house, but the outside porches are just incredible. Every time I leave the house I wave my arm out in front of me so that don't walk face-first into a web. I really don't like spiders, so I'm trying to think of some solutions. (Right now, my best thought is to take a leaf blower and blast them away.) We only have one bathroom now and Robb hates it. The cabinets are very odd and, as Robb puts it, it looks like a caulking factory exploded next to our tub. And while Robb hates the bathroom, I really hate the family room. This is a giant room (was originally a garage) that has wood paneling. I hate wood paneling. There's some wood paneling in the living room, but at least it's not the entire room, and the brick fireplace distracts from some of it. The family room is awful. I've told Robb that he can basically have that room and do what he wants with it. So now he's trying to come up with a master plan (that we can afford) to make it HIS room. And finally, the master bedroom doesn't have a closet. It used to, but the doors were taken off and now the only way all of our furniture will fit in that room is if the doors remain off. So now our hanging clothes are in different rooms, which is somewhat inconvenient.

We still have boxes and messes in our house a week later. But we're definitely making some progress. I'd guess that in another week or so we'll be about done. And in three weeks we're receiving a brand new couch we've ordered. Once the house looks like it's fairly done, I'll be sure to take a few pictures and post them. But for now, just imagine boxes everywhere!

The Seattle Piers

A couple of weeks ago Robb and I had a rare Saturday off together and, of course, we headed to Seattle for the day. This time the destination was the Seattle Aquarium and the tourist areas along the piers. It was another beautiful sunny Seattle summer day and the crowds were thick. We started out with lunch at Pike Place Market and tried the sandwiches at Sisters European Snacks. Not bad sandwiches, but we have other food destinations we like more at Pike Place.

After lunch we walked down to the Aquarium. Overall it was a nice aquarium. I'm not sure if it was worth $15/person (I think I would've liked it more if it was $10/person), but it was still nice. It's a really interesting aquarium because it's built on one of the piers on Puget Sound. The focus of the aquarium is water life in Puget Sound and also tropical fish from the Pacific Ocean. There was a fairly large "tide pool" section that allowed for people to touch sea creatures such as starfish, anemones, lobsters, etc.. Our favorite display were the harbor seals. We watched a little video about the Aquarium's conservation and research efforts. It was really interesting to learn that there is an underwater lab right next to the Aquarium, which means it's right under Seattle. Also we learned that there are sharks in Puget Sound; we saw some in this section of the Aquarium that actually is "wild." The aquarium has this basement area with a window-dome to see the Puget Sound fish, sharks, starfish, and wolf eels.

After the Seattle Aquarium, we decided to walk along the waterfront and visit some of the tourist shops. But our real purpose was to find Ye Olde Curiousity Shop; Robb has been itching to visit this museum/store for months. The Shop has interesting collections of weird stuff: American mummies, freaky stuffed animals, pictures shows, etc. Robb was in heaven. He loves that kind of stuff. I can take it or leave it. Even though I was doing a very good job of masking my boredom and frustrations with the crowds, Robb didn't make us stay too long. I imagine he'll go back by himself sometime to look at everything in greater detail. I would highly recommend checking out his blog to see his opinion of Ye Olde Curiousity Shop, plus his blog postings tend to be a lot funnier than mine if you're in the mood for a laugh! http://norwesterly.blogspot.com/

After that, we made our way back to the car and headed back to Federal Way for dinner. We ate at a Pan-Asian restaurant we've been wanting to try, Indochine. We were very impressed with our food and the cocktails! Now we have a new favorite local Asian restuarant. I love good local restaurants. And what a good way to end another awesome Seattle day!