The Weatherman

Wow – Seattle in the Spring is incredible.  The leaves are coming out and there are lots of blooming trees.  We have three trees in our yard with an abundance of blooms (still researching what they are – maybe crabapple and Washington Hawthorn – but not sure).

This morning we took a walk along the water at Lincoln Park with Zach, and then we let him swing for about 10 minutes.  I took some pictures of the scenery and of Zach of course.

Yesterday we picked up a toddler bed for Zach – so last night was his first night out of the crib.  He was a champ.  It took a little longer to get him down since he wanted to walk around, but otherwise it was a normal night.  He’s also had two naps in the new bed.

Not much gardening this weekend – I did some mowing, planted some lawn seed in a few bare spots.  Otherwise I enjoyed it and relaxed.

Zach pointing at a doggie

Mom and Zach strolling at the Park
Looking north from Lincoln Park

Quiet morning stroll

We took the new van on road trip today. We started off with a drive up to Bellingham (about 75 minutes north). It was a gray day with some snow on the ground as we got close to Bellingham. We walked around downtown for a few minutes (got a coffee and fed Zacher some food). There wasn’t much going on so we proceeded to head to Anacortes.

Anacortes is on Fidalgo Island. It’s a medium sized island town. We went to the Anacortes Brewery for lunch. Good beer and good food. Afterwards we drove through Deception Pass and down Whidbey Island. We caught the ferry back to Mukilteo and then drove around Paine Field in Everett (this is where Boeing builds their Big planes) and then headed home. We probably put about 275 miles on the new van.

View of Deception Pass. The turning water isn’t a river, but created by the tide.

Looking east out of Deception Pass.

And, Zacher sleeping in the van on the ferry.

We’ve had a beautiful weekend up here in Seattle. We took Zach to the zoo yesterday and I got some nice shots of a wolf in the Northwest Trail exhibit. This morning I went down Alki Point and snap some shots of the Olympics and stitched them together in the panorama below. Click the image below if you want a selection for different sizes.

Lin came up this weekend so Steph and I actually had a date night. We saw the movie ‘The Departed‘ last night in downtown. Very good movie – we highly recommend it. We then stopped at Von’s Grand City Cafe for dinner. Our review agrees with the reviews on Citysearch…basically, don’t waste your time. The service was poor and the food was below average, plus they were out of prime rib.

On Friday night, we went to our favorite place anywhere – Elliott Bay Brewing Company. That was excellent as usual.

Wolf at zoo.

View from Ray’s Boathouse on Saturday afternoon.

I made it up to Stevens Pass Ski Area on Saturday.  Wonderful, dry snow – very light.  That’s where the fun ended.  I basically had a nightmare day since my ski boots were causing enormous problems.  After just 3 hours my arches were in pain and walking proved challenging.

I already have an appointment for Friday morning with a boot fitter.  Hopefully I’ll be able to salvage my current boots with some properly fitted liners.

Stevens Pass from the parking lot.  Sure looks cold up there.

What a ham

We took Zach and grandma to the Seattle Aquarium yesterday. It’s a pretty small aquarium which is good when chasing your kid all over the place. They have some cool otter exhibits and a glass dome that surrounds you with water and fish. They also have a tidepool display, some very cool ocean aquariums and some tidepools for touching starfish and other such things.

Before I jump into our weekend, I just heard some interesting facts on the local weather.

We’ve had 34 days where the temperate has been 80 degrees or warmer this summer.  Last summer, which people said was beautiful, had 23 days with 80 degree or warmer weather.  Plus, in the last 76 days we’ve had .08″ of rain.  This is very low – I believe we average about an inch in July and an inch in August.

Now, back to the weekend.  Jan and Mike came up for a few days.  We went to Pike Place Market, the Japanese Tea Gardens and the Ballard Locks.  We took them to lunch at Elliot Bay Brewing Company and brunch at Endolyne Joes.  For dinner, we cooked tacos one night and had pizza on another night.  We learned that West Seattle doesn’t have many pizza delivery places – at least ones that will deliver to our neighborhood (except for Dominos of course).
Zach got a bunch of new toys which he loves.  He’s been pushing his new little car all over the place and he loves his fisher price garage.  Thanks Auntie Jan and Uncle Mike.
Today, we took Zach and Lou to Lincoln Park for a stroll along the water.  Zach found a pet rock for himself  which he held onto for the next hour.  Later, we then went over to a neighbors’ house who have a 16 month old son – Zach and Dominic swam in the kiddie pool for about 30 minutes and then they played on the slide.  Dominic’s dad, Sasha, is a city prosecutor, so Steph was happy to find someone local to share stories with.
Now some pictures.

Mike shot this while I was grocery shopping – what gorgeous sunset.

Zach likes the Japanese Tea Gardens.

Zach and the the ladies.

Today we took a drive to Mt St Helens. WOW! What an amazing place. It’s incredible how much forest was destroyed by the blast and how close David Johnstone was to the mountain. For those who don’t know, David Johnstone was a USGS employee monitoring the volcano from approximately 6 miles away to the north. Unfortunately he was killed within seconds of the explosion. He had enough time to radio the main USGS office in Vancouver, WA that the explosion was occurring.

The drive down was long for Zach but he was a trooper. Here are some photos.

Posing for Mom.

Westerly view of the mountain. It was very hazy so the photos were not particularly good.

Mountain lake (called Coldwater Lake) created by ash dam.

Looks like the desert.

It’s amazing to think that this was a lush forest. Now, 26 years later, and small plants barely grow within the blast zone. The ash flows were very deep – this is apparent by the deep ravines cut by streams flowing from the mountain.

We’ll need to return via Windy Ridge above Spirit Lake – there is a huge field of fallen trees that is an amazing site.

Paul and Zach headed out at 8am on Sunday for Hurricane Ridge (in the Olympic Mountains). Paul decided that going down through Olympia and then up the Olympic Peninsula wouldn’t take too long (maybe 2 hours). We finally arrived at Hurricane Ridge just past noon…yep, 4 hours in the car. Paul was a little wrong about how long the trip would take. But it was definitely worth it. Hurricane Ridge is the prime location to view the Olympic Mountains. Check out some photos.

Tall peaks and steep canyons.

Glaciers on Mt Olympus.

Zach is having a great time.

Mt Baker.

You can see all the pictures here.

For the drive home, Paul smarten upped – he would take the ferry back. This was a much shorter 3.5 hours . Although we got to the drive on the ferry for the first time.

I’ve had my first week of work at Amazon.com and things are good so far. Zach started daycare in downtown Seattle (it’s across from the Greyhound bus station…yes, we sent our kid to daycare in the seedy section of town). Steph got her license plates and has been scoping out UofW for her BarBri course. Last weekend we went to the Woodland Park Zoo and the Chittenden Locks (our first real tourist thing).

That just about catches you up. Now for some additional details. First work…I share an office (actually an unused conference room) with 2 (soon 3) other coworkers. I have a view of the ballparks, a hill, and the top of Mt Rainier. Pretty amazing considering I haven’t had a window seat in years. I work in an Amazon building in the middle of the International district, therefore, I have access to tons of international restaurants. Although I’m starting to bring my lunch more since going out can get costly, plus, being in the city I now have to pay for parking. My commute is good…about 17 miles and takes 25 to 30 minutes.

Now to our house in San Mateo. Our initial buyers backed out; they got nervous about the sloping of the floors. We received 2 offers (1 decent, 1 not) on Saturday and we came to an agreement on Sunday. However they now appear to be getting nervous over the sloping issue. Arrrrghhh! We are waiting on whether they are going to do anything after hearing from a structural engineer today. They have until Monday, but I hope they don’t wait that long to make a decision.

Steph has been getting along well. She’s been driving around a lot, learning the city and UofW – her new home soon. She is finishing up her resume and relaxing this week before BarBri starts.
Now for some pictures.

This is why it took 45 minutes to check in when we left.

The view from balcony during a heavy downpour. Isn’t it beautiful?

Our bubby at the zoo. He was more interested in the other people then the animals, but he still had a good time.

Enjoying a fine day in Seattle.

After using many different backpacks and sling pouches I finally picked up a new photo backpack…CompuTrekker AW. I can use the computer pouch for either our laptop or a hydration pack when I’m hiking. So far I like it. I wore it today for our walk to Peet’s coffee.

I updated our site with some pictures and my favorites are below. You can see more here.

Zach swinging at the park.

A flower at the Japanese Tea Garden in San Mateo’s Central Park.

Water from Zach’s favorite fountain by Peet’s.

As promised, I have uploaded some pictures from our Tahoe trip last week. You can see them all here. Below are some of my favorites.

Overlooking Lake Tahoe at Carnelian Bay.

A meadow at Carnelian Bay.

Making my first snow angel.

Had to document the first sled ride.

Like I said in earlier posts, I had a great time. Unfortunately, our wonderful vacation is being followed up by a not-so-fun week oncall…so this week is basically shot. Maybe I’ll be able to get another day of skiing in next week, especially after all of this fresh snow.