Seattle!

Returned recently from Seattle, Washington.  The "travel bug" that lives inside me gets very impatient from time to time, and every now and then I simply must feed it.  Chris and I had not been on an airplane together since our honeymoon to Alaska, so it was time for an adventure.  I had never been to Seattle before, which is in some ways surprising since I know so many awesome folks who live there.

Happily, the sunshine followed us from Santa Barbara and gave the locals their first sense of Spring all year.  We went downtown with my cousin to check out the world famous sites of Pike's Market.  We had more coffee than I can even recall, but in doing so discovered a little shop that was Firefly and generally sci-fi themed.  There, I had the best latte I've ever tasted, which was laced with ginger, apple and cinnamon.  It was called the "Muad' Dib Latte."  (Name that nerdy reference!)  I wanted to go back to try the "Mudder's Mocha" or the "Kobayashi Maru."  Maybe next time.

Seeing Hilary for the first time in ages was splendid, and she was an excellent tour guide.  We explored artsy shops, tried some free chocolate samples, ate amazing Thai, visited the University of Washington and their amazing blooming cherry trees, as well as the impressive library building.  We met the Fremont Troll, and went hiking on a day long adventure.  We had to take a blustery ferry to the trail head, and had spectacular views of the city, the Olympic mountains, Mount Rainier, and the glory that is the great Northwest.


We ate at a place called "Beth's" that was made famous by defeating the star of Man vs. Food.  I understand why ... we ordered a 12 egg omelet and split it among the three of us.  (No problemo.)  You could doodle as you ate, and display your artwork on the surrounding walls!  We were introduced to some of Hilary's writing buddies, who I felt connected with immediately.  (An entire crew of NaNo contenders! How awesome!)

For Easter we visited Father Davis and his parish of St. Bart's, which was lovely.  I got to see all the camper faces I miss so much during the year, and ate a fantastic home cooked Indian meal afterwards at one of the member's homes.  It was a delightful reunion, full of memories and funny stories.  We are not sure what is going to happen with the Youth Retreat this year, but there is a good chance I'll be traveling back to beautiful Washington sooner than I ever expected!

The weather gave us an amazing opportunity to go for a long hike, and we could literally see everything for hundreds of miles around us.  From Mount Rainier to the Olympics to the distance city of Seattle, it was an incredible vista, complete with a blustery ferry ride.

All in all Chris and I had a blast, and decided we are very fond of Seattle and its inhabitants.  It's always a good feeling to realize you had so many more things you wanted to do, but simply didn't have the time!  Everyone was trying to convince Chris to move and take a job up there, and if he's honest he'll admit he was a bit tempted.  I don't know if I could handle actual winters... brrr!! But I gotta say, I wouldn't hate it ... not even a little.

Road Biking

Ooodalili, got myself a road bike! (Chris: "Uuuugh not another activity!") I know ... I know... I'm sorry! (Kind of?)  No one ever told me how addicting these things are ... and granted, I kind of always thought of road bikers as snobs in an elite club.  Stalking up and down the roads in their sponsored uniforms... pfft!  However, my racer friend Ben was signing up for the Santa Barbara triathlon and let him convince me to do it as well.  I had been wanting to do a tri here for a while, ever since Chris did a karate demo at the Carpinteria one, but I didn't want to race with my mountain bike.  The same thing when it came to duathlons, I didn't want to feel like a brick on the road with my mountain bike.  (Part of the reason the Muddy Buddy was so appealing... trail riding!)  But lo, I broke down, and now I have a zippy little Quintana Roo tri bike I found on Craigslist that is a little thing of beauty.  I'm still learning, but was able to go on a little group ride around town and learned things like hand signals and how terrifying turning is when you are going fast.

 I have not yet ridden to work from the house, but it's on the list of things to do next week.  I think it will take a little under an hour, which will give me plenty of time since I usually try to allow myself 2 hours of gym time before work on many days.  With the time change this has been much harder, but it still happens often enough to keep me from feeling like a lazy slug at my desk.