Monday, July 31, 2006

Today is the day

After I finished work today I realized that at the completion of work today-I am now over half way finished with my internship. I can hardly believe it but I now have less than five weeks before I'm done in Seattle. It's really just flown by and has really been an amazing experience so far.

I also realized this weekend that I only have one more weekend here where I'm alone. Joel will be here this coming weekend (yeah!) and then the following weekend I have no visitors. But the weekend of the 19th my mom and sister are coming for a visit! Then I'm home for the last weekend in August and I'm done September 1st!

Reading my post about Vermont-I realize that I didn't really do it justice. Yeah, I was working a bunch but the food and atmosphere was amazing. Jancey-thanks for the suggestions. In Burlington, we ate on Church Street (which is a pedestrian walkway lined with shops and restaurants) twice. On Monday night when we went to Church Street-there was a band from the University playing jazz at a bar and you could hear it up and down the street. Pretty cool. We also saw Nectar's (which is the bar where the band Phish started...you can order fries with gravy from a walk up window!) In Montpelier-the downtown is filled with used book stores and independant coffee shops-we perused through quite a few! Then we ate at Main Street Grill which is part of the New England Culinary Institute.

Well-that's all for now. I'll leave you with a picture of the thing I miss second most since I moved to Seattle (Joel, of course is first!!). A very fat and affectionate cat...

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Because what's better than a really big tree?


Nothing. Just couldn't post one day without a picture. I couldn't even fit the whole tree in the picture it was so big.

To be a Vermonter...

Finally back from Vermont! What a trip. I learned so much about the project I'm working on-looking at Medicaid in various states. It's a complex program and we had at least 4 interviews a day and some of them lasted well over two hours a piece. Good times! Anyway, that didn't leave too much time for fun, I was usually with my team from breakfast to around 8:30 at night. It was really intense. All work all the time.

Vermont, of course, was beautiful. The Mountains and rivers were gorgeous. The weather wasn't the greatest (upper 80s, rainy and/or humid) but I was in Vermont!

I'm really tired and haven't had much of a chance to relax yet since we got in around 4am eastern time last night-so the transition to Pacific Time has been difficult.

I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures-I was depressed about that. The only really fun thing we did-was tour the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory, it was really fun (even if they did sell out)! And we got ice cream at the end of it (American Pie). It was good-even if I was in my suit, fresh from an interview!

Sunday, July 23, 2006

I discovered Discovery Park

Today was a great day! I got up early and went to Discovery Park-which is a really huge park on the western edge of the Sound-north of downtown Seattle. It was a great bike ride-not too hilly. And when I got there-I locked my bike up and started hiking. The Loop Trail goes around the inner parts of the park and it's 2.8 miles around. I added another mile on the South Beach Trail because I had heard that the beaches there are amazing. There were these gorgeous meadows with amazing views of the Olympic Mountains on top of the bluffs. Then I headed down quite a ways towards South Beach and the Lighthouse. The beach was nice-definitely not a swimming beach. It was low tide and there were lots of people looking for sea creatures. I watched this
huge bird-with long legs and a really long neck walking along the beach in water all the way up to it's body-it was spearing fish with its beak. It was cool-but none of my pictures turned out! Darn camera. The lighthouse was practically on the beach-not on a bluff which I thought was interesting. And I want to end this week of posts with everyones favorite-Mt. Ranier. When I turned to walk back along the beach to head to my bike. There it was-looking massive and a lot like my eyes were playing tricks on me. Can you spot it? (hint: It's right in the middle of the picture-click on it to make it bigger). Not sure how much I'll be able to blog from Vermont (I leave tomorrow) but I'll try to at least tell you what I'm up to. I will only have my work computer and I'm not sure how reliable that is. We'll see.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Bite it!


Today has been a crazy day! And it's still 87 degrees in Seattle at 7pm. I know I shouldn't complain since most of you are in the Midwest and it's like this all the time-I guess I'm getting spoiled with the upper 70s every day. Anyway, we set a record yesterday it was so hot here-97 degrees. Everyone is complaining.

Back to today...I got up and went for my usual run on the Burke-Gilman trail by my apartment and it was 75 degrees already at 9am so it was sweatier than usual. And then I headed up to the Farmers Market (the one with the berries) and spent some time there. Then I headed down on my bike to the Space Needle. Gina asked me what the needle was today (gina-you need to read up on Seattle!!) so I'm including a picture I took this afternoon. The Bite of Seattle was going on in the area around the needle. It was really touristy, and there were midway rides all around the actual space needle-and you all know with midway rides comes carnies (small hands-smell like cabbage...) and they were particulary sweaty today. Ew.

So, I had this great veggie crepe from the booth of the restaurant Crepe Thyme. I'm not sure where it's located in Seattle-but the crepes were amazing. Then I had a strawberry lemonade. I managed to resist all of the desserts they had-including the generic elephant ears (which I love). Then I rode my bike home without getting too lost-downtown Seattle is kind of confusing because of the way it's shaped around the Bay and the lakes that I get confused and tend to take the wrong way. I've gotten lost every single time I've rode my bike towards downtown.

There is also this really strange looking building at the base of the needle. I think it was built or paid for by one of the founders of Microsoft (Paul Allen maybe?-I'm too lazy to look it up) anyway, there is some kind of music museum and the science fiction museum housed in the building. It reminds me of the big weird looking pavilion at Millenium Park in Chicago. Those two concrete rails are actually the tracks to the Monorail that is supposed to run from Seattle Center to Downtown but there was a fire on it last year and they haven't gotten it up and running yet. Hopefully, I'll get to ride it before I leave. It's pretty funky looking isn't it??

After I got back from the Sci Fi Museum I took the bus north-which I haven't done yet to the Target. It was pretty uneventful. There is a big mall but there was nothing special. It looks like the mall was an afterthought actually-Macy's and Nordstroms were built first as separate buildings and they decided to through up a mall in between and it looks really strange. Good times.

I think I've bored you long enough and Joel pointed out that I've already started repeating myself (with the berries)...sorry about that!

I think I'm going to go to Discovery Park tomorrow morning so that the heat doesn't get so unbearable. I'll post more pics tomorrow!

Thursday, July 20, 2006

I like pictures


And I don't have any for this post. So, I'm going back into the archives and posting this picture of Joel's goddaughter Elizabeth. Because she's cute. And everyone loves cute!

The other reason is that she's eating a strawberry...and it reminds of the AWESOME berries out here. I have never had raspberries this big or good tasting, seriously I'm not exaggerating...and the cherries...to die for...Amazing. There is a small farmers market a couple blocks north of me every Saturday morning and they sell only Washington produce. I've had the greatest raspberries from there over the past two weeks, good stuff.

Speaking of weekends, I'm not sure what I'm going to do this weekend! The "Bite of Seattle" is this weekend at Seattle Center (the area around the space needle), and there are a bunch of restaurants highlighting their specialties and some local music. So that sounds like fun and it's a fairly short bike ride. On Sunday, i thought I would go to a big park on the Sound called Discovery Park and go exploring-the beach there is supposed to be gorgeous. I'll let ya'll know!

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Weavonomics

On Sunday, I discovered this fun yarn store in my neighborhood and they actually had some really great yarn on sale-so I bought some and I knit half of a scarf! It's turning out really nice and it looks kinda funky. I like it and I hope the person I'm knitting it for likes it to! I also bought a couple skeins of great crocheting yarn and I'm going to try a more difficult pattern (it looks like a shell) to make another scarf. I'm trying to become a better crocheter (i.e. a person who crochets!). When my mother-in-law died she was in the middle of crocheting an afghan (she was really talented) and I'd like to finish it but I don't have the pattern and I'm certainly not going to take the chance of ruining it. So I need to get better before I attempt it. Knitting and crocheting is really relaxing for me-I can just do it without putting much thought into it and I like that a bunch.

Here's a picture my dad took during their recent trip to Glacier National Park-he's a much better photographer than I am and I really love this picture. Thanks Dad!

I've been trying to read a bit out here too-and for those of you that like book suggestions...I just finished The Jane Austin Book Club which I really liked and am currently reading Three Junes on suggestion from my bro-in-law. I enjoyed JA Book Club and am enjoying Three Junes but it's a little too heavy for me so I've been taking it slow (lots of death).

You guys know me-I'm a pretty lefty liberal and I don't want this to be a political blog but just in case you haven't been keeping up on the news. 100 people a day-it makes my heart hurt. Read this and write someone to stop it.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Hillacious


Joel and I biked up Cadillac Mountain last year in Acadia National Park-and I'd have to say that was easier than the ride I did yesterday around Bainbridge Island. The hills were really steep and very long and it was like 3 hours of torture. My bike was not happy and neither were my legs but we made it! I will never do the ride again on a mountain bike but I may be tempted on a road bike.

My day started with a ferry ride-which was really cool. The ferry was huge and holds cars and people-the views of Seattle and the Cascade Mountains were amazing. I met a guy on the boat who has biked on Bainbridge Island for ten years and he offered to ride with me for the first part-he gave me some history of the Island. He actually turned out to be a social worker who runs a local non-profit that fosters international learning-basically he works with Seattle schools and schools all over the world. He said he just finished a project with South African schools. Really interesting guy. Anyway, he took me as far as Fay Bainbridge State Park where I stopped and tooks some pictures. They had a pretty nice beach. (see right) After that the ride got really hilly but it was also really quiet. There really weren't many cars or bikers on the roads. Lots of really big houses and rich people but not so bad! I biked until I got to another State Park-Battle Point where I stopped-it was basically just a big open space with lots of playground equipment. From there-the ride got even hillier-at no point was there any flat stretches. I was either busting my @#$ trying to get up a hill or pedaling furiously trying to get enough speed going downhill that I didn't have to pedal so much to get up the next one. It was really painful-but I managed only to have to stop and walk up a hill one time-which I HATE doing.

After that the ride goes right down to the shore on a small bay on the Southwest side of the island called the Port Orchard Narrows. There was a pebble beach and more really nice houses...That was a nice ride around there. Then came the climb back up and over the hills to get back to Eagle Harbor to catch my ferry. They were brutal-I don't want to think about it anymore. I spent a bit of time in Bainbridge Island "town" or whatever it is, and i was disappointed. There were a few stores-but no sandwich shops, I had to eat at Subway. I caught the 5:30 ferry back to Seattle and on the way back there was an amazing view of Mt. Ranier in the distance-I hope you can see it in this picture. I think I could live here 20 years and still that mountain would be breathtaking. It looks like it's floating. Click on the picture to make it bigger. The mountain is on the left side of the picture and if you don't look closely it blends into the clouds.

Friday, July 14, 2006

p.s.


I got Anne of Green Gables DVDs yesterday (I know I'm a dork-but I do love them) and they actually led me to the title of my blog...if you google "three paces through the room" you'll find out where I stole the phrase from. It's a poem by Tennyson. Really good stuff.

Check it out.

Week Three-Done!


Next week will be my fourth week at my internship already! I really can't believe how quickly it's going. It really feels like there is no way I'll get a true grasp of how the agency operates in so short a time. The following week I'll be traveling to VT to interview a few peeps, I'm really looking forward to it-though I hear that there isn't much in Montpelier. We'll see.

In other news...this is my second weekend without Joel which I'm depressed about. To deal with my depression I'm going to take my new bike (isn't it pretty!?) on a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island. For those of you who are as ignorant of Seattle as I was-Seattle is not on the ocean. And there are mountains and land to the west. I'm going to an island that's about a 35 minute ferry ride across the bay. It's supposed to be a really neat island (cliffs...trees...water...etc) so I'm going to ride the 28 mile ride around the island...it's supposed to be pretty hilly check it out...

Should be a really good time...speaking of time...I plan on taking my time with this ride since I don't have a road bike out here-should be slow going. But that's okay-I have all day. So I'm going to take lots of pictures tomorrow and put some up so you can all enjoy.

Other than that-I have to say...the berries out here are amazing. I had the best raspberries of MY LIFE last weekend from the farmers market and the cherries are outstanding. Makes a person contemplate moving out here!

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

joel-hiker extraordinaire


This picture made me laugh because I couldn't figure out why Joel has his hands on his hips. If you look closely you can see the trail we took and the outlook/fire tower we hiked to. It was an awesome hike-I highly recommend it if you ever go to Mt. Ranier National Park.

In other news...because the trip to Mt. Ranier is almost old news, I discovered a new coffee shop with free internet. It's called cafe Allegro and it's off the "Ave" (the main street in the University District where I live) and faces an alley which makes it semi-sketchy to walk to. Inside it's really cool-most of the walls are painted in warm colors and the remaining are exposed brick. It's my new favorite hangout-they have free wifi too!

It's really hard not to love Seattle, I can really see why people come out here and stay here. The vibe and attitude of the city is so laid back and outdoorsy. At the same time-I miss Chicago (yikes-never thought i would say that) and being a three hour drive away from family and friends. As we learned in policy school- there are always tradeoffs...

In other news, I think I'm going to take a ferry to Bainbridge Island this weekend-bike around and see what I can see. That should give me lots of good pics to share with ya'll. Time to go home-it's getting dark here...stay tuned...

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Yo! ga


I went to my first yoga class at the Seattle Y last night. It was pretty good. I've been going to yoga on and off since my living in Madison four years ago...and it's always painful and always sweaty. I just feel so good afterwards. Last night in honor of the full moon, we did a sequence of poses that are a salutation to the moon. It was weird and hard and I had to use a block because I'm so inflexible. Embarrassing. There was a sixty year old woman in front of me who put me to shame. oh well.

I also found out yesterday that I'll be traveling to glorious Vermont for a week this summer. I'm excited about that, I think it'll be really interesting and I'll be in Vermont...nothing bad about that!

I haven't taken any really interesting pictures in a few days. Here's one of my office taken by Joel when he was here. I work in the tallest building in Seattle-the Columbia Tower

Sunday, July 09, 2006

This is a little crazy

Having a blog...it feels strange since I know the only people that are going to read this are friends and family but it's been keeping me entertained all weekend so who cares??

I wanted to share some pictures of Joel's visit to Seattle last weekend. We were outside all weekend and the weather was great! We kayaked on Lake Union-renting kayaks at this great Mexican Restarant/Paddle Club, biked to the Red Hook Brewery, and hiked around Mt. Ranier National Park. It was fantastic.

I got a new bike out here-it's a mountain bike and I love it .
It's perfect for shorter rides out to the grocery store or down to the shopping center close to my house. I don't think I'll be doing any triathlons on it though-It's really heavy and the bus system is so good here in Seattle that I may not ride it to work either. It takes me 9 minutes to get to work from my house in the morning!

Birthday!


Today is my godson, Anderson's 1st birthday! He's a very special little guy. Go check out his website and if it's been awhile say Hi! And while you're at it...say a prayer for him and his family.

www.caringbridge.org/visit/andersonbutzine


He really is the cutest.

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Into the blogosphere...


Yeah! Seattle and a blog...I'm so excited. I read lots of blogs...and now I have one. I wonder if anyone will read this. It remains to be seen if I can think of anything interesting to write.

I finally thought of a name...stay tuned for more...