This past Friday was my 27th birthday. It's kind of strange to be even closer to 30 now than 20. On Thursday we went to Discovery Park, not necessarily for my birthday, but I thought I'd mention it because it's a nice park with an awesome view of Puget Sound and Rainier to the south. I really enjoyed sitting on the beach listening to the waves crashing in and seeing the sailboats and ferries pass by.

I had to work on my actual birthday. My co-workers gave me a few cards and made peanut butter chocolate kiss cookies and spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and small chocolate chips inside and on top.

After work a few of them took me out to happy hour at Rock Salt right on Lake Union. Troy met us there after a little while. We actually had a nice view of the lake. I wasn't sure we would since happy hour is only served in the lounge, but we could see the lake pretty well. Someone got a few things for all of us to share and I also got the crab cakes and onion rings. I also had a glass of Chardonnay and a Mai Tai. The food was good and it was nice to hang out with some co-workers outside of work.

After happy hour, Troy and I went home and played some of our new video game we bought, Katamari Damacy. It's a cute, easy game where you roll around a ball picking up anything and everything until you get to the size required to complete the level. You have a time limit, so you can't just take an hour or something. It's entertaining and interesting to play.

Speaking of games, my sister mailed me a birthday present package that I got early last week and it had Soul Caliber II for the PS2 in it. It's a street fighter type of game and is really fun to play on 2 player mode with Troy. She also gave me a giftcard to the GAP to buy some clothes. There were also two cards in the package, which confused me at first, but then I figured out that one was from Lauren and the other was from my little niece, Evie! They were cute cards and it was neat to get my first happy birthday Aunt card.

We watched our Netflix movie, The Remains of the Day, which was a good, but sad movie.

On Saturday, Troy went to Noah's and brought back some asiago bagels and a super onion bagel for breakfast. Unfortunately they didn't have any sesame bagels, maybe next time. After bagels, Troy took me to see Toy Story 3 at the Pacific Place AMC downtown. It was a really good movie, possibly better than the first two.

Then we walked to Pike Place Market to grab a snack of macaroni and cheese from Beechers, easily the best I've ever had anywhere. We also saw goats eating grass on the hillside while walking to the waterfront to the market. Apparently some people rent goats from a company to "mow" their grass if it's on a steep hill and they can't get a lawnmower down there easily. Seeing the goats was kind of funny.

We went back to the apartment where Troy gave me my card and present, which was a National Geographic Guide to the National Parks of the US. This will come in handy when we're planning our trips to the National Parks.

After that, Troy took me to Palisade for dinner. I told him to surprise me, but I suggested either Palisade or Seastar. We each got a glass of Pinot noir wine. I liked it more than I thought I would, it's much better than Cabernet in my opinion. I got a small salad and the scallops for dinner. They were probably the best scallops I've ever had, they were so good. Cooked perfectly and very tasty. They were sitting on a bed of black lentils and other toppings. Troy got the flash seared Hawaiian Opah fish with spicy coconut curry. We had a nice view of downtown and Mount Rainier.

We were stuffed from dinner, so we just chilled out the rest of the night and watched the Sounders beat the Earthquakes 1-0. We also played the collaborative game of Pandemic, which we lost unfortunately. It was a little difficult to get into at first because it's a little complicated, but I'm sure we'll get better at it the more we play.

I took a rain check for my dessert since we already had several desserts to eat around the apartment. Troy said he might make it later this week. Overall it was a fun birthday weekend.

It was nice having visitors again for such a long period of time. David and Karen really tested us on their visit with questions about the area - moreso than any other visitors have done. In researching answers to some of their questions, I found out a few interesting things - for example, King County (the county Seattle is in) was named after Vice President William R. King. Neighboring Pierce County was named after the recently-elected president Pierce (King was his VP). King was the shortest-serving VP not to advance to the presidency and the only VP never to wed. He was also nicknamed "Aunt Fancy" by contemporaries and had a dubious relationship with James Buchanan. In 1986 the County voted to re-dedicate itself to Martin Luther King, Jr and this was approved by the state in 2005. That was the most interesting thing I learned. It was nice to be tested on my knowledge of the area and sometimes I surprised myself with how much I knew, but there's always more to be learned.

Despite our relatively small apartment, having friends stay for a week turned out to be virtually no problem or inconvenience whatsoever (at least for Lesley and I). I couldn't get along with just anyone staying with us for a week, but in this case it worked out fine, it could have even been longer with no problems.

I've also realized that despite having many ways to get around in Seattle, none of them are very good, especially for visitors. We definitely drove a lot more during David and Karen's visit than we normally do, however we took transit more with them than we had with any other visitors we've had. In some cases it just makes more sense to take mass transit rather than drive. We had a few problems driving through heavy traffic and trying to find street parking and we might have been better off taking the bus. Still, sometimes it's just kind of difficult to get around by any mode of transportation. For example, I still don't understand how to use and pay for light rail, despite being a big fan of it and keeping up with all kinds of local transit news. However, I suppose overall we didn't have too much trouble with transit. I had to write bus directions for David and Karen to use while Lesley and I were at work, and actually that worked out pretty well. We took light rail back from the soccer game, and while the streetcar was no longer running, it wasn't a big deal to walk home the rest of the way. So, even though Seattle is too big of a city for driving to be easy and the city doesn't make transit easy, it is nice that transit can still fit into our lifestyle.

There are probably some more tourist activities that Lesley and I would like to do sometime. The coffee tour that Karen and David went on sounded like a lot of fun and I'm sure there are some other walking tours that would be nice. Lesley and I still haven't been to the Seattle Aquarium or the EMP, though we have no real interest in either of those. Though the Space Needle is really expensive, it is nice to go up with visitors and point things out. It was nice we were able to avoid paying admission to a couple things this time, but maybe next time we have visitors we can fit in some other new things that Lesley and I might like to do and maybe some new restaurants to try.

Friday was our last full day together. We started the day with some breakfast at Portage Bay Cafe, one of our favorite breakfast places despite the wastefully-large portions and slow service. The food was great as usual, though and it was just a few blocks away from where we live.

We then left to check out Snoqualmie Falls. The mist was blowing all the way to the parking lot and the falls were bigger than our friends expected. The trail to the bottom of the falls was closed, so we spent some time enjoying the view up top. We also stopped by the gift shop before we left.

Snoqualmie Falls on Vimeo.

We decided to hike again after this, so we went to the Anti-Aircraft Trailhead at Cougar Mountain. There's a great view of Lake Sammamish from up there and many trails to choose from. Our visitors were interested that we might see cougars on the trail, and while we heard some kind of animal, we were most surprised by how many banana slugs and how few people we saw along our roughly two hour hike through the forest.

We had thought about picking blueberries this afternoon, but they weren't quite in season yet. So, our next stop was the Bite of Seattle festival, which had lots of good food. We tried a lot of different food and drinks, including free samples of tea, roasted corn, fried macaroni and cheese, a veggie gyro, Indian samosas, wine samples, stir-fried soba noodles (one of my favorites to get at festivals here), hushpuppies (which were really good), a Nutella crepe, donut-like fried rice balls, more Indian food, and spring rolls. Being a Friday, the festival wasn't as busy as we've seen it in the past, and we had a great time in the great weather.

That night we played some pool and went up to our building's roof to show them the view. Our visitors seemed pretty impressed that people were using our roof's pea-patch garden to grow fruits and vegetables. We also had some more cheese and Chukar Cherries, recommended some good movies for each other to add to our Netflix queues, and played Taboo for a while.

It was a great evening to end a wonderful visit. It was very nice to have visitors, especially people we enjoy spending time with and it's a shame that we'll be going a few months without spending time with any more good friends or family from Texas.

Thursday both Troy and I worked full days, so David and Karen were on their own for most of the day. It sounded like they had plenty to keep them busy. They did a coffee tour that went to several coffee shops around Seattle, including the original Starbucks location. They got to try samples of different coffee and hot chocolate.

After the coffee tour, they stopped in the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. Troy and I had been there before and enjoyed it. For lunch, they ate at Elliott Bay Café in Pioneer Square before heading back into the main part of downtown. They waked through the Westlake Center and took a ride on the Monorail to go to the Seattle Center.

The next stop was the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum. Neither Troy or I are that interested in science fiction, besides Star Wars and LOTR, and we'd always heard mediocre reviews of the EMP, which is why we've never been to either before. David and Karen really liked the Science Fiction Museum, but they thought the EMP was a waste of money. Thankfully you can just pay one admission and you get into both, so it wasn't too bad. Apparently a lot of the exhibits at the EMP are kid-oriented and there just wasn't much of anything that interesting to learn about.

By the time they were done with the EMP, Troy and I were ready to pick them up to go to dinner. We tried to make the early ferry, but decided we wouldn't get there in time because of bad traffic. We decided to go eat dinner at one of our favorite Italian places, Ristorante Machiavelli. The bread is quite interesting there because it has pieces of olive baked into it and is served with a different type of oil dressing. I got the fettucini alfredo, Troy got the spinach ravioli, Karen got the eggplant parmesan, and David got the special of the day which was fennel bulb ravioli.

After dinner we rode the ferry to Bainbridge Island. It was a little cool and windy once we got out on the water, but it was a great view of the skyline and Mount Rainier.

Ferry ride near Seattle on Vimeo.

We also had dessert at B&O Espresso on Capitol Hill. I shared a piece of carrot cake and Karen and David shared some kind of chocolate cake with vanilla icing and some raspberry filling.

We went back to the apartment and played some games, including Apples to Apples and more Mario Kart 64. Only one more full day of their trip left.

One of the things we were most excited about doing was going to Mount Rainier. It's the 5th oldest National Park and is an impressively beautiful place to spend a day or more. We grabbed something to eat for breakfast at Nollie's, near where we live, and headed out. Traffic wasn't bad and we decided to take the longer way past Tacoma, rather than the route through Puyallup. The grating Washington State highway noise was a little annoying in our loud car, but after we turned onto some smaller highways the road was quieter and the scenery gradually improved.

Shortly after entering the park, we stopped at the Twin Firs Loop trail head. It's about a half-mile long trail, but we took plenty of time to enjoy the green plants and impressively-large trees. It was a nice short hike.

Next we stopped at Longmire and walked the Trail of the Shadows. This trail was slightly longer and had more diverse surroundings. There was a meadow with a view of Mount Rainier, a few natural springs whose iron content highlighted the ground with rust-color. There was also a historical cabin from a family that had lived there and a variety of impressive plants.

After this walk, we were getting hungry, so we stopped to eat at picnic tables near Cougar Rock. We had brought a variety of tasty local food to eat. There was a giant peach and Rainier cherries, a delicious type of hybrid cherry that is grown in the area, from Pike Place Market. We also brought some Cougar Gold cheese and some Dutch Gouda cheese that we had purchased in Leavenworth to enjoy with some crackers. There was trail mix, a bag of salt & vinegar chips, granola bars, and vegan beef jerky from Whole Foods. We also brought some Chukar Cherries for dessert. We were pretty full and satisfied after all that.

Our next stop was Narada Falls, which was impressive as always and featured a partial double rainbow. We then headed to Paradise, where we checked out the relatively new visitor center. From a telescope within the visitor center, we were able to see a couple hikers part way up the mountain. We also watched a short but enjoyable video on the park. We had hoped to hike some around there but there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground.

So, we continued on to Reflection Lake. There was snow that prevented us from walking around there as well, but it was still beautiful and we enjoyed the view. We drove further along to Box Canyon and did the short walk there near the huge glacially-carved rocks and over the stream more than a hundred feet below. We also had a view of Mount Adams.

Continuing on, we made one final stop within the park at the Grover Grove of the Patriarchs. This trail was along a river and had a lot of huge trees, but we didn't feel like doing the whole thing, so we headed back.

This was the most hiking we had done at Mount Rainier and I really enjoyed it. The drive home also seemed shorter than it has seemed in the past.

On the way home we ordered pizza from Pagliacci - the Verde Primo and the AGOG Primo - both of which were very good. It was after 8 by then and the rest of the night we hung out at our apartment played some more games.

Lesley and I went to work on Tuesday and left David and Karen with directions by bus to the Aquarium. Lesley worked a full day, but I only worked a half day and it went by very quickly. After I got off work, David and Karen were just finishing up at the Aquarium, so I went to the waterfront to meet them. They had enjoyed the otters at the aquarium, but didn't seem particularly impressed overall.

We walked along the waterfront briefly and stopped in one of the souvenir stores. We then headed down to Olympic Sculpture Park. David remembered the centerpiece of the park, Alexander Calder's Eagle, from its time in downtown Fort Worth, where he grew up. After walking through the park, we headed back to our apartment to eat some of the leftover Chinese and Thai food that we had.

While eating, we watched the hilarious Double Rainbow video and the catchy auto-tuned version.

After lunch, we took the bus to Seattle Center and went to the top of the Space Needle. We spent a good amount of time up there and I pointed out everything I could. They had a lot of questions but I was able to answer most of them. By this time, Lesley had gotten off of work, so we took the bus back to meet her at the apartment.

We then headed to the Chittenden Locks in Ballard, which separate the salt water of Puget Sound from the fresh water of Lake Union. There's a fish ladder there to allow salmon to return to where they were spawned, and typically we don't see a lot of fish here, but this time there were a lot, the most we'd ever seen.

For dinner, we ate outside at La Carta de Oaxaca, and then walked through Ballard to pick up some cupcakes for dessert from Cupcake Royale. Before heading back home, we stopped at Gas Works park at just the right time. The sun was low in the sky, igniting the skyline with sunlight and since it was a Tuesday, Lake Union was full of sailboats. We then went to the top of the hill and saw a sun dial that we didn't know was there. It took a little while to figure out how it was supposed to work, but it was pretty cool. We also drove through Fremont to point out the unique sights (Lenin statue, Waiting for the Interurban sculpture, and Fremont Troll). We made a quick stop at Kerry Park right around sunset and had a beautiful view of the city and Mount Rainier.

Once back at our apartment, we ate our cupcakes, which Karen loved. David got the triple chocolate threat, Karen got the vanilla lavender, Lesley got the carrot cake, and I got the chocolate coconut bunny. We also then watched The Sting with Paul Newman and Robert Redford, which Karen hadn't seen but is one of my favorite films. I also did some research for our next day at Mount Rainier.

Both Troy and I took Monday, Wednesday, and Friday off work, so it was nice to be able to sleep in on the third day of David and Karen's visit. We'd stayed up late the night before, so we slept in until abound 10. The weather wasn't as good Monday as the previous two days and it was drizzly and cloudy. We decided to walk to Whole Foods to get some snacks for our trip to Mount Rainier. Afterward, we dropped the food off at the apartment and went to Denny Park. We rode the zip line for fun at the park and then took the bus into downtown.

The next stop was Pike Place Market. We went to the gum wall, which we'd actually never been to before. It was a little gross, but neat looking I guess. Then we saw the guys throwing the fish and walked through the market shops. We got half a dozen fresh powdered donuts from Daily Dozen Doughnut. Wow, they were so good, probably some of the best donuts I've ever had after Top Pot. We'd had the cinnamon sugar before and they were good too. There's a neat slideshow about the donuts on the Seattle PI online. We walked around some more and stopped for some free samples of tea, including chrysanthemum tea, at Vital Tea Leaf near the market.

It was time for lunch, so we all got different things. I got some of the Beecher's mac and cheese, Troy got some taco's at Gary's Tex-Mex Snack Shack, and David and Karen had chowder at Pike Place Chowder. I shared my mac and cheese with David and Karen and they said it was the best they'd ever had. After lunch, we explored the market more and bought some Rainier cherries and a "Holy Shit" peach.

After the market we took the bus back to the apartment to put our fruit away. Then we went to Seward Park and walked on the perimeter trail, which is about a 2.5 mile walk. It was nice and quiet on the trail and being Monday, wasn't too crowded. David thinks he may have seen the Sounders goalie, Kasey Keller, pass us on the trail, but he wasn't 100% certain.

Then we drove through Lakeview Cemetery trying to find Bruce Lee's grave, but were unsuccessful. We ate at Taste of India for dinner, then drove through the University District. I pointed out an apartment building called the Lothlorien Apartments because Lothlorien is a location in Lord of the Rings and David and Karen are huge fans of LOTR like me. We also stopped at Walgreen's to get some milk to eat with our oreos at home.

David, Troy, and I played several Mario Kart 64 races when we got home. It's one of mine and David's favorite games, so it was fun to have another person to play with. We even ran a grand prix race of Toad's Turnpike on backwards mode where all the other vehicles are going the opposite direction we were. It was difficult, but a lot of fun.

We slept in until about 10 in the morning on Sunday and then rode the Seattle Streetcar into downtown. I think David and Karen liked the cleanliness of the Streetcar and how smooth the ride was compared to buses. It's just too bad the Streetcar only has one line right now. Anyway we walked to Top Pot donuts for breakfast and Karen had a maple glazed old fashioned donut, David and Troy had regular glazed old fasioned, and I had the chocolate bar which is basically just a regular chocolate covered donut in the shape of a bar. Karen also got some tangerine juice which I don't think she'd ever had before.

While in Belltown, we stopped in the Seattle Glassblowing Studio and watched some artists blow glass. I've always liked glass art and would love to have a piece to display in our apartment some day. Glassblowing is a popular art in the Northwest, with lots of galleries everywhere and the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, which we unfortunately didn't have time to go to.

We briefly walked by the Cinerama on our way to a bar to watch the World Cup Final between Spain and the Netherlands. Every bar we stopped in was pretty much completely full with small areas of standing room only. We found a small cafe that had room, but they were charging a minimum of $15 per person to watch it. After standing the first 20 minutes of the game in a very crowded bar, we went to Spit Fire which was less crowded for the rest of the first half. It was fun watching the game with so many other people who were so into the game. Everyone would cheer and go crazy during good plays. Unfortunately we just got tired of standing, so we ended up walking back to our apartment during halftime and watched the second half in our living room.

In preparation for David and Karen's visit, I bought a can of Cougar Gold Cheese that we all shared with crackers during the game. We also had some of the Vlaskaas Dutch cheese we bought in Leavenworth. We also had a peach I got from Pike Place Market, some apricots, and beer.

After the game, which the Dutch lost despite our eating Dutch cheese, we rode the bus into downtown where we walked around the retail core. We walked through Pacific Place and went through Nordstrom. We also stopped at the Seattle Central Library which had really neat architecture and lots of interesting art inside. I think David and Karen really thought it was cool.

We took them to Pioneer Square next, which was were the main part of Seattle was in the early 1900s. There's a lot of old buildings and architecture to see in Pioneer Square. We decided to do the Underground Tour, but had to wait almost an hour for the next tour. We tried to go to the Waterfall Gardens close by, but they were already closed, so we stopped for a small snack at a cafe instead.

Finally we started the Underground Tour where we learned about Seattle's history and why we have an underground in Pioneer Square. David and Karen were really interested in the historical aspect of Seattle, so it was good that we did the tour. It was basically the same tour Troy and I had done before with slightly different stories. There's all kinds of weird old stuff still down there, even though most of it was cleared out decades ago.

The tour was over around 6:30 and we had tickets to the Sounders-FC Dallas soccer game at 7:30, so we didn't have much time to eat dinner. We hurried over to the International District, which is sort of on the way to Qwest Field. We ate at Jade Garden, which had really good Chinese food. I got the chow mein, which I actually didn't care much for, but I liked what everyone else got. David got some kind of veggie stir fry and Karen got the stir fried rice, which were both very good.

We walked to the soccer game and arrived about 20 minutes into the game. It was already 1-0, so we missed Montero's goal in the 14th minute. Everyone was standing the entire game, which is normally a good thing, but Karen and I were so tired from walking all day that we sat down occasionally. Unfortunately FC Dallas dominated the second half and one of our players got a red card and was ejected from the game, so we had to play the rest of the game down one man. FC Dallas ended up tying the game when it was almost over.

After the game, we took Link Light Rail back to the Westlake Center downtown and then walked the rest of the way home. It wasn't too late, so we decided to drive to Kerry Park to show them the view of the city at night.

When we got back home, we went to Paddy Coynes in our apartment building for a few drinks and snacks. We shared the fish and chips and potato skins. It was a really great second day of their visit.

PS: Unfortunately we didn't take that many pictures during the first few days of their visit. We took more as the trip went on though.

We had visitors for this past week, as our friends that we had visited in Austin came up to stay with us for a week. David and Karen had never been to Seattle, so Lesley and I showed them around and we all had a very good time.

Shortly after they arrived Saturday, we headed out for lunch. We went to Djan's Thai Restaurant, one of our favorite places to eat. Traffic was a bit heavy and parking was difficult, but the food was very good. We started by sharing the tom kha, a Thai soup that David and Karen had introduced us to in Austin. Our meals were filling and we had some leftovers for later.

We then headed to West Seattle to walk at Schmitz Preserve Park. It has possibly the best forest in the city. We walked through the park down to Alki Beach, where there were lots of people of all ages walking, jogging, and biking. We got some ice cream to eat as we walked along the water all the way around to the other side where we could see the city skyline and Mount Rainier.

After that, we headed to Volunteer Park in Capitol Hill, one of the oldest parks in the city. The largest tree in the park is always a point of interest to our visitors from Texas who aren't used to such big trees. We then climbed the stairs to the top of the water tower for a view in all directions. We walked through the residential streets of Capitol Hill and our friends were impressed by the unique old houses and flowery landscaping. We then looked for food on the main drag of Capitol Hill. While dinner was unremarkable, we enjoyed sitting in the sun and people watching on Broadway. After dinner, we went back to our car at Volunteer Park. There was a wedding going on near where we parked and there was also Shakespeare in the Park performance of Romeo and Juliet. We decided to go check out the play, but couldn't really see or hear much, so we left.

We were all tired from the walking we did that day and a little sunburned, too. We headed back to our apartment and I went out to get some aloe vera gel for our sunburns. When I got back, we all shared some of the tasty apple pie that Lesley had made the night before. David and Karen were interested in seeing the extended edition that we owned of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, so we watched it to end the night (well, I went to bed halfway through).

Anyway, it was a pretty good start to their visit and it just got better from there.

We won't be posting much this week because our friends from Texas are here visiting! They came in Saturday morning and we've been busy ever since showing them around Seattle. We'll post more later about what we've done, but so far we've gone to Kerry Park at night, Volunteer Park, Capitol Hill, Pioneer Square, and saw a Sounders soccer game last night. Today we're planning on going to Seward Park and then a ferry ride and Pike Place Market. Should be a lot of fun!

I was shocked when I heard this fact the other day, but I've lived here long enough that I shouldn't have been surprised at all. I definitely see dogs more often than children. In fact, I hardly ever see children, unless they're tourists. Of course there are more children in the lower density neighborhoods than there are where we live near downtown, but the fact that there are so many more dogs is still interesting.

Seattle is a very dog-friendly city, as this article elaborates on. The article also includes these facts:

There are about 125,000 dogs in Seattle, going by both the Seattle Animal Shelter's estimate and an independent analysis by The Seattle Times. In the 2000 census, there were fewer than 90,000 children in Seattle.

People here are definitely more into dogs than in other areas. It seems like almost everyone at Lesley's office has at least one dog. This article makes the point that people in progressive/liberal areas have children at lower rates than in more conservative areas, so that is a factor as well.

Anyway, I just thought that was interesting enough to be passed along.

We've always been a little hesitant about eating Mexican food here in Seattle. It's just not something the area is known for and I just don't expect it to be any good here.

That said, we had heard a few good things about a restaurant named Cactus and decided to give it a try. We didn't expect Tex-Mex, but we expected a southwestern style of food, which is about as close as we can get.

There are a couple locations and we went to the one on Alki, which was close to Alki Point. Parking is a little tricky over there, but we parked along the water and walked a little ways to get there.

Unlike virtually every real Tex-Mex place in Texas, you have to order chips & salsa, which we did. We also decided to get some guacamole. The chips were pretty good, they were thin and not very greasy. The guacamole was creamy, but needed some salt for flavor.

Lesley got the house chimichanga with chicken in a crispy flour tortilla and I got the butternut squash enchilada. My enchilada wasn't really an enchilada as I would think of it - it was almost like a two-layered tostada. It was very nice to have the familiar flavors of cheese, guacamole, and onions, and the atypical ingredients of butternut squash and spinach went well with it. The caramelization of the onions added some sweetness to the meal. Combined with rice and black beans, it was a solidly enjoyable lunch.

Anyway, this southwestern fare fared well by our high standard for Mexican-themed food and while we're in no hurry to return, we might go back sometime.

There are quite a few places to hike around here and since we had driven a ways out to Leavenworth, we wanted to hike somewhere far from Seattle that we wouldn't normally go to. We also wanted something relatively easy.

We decided to hike the Iron Goat Trail, which we had attempted to hike in May last year but were stopped by snow on the trail.

The trail follows an old rail line, which was hazardous and regularly interrupted by avalanches for the time it was operational. This rail line was no longer used once a 7.8 mile tunnel (the longest in the US) was constructed along an alternate route in 1929.

Since the trail follows a rail line, it was pretty straight and relatively flat. There's an upper grade and a lower grade and we walked along both. Crossing from the lower grade to the upper grade was a bit difficult. Otherwise, the trail was pleasant and had neat historical artifacts, including a few sections of very old tunnel, some of which had collapsed due to falling rock above.

The weather was surprisingly cool. It was sunny with temps in the upper 70s in Leavenworth, which was just 42 miles east, but after we crossed over Stevens Pass, it became cloudy, and temperatures along the hike were in the lower 50s.

We ended up hiking for almost 3 hours, but despite Lesley's sore feet, it sure felt great to be hiking again in such a beautiful area.

With a 3-day weekend at our disposal, we were looking for something fun to do. We decided to spend part of Saturday in the nearby German-themed tourist town of Leavenworth.

It was about a two-and-a-half hour drive out there. We opted for the longer route out there to avoid the traffic along highway 2. The drive out was pretty scenic. Leavenworth is on the east side of the Cascade mountains, and crossing over the pass is always an adventure; it's just such a long, steep incline.

When we first got to Leavenworth, we were hungry for lunch, so we ate lunch at München Haus, which had a variety of German sausages. There were also almost a dozen types of mustard, including jalapeño, sweet hot, and dijon mustard. I enjoyed the bratwurst I had along with the beer. It was a nice way to begin the day.

After lunch, we strolled through the town. The buildings are all decorated in a Bavarian style. Leavenworth was a dying town in the mid 1960s when the town decided to make itself look like a Bavarian village in order to attract tourists. The strategy worked, as was evident during our visit.

There were lots of places to eat and little touristy shops to visit. There was also a group of yodelers providing live music on this sunny Saturday. We enjoyed looking around in the shops. We also bought some cheese and some fudge to bring back with us. We also spent some time walking along the river. The cottonwood trees were almost raining down on us and it felt warm under the sun, though I'm sure the temperature didn't even reach 80. We also got some ice cream from one of the several ice creameries in the town.

Anyway, it was an enjoyable way to spend part of the day, though I'm sure it'd be even more enjoyable for fans of touristy trinkets.

This neighborhood near Woodland Park Zoo is a pleasant neighborhood that's worth a stroll through.


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A new Seattle city ordinance effective today requires all restaurants to use recyclable or compostable containers instead of styrofoam. Restaurants will be subject to fines up to $250 if they are non-compliant. By doing this, Seattle will prevent up to 6,000 tons of trash and leftover food from heading to the land fill every year. I'm not sure why this wasn't required 10 years ago, but it's a good step in the right direction. This is just a sign of how Seattle is more environmentally-oriented than other cities.

I thought this was an interesting article about the best and worst rated cities to visit during the summer:

Looking at the results of Travel + Leisure’s annual America’s Favorite Cities survey, we found that the recipe [for a good destination] is simple:

Good weather: It’s no surprise that some of the hottest cities in the summer ranked the lowest.

Family-friendliness: With the kids home June through August, cities with offerings for the whole clan fared best.

Great parks and easy access to the outdoors: Out of the 10 cities voted the best for summer travel, 8 also landed in the Top 10 for parks.

Fantastic farmers’ markets: Simple pleasures make a difference; great local produce and purveyors helped sway opinions.

Not surprisingly, Seattle is #3 on the list, while Portland is #1. Both have excellent park systems, great weather, and lots of farmer's markets. Rounding out the top 5 are Denver at #2, San Diego at #4, and Minneapolis/St Paul at #5.

Here's the top 5 on the list of worst cities to visit in the summer:

1. Phoenix/Scottsdale
2. Dallas/Fort Worth
3. Atlanta
4. Houston
5. New Orleans

The bad thing about these cities is that the weather is just sweltering in the summer and there isn't much in the way of outdoor activities for families.

Transportation for America has released a study ranking the most dangerous metropolises for pedestrians and Seattle ranks as the 5th safest out of the 52 areas in the US with over one million residents.

Fewer than 1 pedestrian is killed each year per 100,000 residents (5th lowest rate in the US), despite 3.1% people walking to work (10th highest in the US).

By contrast, the DFW area, where we used to live (and not walk as much), has 1.47 pedestrians killed per 100,000 residents each year (28th lowest rate), despite only 1.5% of workers walking to work (9th lowest rate in the US). Although, that's actually part of the problem - that walking isn't a mainstream activity, so safety initiatives aren't prioritized by the voters.

Surely there are safe and dangerous areas to walk in both areas, but I just thought the study results were interesting. Click the link above for more details.

Highway 99 isn't a popular pedestrian route, but the segment on the east side of Queen Anne Hill is surprisingly sheltered and comfortable, leading to beautiful views from the Aurora Bridge. Dexter Ave N is a nice residential street for a stroll on the way back.



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Yesterday was mine and Troy's 9 year dating anniversary. To celebrate, we went to the Cascade Farmer's Market near our apartment, which is every Thursday during the summer. This is the first Thursday of the summer that the market has been there. We bought some pretty flowers, fresh raspberries and strawberries, and some strawberry rhubarb ice cream.

After that we went to Denny Park and sat on a bench for a little while enjoying the awesome weather. Since Troy's last post about the cloudy weather, it totally cleared up this week and we had highs in the mid 70s.

This weekend we plan on watching the US vs Ghana soccer match on Saturday and we're going to a cook out at one of my coworker's houses on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to a nice weekend.

This past Friday the weather was nice, so we went for a walk in our neighborhood and then to Whole Foods to buy some steak to grill. We got a top sirloin Chateaubriand steak for $10, some asparagus, onion, and mushroom to stir-fry, as well as some sweet corn on the cob, and red bing cherries and baklava for dessert!

We tried to grill the steak on the grills the apartment building provides, but they were both out of propane, so we had to broil it in the oven instead. We put some seasoning salt on it and then butter once it was done. It actually turned out really good and juicy and was almost as tender as a filet. The corn was also really good, much better than canned corn.

Saturday afternoon we decided to finally go to the Fremont Solstice Parade to celebrate the summer solstice. Everyone gathers to watch all kinds of colorful people in a flamboyant parade of strange sights. We saw body painted bicyclists, a giant spider, plastic bag decorated dancers, and a big yellow submarine. It was really crowded and it seemed like everyone had their dogs with them. There was also a big beach ball that rolled along the parade route with the help of spectators laying in the street to carry it underneath them. The entire parade is really pretty weird, and rivals even San Francisco's weirdness, though there were plenty of families with children there. It's something that every Seattleite should see at least once.

We went home after the parade to hang out for a bit and watch some FIFA World Cup soccer, then went to West Seattle to have some ice cream from the Husky Deli. I got raspberry decadence (chocolate ice cream with raspberries swirled in) in a waffle cone and Troy got the coffee oreo. Then we walked around the neighborhood for a little bit and saw lots of greenery and flowers in front of houses.

After our first year of living here, I said the weather was one of my favorite things about Seattle. I did dislike the dark winter days, but felt that the rest of the year made up for it. The weather is generally fairly moderate - no major snowstorms and, more importantly, summer temps aren't too hot. I got so tired of the high temps in Texas that summer high temps averaging in the 70s felt great.

The first year we were here, the cool spring weather was refreshing and I didn't mind that early June temps stayed below 60 for almost a full week, though I was told that wasn't normal. After that first week of June, the summer was great.

However, that winter was the terrible winter storm that almost kept us here for Christmas and paralyzed the city. There was snow, snow, and more snow. I was also told that wasn't normal.

After that winter, I was happy that the next summer got comfortably warm earlier in the year. But then it got warmer and warmer, and set an all time record high of 103. However, there were only a couple unpleasantly warm weeks during that summer - same as the summer before - so we didn't have much problem getting by without air conditioning.

This past winter, was rainy, but we had the warmest January on record, and I appreciated the moderate weather.

But now, in early June, yet again, the summer weather hasn't shown up yet. Worse, it's been cloudy most of the time, including all of this weekend. We did have some nice sunshine on Friday, and I was fortunate to get off of work a little early to enjoy it. But last week I was on my way to work in 50º weather, with rain and heavy wind (and complete cloud cover). And seriously, look at the temperatures yesterday:



Not only did we have cool weather, but there was solid cloud cover all day, with some rain. People consider this to be unusual as well.

The summer, when it does show up, will be excellent I'm sure. The summers are awesome here - three of the best months anywhere. But, this atypical, unpleasant weather seems to be more typical than I had realized.

I do like the cooler weather, generally, but the worst part of the cool weather is the lack of sunshine. Maybe I'm just being too critical, at least it's not 100º.

Note: This post comes from my Walking in Seattle blog.

Volunteer Park is a diversely landscaped park with open green space and several landmarks including a water tower, conservatory, and Seattle Asian Art Museum.


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I posted a few months ago about our TV messing up. Well, we finally went ahead and got a used TV to replace it. It's a 27" Philips made in 2001, so it's actually 5 years older than what we had, but still the same size. It was kind of sad to part with my TV since it was only 4 years old. The apartment complex has recycling service for electronics, so we gave it to the apartment office for them to get rid of it.

So far this replacement has been good. The picture isn't as good as the other TV, but at least there aren't lines, black space, and an inverted picture at the top of the screen. I'm sure we'll replace this one in a few years with an HDTV. For now, this one will do fine.

Washington state made it illegal to talk on your cell phone and drive a couple years ago, but it was only a secondary offense, meaning the police needed another reason to pull you over. However as of this past Thursday, drivers can be pulled over just for talking on their mobile phones.

The law doesn't apply if you're using a hands-free device, but holding the phone to your ear with your shoulder apparently doesn't count. There are also a few exceptions to the law, including "if you set your phone to 'speaker' and hold it in front of you."

It's also not illegal to make a peanut butter sandwich while driving, as far as I'm aware. I have been driving more over the past few weeks, at least for work, and have had occasional reason to use my cell phone. I do have a headset for my personal phone, so I could use that, although plugging it in and putting it in my ear seems to be a lot more distracting than just talking on the phone like normal.

Schmitz Preserve Park is the only Seattle park with old-growth forest and is a beautifully forested area that makes you feel like you're in the foothills of the Cascades rather than in West Seattle.


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Seattle has one of the largest, if not the largest, film festival in the country. The Seattle International Film Festival runs for more than 3 weeks, with hundreds of films (400+ this year) at several different venues in the area.

Lesley and I have gone to a couple movies at SIFF for the past couple years and this year got a package to go to 3 movies. It's fun to go because it's such a big festival and there are so many movies to see that aren't normally available in theaters.

One of the movies we saw this year was Garbo: The Spy, a Spanish documentary on a double-agent who, working for both Britain and Germany during WWII, delayed German forces from reaching Normandy. It was a very interesting documentary about an unfamiliar historical figure who impacted history.

We also saw a less serious film called White Lion, which follows the life of a white lion in a majestic South African setting.

We're looking forward to seeing another movie later this week, about a New Zealand family that lives in the wilderness.

In the past we've seen some very good movies and some unremarkable movies, but they're always interesting and are different than the Hollywood films that you can see any weekend at the multiplex.

We went to a Mariners game with Lesley's friend Megan last Monday night. The weather had been terrible most of the weekend, but it cleared up Monday afternoon and was comfortable and sunny when the game started.

Megan bought our tickets - they were good seats in the outfield. We were the closest I've been to Ichiro and it was interesting seeing him stretching throughout the entire game.

Anyway, this was a Mariners game, so they gave up 3 runs in the 2nd inning, then back-to-back home runs later in the game. But, at the end they made it close, scoring a run in the 9th and having the winning run at the plate. Less-jaded fans had reason to believe in a comeback, but I saw the double play coming. Here's the game story. We've now seen 9 Mariners losses and 1 Mariners victory. It was an exciting victory, though.

We did learn from our transportation issues last time so we took a taxi home, and after a couple minute wait, it took us home pretty quickly for just over $10.

Note: This post comes from my Walking in Seattle blog.

NW Market St passes through the heart of Ballard and is an enjoyable street for a stroll on your way to the popular Hiram M. Chittenden Locks.


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My good friend Megan visited us this past weekend and we had a lot of fun! It had probably been over 2 years since the last time I saw her, so it was good to see her again. We picked her up from the airport around 4pm on Saturday and chatted for a while at our apartment. Then we walked downtown through the retail core, including Nordstrom and the Westlake Center. We briefly walked through Pike Place Market and stopped to get piroshkys at Piroshky Piroshky. Unfortunately it was close to closing time, so we didn't really see much of the market and most of the flower/fruit stands were closed. Megan seemed to enjoy the view of Elliott Bay.

After the market, we walked back to the Westlake Center and looked at some of the stores there. Then we took the Monorail to the Seattle Center. That was actually the first time for me to ride the Monorail, if you can believe it. We hung out for a while at the Northwest Folklife Festival, where we saw some tap dancers, live music, and lots of interesting people. I had my usual roasted corn on the cob and Troy and I shared some stir-fry noodles.

We were pretty tired after all that walking, so we decided to take the bus back to the apartment. The three of us played some Super Mario Kart 64 before going to Paddy Coyne's, the bar on the main floor of our building, to have some drinks and appetizers.

Sunday morning we went to Top Pot for donuts. It was really busy, but we were still able to find a table. Megan had an apple fritter, I had a chocolate covered ring, and Troy had a cinnamon sugar old fashioned donut. After breakfast, we toured the Museum of Flight near Boeing Field. They have 85 aircraft including the supersonic Concorde and the first jet Air Force One. We were able to go inside the Concorde and Air Force One, which was really cool. This particular Air Force One served in the Presidential Fleet from 1959-1996. The museum also had a small section reserved for space exploration, which was probably my favorite part along with seeing the inside of those two planes.

The weather continued to be cloudy with drizzly rain, so we decided to just drive around and show Megan the different neighborhoods in Seattle. We drove through Fremont, the U District, and Capitol Hill. We also stopped at Gas Works Park briefly for a view of Lake Union and downtown. By the time we were done with that, the rain had stopped, so we took a ferry to Bainbridge Island.

We went to one of our favorite Italian restaurants for dinner - Mamma Melina in the U District. The piano player was really good and even played "Got to Get You Into My Life" by the Beatles (because I suggested it when he asked what we'd like to hear.) After dinner, Megan and I went up in the Space Needle while Troy walked around the Folklife Festival again. Unfortunately it was pretty cloudy and most of the mountains weren't visible, but it was cool seeing downtown lit up at night. For dessert we went to B&O Espresso on Capitol Hill before going back to the apartment to watch one of Megan's and my favorite movies, Back to the Future.

Megan thought she might have to leave Monday afternoon because flying stand-by can get tricky, but the flights were pretty open for Tuesday morning, so she decided to stay until then. For breakfast on Monday we ate at the very popular Portage Bay Cafe, just a few blocks away. Troy was nice enough to walk over there early and put our name on the waiting list. There was a 45 minute wait, so we just hung out at the apartment for most of that time before going there.

Then we drove to the Boeing plant in Everett to take a tour at the Future of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour. We saw the manufacturing facility Boeing is using for the 747, 767, 777, and the new 787 airline jets. The place was huge, in fact, it's the largest building in the world by volume at 472 million cubic feet. About 30,000 people work there and has over 2.33 miles of pedestrian tunnels running below the factory. It was really cool seeing how the planes are made.

Afterward, we drove to Snoqualmie Falls, made famous by the TV show Twin Peaks. This time there was probably the most amount of water I've ever seen pouring over the falls, which are 268 feet high. In comparison, Niagara Falls is only 167 feet high, but is much much wider of course. The tallest one in the world is Angel Falls in Venezuela at 3,212 feet high. Anyway, it was misty and rainy when we first got there, but then cleared up as we were about to leave.

Megan's trip to Seattle wouldn't be complete without seeing the view from Kerry Park, so that's where we went next. Unfortunately most of the weekend had been cloudy with drizzly rain, but Monday afternoon the weather decided to clear up, giving us a decent view. Mount Rainier wasn't visible, but the overall view was still impressive.

We went back to the apartment briefly and then took the bus and Link Light Rail to the game. Megan bought us tickets in the right outfield lower level, which was very nice. I hadn't sat in the outfield in any ballpark in a long time, so it was a nice change. We sat right behind Ichiro, which was cool. I had some Thai food at the game and Troy and I shared the famous garlic fries. Unfortunately the Mariners couldn't pull out a victory in the bottom of the 9th.

After the game we took a taxi back to the apartment, which was a lot faster than the bus/light rail would have been. We were channel surfing when we got home and just happened to find Sleepless in Seattle playing, so Megan and I watched the rest of it and I pointed out all the places I recognized.

Overall everyone had a great time and I really enjoyed seeing Megan again. It was nice to catch up and show her our city. We're glad she came to visit us and look forward to next time!

Megan, my long time friend dating back to middle school, is coming up to Seattle to visit this weekend! We haven't had visitors since my parents came last July, almost a year ago, so it will be really exciting showing her around. We'll definitely go to Pike Place Market, maybe ride a ferry, go to the Northwest Folklife Festival, and eat at our favorite restaurants. She's not sure if she'll leave Monday or Tuesday, so we'll see how long we have. I think the weather should be pretty good on Sunday, so that would be a good day to go to Snoqualmie Falls and Kerry Park. It should be a lot of fun!

Note: This post comes from my Walking in Seattle blog.

University Way, known as "The Ave" is a busy pedestrian street with many shops and many more restaurants. It's a good walk if you want to take in an active streetscape and find somewhere new to eat along the way.


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We've basically had the same decorations on the wall since we moved here, so we thought it was time for a change. In addition to hanging up the Hawaiian hale drawing that Troy had framed for me for Christmas, we changed out all of our other frames that had our own photos in them. We bought new 8x10 and 5x7 pictures, which include some from Australia, some of flowers, and some of our top 10 pictures from the last two years, which are mostly of Seattle.

For the bathroom we have the Volunteer Park water tower with greenery surrounding it. We also have a view of the Olympic Mountains from Hurricane Ridge. We also have some pink tulips from the Tulip Festival, as well as bluebonnets, and a pretty purple daisy we saw in Melbourne.

We put our wedding and engagement photo frame in our bedroom, along with two night time photos: one of Pike Place Market, and one of Seattle from Kerry Park.

In the entry way, we hung up a picture of Mount Rainier from Seward Park (which also happens to be our blog banner).

Our two 5x7's from Australia include the beach bathing boxes in Melbourne, and Bondi Beach in Sydney.

The main addition is a poster we bought in the U-district of the Space Needle. But this isn't just any old picture of the Space Needle. It's a painting that looks almost exactly like the view we had for almost two years from our window. I like it because of that, and because it's a painting print rather than a photograph, so it's different from all the other stuff on the wall.

We had the poster put on a wood board by Museum Quality Framing and picked it up today. They were out of the blue marble wood board we had wanted, so they gave us solid blue instead. I think it looks almost as good.

We still have a wall of CDs in the living room, but we'll probably replace it with a new piece of art or a mirror or something large in the future.

Here are pics of our newly decorated apartment:

Note: This post comes from my Walking in Seattle blog.

The Central Waterfront is a fun walk on a clear day, though it can become crowded with tourists. It offers good views of the mountains and the city and shops to browse and places to eat.


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"Carbon footprint" is a phrase commonly heard around here as people here often consider impacts to the Earth and the environment when making decisions. So, that's why it was not surprising that the church we go to recently had a sermon series on environmental stewardship.

In my time attending church in Texas, I don't remember the environment being mentioned. The difference is probably not in theology but in how culture affects what aspects of theology are emphasized. The environment is an important issue here, so God's call for Christians to be good stewards of the Earth may seem more relevant to people here than in Texas, where, for example, it can still be controversial to allude to global warming.

Our church encouraged congregants to take alternate forms of transportation to church (carpooling, walking, taking the bus, etc.) and many people participated. Anyway, it's just kind of interesting.

We had been paying $30/month for cable, but then our cable provider almost doubled our rate, so we decided to cut our service back.

For the last four months, we got by okay with just local channels. We did wish that we didn't have to miss out on some sporting events on cable, but we weren't about to double our cable bill just to see a few games.

Then, late last week a Comcast representative knocked on our door and offered us the same deal that we'd had in the past. It, again, is just an "introductory rate" for 6 months, but last time that 6 month introductory rate lasted for a full year.

We'll have our service set up next weekend and are excited about getting to see some playoff hockey, regular season baseball, and world cup soccer.

The University District Street Fair was this past weekend and we decided to go. The weather had been very nice, so it was nice to go out to the fair.

The bus took us pretty much straight there and our first destination was food. There was a variety of food available. Lesley got a gyro and I got chicken on a stick with rice and chow mein. We ate our food while listening to a rock band. After we ate, we headed up and down the Ave, looking at the arts and crafts. Nothing really caught my eye, though some of the art was kind of neat. Later on Lesley got some corn on the cob and a bratwurst and we watched a juggling street performer. Then we listened to some more music before leaving.

Anyway, it was fun to go. The weather was pretty nice, the food was good, and the music was enjoyable. This kicks off the festival season here, so there are quite a few more similar festivals to look forward to over the next few months.

We went to the Cheese Festival at Pike Place Market for the third year in a row this past Saturday. We wanted to get there early so we could beat most of the crowd. Some of the stands weren't even completely ready yet when we got there at 10. We learned from previous years that we should bring some water with us because eating so much cheese makes you thirsty. The weather was really nice - sunny with temperatures in the 60s.

We tried free samples of lots of different kinds of cheeses including goat cheese, gouda, cheddar, and cream cheese. Thankfully the lines weren't too long so we probably tried at least 30 kinds of cheese. I don't like blue cheese, so of course we didn't get any of that. We ended up getting 4 kinds of cheese to take home:

Cougar Gold Cheese - a rich white cheddar made by Washington State University

Sierra Nevada Cream Cheese - a very tasty, sweet cream cheese from Northern California

Bergenost Cheese - an interesting Norwegian style cheese made in New York

Tournevent Chevre Noir Cheese - a subtle goat cheese from Canada

I'm looking forward to eating all our cheeses! Yum!

Note: This post comes from my Walking in Seattle blog.

The tree-lined streets of historic First Hill are great for a pleasant walk, though the steepness of the hill can make walking here a little more difficult for some.


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This past Saturday we ran several errands. First we started the day with our usual bagels. Troy got two asiago bagels and one super onion and they were all really fresh and soft, which was excellent. Then we walked to a framing store in our neighborhood to have a new poster framed that will go in our kitchen. It's not an actual frame though, more like putting it on a thin block with a small border. It will be ready to pick up in two weeks, so we'll take pictures of it then so it will be easier to understand what it looks like.

After that, we walked to a few stores including Whole Foods looking for some natural air freshener. While at Whole Foods, we also picked up some wine and strawberries. Those strawberries were so sweet, probably the best I've had in a while. I'm looking forward to getting more berries now that they're almost in season here.

We watched the Sounders game and then went to a place called Foot Solutions to try to get some kind of inserts to help my plantar fasciitis go away. They have machines there that test where the pressure points are on your feet as well as the high of your arches. I told them I'd had heel pain for a few months. I knew I had high arches, but mine are extremely high. The inserts I got from Academy a few months ago were really just pads and didn't offer any arch support. Apparently my arches (especially on my left foot) have been collapsing and stretching that muscle that attaches to my heel, causing it to hurt. So they recommended I get some special arch supports to help. They also have a metatarsal pad on them to help with some calluses that have been building up slightly on the balls of my feet.

I'm not sure why I'm having this problem at such a young age, but I guess my arches just haven't had much support for years probably and since we've been hiking and walking much more the past two years, it's just gotten worse. Hopefully these inserts will help my heel get better and prevent further injury.

Anyway, after the foot store, we went for a short walk in a park nearby and then stopped at Kerry Park on the way to dinner. The weather was awesome on Saturday, (and Sunday for that matter) so I couldn't resist going to Kerry Park to take in the view. I don't think I'd ever seen Mount Rainier more clearly. We got several nice pictures too. Don't miss the panoramic picture at the end of the photo album!

We had dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant, Djan's in Wallingford. We tried the tom kha soup and it was really good. It had tofu, mushrooms, green onions, onions, and coconut milk in it. I had the pad thai, which I was actually a little disappointed with because it tasted a little sweet, as if it had ketchup in it. Troy had some kind of stir fry with rice.

It was a nice, busy weekend. I'm looking forward to next weekend as well; we'll be going to the Cheese Festival at Pike Place Market and U-district Street Fair.

Note: This post comes from my Walking in Seattle blog.

The Burke-Gilman trail is 27 miles of a former rail line that has been converted to a pedestrian and bike path. We'll be taking the relatively short walk from Fremont to Gas Works Park.


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Over the last several weeks at work I've been busy working on a project to integrate to various building systems at a new data center. My work has been in the office gathering information, building and reviewing web graphics, and coordinating any site work that needs to be done. I've occasionally had to go on site, but not often.

We're nearing the end of this phase of the project, though, and my presence has been requested on site to help coordinate. Since it's a construction site, hours are from 6 to 2:30. This week, I've gotten up around 4:45 every day to make the 45 minute drive to the site location in one of the exurbs south of Seattle.

I had hoped that my time on site would be limited, but right now it appears that I could be out here for the next couple weeks. I dislike driving so much, and working at a construction site isn't the best environment, but I suppose it's not all bad. So far I haven't minded getting up early too much, and I've been working until almost 4, so I've sometimes been able to pick up Lesley from work on my way home. And, since I'm working longer hours, I won't have to work a full day tomorrow, which is something that I'd like to have more often.

We were forunate to have had a warm winter. However, unfortunately, summer is late to arrive.

It's already May, yet it was 42 degrees the past two mornings and the high temperature has been only 52 today and yesterday. There was also a lot of clouds and rain during the day today.

And, while it's overall less windy here than in Texas, it has been very windy lately. Since it's colder here overall the wind seems more annoying because it makes it colder.

The wind speed yesterday was around 20 mph with gusts up to 35, and has been up to 15 mph the last few days.

These temperatures are lower than average - normally it would be getting up to the low 60s, which isn't warm but can be comfortable. This cold weather makes me even more excited for summer weather, which is normally very pleasant and should be here soon.

I had a couple of bad public transportation experiences on Friday, including missing the bus home from work and being passed by a full bus after the Mariners game. That didn't keep me from taking the bus the next morning, when getting around the city by bus was quite helpful and convenient.

Normally on Saturdays Lesley and I take the bus up the hill to get bagels, but her foot has been hurting so I went out by myself. I also needed to return a book to the library, so I took a bus downtown, walked a couple blocks to the library, dropped off my book and got another book.

Then I walked a few blocks to catch the bus that would take me to bagels. I made that bus without a wait. And, though the bus was kind of crowded, I found a seat next to a talkative fellow who was excited to show me the 40 of beer that he had with him. He was a friendly guy, so I got over my discomfort, and after just a few minutes I got off to go get bagels.

Just half a block away from the stop was Noah's bagels, where I got what I needed without much of a wait. Usually after we get bagels, Lesley and I just walk down the hill back home, but this time there was another bus arriving shortly, so I waited and took it back home. When I got to the apartment, the mail had already arrived for the day and we had received the new photos we had ordered to put on the wall.

I felt super productive having gotten a new book, picked up bagels and cream cheese, and our mail and all within just an hour. There's plenty to complain about regarding the urban environment and public transportation here, but I am happy when I'm able to take advantage of living in the city.

We took public transportation to the Mariners game on Friday, as we normally do. It's normally convenient enough to take a bus to the game and it isn't worth paying to park or take a cab.

We caught the bus a block from our apartment, got off downtown and went into the transit tunnel where we caught light rail without having to wait at all. Once we got off the train, we had to walk a few blocks to the stadium, but that gave us a chance to buy some cracker jacks and water for pretty cheap from a street vendor.

However, getting home after the game has always been a bit of an issue. Due to gameday traffic, bus routes around the stadium are rerouted, as we discovered one time after the game. There used to be a special bus that ran from Safeco Field to the retail core downtown, and it was easy to get home from there. However, that bus doesn't run anymore. In the past we've also just avoided the hassle of the buses and walked home since it isn't really that far, but that's an option I like more than Lesley does, and since her foot has been hurting, that wasn't an option Friday night.

We had planned to take the same way home that we had taken to the stadium. After the game, we had to wait several minutes before light rail arrived, but we were covered from the light rain, so it wasn't too bad. We took light rail into the tunnel and got off to transfer to one of three bus routes that would take us home.

Since it was late at night, buses weren't running very frequently anymore, so we had to wait a while before the next bus came. For some reason though, it was very full of people, maybe people from the game, though I'm not sure where they got on the bus. It was so full that it didn't even stop to let us on, unfortunately. That's happened to me a few times here, not very often, but it's always very frustrating when that happens. So, we had to wait another 10 minutes for the next bus to show up. That bus got pretty crowded after we got on, but it did take us home.

I'm not sure what we'll do after next Mariners game. I suppose taking a cab wouldn't be too expensive, but it shouldn't be so hard to get home from somewhere just 3 miles away. Unfortunately, the level of public transportation service here leaves something to be desired.

Lesley's parents gave us tickets to a Mariners game as an anniversary present, so this past Friday Lesley and I had the privilege of going to the game.

The visiting team was the Texas Rangers, so this game was between two of the three MLB teams that have never played in a World Series. Our tickets were in the lower level behind home plate and the section we were in was pretty full.

We didn't get to the game early enough to get one of the Felix Hernandez bobbleheads, but we were there to see J. R. Celski throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

This game happened to be Cliff Lee's first as starting pitcher for the Mariners. He was acquired in the off-season and has been injured lately, but he's been a very good pitcher, so we were excited to get to see him pitch. He pitched a very good game, but so did the Texas pitcher, and the game went into extra innings and stayed scoreless through the 11th inning. It was an entertaining game and the crowd was on their feet rooting for a Mariners rally.

The Rangers have done well at finding ways to lose games this year, but the Mariners outdid them. The Mariners had the bases loaded with only one out in both the 11th and 12th innings and failed to score. In one inning they hit into a double play, in the other they failed to bunt in order to execute a suicide squeeze that would've scored the winning run.

To add to the entertainment, Texas' manager argued with the umpire on a call and was ejected from the game.

And, near our seats, someone tried to steal someone else's bobble-head and was arrested for it.

To end the game, the Mariners had an error and then threw a wild pitch that allowed the Rangers to score two runs.

It was a deflating end to what had been an exciting game. Click here for ESPN's story on the game.

Anyway, despite the loss, I still consider the Rangers my second favorite team in baseball, and some of my friends love the Rangers, so I suppose I can be happy that they won. And I'm glad Lesley and I were able to go to a game together. Of the 9 Mariners games we've been to, this is the 8th time they've lost. Hopefully next time we can see a Mariners victory.