blue skies to full moons

It's always hard to stay inside when you look outside to a beautiful blue-sky day. So as soon as we got home from work last Tuesday we made sure to take advantage of it. We jumped in the car and drove up to Columbia City to grab some Jones' BBQ to go, then to Seward Park, which sits on a peninsula on Lake Washington.
We missed most of the sunset (it goes down so quickly this time of year) but were able to enjoy the soft glows of pinks and oranges as the sun faded into night.

Mt. Rainier rising so eloquently on the horizon over Lake Washington


Brooke, taking some quiet out of a busy day to enjoy God's serene creation


I love every minute spent with this man...


It's always a good day when BBQ is involved!


Grubbin' hard on some Jones'


A perfect 70F day for a kayaker to be cruising by at the base of Mt. Rainier


The alpenglow of the mountain....awesome


After the sun set, we took a night hike/walk through the park. Much of Seward Park is Rainforested, and has many hiking trails that take you throughout the park. The nearly-full moon lit most of the surrounding landscape, and created a beautiful glow upon the lake.

cartoon husband

there's my cartoon husband...just hanging out on a thursday evening. not up to much good...just reading up on 'Into the Wild.' Have you heard about it? Read the book...see the movie. we're heading up to Bellevue tomorrow night to see it. Should be good stuff.

www.intothewild.com

new place = new adventures

we've been in the seattle area for a little over a week now, but have found plenty of time for new adventures. we know the area is still new to us, but during our first road trip out to port townsend, wa on brooke's birthday last saturday, we both looked each other in the eye, smiled, and confirmed that we could live in this area for a loooong time.

brooke was so excited to take the ferry across the puget sound from seattle to bainbridge island... we then drove up to port townsend from there. he's on his phone taking birthday calls the whole morning.

here we are in port townsend, washington. it was a beautiful 70 degree, sunny day!

port townsend is a small victorian town, but there are many places along the sea of old factory buildings. here is one of our favorites!

today we took the bus downtown to seattle. we met a few interesting characters, as is usual in busy cities. we particularly got a good laugh out of this pan-handler (on far right) with the sign that reads:

'MY FATHER WAS KILLED BY NINJAS. NEED MONEY FOR KARATE LESSONS.'

and this dude, who was on a total 'vision quest.' we discovered him next to a stage set up within pike place market of a local jazz band. this hippy was totally feelin' the groove. he made me smile....he's just lovin' life.

another gorgeous day in seattle. we spent most of the day in pike place market. there is a beautiful variety of cultures out here in the pacific nw.

lookin' over the sound.


here's brooke, waiting for the bus?....or maybe he's waiting for me to catch up from taking random pictures.


ahhh....the famed seattle space needle. we have yet to travel up it, maybe we'll save it for a clear day when we can view mt. ranier, AKA 'The Mountain' as it's known around here. it's pretty big.


we took the monorail from downtown seattle to seattle center, to check out the space needle, EMP (Experience Music Project) and to see what else was in that area.


back to pike place market for dinner and sunset. we love the buildings around this old part of town.


a great evening in a wonderful city.

daily life: evening activities

step 1: prepare stove (we choose MSR's Whisperlite)

step 2: what's for dinner tonight? noodles, noodles or noodles?


step 3: bring pot of H2O to boil, empty ramen into pot.


step 4: do not burn yourself...everything around you is hot.



step 5: watch the master cook.

step 6: set the table (note: sharing bowls/bottles = less dishes to do)


step 7: sit down and enjoy a nice warm bowl of ramen noodles with saltines and a nalgene of water...can't get more beautiful and simple than that.


step 8: get the fire roarin'.


step 9: read book by the glow of a headlight, warmth of the fire.

step 10: smoke the tobacco pipe