Today’s highlight: 6 miles! Mostly around Greenlake, with a 2 mile detour down Ravenna.
I spent most of June trying to coax myself back into my running habit. It’s only been one well-scheduled week, but I feel relieved.
The weather’s hot and fabulous.
I don’t think I’ve ever ventured into the Georgetown neighborhood before dark. Sure, I’ve been to Jules Maes for roller derby after-parties and Stellar Pizza after the first official derby bout. (I still say thanks to Stellar and their inability to accommodate the massive turnout, Mr. T became my boyfriend a little over 3 years ago.) Sidebar: The pizza is great there, once it arrives.
Today, I had compelling cause to revisit (a spaaaaah appointment). I was curious to wander as it gets so much press for being the up-and-coming hood. Calamity Jane’s had patrons, but like the ’99 Stranger Jules Maes review, the streets were as dead as a movie set. You’d never know that Artopia went down the day before.
Late afternoon, we headed down to the far reaches of West Seattle to visit one of Mr. T’s friends. He has a young chihuahua named Jack. The host spent hours and hours smoking ribs. They were fantastic.
I got in another bike-commute day today. Mr. T left for home before I did and since I didn’t have to keep up with anyone. I took a breather on Brooklyn around 43rd to snap this picture. I think I stopped two more times.
This appeared to be above a dentist’s office with a matching buddy nearby.
I can be a bit of a habitual volunteer at times. I got involved in a promising new thing tonight, sharing some expertise with a neighborhood fair trade organization. This is from my walk home.
It was a nice turnaround from a day that started and left me grumpy. I even got a 3-mile run finished. motomotoyama came to visit later, to drop off the highly-addictive Twilight series for sprizee and me.
Tomorrow is another day. Hopefully, with bike rides and continued sunshine.
Tonight, I saw an author I’ve “known” for over two decades. I remember my father reading Bolles’ great book, What Color is Your Parachute? — one of those memory snapshots. After my father died, I read it when I was almost 21, an early college grad, before I had any inkling of what to do with myself and a liberal arts degree. Back then, I was aimless and uncomfortable with my wandering; I didn’t have a Dad to help dictate my path anymore. It helped.
Once I heard he would be in Seattle, I knew I’d see Bolles. He has a great sense of humor, is candid, and he gets it. I re-learned a few things and will check out this latest edition.
The best gem for anyone that I can pass along from my notes, a comment in passing — “People think they can’t be paid for what they enjoy. But people are dead wrong…don’t look at what you’re good at. Look at what you enjoy. Look to the stars in your firmament.”
A month ago, Mr. T started his grand experiment in the backyard, as earlier readers might recall. Last night Mr. T whipped up some arugula with caramelized pears and pecans. Tonight, we had arugula/rocket salad with parmesan & pine nuts. To highlight the fruits of labor and all that.
And then we got even more domestic and went to Sears for appliance shopping: this is what happens when I take the night off from gadabouting.
I can think of worse preoccupations.
Lake Chelan is marvelous and stretches forever. This is from the campground marina at Twenty-Five Mile Creek State Park.
After one final campfire at breakfast, we packed up for lunch at Cisco’s Mexican Restaurant (link = my review on yelp) in nearby Entiat, WA. After, we also stopped at the Rocky Reach Dam before the long haul back to Seattle.
After a good camp breakfast, our gang headed to the water where sprizee and her Dude fished. I read my Audacity book and took pictures randomly. Mr. T and the Baron hung out on the rocky beach. Wheelson headed into more civilized areas briefly, but joined us later at the water.
We milled about for a few overcast hours then headed down to Fields Point Landing, another marina down Lakeshore. The tiny bugs were out in force, so we gave up the lazing about and the frisbee-throwing for Chelan, where we found ice cream generally and sprizee found fudge specifically.
Dinner was back at the camp over the fire, which we kept going late, late, late. After the overcast, the night owls got to see the stars.
Mr. T and I left with the Baron straight after work to drive almost 4 hours to Twenty-Five Mile Creek State Park at Lake Chelan. Sprizee, her Dude, and her Dude’s longtime BFF (do boys have those?) met up with us later en route, as they left town earlier.
Since we would be making it to the campsite close to dark, we needed to eat elsewhere beforehand. Recently, another Seattle blogger wrote about Cisco’s near Chelan so I took notes for the upcoming occasion (you should read her, too). We had a great dinner, we met Cisco and we left happy. He’s got a great place going on there. What did we learn today, kids? Cook your shrimp in butter.
We arrived at our campsite after dark. The park was still busy and we were able to set up quickly with our RV neighbor’s lighting. Some neighbors were pretty damn noisy into the wee hours while another RV clan had their peace pipes going. We survived. And how!
Only one thing’s missing from the photo for a perfect recipe and that’s since been procured tonight for upcoming festivities. I’m so excited! I’ll tell you about it very soon. Must pack.
*From a t-shirt I once saw at Kalaloch Lodge on the Olympic Peninsula.
Tonight, Mr. T’s colleagues had their bi-weekly pub crawl and today’s choice was Dad Watson’s. It became a prelude to dinner back at the (his daytime) ranch. Tonight’s menu was ribs, collard greens, and baked potatoes. They were the best ribs I’ve had north of the Mason-Dixon by leaps and bounds. The greens were okay, but too healthy. I ‘spose a good thing, ultimately, but I added bacon meant for the potato bar. You’ll have to just imagine what it all looked like as the camera stayed packed.
Shortly after dinner & before video games, I snapped this in the public zone.
For the first time in possibly 20 years, I played kickball tonight at our first league game. We won! 7-4. Lots of new-to-me folks. Go TEAM.
A lovely, lazy Sunday. We gardened, replanting casualties of the cold weather. Fingers crossed that this do-over takes. We also got our fair share of loungin’ about.
For dinner, Mr. T grilled up his BBQ shrimp. I love it so. We planned ahead for the week by grilling up extra.
Overall: perfectly relaxing day. One of those rare ones where time doesn’t fly too fast.
For Father’s Day Weekend, we took Mr. T’s father to the Washington Brewers Festival today at St. Edwards State Park. He was going to be out of town Sunday. All that sunshine was wonderful and hanging out = fun.
We ran into a number of friends. With the first, we got to meet her brand-new fiance. Later, we ran into two other couples. One couple had just finished The Flying Wheels Century bike race that afternoon and had the sunburn to prove it. I was surprised to see the second couple there as they had a baby one week ago! The new mom was in the shade with the tiny baby so we visited for a bit before heading home.
I was home much later than usual tonight due to a training. Another great feature of Seattle is late summertime sunsets, so this didn’t bother me much. I took the Baron out for an evening stroll and grabbed this shot just before it got dark.
You can’t tell yet from this picture at lunchtime, but the sun came out! Around noon, sprizee‘s Dude reminded me of the Airstream of Goodness by Skillet Street Food parked down the street. We gathered a few others and headed for lunch. Once again, I had the Kobe-style Burger with Bacon Jam.
I took this while we waited in line.
Tonight, Mr. T and I walked over to Greenlake’s Tacos Guaymas to meet a friend for dinner al fresco. All along the route, I took pictures (posted elsewhere). Like Maya notes in her blog, that sunshine makes a HUGE difference.
Today was much better than yesterday. I feared bad juju would follow into today, but luckily meetings went well and even today’s scheduled haircut was without tears.
Tonight, I got a headstart on my book club’s next read – Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret – by heading to the library. Sometimes I wander and mix it up with zany new ideas, but no library visit is complete without a quick whirl through the culinary tomes, audiobooks, and travel sections.
Today. Not a fan of today. Sort of rotten. But, post-rottenness, we visited Vanessa et al on Alki, for Buffy Night. That started to make up for it.
I took this shortly after sunset, from her deck on Alki Beach.
As I crossed the bridge to Eastlake, I could feel the wind pushing my car as I raced to meet folks in Madison Park at dinnertime. I detoured through the sidestreets to get to the waterfront, as a tree uprooted and was completely blocking all lanes of East Madison. I couldn’t head back until dusk, so the light isn’t great and they’d cleared enough to make one lane passable. This picture is only the bottom third of what fell.
I grew up with hurricanes and remember when Hurricane Andrew took out over 20 trees in our backyard. I’m still in awe of the sheer power of an unseen force. Today’s fallen tree’s roots and the chunk of land surrounding it were taller than the men cleaning up. The tree must have been several decades old, if not 50 or 60.