Back from the Ham/Seatown

My trip to Washington was great! I got to see my favorite people, dance for hours (literally) at 80s night, and enjoy nice weather, despite the fact that it was supposed to rain!

Flying into Seattle at sunset over the San Juans is one of my favorite things.

Kelly, Drew and I drove up Chuckanut to Bellingham. We saw some big ass deer.

We drank PBR in the beer garden at the World Famous Up & Up tavern.

Better Lovers reuinited!

View from Kerry Park in Queen Anne of the Seattle skyline and Mt. Rainier.

Seattle celebrated Pride Week with a rainbow flag on top of the Space Needle. I'd forgotten about the Pride Parade on Sunday, so my parents and I attempted to drive downtown. Mistake. I think driving in that traffic took several years off of my dad's life.

The flight back to Sacramento was clear and sunny once we made it out of the Seattle area.

We flew over Crater Lake!

And Mt. Shasta. At least, I'm pretty sure that's Mt. Shasta. I know it was a Cascade Range volcano south of Crater Lake, and the pictures I googled of Mt. Shasta seemed to fit.

After an entirely too long drive back from Sacramento, (damn those motorhomes towing cars that don't use the pull outs!) I am back in Tahoe. I definitely did not do any working out (other than the hours of intense 80s dancing) while I was in Washington. I'm little sad about not getting to run at Lake Padden, but I'm ready to get back into training here in Tahoe.

Early morning swim, cocktails, and a plane ride

Some of my friends from work threw an awesome cocktail party last night for the solstice. The theme was Old Hollywood and fancy attire was requested. I squeezed myself into a pink silk Betsey Johnson dress (damn silk is not forgiving- but I still think I looked pretty good), put on eyeliner and heels and went to the party.

Marion, the party hostess, introduced me to Pimms at her winter solstice party. As excited as I was about actually dressing up for the first time since moving to Lake Taco, I was most excited about the Pimms. Unfortunately, a flight the next day and a 6:30 am swim date with Katie necessitated only two Pimms and an early leave time.

My early morning swim wasn't as painfully early as I was worried about, and felt great. I did 550 m and enjoyed the sun on my back and an energy boost before work. The county rec center where I swim has a decently nice pool, but the locker room leaves something to be desired. There's not even a swimsuit dryer! Creative solution:

I'm leaving work at 4 today to drive to Sacramento and then fly to Seattle. Tomorrow, KJW and I will drive up to Bellingham where the following things will happen:

• 80s Night
• Book club meeting
• Running at my favorite place to run
• Buying new running shoes
• Going to Target! (Don't judge...I'm deprived in the Wilderness)
• Visiting Don at Bellingham's classiest establishment
• Drinking soooo much good coffee
• Seeing my parents
• Getting my road bike!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

I live in a beautiful place.

South Lake Tahoe

The view from the little park near my house.

Stateline, with the casinos in Nevada and the California base of Heavenly.

But really, I've lived in beautiful places for a long time. The kind of places that people pay to go on vacation there.

Seattle

From visitseattle.org:

"Seattle invites you to explore two cities in one. Here you’ll find a vibrant, sophisticated metropolis surrounded by pristine natural beauty and abundant recreation. Seattle is metronatural.

Downtown Seattle is easily walkable and waiting to be explored. Shopping, dining, arts and visitor attractions are within steps of hotels and inns. The city is surrounded by pristine waterways, two mountain ranges and three national parks. To the west lies the only temperate rain forest in the continental U.S. To the east, a world-class wine region.

Whether metro or natural, you can pack a lot into your Seattle itinerary."

Sidenote: "Metronatural"? Really Seattle? That's what you came up with?

Metronatural: Mt. Rainier from the West Seattle Bridge.

Watching the boats from Alki Beach

Santa Barbara:

From santabarbara.com "Welcome to the American Riviera. Where life itself is a fine art.*"

*Not great, but better than "metronatural".

A hike in the mountains behind Santa Barbara.

The beach near UCSB's campus.

Bellingham

From bellingham.org, "Come see why Bellingham Whatcom County is a refreshing change."

The slogan is kind of boring, but, hey, at least it's not "metronatural**".

Mt. Baker in August

Romantic sunset at Boulevard Park.

** Seriously. "Metronatural". I am now a little embarrassed to have lived there.

I found my soulmate, his name is Josh.

I bought an economics text book from half.com, and it arrived today.

I was flipping through it, and, written in the margin, was "Josh's cell number" and a phone number.

The phone number was a Bellingham number.

Obviously, Josh is my soulmate. 

I miss Bellingham

Today, when I was working out, Don't Stop Believin! came on my ipod, and I didn't skip it.

Also, this is what my arms are going to look like soon:

Goodbye Bellingham!

Things I will miss about Bellingham:

- How great it feels when the sun finally comes out again in mid-March.

- Riding my bike down hills.

- Lemongrass.

- Having nicknames for 50% of the people in a given place.

- "I keep getting older, but they all stay the same age."

- Watching hippies from a safe distance.

- Participating in loud parties/street high jinx on High/Indian Street. Especially the night it was really warm and raining really hard and everyone in the neighborhood ran outside in their underwear to play in the puddles and people were shouting, "Whose rain? OUR RAIN!"

- Fabio.

In the spirit of moving

Things I will not miss about Bellingham:

- That 2 month period where you never fully dry out.
- Riding my bike up hills.
- Sharazad.
- Running into people I have drunkenly made out with.
- Feeling really old at age 24.
- The way hippies smell.
- Trying to sleep through loud parties/street high jinx on High/Indian Street.
- The people upstairs.

People who have moved away? Anything that you don't miss about Bellingham?