Neighbors to the North

May started out with a trip to Vancouver with a group of girls - one I've know for awhile and would like to get to know better and two that I met as we all hopped in the car. If I had to describe the weekend in one word, it would be FOOD. The whole weekend revolved around eating. And it was awesome.

Friday was lamb gyros and gelato while sitting along Horseshoe Bay.















Saturday was strolling through the Granville Market.
















To purchase the fixings for a picnic in Stanley Park.
















Next we stopped at the aquarium. This didn't involve eating but did involve adorable beluga whales.

Saturday was going to be a hot night on the town. We put away our running shoes and put on our heels. OK, they put on their heels. I put on my clogs. And had incredible sushi (which cost next to nothing!).
















Followed up by a wild night in our hotel room consisting of room service desserts and a couple of bottles of wine (I did actually wake up with a bit of a hangover - oops!?!?)
















Our final day in Canada consisted of window shopping, amazing indian food, and a crepe with nuttella and bananas. Yum!

I wasn't hungry again until Tuesday. Seriously.

Tulip Roadtrip

Too lazy for a real post...

Roadtrip: Oregon

The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The snow started out crispy, but soften up just like spring snow. The trip to Mt H00d marked my 15th ski outing of the season, Boston's 30th(!!), and our first mini-vacation together.

The drive to the mountain.

View of Mt JeffersOn from the lift.

Mt H00d from the lift. So cool to ski on the mountain, above the treeline at times.

"Expert's only" Heather's Cany0n? It was a piece of cake, and the warning signs kept others away!

Tired but happy skiers (Laura, Max, Boston, and I) on our last run. We skied the ENTIRE mountain!

Wordless Wendesday: North Dakota

Tulips

Last weekend my mom and I visited the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in Mt Vernon.

We also visited the PACCAR open house (which happened to be occurring in Mt Vernon that day after I went to PACCAR HQ in Seattle for a field trip - they make trucks, we were leaning about the logistics of the company). Me in a big rig...

Sunset from our B&B on Lummi Island, near Bellingham.

Canada Road, err Boat, Trip

Right before the new year, I promised myself that I'd get out of town more, striving for once a month. So this weekend, as belated christmas gifts to each other, The Boy and I took the Clipper up to Victoria, BC.

We left bright and early Saturday morning and arrived in cold Canada before noon. Yesterday we had lunch at a small brewery - cask ales, yum!, window shopped, visited the BC Museum, saw an IMAX, and just walked around the city. For dinner, I picked Italian and the front desk clerk mentioned a place listed in my guide book. With 2 recommendations for Pagliacci's, I couldn't resist checking it out. It was seriously one of the best meals I have had in my life. First off, the menu had so many unique, yet not off the wall, meals to chose from. Feeling completely overwhelmed, I had to limit myself to just focusing on one of the pages. From there I still had difficulty picking. I ended up ordering a 4 cheese tortelini dish with this amazing cream sauce, topped with perfectly cooked bacon and green onions - AMAZING! The Boy had an equally wonderful cajun pasta dish with penne, chicken, italian sausage, peppers, and a spicy marinara sauce. We both stuffed ourselves to we felt sick - and then were very grateful for the 1/2 mile walk back to the hotel.

*starfish holding hands... awww (at the BC Royal Museum)*

We had a king size bed in our room and it was like we were in heaven. We both had inexplicably been completly unable to sleep the night before and had been running low on fuel the entire day. We have a really hard time sleeping together in our double-beds at home - especially his bed because I swear the duvet is too small for the bed, therefore I need to move towards the middle to stay covered up and then I am all up in his sleeping space. But in the king we could snuggle while talking in the dark, and then go our seperate ways and sleep like babies. That 22" of extra room was so key in a good night sleep.

Today we slept in and watched a bit of the Seahawks game before making the trek out to Craigdarroch Castle. I've been before, but I was still a bit awed the second time around. Basically the guy who built it was like the Bill Gates of the late 1800's (in terms of how rich he was). He built this amazing house just because he could - essentially to show off his wealth. We then took a leisurely walk back to the Inner Harbour and stopped for beer, football and yummy greek food (yeah, random combo), before catching the boat back to Seattle.




It was a wonderful weekend, but despite that I still need to sit down and have a talk with The Boy. There are some things which need to change in our relationship (mainly with regards to opening up and talking about our feelings and at some point our future - we both have some pretty big life decisions coming up). I'm not looking forward to it, but I know (and a great conversation with Laura really confirmed it) that we need to talk in order to move forward

Big Country. Small World.

I arrived safe and sound in Seattle a week ago, but due to lack of quality internet time, I have unfortunetly been MIA for a bit. With a stroke of genius this morning, I remember that I could use the internet at the library, and here I am.

The drive cross country went well. The first day we drove the 776 miles from central New York to central Illinois, spending the night in Ottawa, Illinois. Ohio, Indiana and Illinois were nothing to write home about. Here is where the small world part comes in though... I'm driving along I-90 in Ohio and happen to look over as a car passes me. I think to myself "That looks like ILC, I must be anxious to get back if I think I am seeing Seattle people out here in Ohio." The car passes me and I realize that not only does it look like ILC's car, but it has Washington plates. I grab my phone and give him a call. "Are you in Ohio right now?" "Umm yeah, actually I am." "Yeah, me too, and you just passed me!" Crazy!! He was driving from DC back to Seattle, and this first day on the road for both of us was the only day we were travelling along the same route!

Day 2 we drove the 897 miles through Iowa and Nebraska to Cheyenne, Wyoming. I thought Iowa was actually pretty, but it was the same view the entire way across the state and got boring pretty quick. In western Nebraska I witnessed an amazing sunset, the kind that people write songs about. Granted, I thought I was either going to crash the car or go blind driving directly into it, but it went on forever with no mountains or hills to sneak behind. The sky, the clouds, the fields on either side of the highway were all amazing colors. Despite spending only a few hours in Cheyenne, it was a great town (or actually a city I think). I wasn't able to make it to the Eagle's Nest as suggested by Wegrit (it was all we could do to make it through dinner without falling asleep in our meals) but I did drive past, so I know where to grab a drink next time I am in town.

During Day 3 we spent a good deal of time in what I have confirmed is my all time favorite state, Wyoming. I love the almost empty roads, the rolling hills, the mountains in the distance, the country music on every radio station. 817 miles later, we found ourselves in Missoula, Montana. It rained almost the enitre drive through Montana, which was awfully disappointing. I have been through Missoula before, but never took the time to stop, and again I was greatly pleased with our decision to stop there for the night. We had some delish buffalo burgers and a pint of Moose Drool, I can't think of a better way to spend an evening!

On day 4, our final day on the road, we only had to cover 485 miles. The rain had stopped and the last 80 or so miles of Montana were gorgeous. I truely understood why Montana is the Big Sky State. The sky really was so... big. The rain made a quick reappearance as we neared Seattle, but once the skyline came into view, the clouds parted and it was a perfect September day. I took my dad on a tour of UW and where I am going to be living, before depositing him at the hotel to meet up with his co-workers.

I've been back "home" for a week now, but I'm getting antsy to move into my own place. Living at Laura's has been fine, but I want to take my clothes out of bags and sleep on a bed, and not feel like I am imposing on her. I move into my new place on October 1st and it can't come soon enough.

I had orientation last week which went well. I don't expect to be finding any new best friends in my program, but there are some cool people in other programs in the department that I am looking forward to getting to know better. Classes start on Wednesday so I have just one day of freedom left. It is absolutely beautiful out so I am hoping to get some beach time in. Granted Seattle beaches can't compare to the beaches of Spain and Italy, but I'll make do.

On the Road Again

I'm off again tomorrow, but headed back "home" and I can't wait. After 5 years, Seattle certainly does seem like home to me, someplace I could stay forever. I was telling my dad all the little things I can't wait to get back to and was getting more excited the more I thought about it. The trip should be an interesting one. My dad and I don't always see eye to eye. We don't fight, but we just have different ideas on how things should be done. For example, I think we should push the limits of driving on the first 2 days to justify a detour into Yellowstone (and all - well mostly - for his benefit, I've been there before and he hasn't). He said he doesn't want to be driving to 9 or 10 at night. I guess he thinks stopping early and spending an evening is the middle of nowhere Iowa would be just as fun or something? But I won't complain, the 2900 miles of driving is going to be much more bearable with him in the car.

Despite the fact that I currently have no source of income, I couldn't help popping into the GAP today. I haven't been there in so long that everything was new and exciting. I figured that I *needed* a new outfit for the first day of school so I settled on a pair of cargo-esqe type pants with a slouchy, deep v-neck sweater (paired with a tank my mom had waiting for me upon my arrival) - all on sale. If there are any cute boys in my department, watch out! I'm going to need someone to take my mind off of BMG.

A Weekend Down South

I spent the weekend down at OSU, hanging with a bunch of enginerds, trying to crack the big mystery: where will k go to grad school? All in all it was a good weekend. I wanted to walk out of it with more of “feeling.” Either – this is it; this is where I’ll be next year!! Or, ugh I hate it, why would I ever think of leaving Seattle?!?! I liked it though, a lot. The prof I’d be working under is great. Really personable, and really well known in the field. Having my name next to hers on a paper could do a lot for my reputation in the academic world. Corvallis is a cool town as well, in between 2 mountain ranges and only 45 minutes from the coast. Downsides… it is far from all my friends, who I adore. And I felt so old… I was the oldest of all the prospective students, by 5 years. The other students I’d potentially be working with were great, really fun and nice, but obviously a lot younger than me. Not that this would be different at UW, but there I’d have all my other friends still around. So basically, while the weekend was great, I didn’t come out of it with a clearer picture of what I am going to do next year. I do, however, have something to compare UW to now. I am meeting with a prof there on Friday and then their recruitment weekend is at the end of the month.

I got back early this morning and spent the day lounging around, watching a movie and catching up on email. I had dinner with Laura and Max to fill them in on my weekend (they were happy to hear I wasn’t 100% sold on OSU because they are pushing so hard for UW). I called BMG too, to see if we wanted to come along since we hadn’t seen each other in over a week. As I suspected, he confirmed that will finals week starting tomorrow, he is confined to campus for the next few days. We talked for a little bit though and he provided some insight into his thoughts on selecting a grad school (from his own experiences). Things (if anything) are progressing slowly with him, but I like it – we both are busy but we are comfortable with just calling each other up out of the blue, not worrying about who’s (or is that whose?) “turn” it is to call or any other that other silly stuff. He’s pretty sure there will be a party at his place Friday night, so I’ll get to see him soon enough.