2007 in Pictures

I know, I know...I'm just as sick of all these "year in review" things as everyone else. That having been said, Anya and I compiled a group of our favorite pictures taken since moving to Seattle in May.

It seems like we take a copious amount of photos and some of them, by sheer accident, happen to turn out to be pretty decent. Whether or not you regularly look at our Flickr site, I think and hope you'll find this interesting. Plus, there are only 30 of them so it won't take too long. They're arranged by date taken (oldest first); I commented about each one to add context.

Happy New Year!

Skiing again

Unable to resist the calling of 16" of fresh snow in the last 24 hours (about 60" in the last 7 days), Anya and I skipped work on Friday to go skiing. This also would be Anya's last chance to ski for a few weeks; she leaves Saturday to visit her parents in Belarus for New Year's and beyond.

Eighty miles, 2 hours, and a snowy 4,400 foot ascent from Seattle is Crystal Mountain, a large ski resort in the Cascades that borders Mount Rainier National Park. Conditions were, to use a well-worn skiing cliché, epic. Neither Anya nor I have ever skied in so much fresh powder, which requires a different skiing technique than typical groomers, moguls, or Minnesota ice. It's really tiring, but incredibly fun. We're both exhausted but happy.

This time we remembered the camera and took some beautiful pictures.

Christmas in Minnesota

Anya and I just got back to Seattle after spending a snowy and cold (but nonetheless fun!) few days in Minnesota over Christmas. We took a few pictures of family & friends, and also some embarrassing pictures of me that Anya made me upload. Enjoy.

Stevens Pass

We got to go skiing again this weekend, which was very exciting! We went to a ski area called Stevens Pass, which is about 1 hour 45 minutes Northeast of Seattle in the Cascades. About 18 inches of snow fell this week, in 3-4 inch increments, which made for fantastic conditions: lots of fresh, soft snow and good coverage.

Our friend Alex skied with us, but none of us brought a camera along so there aren't any photos. It was cloudy all day anyway, so most of the pictures would have been of the giant trees that line the runs. Just imagine really large spruce trees with their branches drooping under the weight of all the snow.

Skiing

We were finally able to get the ski season underway! On Saturday we went to Crystal Mountain, a large ski area just outside of Mount Rainier National Park. It was basically a perfect day; completely cloudless and about 28 degrees. From the top we could see all the way to Mt Baker (100 miles away), which is pretty rare even in the summer.

The snow conditions were better than we expected. They had several feet of snow during that storm last weekend, but then they had a bunch of rain which severely depleted the snowpack. There was still grass & dirt sticking through in some areas. There was, however, a few light snowfalls during the week, which made for some nice fluffy snow on top of a good base. Only about 10% of their total area was open, so all the skiers were crowded onto a small number of runs. It got icy by the afternoon, but it was great to get out and ski again.

All the pics are here.

Puerto Vallarta

Anya recently returned from having a great time in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. She was there with her college friend Karina, who goes to grad school in Monterrey, Mexico (she's from Ecuador originally). They were also joined for the last couple days by Karina's boyfriend, Felipe.

Anya wrote comments on her multitude of pictures; looks like a beautiful place!

Storms

If you've been paying attention to the national news, you probably heard about the storms that hit the Northwest earlier in the week. On Saturday it snowed in Seattle, huge airy flakes that danced in the breeze and melted as soon as they hit the ground. Then it turned to rain and we had almost 5" in 24 hours. Things were wet but it was fun to see snow again!

The statistics you read on the news are somewhat sensational. Coastal areas on the Olympic Peninsula (about 100 miles west of Seattle) recorded winds of over 100 mph. Many areas recorded 10+ inches of rain in a 24 hour period. But none of this really caused any major problems. The areas that got battered by wind are used to that sort of thing (at least as much as you can be used it). It's actually not that uncommon. And the areas that got the heaviest rainfall are places that average 200-300" of rain per year.

The only major problem that occurred was a flood 90 miles south of Seattle in the town of Chehalis (cha-HAY-liss), and that was mostly caused by poor suburban planning. A giant, newly constructed (and controversial) strip mall anchored by Wal-Mart was built in a flood plain; apparently they didn't consider what would happen during a heavy rainfall. A bunch of people's houses got flooded, and I-5 is still closed.

Some better laws and intelligent planning (like don't build a strip mall in a swamp next to a flood-prone river) could have prevented the whole thing.