2008 in Pictures

Since Anya and I don't send out Christmas cards or the typical annual letter, we compiled a group of our favorite pictures from 2008 and added descriptive comments. If you don't regularly look at all the pictures we post (or even if you do), this will be a good overview.

Although this set contains a nice variety of landscapes (mountains, beaches, forests) and cityscapes (Tokyo, Amsterdam, Paris), mainly these photos represent good memories of times with friends and family in 2008.

Happy New Year.

Skiing season begins

We were finally able to kickoff the skiing season yesterday. The 4 of us - including Anya's parents - went to our regular place (Crystal Mountain). They'd had ~30 inches of new snow in the last few days and probably 90% of the terrain was open. The skiing was fantastic; we got knee-deep powder shots in a few places. We took a few pictures of the day.

The morning was beautiful and sunny, but by afternoon it clouded up and starting snowing. By the time we got back to Seattle it was like being in a blizzard - we got about 6" of snow overnight; the worst snow storm to hit Seattle since 1996.

With more sleet & snow in the forecast for both Seattle & Minneapolis, my trip to MN for Christmas this week is starting to look like it's in jeopardy.

Seattle shut down

The snow last weekend turned out to just be a taste of things to come. It's been snowing now in Seattle for the last 12 hours or so, with about 3" of accumulation in our neighborhood.

By Minnesota standards, of course, it's nothing. But for a city with no snowplows and no capacity to put sand or salt on its hilly streets it means that everything basically shuts down.

Luckily Anya and I have been able to work from home, and her parents are enjoying their visit despite the weather. We can't wait for things clear to up; the skiing is going to be great!

After the snow

Although it's still bitterly cold in Seattle (in the upper 20's), at least the sun came out. This shot is downtown Seattle & the Olympic mountains seen from Bellevue this morning. Credit goes to the Seattle Times.

Snow in Seattle

It's unusual for Seattle to receive snow and even more unusual for it to stick. Nevertheless, we woke up this morning with a dusting of snow in our garden. It might actually stay around for a while, too: we're supposed to have high temperatures of ~30 degrees for the next few days.

The bright side is that the mountains got hammered and the ski areas are opening. Anya's parents arrive today for a 3-week Christmas & New Year's visit. We're excited to see them and show them around (it's their first visit to Seattle).

Rainier pics

Check this out: http://www.komonews.com/weather/blog/35631614.html

Thanks, Matt, for finding this.

Mice update

Our infestation of mice is finally under control. We think we figured out how they got in and had our builder come plug the holes.

Since apparently it's likely that you, dear reader, will have your home invaded my mice some day (or at least that's what they say), I thought I would share what worked for us.

We tried 4 different mouse-catching devices:
1. Old-fashioned mouse traps. These things are next to worthless: we tried more than a dozen of these (2 different brands) over the course of a week and only caught 1 mouse. Mostly the mice just ate the peanut butter bait without setting the trap off, although many times they were able to trigger the trap without getting caught.

2. New-fangled traps (jaws-like things). Same problem as the old traps. Caught 1 mouse with these over a week using 4 traps.

3. High-tech mouse-zapping box. They crawl in to get the bait, step on 2 metals plates to close a circuit and ZAP! Sounds cool. The only problem is, our mice never crawled in. Deployed for one week without catching a single mouse. At least the bait wasn't missing, though.

4. Glue traps. The mice walk onto the traps and get stuck. The least humane technique, but the only really effective one. We deployed 6 glue traps and caught 4 mice in 24 hours. Infestation gone. I know what I'll be buying next time.

Eastern Washington

My parents have been to Seattle quite a few times, even before Anya and I moved here. Over the years they've seen and done a lot of the stuff the area has to offer. We had to find something new to keep them busy, and one of the big things they'd never done was cross the Cascades to visit Eastern Washington.

To those of us who live in the verdant strip of land between the ocean and Cascades, "Eastern" Washington is a mythical land: a dry, sunny, deserted (both meanings of that word) place where people come from, not go to.

I'm mostly kidding, but there is a divide - both in the land and in the people. Sage brush replaces towering pines. Towns have rodeos. People wear cowboy hats without irony. "Regular" and "decaf" are the only types of coffee available.

These types of cultural learnings aside, the purpose of our trip was to visit two places that cater exclusively to tourists - most of them from the wet side of the mountains.

Cave B winery is a place Anya and I visited last year with great pictorial results. It's in a spectacular location high above the Columbia River about 2.5 hours from Seattle. Unusually, it was cloudy when we were there. Oh well - the views were maybe a little less spectacular, but the restaurant still served great food and the wine still tasted good.

Following an overnight in the orchard-surrounded town of Wenatchee, the self-proclaimed "Apple Capitol of the World," we moved on to the faux-Bavarian village of Leavenworth, WA. Apparently when the railroad business dried up in the 60's the town languished until someone had to idea to transform it into a tourist trap. Aside from the architecture and lederhosen it doesn't really bear much resemblance to the real Bavaria. Judging from the hordes of people getting off the tourist busses to admire the Christmas lights, the plan worked nonetheless.

It continues to impress me how one can drive only a short distance from Seattle over well-maintained passes and end up in an environment that's so different. Mountains are remarkable things.

Because it was cloudy we kept our photo-taking to a minimum. The ones we did end up with are here.

Thanksgiving mice

Last weekend we discovered that a family of mice moved into our garage. A few of them have also found some way through the walls/floors into our kitchen cabinets, just in time for my parents' Thanksgiving visit. Great. It appears to be a design flaw in our townhouses: several of our neighbors are afflicted as well.

They appear to be high-IQ mice; they mostly just lick the peanut butter off our traps without setting the traps off. Very frustrating. I'm about ready to buy a cat even though I'm allergic to them.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving.

Crab Season

We both felt like getting outside today, but it's cold and snowing in the mountains. Instead we went for a long walk at Shilshole Bay Marina and the Chittenden Locks, both of which are in Ballard - Seattle's old Scandinavian fishing village-turned-neighborhood.

Probably the highlight of the day was meeting a guy crabbing right off one of the piers at the marina. It didn't appear to be very difficult: he just tied a chunk of raw salmon to his net, let it sit on the bottom for a few minutes, and pulled it in. He easily caught his limit of a half dozen 6-7" Dungeness and Red Rock crabs in a few minutes.

We posted the pictures here.

Great photo

I saw this picture in the newspaper and thought it was worth sharing. It was taken this morning on the campus of the University of Washington in Seattle.

Election brownies

I proudly went to vote today in this historic and cliché-ridden election. After descending to the basement of my friendly neighborhood sunflower-worshipping hippy-church, I filled out dozens and dozens of little bubbles (western states love their ballot propositions).

Even though I didn't have to stand in line, I know that turnout was high: I voted at ~1:30pm and they had already run out of "I voted" stickers! Apparently the poll workers felt so bad about this that one of them ran home and made fresh brownies - small consolation to be sure. By the way, the brownies were still warm but I detected nothing "stronger" than dark chocolate in them.

Halloween

Erik & Anya in full Halloween costumes

For Halloween we went with a few friends to a large party at a space in Fremont that doubles as a night club and art gallery. Fremont is probably one of the most liberal neighborhoods in America, so we chose our costumes with an astute sense of irony. It worked beautifully; we got lots of compliments and everyone we talked to seemed to get the joke.

Today we were walking home from brunch and took a few pictures of fall color in our neighborhood. The Northwest isn't exactly known for its fall color. But while it's certainly true that there aren't any hillsides covered with trees that actually lose their leaves, there are some maples - mostly of the Japanese variety - that put on a good show.

A handful of Halloween and fall color pics are here.

Vermont

I just got back from spending a fantastic weekend in Vermont. My friend Matt lives in Burlington, and another friend, Jason, was visiting from Minneapolis. We had a great time.

The photos are here. Since I was in Burlington just last year, there's really only two things I took pictures of this time:
1. Our grueling but rewarding (and beautiful) hike up Mount Mansfield, at 4,393' the highest point in Vermont.
2. Our day trip to Montreal, about 90 minutes north of Burlington. I wasn't impressed with downtown Montreal but would be interested in visiting some of the other neighborhoods sometime.

Matt has written a lot about our weekend on his journal, and also put up his own pictures (he has some great shots).

Snow Lake

With all our traveling lately it had been quite a while since we were able to get out for a hike. Saturday was a beautiful fall day, so we took advantage.

We drove 45 minutes east of Seattle on I-90 to Snoqualmie Pass and parked at Alpental, one of the ski areas there. Our objective was a great picnicking spot overlooking a large alpine lake (Snow Lake). It was a good, steady climb without being overly strenuous.

The area near Snoqualmie Pass is at a relatively low elevation (probably why they put the highway there). It was chilly, but not high enough for there to be any snow yet. We topped out at only about 4,400', a full 2,000 vertical feet lower than where we usually start our hikes at Mt. Rainier.

Pictures here.

Autumn

It's been rainy and cloudy and distinctly fall-feeling in Seattle for the past week. Friday was cool but clearish, and I was working from home. As I walked to grab lunch at a neighborhood café I crested a small hill and was afforded a peek-a-boo view to the West. Hearteningly, the Olympic Mountains, which have been a menacing dark grey color all summer, are now covered in a glorious white blanket of fresh snow. Looking proper again, they shimmered in the sunlight.

I like summer and can't wait for winter, but autumn is my favorite time of year.

Portland

Our latest event in what's shaping up to be a very busy fall was a weekend in Portland. Our good friend Victoria (from Minneapolis) was there for work. Our friends Alex and Crystal made the 3-hour trip from Seattle with us. We all had fun eating and drinking our way through town while enjoying perfect weather.

On the way home on Sunday we decided to take a detour off busy I-5 to go to a visitor center at Mount St. Helens National Monument. We were a good 40 miles away from the mountain and didn't have time to go any closer - that's a trip for another day.

None of us had our cameras along, but the picture above is a webcam shot of the mountain on Sunday afternoon. The big explosion that blew the top 1300' off what used to be the Cascades' most beautiful volcano was in 1980. St. Helens has been erupting on-and-off ever since; the most recent eruptive period ended this past July. In the picture you can see the steaming lava dome that has built itself up in the crater over the past 28 years.

Travel Recommendations

I've had a couple people ask me recently about where I get information and do research when planning a trip, so I thought I would share some of my favorites here. As a disclaimer, I don't pretend to be an expert at this - although the tips below have worked well for me.

Airlines:
By far the best place to look for plane tickets is kayak.com. It's an aggregator, so you're searching fares from dozens of other sites. I love it because it has the best sort/filter/refine capabilities so you can really find the flight you want and see who has the best price.

After you've found your flight and are buying your ticket, go to seatguru.com to get insider info about which seats are the best - and worst - on a particular aircraft. Great info. I never pick a seat (or buy an upgrade to a "premium economy" seat) without consulting seatguru first.

Hotels:
Although plenty of other sites exist, I've always had the best luck using tripadvisor.com to get reviews on hotels. Actually read the recent reviews, don't just look at the numbers. Some people will give bad reviews to great hotels for things you don't care about ("smoking not permitted," or "overpriced breakfast").

After you've narrowed your hotel choices, it's back to kayak to find the best price. Kayak doesn't always find small, independent hotels, so if one of those is on your list you should check that hotel's website directly.

Destination Info:
I never go anywhere without first reading that city/state/country's article on wikipedia. Yes, the info isn't specifically oriented to travelers, but knowing general things about your destination will make your trip that much more enjoyable.

Next go to wikitravel, wikipedia's cousin, which has info specifically oriented towards travellers. Warning: not all destinations - especially smaller places - have a very complete entry.

Next, check out the New York Times' online Travel section. They contract with Fodor's to get overview info from the books, but that's not what you're here for. For almost any major destination, there will be articles from the newspaper over the past several years. Read them - I've gotten some of my best travel tips from these articles.

Lastly, go to the library or bookstore. Of course a general guidebook is fine (Lonely Planet, Fodor's, etc.); my favorite is the "Not For Tourists" series. In particular look for specific, narrow-scope books about your destination like "The Hidden Gardens of Paris," "London's Best Pubs," or "Northern California Tapas." I made those up but you get the idea. Bring a post-it and a pen and jot down some quick notes. I've gotten great recommendations this way.

I love to travel and enjoy the planning process also. If you've used other resources with success and would like to share, please leave a comment...

Paris

[This is post 3 in a series of 3 about our trip to Europe:
Amsterdam -> Antwerp -> Paris]

Paris was the focus and highlight of our trip, and I'll say up front that it exceeded all of our expectations.

It's fashionable amongst some groups of experienced European travelers to write Paris off as being overly touristy, over-exposed, and overrated. Indeed, it does receive more foreign visitors than almost anywhere else in the world. And yes, if you grew up in western culture you'll find some parts of the city so recognizable that you get the distinct feeling you've been to Paris before, even if you haven't; New York is the only other place that's ever made me feel that way. This impression is strongest at the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and Notre Dame, which, along with the steps leading up to Sacré Coeur, are certainly clogged with tourists. It's amazing how many people appear to make their living by selling little pewter Eiffel Towers and glow-in-the-dark plastic Arc de Triomphes.

My recommendation for the first-time Paris visitor is to absolutely go and see these things. With the exception of Venice, this is your best chance to see a real-life theme park - on a scale to make even Walt Disney envious. (I'm not usually an advocate for check-box tourism, but everyone will look at you strangely at home if you tell them you went to Paris and didn't see the Eiffel Tower.) But see those things early in your trip, and then devote the rest of your time to discovering why Paris is one of the most vibrant, influential, and, in my opinion, greatest cities in the world.

It almost goes without saying that Paris offers an embarrassment of great museums and historical monuments. But take it easy. Unless you have about a month to spend, you won't be able to see everything. So don't try. Amongst my favorites were Napoleon's modest tomb, the grandiose neoclassical Panthéon, and the so-great-it's-just-unfair collection at Musée d'Orsay.

After much research, we stayed on the edge of the Latin Quarter, a locals' and student district due to its proximity to several branches of the University of Paris (including the 3 that claim the name "Sorbonne"). It's an area of the city that still maintains a medieval air, with its small, windy, cobbled streets and bustling cafés, restaurants, and shops. It was largely untouched by Hausmann's grand boulevard-building project under Napoleon III, which is responsible for much of the Paris we see today.

The area is wonderfully pleasant to stroll through, to relax and enjoy the great street-life of the cafés and markets alongside Parisians. It also benefits from being walking distance from several other great areas: Jardin du Luxembourg, Le Marais, and Île St Louis. (The Metro will get you anywhere in the city, but the trains lack air conditioning and can become sauna-like during busy times - walking is preferable). Strolling, eating & drinking, and just sitting in a café and watching the world go by are activities that Parisians excel at. These are the things that will make for a memorable and worthwhile visit, and these things - more than the history or larger-than-life monuments - make Paris a truly great place to visit.

We took quite a few pictures, and after narrowing it down to the "best", we were left with an album of 160 photos. I realize that not everyone has the time or desire to flip through that many pictures, so we created another album of the top 40, each with embedded comments explaining what's going on. The bigger album still has some great pictures that just didn't make the cut.

Antwerp

[This is post 2 in a series of 3 about our trip to Europe:
Amsterdam -> Antwerp -> Paris]

After a nice weekend in Amsterdam, Anya's cousin Natasha and her husband Hans Peter left to go back home to Switzerland. As I said before, it was great to meet them; hopefully we will get to visit them sometime soon.

The 6 of us remaining were leaving Amsterdam and heading off to Paris on the train. That journey would take us through Belgium, and we wanted to stop somewhere to get a quick taste of that country. I'd been to Brussels previously and was somewhat underwhelmed; this time we chose Belgium's second city: Antwerp.

I'll let the comments we've added to the pictures speak to our time in Antwerp. I'll just say here that it was a pleasant city to spend a few hours in between trains, although it's probably not big enough to justify a whole lot more than 1 day for the typical tourist.

Some interesting Antwerp facts to think about:

• It's the capitol of the region of Flanders; which is the northern half of Belgium (Wallonia is the southern half)
• The language of Flanders is Flemish, which is a version of Dutch (Wallonia is French-speaking)
• Antwerp is the third busiest port in Europe (only Rotterdam and Hamburg handle more cargo)
• Antwerp is the diamond capitol of the world; about 80% of all the world's diamonds pass through the city to be traded
  
• Antwerp has one of the largest communities of Orthodox Jews in the world outside Israel
  

Amsterdam

[This is post 1 in a series of 3 about our trip to Europe:
Amsterdam -> Antwerp -> Paris]

Anya's employer was nice enough to send her to the preeminent conference in her field this year, which happened to be in Amsterdam. I joined her there once the conference was over, as did the rest of her family (by coincidence her brother & sister-in-law - who live in Japan - were in Europe also). As an added bonus, Anya's cousin Natasha and her husband Hans Peter flew in from their home in Switzerland. It was a big family reunion, and it was truly a lot of fun to see everyone from around the world (and to get to meet Hans Peter & Natasha, who graciously invited us to visit them in Zurich - a great plan for our next trip to Europe).

For people who are embarking on their first trip to the Continent I think Amsterdam would be a good place to start. It's relatively small and it's easy get around, either by walking or taking the excellent tram system. The people are friendly and laid-back, and almost everyone is able and willing to speak fluent English (it's said that Amsterdam has a higher English literacy rate than most cities in the U.S.)

That having been said, there is definitely a right way and a wrong way for the casual tourist to see Amsterdam. If you don't do a bit of research and plan ahead, Amsterdam will live up to its reputation as being the Las Vegas of Europe: at times tacky, scruffy, and unpleasant. The very oldest part of the city (near the train station and the city's main square) is given over to touristy stores selling kitschy souvenirs and overpriced restaurants with bad food. The streets are filled with boisterous and disrespectful American and British tourists there to take advantage of the legalized marijuana and prostitution. These people apparently have no desire to see the real Amsterdam or to learn anything about Dutch culture or history - something that works to your advantage.

Avoid these crowds by staying further out in the neighborhoods where actual Amsterdammers live, work, and play. There, you'll find a cute, cozy, welcoming city that seems like a genuinely nice place to live. The 8 of us spent two pleasant days strolling through these neighborhoods, enjoying the museums, nice shops, comfortable pubs with tasty beer, and authentic Dutch food. A'dam is just as cosmopolitan and culturally rich as any of the European capitols, but is more relaxed, open, and welcoming than some of those other cities.

Of course everyone has their own tastes and preferences for travel, but I think we did Amsterdam the "right" way - and had a great time doing it.

I've embedded comments into our pictures, so that's the best way to read about what we did.

Fermé: en vacances

Anya and I are taking a little trip to Europe, so I won't be updating this blog again for a bit. For those of you who are loyal readers (Hi Mom!), be patient - I'll post pictures and exciting stories when we get back.

If you're itching to look at some pictures, my friend Pavel posted a fantastic album from his sailing trip in the San Juan Islands (see the wikipedia entry) a couple weeks ago. Pic #49 is my favorite, although they're all really interesting.

Visitors

My good friends Jason and Emma joined us in Seattle for the weekend after their backpacking trip and by happy circumstance Matt - coming all the way from Vermont - was here as well.

We of course want to act as good hosts any time we have visitors, but since moving to Seattle we put forth extra effort in order to further our not-so-secret agenda: try to convince our friends to move here. Hey, we wouldn't be doing it if we didn't like living here ourselves. Although their visit was far too short for my liking, I believe we succeeded in showing them a fun time.

Although technology gives us lots of options for keeping in touch across great distances, nothing compares to having a beer together (in person) with your best friends. Great weekend.

Matt was kind enough to share the pictures from his camera.

Hiking with Jason & Emma

Our good friends Jason and Emma are here visiting from MN. They'll be spending a few days backpacking at Mount Rainier, so we went to join them on the first day of their hike.

We hiked through beautiful wildflower meadows and climbed to Skyscraper Pass at about 6700' for lunch. The weather was mercifully cooperative - cloudy and occasional spits of rain, which helped to keep things comfortable (the heat we've had in Seattle applies up there, too). It was a lot of fun to hike with J&E and show them around the park that we enjoy so much.

Enjoy the pictures.

Heat

95% of the time, weather in Seattle moves from west to east: temperate air from the ocean means moderate temps. When that air is moist and gets stuck up against the mountains, it's cloudy and rainy. This weather is called on "onshore flow."

But a few times per year - and usually once or twice during August - we experience an "offshore flow" and air is borne over the mountains on a east-to-west wind. East of the mountains is basically a desert, so this air is hot, dry, and dusty. Now is one of those times.

The last few days it's been 90 degrees, which is very unusual in Seattle. Remember, almost nobody here has air conditioning - including many restaurants. In order to get a brief respite we (and everyone else, apparently) went to the beach to cool off in Sound's 57 degree water. We didn't take any pictures, so you'll have to take my word for how nice it was.

Mount Fremont

Sunday dawned sunny and clear; a perfect day for hike. Hmm...where to go? If you follow our blog regularly, you may have noticed a pattern.

Mount Rainier NP; the Sunrise visitor center. There are probably a dozen great day hikes from there, which is why it's our preferred destination for the 3 months of the year it's actually open.

This time, we hiked to the 7200' summit of Mount Fremont. It's quite a bit less strenuous and shorter than our trip a couple weeks ago (see "Burroughs Mountain" below), which means that it was a bit more crowded. Since it's further away from Mount Rainier itself, it's also a notch or two lower on the scale of "spectacular-ness." Still a great hike though, and perfect for those who don't want to spend all day out there (4 hours round-trip, including a leisurely picnic lunch at the top).

Since the terrain & scenery are similar to Burroughs, we refrained from taking too many pictures (there are exactly 5 in the album). The one difference is that we did see a marmot this time...although he was camera shy. A group (herd? pack?) of mountain goats lives on Mount Fremont as well, but unfortunately there wasn't any sign of them today.

Sunset at Golden Gardens

One evening this week after work we drove about 15 minutes to a Seattle city park named Golden Gardens, which has one of several public beaches in the city. The beach looks west across Puget Sound to the Olympic Mountains, and although we hadn't really planned it this way, we ended up witnessing a stunning sunset.

Sometimes friends or relatives ask us if we're going to stay living in Seattle for a while. I hope the last few picture albums I've posted help to show why we're in no hurry to leave.

Burroughs Mountain

Two straight weeks of sun and temperatures in the 70's did a lot to clear the snow that had been clogging our favorite hikes in the mountains. Knowing this, we drove on Saturday to Mount Rainier, parked at the Sunrise Visitor Center, and hiked on Burroughs Mountain.

I guess you would call Burroughs an 'arm' of Mount Rainier itself. Although it's separated from Rainier's main body by a high pass (7500'), Burroughs is the eroded remains of an old lava flow that poured out of Rainier millions of years ago. It's less of a mountain than a longish ridge that has 3 summits (1st, 2nd, and 3rd) that get higher the closer you go to Rainier's main body - i.e. the further you go from Sunrise. "3rd" is the highest at 7828'.

Although 2nd Burroughs was our original goal - we'd been there before but forgotten the camera - we got there in good time, ate lunch, and decided to push on to 3rd. It was worth it. Although 2nd Burroughs is a spectacular place and well worth the hike, 3rd is better yet. I'm inclined to agree with our guide book, which says, "On a clear day 3rd Burroughs is surely the grandest alpine vista available as a day hike anywhere in the U.S."

We happened to take some amazing pictures; indeed, it would be difficult not to. If you click through the photo stream I've added a bunch of comments to describe what you're seeing. [Jason & Emma, these will be of particular interest to you, as a lot of the landmarks you'll be backpacking around are visible - I commented some of them.]

In case you're interested, we hiked about 10 miles and climbed a total of about 3500 vertical feet.

Anya also took a rough video of me sliding down a snowfield with my jacket tied around my waist - you should be able to watch it below. [fyi - on my computer it plays in super fast motion the first time; hit play again to watch it at normal speed]

Parent's Visit

I'm somewhat delayed in posting a few pictures of my parents' visit; they actually went home a week ago. We had a fun time with them here over of the 4th of July weekend.

The pictures in this album are from a few various places in & around Seattle, including Alki Beach and a beautiful lakefront park in Bellevue. Enjoy...

Silver Falls & Grove of the Patriarchs

Silver Falls




Grove of the Patriarchs

It's understandable that many people who visit Mount Rainier go there to see the grand vistas that come with being the most prominent peak in the lower 48. It is also, then, understandable that most of those people wait until a sunny day to visit.

But, to me, one of the things that makes Mount Rainier NP such a special place is the wealth of different types of climates that you can find inside a relatively small area. Views obstructed by a layer of pea-soup fog? No problem, there's still plenty of amazing stuff to see.

My parents are here visiting for the holiday weekend and on Friday they wanted to go hiking. We drove to the SE corner of the park and during the course of a 4 mile hike saw two of it's numerous highlights:

Silver Falls isn't the tallest waterfall around, but it's one of the most impressive I've seen. Instead of being a picturesque, graceful veil (like some others I can think of), it's a violent torrent, one step in the way of a river that seems to be in an terrible hurry to get down the mountain.

A couple miles upstream the land is flat but the river moves with no less urgency. Hidden on an island, protected from fire and inaccessible to humans except for a pedestrian suspension bridge, is the Grove of the Patriarchs. These are some of the biggest trees in the park, and the grove is one of the most impressive stands of giant trees in the world.

Douglas Firs can grow to be 300 ft tall, making them second only to Redwoods in height. Along with the slightly smaller (but no less impressive) western hemlock and western red cedar, the giant firs make the Grove an almost spiritual place. It reminds me of being in a cathedral: people hush their voices and walk slowly, in awe of their surroundings.

The pictures from the day are here.

Olympic Coast

In Seattle, very few people have air conditioning in their houses. There are maybe only a couple days per year when you really would need it. Saturday was one of those days. As a way to deal with the 90+ degree heat (very hot for Seattle) and to enjoy the crystal-clear skies, Anya and I went to the beach.

There are, of course, beaches in the city (both on Puget Sound and Lake Washington), but we wanted to go somewhere a little more rugged and remote: the Pacific Coast. Even though Seattle is technically a coastal city (it's on salt water), it takes almost 3 hours to drive to where North America ends and the ocean begins.

We took a car ferry across the Sound to the Olympic Peninsula, drove around the northern end of the peninsula - taking in great views of the mountains, the Sound, lakes, etc. From the northern edge of the peninsula you can easily see to Canada (Vancouver Island, to be specific) across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

A big chunk of the Pacific Coast is protected from development as part of Olympic National Park. This means pristine beaches that are nearly deserted. We took a small spur road off U.S. 101 (the only way into the region), parked at a trailhead, and hiked through lush temperate rainforest to a place called Second Beach. It's not a very creative name (although it is located between First Beach and Third Beach), but it makes up for it by being one of the most spectacularly beautiful - and humbling - places you will ever visit.

At this point I'll let the pictures speak for themselves even though they don't begin to do it justice. There are quite a few pics, but I think these are definitely worth flipping though.

Housing

A lot has been said in the media lately about the "housing crisis" or "mortgage meltdown." Some of the talk is legitimate, and some of it is just talking-head punditry. For some reason I feel compelled to offer my two cents.

When Anya and I purchased our townhouse in March & April, our unit was one of 3 remaining of 8 units in our small townhouse development. The rest of the units were quickly sold. Construction continued on 16 additional units in our development to completely cover the parcel of land - a former oversize, decrepit half-way house (or something similar).

The 16 new units went on the market on Memorial Day weekend. One month on, 9 of the 16 units have been purchased. From what I can tell, they were all sold at or near the original asking price.

Obviously, I don't live in Las Vegas, Miami, or LA - where a serious adjustment is probably occurring. But from where I sit, it doesn't appear that the housing market is doing as badly as we're being led to believe.

Summer begins

I just got back from spending a fun week at a conference in San Francisco. We were able to get out of our hotel's overly-air-conditioned conference rooms and enjoy SF, which, as I've written before, is a wonderful city.

Now, back in Seattle, the weather has warmed up and it's time for the first major festival of the season - the Fremont Solstice Parade. Although Fremont is now rather yuppified, it still hangs on to it's bohemian (read: hippy) past by hosting a wacky, irreverent parade to celebrate the beginning of summer. The most interesting part of the parade is usually the hordes of nude bicyclists. Some of these people are elaborately painted and obviously put time and thought into their "costumes"; others are just exhibitionists who want to hang around naked without getting arrested.

Will summer ever arrive?

Snoqualmie Pass, June 10th

So far we've had the coldest June on record here in Seattle. As much as a foot of snow fell last night in the mountains; we just got rain and wind in the city. Everyone is getting pretty sick of this...

I got a brief respite from the unseasonable weather this past weekend by visiting comparatively sauna-like Minnesota. For those of you I was lucky enough to spend some time with - thanks for a fun weekend!

Deception Falls

Unless you're pretty hardcore and willing to do some climbing (not me), the skiing season here in WA ended a few weeks ago. That means that for Anya and I to enjoy all the great nature around Seattle we'll have to trade skis for hiking boots. But with above-average snowfall in the Cascades this winter, most of the region's best trails are still inaccessible. Many of the access roads haven't been plowed yet.

We were able to get out a do some hiking on Saturday, however, by sticking to the lower elevations. We drove on US Hwy 2 towards Stevens Pass, the only major pass that stays open all winter except I-90/Snoqualmie. We hiked on a short but beautiful trail around Deception Falls, a series of gorgeous falls & rapids surrounded by a nicely intact forest. According to a sign, this was also the place where the eastern and western ends of the first railroad to cross the Cascades met in 1893. It was called the Great Northern Railroad and it went all the way to St. Paul, MN (for history buffs, I took a picture of the sign).

Since we were pretty close anyway, we drove to the top of the Pass and took pictures of the giant snowbanks lining the parking lots of the ski area.

We then went back down to less-socked-in places and hiked to a nice alpine lake. Barclay Lake sits right underneath the sheer 3000-foot granite face of a peak called Mount Bering. At about 2500' above sea level, the lake was only partially thawed and the trail to get there was still mostly covered with snow.

Anyway, here are the pictures.

San Francisco

As I mentioned below, Anya and I took a quick 3-day weekend jaunt (photos here) down to San Francisco to celebrate our second anniversary.

San Francisco is a great city to visit, mostly because it has a lot of interesting and diverse neighborhoods. In general, I find touristy things repellent. Anya and I prefer to walk around in real places in order to get a true feeling for what a city is like for the people who live there. To that end, we avoid places like Alcatraz and Fisherman's Wharf - and prefer instead to visit areas further off the beaten path. They're usually more memorable anyway.

Based on my exploration during my last couple of visits, I think it's safe to assume that San Francisco would be a nice place to live. It's actually not a lot different than Seattle: both have a pretty laid-back vibe, technology-based economies, and fickle weather. SF is obviously larger and has an edge when it comes to cultural activities, but Seattle makes up for that a bit by being noticeably greener and having superior seafood and coffee. That may sound silly, but those things are not unimportant to either populace...

Our townhouse & neighborhood

We finally found our camera and were able to take a few pics of our townhouse with our actual stuff in it (as opposed to the realtor's photos below). We also took some photos while walking around in our neighborhood today. In real-estate-speak, Wallingford is "leafy." I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

We're taking a quick jaunt down to San Francisco this weekend to celebrate our 2nd (!) anniversary. More when we get back.

Townhouse pics

Several people have been asking for pictures of our new townhouse. To our great frustration we can't yet find our camera, and our place isn't quite organized enough to be photo-ready yet anyway. For now, here are the marketing photos from the builder complete with staging furniture (ours was the model). Sorry about the varying sizes/quality.


Exterior (ours is the reddish one)


Living/dining room


Living/dining room


Kitchen


Kitchen


Master bedroom


Master bath


Office


Balcony


Guest room


Back yard