It's been a whirlwind two weeks, what with John going to the beach, and us going to NY for July 4th, and me going to Seattle and Portland for a week, and then BAM coming back to reality and John going to work and me being home with the small one and now me being home with Dex alone for a couple days while John is at his 20 year high school reunion (holy crap, he's old...). It's... well, it's a bit of a culture shock, really. Just when I get used to no kid and staying up late and drinking wine and eating tons of good food and chatting non-stop with beloved friends from high school, suddenly I am back on a plane (delayed, OF COURSE) and flying across the country (but somehow I scored a row all by myself and totally curled up and slept the whole way home) and am home playing on the floor of Dexter's bedroom with a car who is pretending to be at the Science Center.
It was an amazing vacation. I am so fortunate to have girlfriends who are so easy. So caring. The kind of relationship where, even if you don't see them for a year, you can fall right back in to an easy friendship and chat about anything. I think it's remarkable to find one friend like that in a life time. With this group of girls, I have five.
Dexter had a fun-filled week at Camp Grandma, and Grandma even seemed to survive, despite the 6:30 AM wake-up call every morning. Now, I doubt she'll volunteer to do it again any time soon. But we might be able to eek a Camp Grandma out of her once a year.
I know you're just here looking for pictures, and not here to listen to me ramble on. OK, ok. Lemme go find some. I took about 500. I'll try to whittle it down to 5 for you. Maybe 10.
(Update - it's 41 pictures. Ummmmm. Yeah. Sorry. If you're busy, maybe come back and look another time?)
Mount Rainier, from the ferry (Kathy lives on an island in the Puget Sound. It sounds all exclusive and stuff, right? Not really. It's a big island.) Being totally clueless about US geography in general, I was amazed that 1) Seattle is SO FAR inland and that 2) there's this huge-ass mountain that totally overlooks the city. Granted, you can't see it a vast majority of the time. This being the land of clouds, and all.
The view from Kathy's deck. AT HER HOUSE. OMG, can I live here, please? Or at least have a summer home? PS - that's Seattle. Where's the Space Needle, you ask? Excellent question. Turns out it's kind of far away from the rest of downtown Seattle. So pretend you see it, waaaaaaay over to the left. It's very short, and easy to miss.
The view from Kathy's deck the following morning. I joked with Jonathan - so this is what you paid gazillions of dollars for, eh? This view?
The Seattle contingency. Karen, on the left, flew in from upstate NY. Kathy, in the middle, moved to Seattle in September (I love that she keeps moving to cool new places, so I have somewhere to visit). And me, on the right, looking very tall.
The visitor center at Mount Rainier. They apparently had a shit-ton of snow this past winter, as we were there on July 7 and it still looked like this. It is, by the way, not at all near the peak of the mountain.
So we were going to hike this little trail to see a waterfall. When we could not find the trail we asked a ranger. She nicely pointed to the dirty snow path and said "That's it, but you won't see the waterfall. It's still under three feet of snow." We found the trail head. Directly by Karen's foot. We... decided not to hike this trail.
Stopped at an awesome overlook. Mount Rainier is so freaking huge that it's easy to miss the fact that there's lots of other mountains all around it.
Karen sported a huge grin all day. Loved this place.
Kath has been my bestest friend since middle school. I dearly wish she didn't live so far away, but at least she lives some place super cool to visit!
Hold on! A break in the clouds! What's that we see? Could it be... the top of a mountain??
Reflection Lakes. Were the mountain not hidden under clouds, and the lakes not covered in six feet of snow and ice, this is supposedly a super-famous spot to get great shots of the mountain and its reflection. Look closely at the single puddle of water and you can kind of appreciate what it COULD be.
Itty-bitty skinny-ass box canyon, where if you fell you'd be screwed for life, I believe.
Still Mount Rainier, further down the mountain where there's no snow. Nice little hike through an old-growth forest.
This bridge suggested that just one person at a time walk on it. Good suggestion. It was... a bit terrifying.
I love me some big huge trees.
In Portland now. Our girlfriend there stared this amazing business that gives cooking classes to the general public, does a teen cooking camp, and does team building exercises for local businesses. We are very proud of our Susana!
What the hell is an avocado spoon?
All the girls - Gretchen, Karen, Chef Susana, Kathy, and me
The girls (and Gabe) gazing at Mount Hood - Portland's version of huge-ass mountain overlooking the city.
All the girls, and Mount Hood.
Check out the aspiring photographer, with the halfway decent shot of Mount Hood and some cute purple flowers...
The remarkably pretty Columbia River. Again, not knowing my geography - Portland is also really far away from the ocean. So I asked Jonathan - why is Portland a city? Apparently sea-going vessels come all the way up the Columbia River to Portland, and beyond. Who knew?
Waterfall along the Columbia River whose name totally escapes me. But, Ithaca girls that we are, we were all reminded of home. Ithaca is Gorges. Portland comes in a close second.
Visiting a rose garden overlooking the city of Portland. It reminded me of Longwood Gardens in the spring except that 1) It's roses, not tulips and 2) There's about seventeen billion more people at this rose garden.
A little piece of the Portland skyline (or maybe that's all of it - it's not really very big) with Mount Hood in the background.
Gabe. Typical Border Collie. Except cooler. Definitely a "throw the ball, throw the ball, throw the ball" kind of pooch.
Have you ever eaten a home-cooked meal cooked by a professional chef? I highly recommend putting it on your "to-do" list. Especially when said chef is an old friend who is an excellent teacher and totally loves being peppered with questions from ignorant wanna-be cooks like us.
Back in Seattle. The Seattle skyline from the Space Needle. Squint through the clouds over to the right, above either the football or the baseball stadium, and pretend that Mount Rainier doesn't have clouds above AND below it.
Obligatory cheesy tourist shot
The fish counter at Pike's Place Market
"Hi, I'm a Monk Fish." Who the hell looks at that thing and decides "MMMMMM. Dinner!"
The fish dude picking out our fish. What'd we get, Kath? Halibut?
And he's preparing to throw our fish over to the guys in the back, so they can fillet it. These dudes are quite the showmen.
That's our fish on the left, being filleted. Is that a word?
Mount Rainier peeking out above the football and baseball stadiums (don't ask me which one is which)
Holy hell. Can I just live here, already?
Kath and I spend a few hours wandering her cute island before we both fly to the east coast. I especially enjoy the graffiti on the driftwood in this shot.
Way too many delays, hours, and cups of coffee later and I am suddenly plunged back in to reality. Granted, reality isn't really all that difficult to take...
