little black journal

Shane and I returned yesterday from a quick trip to Portland, and once again, I am already dying to get back down there to spend more time with my niece.  She is such a good-natured, lovable, beautiful little girl.  She is growing so quickly, changing with each trip, smiling more, babbling more, becoming more animated in her facial expressions and movements.  And it’s been so fun to see the effect that parenthood has had on my brother and sister-in-law.  I never doubted that Mitch would be a fantastic dad, but still, it’s surprising and wonderful to see him hold his little girl with such tenderness.  Then again, who couldn’t help but to be absolutely melted by a face like this?

Shane and I spent the weekend camping with friends over in Dosewallips State Park on the Olympic Peninsula.  It was a perfect weekend to enjoy the outdoors (minus the rain that set in around 11 this morning – thank goodness we packed up camp early).  Sipping Coronas from our lawn chairs in the sun, toasting marshmallows around a blazing fire, waking up to the sound of breeze in the trees…  This is the stuff camping is made of.

Despite the temptation to sit around the site and eat/drink/chat/doze/be lazy, we did decide to burn off some of those s’mores by taking a short hike on one of the trails in Olympic National Park.  Every time I get out into the woods, I am reminded of how much I love the color GREEN…  I was especially taken with the moss that crawled and dripped over the rocks and trees.

And Shane is reminded of how much he loves to skip rocks (seriously, this guy could go at it for hours).

This was a great little getaway.  But I’ve discovered that I’m definitely just a weekend camper – I always enjoy myself, but by Sunday afternoon, I’m ready for a shower, a hot cup of tea, and an evening on the couch.  Watching the rain fall from the comfort of our living room feels pretty good right now.

It’s tempting on Friday evenings to come home from work, put on the sweats, and spend the night vegging out on the couch.  Embarassingly, it isn’t that uncommon for me to crash out by 9 on a Friday (yes, I am self-admittedly lame).  But tonight the sunshine drew us outside and we found ourselves at the lawn bowling green just up the street from our house.  Friday night is free “open bowl”, and anyone is welcome to come use the clubhouse balls and grab a lane on the green.  Shane and I did this once last summer and had a fantastic time – I don’t know why it took us so long to get back.  But it must have been pretty apparent that we weren’t regulars, because a very friendly woman approached us as we started to set up our lane and asked if we’d like a lesson.  She gave us a refresher course on the basics and we were left to begin our lawn bowling dual.  Such a great game (similar to bocce ball, but played on a smooth green) in such a great setting (the course is on Beacon Hill and has an amazing view of the city).  The best part?  I think I might have actually found a game in which I can hold my own against Shane.  Finally!  We had a pretty intense head-to-head match going.  Thank goodness our friends J and J showed up to relieve some of the tension.  I’m a competetive player and a terribly sore loser, especially when it comes to losing to Shane (I have been known to throw pieces of sporting equipment or even video game controllers when he really starts to get a lead on me), so it’s always a good idea to have someone else in the mix to mediate the competition.  We switched to pairs mode, which was even more fun, as there were more balls in play and more chances to knock each other out of the way.  Fun stuff, seriously.  This green is such a great little neighborhood jem.  Check it out.

After weeks of talking about how much we want to/need to get out of town, Shane and I finally pulled a plan together and headed to Vancouver, BC for the weekend.  A very uneventful drive and border crossing brought us into the city around 11 am yesterday.  The weather was fantastic, and so we headed straight to Stanley Park to soak up some rays and bask in beauty of all these wonderful shades of green.  The size of the park can be a little overwhelming at first, and so we just picked a destination on the park map and headed in that direction, sure that we would enjoy whatever trails we ended up on.  Our destination was Beaver Lake, which turned out to be more of a marsh than a lake, but it turns out that a sea of lily pads can be just as pretty as a sea of water.

After our nature-dose, we went over to Yaletown for lunch.  We stumbled upon a Thai restaurant with an all-you-can-eat lunch special and a patio in the sun, and so we grabbed a table and started ordering away.  Spring rolls, yellow curry, cashew chicken, garlic pork, rice pudding…  I am always a little uncertain about what kind of quality to expect from anything that is all-you-can-eat, but the food was actually quite good.  We practiced restraint as best as we could and left feeling satisfied, but not over-stuffed, and ready for more sight-seeing.

We checked into our hotel downtown and spent a couple of hours wandering around the downtown core.  Strolled down Robson Street, but again, in the name of restraint, I did not go into any stores.  The sidewalks felt a little crowded in this part of town, and so we decided to head over to the Seawall and enjoy walking along the water.  Vancouver has so many great places to sit on a bench and take in the scenery, which is just what we did for the first part of our evening.

Once our Thai lunch was fully digested (which took several hours), we walked over to Gastown to grab some beer and food.  Found a great little bar/pub with a small terrace area and spent a couple of hours drinking, eating, chatting.  Shane and I hadn’t realized how long it had been since we’d spent an entire evening just focusing on each other.  It was good to catch up.

After dinner, we spent awhile strolling around Gastown.  This neighborhood is somewhat reminiscent of Seattle’s Pioneer Square, but it’s a little more touristy and a little more “rough around the edges”.  I love the character of Gastown’s old brick buildings, but in between those beautiful old buildings are some super-sketchy alleyways…  The recommendation of a trusted friend led us down one of those sketchy alleys and into this amazing little tucked-away wine and cheese bar called The Salt Tasting Room.  Our time here was probably the highlight of the weekend.  Clean, simple decor, dim lighting, and a chalkboard wall filled with listings of their current meat and cheese selections.  Not being cheese connoisseurs by any stretch, we asked out waitress to surprise us with a sample platter of her recommendations, paired with whatever wines she thought best.  I have always liked cheese, but after last night, I have found that I actually loooove cheese.  She brought us a creamy blue cheese, which we drizzled with honey, an aged cheddar, and a Compte that made me go “mmmmmmm…” every time I took a bite.  The wines were fantastic as well.  My only wish is that we would have had room in our stomachs to sample some of the meats.  Next time, I guess (and there WILL be a next time at this place).

Our room had a great view and the perfect end to a perfect day was laying in bed and looking out the window at this.  Not bad…

We spent this morning at Granville Island, wandering through the huge public market and checking out a few of the local shops and art galleries.  I could have spent an entire day at the market, indulging my senses.  Granville has this great little water park right next to the market, where kids can romp around the fountains while parents lounge on the nearby grass, and though we are neither kids nor parents, we still enjoyed spending awhile here, just checking out the scene from our shady bench.  This part of town is definitely another thing on our “revisit” list.

It was a hard to leave after getting just the smallest taste of all this city has to offer.  The question now is: when can we go back?

Shane and I took advantage of the Seattle Art Museum’s extended hours on Thursday night and spent some time wandering through their new Impressionist exhibit.  The title of the exhibit is “Inspiring Impressionism” and it explores the links between the Impressionists and the significant European artists that preceded them.  After perusing the galleries, Degas’ “Visitors to A Museum” (shown below) was the one painting I was drawn back to.  This is what I love about the Impressionists – Degas wasn’t afraid to leave things rough around the edges, slightly unfinished, sketchy.  The hem of the woman’s dress isn’t delineated by a hard line – it’s left as a blurry streak between light and dark.  I wish I could paint with such freedom.  I have such a strong tendency to paint/draw with solid, crisp blocks of color – everything has a definite edge.  Degas imparted an underlying sense of emotion into all of his work.  I look at pieces like the one below and can just imagine him painting with his quick, free brushstrokes.  Striking.

Shane and I headed over to Georgetown this afternoon for the annual Artopia festival.  It was an interesting mix of music, art, food, and just plain randomness. The art was so-so, the kiwi gelato was amazing, and the powertool races were amusing (contestants are asked to convert bits and parts of powertools into moving, race-worthy machines.  saw blade wheels seem a bit dangerous to me, but what the heck…).  I am so happy to see Georgetown developing into such a fun, vibrant, creative community.  But I hope that this neighborhood’s “revitalization” doesn’t translate into it losing all of its original character.  The old brick warehouses and junk-filled lots are beautiful (and photo-worthy).

Just got back from a fantastic couple of days in Portland, visiting with my brother, sister-in-law, and niece.  Elise continues to be precious and beautiful and wonderfully good-natured. She patiently endured my incessant photo-snapping and even cooperated with a smile or two.  These are some of my favorites:

I have become quite the mommy-in-training, under the tutelage of my brother and sister-in-law.  I think I have bath-giving, bottle-feeding, and burping down.  But I’m saving diaper-changing for later…

We’ve had a wonderful weekend – it’s been a good mix of having fun and getting stuff done. We had an errand to run in Tacoma yesterday and decided to check out Point Defiance while we were down there. This turned out to be the perfect perfect-weather getaway – a park with a nice variety of beach, garden, and forest.

It felt so good to aimlessly wander for a couple of hours, without having any reason to rush back home for anything. More and more, Shane and I are seeing the value in getting out of the house and enjoying each other; this is so much more important than having a clean home or catching the basketball game on TV. However, that said, after our day of fun yesterday, we did decide to spend a good part of today on housework. 4 loads of laundry done; 3 boxes of stuff pulled out of closets and put in the Goodwill pile; 4,000 computer/TV/video cables sorted and neatly coiled (this is a bit of an exaggeration, but anyone who is married to an IT guy will know what I’m talking about…); 3 bedrooms vacuumed and dusted; 2 toilets scrubbed; and something like 100 weeds pulled from our yard. It was a full day – we definitely earned the bottle of wine that we enjoyed out in the early evening sunshine of our backyard. The best part of this weekend? The fact that it’s not over yet! Looking forward to our Monday off!

We just enjoyed a fantastic weekend with my family down in Silverlake, Washington. My parents rented a cabin in celebration of my dad’s birthday, and my brother, sister-in-law, and niece came up from Portland. Lots of laughing, lots of eating, and lots of watching/holding/falling in love with my newborn niece. She is eight weeks old now and is much changed since I saw her just 4 weeks ago. She is looking around a lot more, doing a lot more wiggling, and has a whole new bank of facial expressions. I caught her smiling just a couple of times, though she refused to let us capture this darling little upturn of her lips on camera. Maybe next time… I caught myself smiling as well several times this weekend as I watched my family enjoy each other – seeing Shane and my brother throw the frisbee around, listening to my parents playfully tease each other over a card game of Quiddler, watching my sister-in-law lovingly care for my niece. And our afternoon stroll in the woods definitely renewed my appreciation of the outdoors (it’s impossible not to appreciate the outdoors on these 85-degree days in Washington). I have much to be thankful for.

I’ve been back in Seattle for 48 hours now and I’m already into the swing of things – waking to the sound of an alarm, putting on a coat before I leave the house, living the life of a working adult… Hawaii was a wonderful little break from reality. Trip highlights:

We checked out the Honolulu Aquarium on our second day there, which was packed with some of the most beautiful fish I’ve ever seen. My love of color was renewed after seeing swimming shades of yellow, purple, and blue in such intense, pure hues. The Moorish Idol was my favorite, with it’s delicate form and bold stripes. I left the aquarium certain that I would never again see fish like that.

I was wrong. We spent the following day snorkeling at Hanauma Bay and I was blessed with the chance to see these very same aquarium-worthy fish in their natural habitat. I flippered through the maze of coral reefs and found dozens of brightly colored, uniquely shaped fish around every corner. I came across a Moorish Idol and tried to yell “Look, look!” through my snorkel tube while frantically pointing so that anyone around me could share in my excitement. The whole experience was totally…dream-like. Incredible. Unbelievable. Indescribable.

I wanted to have at least one authentically Hawaiian meal while we were there and so we tried out “Ono Hawaiian” at the recommendation of one of our cab drivers. We ordered a couple of different combination plates and soon our table was filled with little dishes of all kinds of things I couldn’t pronounce. We munched on chicken wrapped in taro leaves, fresh salmon salsa, shredded pork in some kind of sweet/salty/savory sauce, dried beef (kind of like jerky, but more tender), coconut pudding… My only aversion was to the poi, which is made of mashed taro roots and resembles some sort of purple baby food. Very little flavor and a gritty, gooey texture. But everything else was fantastic and I left feeling very satisfied, with just enough room left in my stomach for a raspberry shaved ice for dessert.

We rented a car on our fourth day there and headed north from Honolulu. Our first stop was the Dole pineapple plantation. I never knew that pineapples grew how they did – they rest on these thin stalks and sort of hover over the leafy plants below. But as cool as seeing the pineapple plants was, the pineapple ice cream was what made the trip worth it. Sweet, tropical, creamy goodness in a waffle cone.

From the plantation, we headed to the north shore and followed the coast up from Hale’iwa to Turtle Bay, then back down the eastern side of the island. I got a glimpse of surfer-town Hawaii on the North Shore and lush, mountainous, rocky Hawaii slightly inland. Next time I’m in Hawaii, I’m renting a jeep and doing a little more exploring in the jungly hills – it seems that there are a lot of adventures to be had in there…

Other goodies? Meeting Elvis, the screaming monkey, at the Honolulu Zoo; being in buildings with roofs but no walls (this was true of restaurants, hotel lobbies, and even airport terminals); getting a brightly colored tropical flower as a garnish with every meal; 79-cent cans of strawberry-guava juice from the corner market; drinking Coronas with juicy lime slices in them at the bar on the beach of Turtle Bay; flinging open the curtains in the morning and being greeted by the sight of palm tree tops and blue ocean waters; wearing a swim suit all day long; sharing stories about traveling, marriage, and work with four other super-fun women; trying to pronounce funny street names like “Kapahula” and “Likelike” (actually pronounced “Licky-Licky” – who would have known?); savoring and soaking in sunshiny warmth…

This was a perfect getaway. I can’t wait to go back with Shane and share the wonders of Hawaii with him. I think I’d avoid Waikiki the next time around (a little crowded and “posh” for my taste), but there are four other islands calling our names. This was the view from the balcony our little hotel room – seems like another world, doesn’t it?