Seattle Trip - Part 2

July the 4th dawned a beautiful day, although a little warmer and sunnier than the past days. I elected to start my day like the previous days by eating breakfast on the back porch while Littie chose to run around their neighborhood and run up the massive hill next to the house. After she got back and we were ready for the day we walked down to the orchard which is part of my aunt and uncle’s neighborhood. There are cherry, apple, apricot, and pear trees although only the cherries were in season. Next to their neighborhood and the orchard are multiple farms and larger lots which just further makes the area beautiful as it’s not cluttered with houses.

Adjoining the orchard were two goats who were super friendly and let us pet them, although they weren’t as keen on getting their picture taken!

Most of the cherries had already been picked which meant the only ripe cherries were near the tops of the trees where no one wanted to pick them. Littie and I, without a ladder or stool I might add, attempted to pick these perfect cherries. Our solution ended up being me standing on Littie’s back for about a minute and grabbing as many cherries as I could. Then we switched and did the same thing. We were laughing so hard at the pain of someone standing on your back while also kneeling in the dirt and making snapchat videos at the same time.

After we picked the cherries and brought them back to the house Momma, Littie, and I headed to the farmers market down by the water so Momma could get a massage to ease her neck/joint pain. I got to drive quite a lot in Anacortes including that day and I parallel parked for the first time since the drivers test (I basically failed that part of the test too!). Needless to say I was quite proud of myself. :) The market was really nice with lots of food, live music, and various stands selling small things. While Momma waited and eventually had her massage Littie and I headed up the street to “downtown” Anacortes where the parade was. 

I love small town celebrations and I was so happy that we were able to go to part of the parade.

My cousin Katie, who is my aunt and uncle’s daughter, was on her way up to Anacortes that day to hang out with us but she wasn’t coming until the later afternoon which left Littie and I with a lot of spare time. We ended up deciding to drive up Mount Erie since it was such a clear day and that was on our list of things we really wanted to do while in Anacortes. We had a lot of fun driving up the mountain and only got super closer to another car going down the mountain twice!

The view from the top of the mountain. I don’t remember which islands are what but the view was beautiful. I love the look of the water and islands going on for what looks like forever.

Driving down Mount Erie was a lot of fun especially as no cars were trying to go up as we went down. Sometimes we let go of the brake and went fast on the flat parts before braking on the curves so we wouldn’t die in a fiery car wreck. It’s those little things that I want to remember as I look at these pictures; those small, insignificant moments with Littie that bring us closer together.

Now in between Mount Erie and the 4th of July celebrations Littie and I went for a hike on the same paths Momma and I took a hike on the previous day. We began running and enjoyed running in the forest, a different scene than we’re used to! We were laughing and having a great time until we reached a certain path we needed to take that appeared to be blocked off by railings of wood. Our options at that point were to either backtrack, ending our hike early, or take a side trail which was .9 miles long and hope the trail was open on the other end. We ran some more before I had to stop and were still in good spirits despite the very long detour. The trail was closed at the other end with the same kind of railings so we took another detour before backtracking just to be outside a little longer. At that point I read the map wrong and we took a right instead of a left, extending our hike another mile or so. We ended up going in a circle one and a half times before we realized that the trail we thought was closed was actually open to hikers, just not bikes or horses. We were pretty tired at that point and had no water since we weren’t intending on being out that late. I called my mom to let her know we were still alive and would eventually get back to the house. I apparently lose control of my hands when tired because I would drop/throw my phone, then the map, then I’d trip. In that exact pattern. At the end of the hike we ended up doing over 4.5 miles in an hour and 40 minutes, not too shabby!

As I said before small town celebrations are so much fun and that includes the town-wide party in the evening. There was a Seattle band which was surprisingly very good and everyone was up dancing and talking or hanging out in lawn chairs before the fireworks started. The lighting was great and I had a lot of fun taking sunflare pictures, something I’ve found I love to do! 

Serious Littie.

Actual Littie.

The 50mm lens I was taking the sunflare pictures with is so new the lens hood that accompanies it was sold out everywhere I could find it which meant the sunflare pictures ended up with extra bits of glare on the face, not my favorite thing.

Over the past couple of years Littie has learned a little bit about how to use my camera so I decided to give her a crash course on how to take sunflare pictures, a rather detailed process which requires a lot of adjustments and focusing techniques to get it done right.

Littie gave up after I explained it a couple of times so this was the picture I ended up getting, not what I wanted but showing quite a lot of what the evening actually looked like!

My beautiful cousin Katie. Katie is the closest in age to Littie and I which means the gap is closer to 10 years rather than 20! We love getting to spend time with each other and seeing Katie is always a highlight of each trip. This year Katie couldn’t come on the boat with us but at least we got 24 hours with her!

The one negative of the evening was definitely the beer garden. Washington laws prohibit anyone under 21 to even be in the area where liquor is drunk which meant Littie and I got to hang out on one side of the fence (standing on very sore feet from our run/walk/hike earlier!) while the others sat at a table drinking inside the fence. Thankfully we left not long after to go back to the house to watch the fireworks.

I think this is one of my favorite pictures I’ve ever taken. The combination of the scenery, golden hour, and models just makes me happy.

An accurate representation of Littie. As you’ll see in posts to come about half of the pictures I have of Littie are with her tongue out and eyes closed.

After we left the party we went back to the house rather than the boat to watch the fireworks. Unfortunately this year they decided to shoot them off in an area which was blocked off by trees and not visible from the porch of my aunt and uncle’s house. We stood in the grass covered in sweatshirts and watched them blast across the sky which wasn’t the original plan but was still fun.

Herein ends this post but I anticipate having at least 2 more posts, if not 3. Next will be our sailing adventure in the San Juans!

Seattle Trip - Part 1

The ultimate purpose behind writing these stories and posting these pictures is so I can look back on them and remember what surrounded that moment in time. So I suppose in order to do this trip justice I must start the story before the pictures start the day we left for Seattle, July 1st.

Originally our flight left in the afternoon/early evening but as the afternoon progressed Littie and I got more and more texts and emails informing us that our flight was getting more and more delayed. Eventually it reached the point where our flight would no longer connect with the next leg of the trip leaving San Francisco, despite the fact that we originally had a 2 hour layover! Even though our flight left in 2 hours we made our way to the airport via John, our house sitter, to discuss with the United airlines counter how to navigate this bump in our travel plans. Upon getting there we had the choice of either leaving at 9 that night and getting into Seattle around 2 Pacific time or flying out the next day taking an entire day from our vacation. Ultimately this all was my cousin Elaine’s choice as she was the one picking us up at the airport and would have to be getting up at a ridiculous hour to pick us up! Because of traffic and car space issues she agreed to pick us up in the middle of the night which prompted a call to John to come pick us back up (he had just gotten home when I called!). Because it was last minute we got to fly first class on US Airways, a first for us all! We checked our bags then instead of later, marveling at what had happened! We were all in vacation mode so we went to McDonalds for dinner and Orange Leaf for dessert before killing time at home, feeling antsy and excited of course. I’m not going to lie, I loved being in first class and getting to be the snotty rich person who is wasting their money on more leg room and drinks (I’ve since changed my mind and view those people as though they got there like I did). We flew into Phoenix and pretty much ran to the next gate, cutting in line because that’s what first class snobs do. Our flight was so late in the night at that point everyone, including Littie, fell asleep or at least attempted to fall asleep. I can’t imagine sleeping on a plane unless I was dead tired and I had set the goal of reading the entirety of Jurassic Park during the 2 flights it took to get to Washington. I read and read while curled up with my blanket, drink, warm cookie, and nuts. Since I was in the 2nd row and in direct sight of the flight attendant I got my cup refilled the second I finished it, a very nice perk! While I didn’t finish Jurassic Park on the plane I did power through the last 10 pages or so while waiting for the baggage to show up at the baggage claim. We were all dead tired at that point since it was 4 in the morning for us and quickly fell asleep in our respective rooms, my mom upstairs with the family and Littie and I downstairs in our basement suite. :) Littie and I woke at a reasonable hour the next morning and joined Elaine and her kids for breakfast while our mom slept late, possibly for the first time ever. Because parking is a bear downtown we took the bus to the Westlake center which brings us to the beginning of the pictures for this part of the story.

Our day began walking towards the waterfront and Pike Place Market. You know you’re getting close when the fishy smell gets stronger and stronger, much to Littie’s chagrin.

This is the first time I’ve had 2 lenses so I had a lot of fun playing with the lower aperture of my newest edition, the updated version of the lens I had for the last trip (50mm 1.8 STM). 

At this point in the day Littie was tolerating me taking her picture, an attitude that steadily deteriorated throughout the day and the trip. I do love scenic portraiture!

I could have spent an hour just photographing the flowers at the market. The flowers are beautiful and are of every variety and the best thing is the price! I bought one bouquet for my brother’s grave which cost all of $10 for what would cost $30 down here in Texas during the perfect flower season!

My all-time favorite flower is the peony (I loved it before it was a fad) and Seattle during Peony season is just gorgeous.

After the market we trekked down 7 flights of stairs to get down to the waterfront where we ate at the best fish and chips place ever, Ivar’s. Ivar’s is right next to the ferry dock which makes eating lunch outside extra fun!

Littie and I weren’t really interested in shopping so we decided to take a ferry to Bremerton, part of the Olympic Peninsula. This ferry ride is really long, over an hour each way plus load on/off time, but it was a perfect day for it, you could see Mount Rainier!

Mount Rainier poking out above the shipyards.

 This was the first trip to Seattle where I knew I could drink coffee and be just fine, a lovely gift to enjoy. I drank coffee 6 times, more times than I have in the last year. My favorite was the Starbucks Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccinno, and yes I know that’s not technically coffee.

After a long day downtown, including a very packed bus ride back to my cousin’s house, we slept well before packing for our vacation with a vacation, sailing in San Juan Islands.

The drive to Anacortes is beautiful, surrounded by mountains and grassy plains while passing over rivers and the occasional casino. Before getting into the city of Anacortes we drove to the cemetery where Andrew, grandpa, and grandma are buried.

After visiting the graves we finished our trip to my aunt and uncle’s house which is situated on a hill above Anacortes, giving them perfect views of the water, islands, Mount Baker, and the fields and forests surrounding them.

I brought 4 books with me which I plan to write about separately but the second I tackled after Jurassic Park was A Christ-Centered Wedding. Despite the fact a wedding is not in the foreseeable future I enjoyed it and it definitely changed my perspective on weddings. I loved reading on the house’s back porch, especially in the afternoons and evenings when the sun is behind the house. 

Adjacent to my aunt and uncle’s neighborhood is a forest with intersecting paths which makes for a lovely hike so long as you have the map. The first evening my mom and I took a lovely mile long hike to a little lake in the center.

The forests in Washington always remind me of the scene on The Lord of the Rings when Arwen sees the vision of what her life with Aragorn could be while traveling by horse to the Grey Havens. That ethereal light slipping through the forest branches and the ferns growing absolutely everywhere gives it a slightly spooky but ultimately fresh feel.

This is the view of the sunset on Mount Baker from my aunt and uncle’s house with the water and islands in front. So beautiful.

I’m ending this part here with the next post containing the 4th of July before I get into the very long posts about our sailing in the San Juan Islands.