Wonderful Washington Day 14 and 15

I just realized that I never finished posting about my "vacation" when Alice was up here visiting. I have 2 days left to talk about, but since its been more than 2 months since her visit, I have to admit that I'm tired of writing about it! It was a great time, but somewhere along the way, I lost my motivation to keep writing. So instead, I'll finish it up with pictures and small captions.

Day 14, Saturday, July 31: Jan's 28th Birthday! We spent the afternoon at the Woodland Park Zoo, and then had a yummy dinner at the Space Needle to celebrate her birthday.

(Mountain Goats at the zoo - I took this picture for Mr. V since he loves these things :-))

(Of course we had to ride the carousal)

(Penguins at the zoo)

(Dinner at the Space Needle...this is our waiter Matt, who was by far the best waiter ever, so we had to get a picture with him. We were hoping to set Jan up with him (he told us that his birthday was 2 weeks earlier - they were the same age), but it turns out, he was married...so sad...but if you go to the Space Needle, request Matt as your waiter :-).)

(Jan with her Lunar Orbiter dessert. Matt gave it to her for her birthday :-).)

(close-up of the Lunar Orbiter)

(Alice and me being adorable on the Space Needle observation deck :-). Actually, we were having wind problems with our skirts, so this was the best way to take the picture. )

(sunset seen from the top of the Space Needle)

(The Space Needle at night)

Day 15, Sunday, August 1: Last day of the vacation! Jan was up super early to go to the airport to head back to Kentucky. Alice and Carol still had one more full day so we wandered around Seattle a little, checking out more stuff at Pike Place Market and going on a Harbor Cruise.

I do have a picture of this day, but I can't find it at the moment. It was a professional picture taken as we got on the cruise boat, so I need to find it and scan it. Hopefully I'll be able to post it eventually.

Love What You Do

I have to admit that I've spent the past few years a little upset that I don't have a career job. I've blamed the Navy. I've blamed myself, but in the end, it still just upsets me. I have a college degree that I feel like I am wasting. I also feel like I need to make at least some money for myself so thankfully I have survived off of temp jobs and nanny/babysitting jobs. I can't really complain too much. I still don't like to think of the fact that I will probably never have the career I once wanted, but at the same time, I also really appreciate the flexibility that my schedule allows now.

I have always said that I want to open my own animal rescue. In my mind, I'd have a cat rescue, and take in some other animals on the side, but mainly cats. Its not a job that would earn me any money since rescues typically operate as a non-profit organization. So I'm aware that a lot of my own money would have to invested into this venture. I've also wondered if its something that I can actually achieve, and I've decided that it is.

For the past few months I have felt more stressed and overwhelmed than I ever have in my entire life. I feel like I haven't had any time to myself to have fun, and when I stop to think about what I've been doing thats taking up so much time, I find that I can't actually answer that question. I don't know what I've been doing except fixing problems, cleaning, organizing, and stressing out.

In the midst of my stress a few weeks ago, my friend called me from the Veterinary Clinic she works at and asked me if I wanted to foster a litter of orphaned kittens. No one was able to foster them from the clinic and the woman who usually would, wasn't in. So call the crazy cat lady to do the job! I agreed, and I went to pick up 4 adorable, motherless kittens.

I have to admit that I had a moment when I thought that I really shouldn't be taking on any more tasks because it will only stress me out more, but I just can't say no to abandoned animals.

Surprisingly, while these kittens did take up a lot of my time, they also relaxed me. I enjoyed bottle feeding them. I enjoyed spending a large part of my day playing with them to ensure that they would be socialized. My life was still spinning out of control around me, but the kittens calmed me down.

I only had them for a few weeks before the clinic put them up for adoption, and they were adopted very fast. I have to admit that while I was happy they found homes quickly, I also cried a little at first. The crying made me think that this isn't something I can do, but it didn't last long and while I miss the little guys, it does make me happy to know that they didn't die when they lost their mother, and now, because of me, they are happy and healthy and have good homes.

I do still have one kitten with me for now. This particular one is going home with Larry (read past blogs for crazy Larry stories), because Larry took an instant liking to him, and Larry's owners agreed that Larry will be lonely when he leaves a house full of cats and returns to his empty house, with a new baby. Larry's "dad" has named the kitten Moe, and the 2 of them are pretty inseparable. So I am happy that I get to enjoy this kitten for a little while longer.

My point of all this is, is that I think I would really do well with my own rescue. When a person is already stressed and you just lay more work on them, that tends to stress them out more right? Well, in this case, it helped my stress, so clearly what I was doing was something that I loved doing. I would love to foster kittens again. And I hope that one day, I really will be the owner of my own animal rescue. Maybe that will end up being my career, even though I probably won't ever make a dime from it :-).

I took tons and tons of pictures of these little guys, but here are some (ok a bunch) of my favorites:

Wonderful Washington Day 13

Mt. Rainer day!

Now I can finally say that I have been to he mountain that is on my license plate. For those of you who don't know, Mt. Rainer is a HUGE active volcano that looms up out of the clouds and can be seen from miles and miles away in all directions. If you've seen a Washington state license plate, that mountain is Mt. Rainer.

Carol was so excited about seeing Mt. Rainer, that she was literally bouncing off the walls for days, and needless to say, she was pretty happy when we finally arrived. The drive took us about 2 hours from Elizabeth's house, which was actually longer than I had expected.

Once we got there, there's really not a whole lot to say. Mt. Rainer is HUGE! Its covered in snow and glaciers, and it has the unique ability to appear like you are never getting close to it. It seems like as you walk closer to it, it just gets farther away (a tourist brochure actually said this too). We walked on a short trail at the base of the mountain which was beautiful. There were just endless fields of wildflowers and patches of snow. The snow fascinated us, especially since we had spent the last few days sweating like you wouldn't believe. It was still really hot while we were here, but the snow was still there, so that was interesting to me. I understand why there was snow on the mountain itself, but I didn't really understand why there was snow on the ground at the bottom. If you actually walk to hike ON Mt. Rainer, they recommend that you go with a guide and have a lot of climbing experience. According to another brochure, people who climb Mt. Everest typically "practice" by climbing other large mountains first - Mt. Rainer being one of those mountains. So for non-skilled climbers like us, the base of the mountain was the only place we walked.

The towns outside of the National Park were adorable. Directly outside one of the entrance gates was a town called Alpine. Or what used to be town called Alpine. 2 people, an older man and woman still live there, and they have painted their own sign that says "Welcome to Alpine - Population 2". Right by the sign is a house/store, so we went in and met the woman, and she told us that the town doesn't actually exist anymore, and her and her husband are the only ones who still live there. I was fascinated by that.

A few more miles down the road is an old train, that has been turned into a restaurant in another town that can't have more than 200 people in it, so thats where we ate dinner.

I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking:

(I'm sorry, but this sign is just too funny to me.)

(Mt. Rainer)

(Glaciers on Mt. Rainer)

(more glaciers)

(Wildflowers and other mountains in the Cascades)

(the Paradise Inn - I want to stay here one day)

(all of us)

(This is written on the stairs leading to the most popular trail at the park.)

(Jan and me - We're pointing just in case you can't see the giant mountain behind us.)

(Mt. Rainer with no people in the picture)

(wildflowers, snow, and a giant volcano - all in one picture)

(waterfall that's being fed by the melting glaciers)

(another picture of the waterfall)

(all of us by the waterfall - we really liked the waterfall if you can't tell)

(playing in the snow)

(the former town of Alpine, Washington)

(the restaurant we ate dinner at)

Wonderful Washington Days 11 and 12

Still working my way through my vacation...

Day 11, Wednesday, July 29: This day will always be remembered as the hottest day in Seattle's history. I don't just mean the hottest summer day, or the hottest day in July. I mean the hottest day EVER in recorded history. As interesting as it can be to be a part of history, this is one day that I could have lived without.

Just to make things clear for people who don't live here. No one has air conditioning here. Seattle city buses are also lacking air conditioning. Restaurants, apartments, dorm rooms, houses, etc...none have air conditioning, except for a few very rare situations.

We had tickets to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in IMAX 3-D at the Pacific Science Center, and I have to say it was the best choice ever to see it on this day. Our tickets were for 11:00am. It was opening day in IMAX 3-D and this was the first showing. By the time we got in line, I think it was already close to 100 degrees. At 11am. Thankfully, while 99% of the city lacks air conditioning, the Pacific Science Center is well equipped to keep people cold. Thank God for museums - they have to have climate control! Needless to say, this was a very big deal. Once everyone was seated in the IMAX theatre, an employee stood up at the front to welcome us to the opening of the movie in IMAX theatres. He said something along the lines of "Are you all happy to be here? Its opening day of Harry Potter in IMAX 3-D AND you guys are in one of the very few places in the city with air conditioning!" People clapped and cheered a little bit, but apparently, not loud enough. When the guy didn't get a good enough reaction, he said "I'm sorry people, but did you hear me? I said that this is one of the few places in Seattle that has air conditioning!" That got a bigger cheer that time. We still didn't know that the day was going to break records.

So after spending close to 3 hours in a nice cool theatre, enjoying Harry Potter for the 2nd time (for me and Carol...It was the first time Alice and Jan were seeing it), we decided to explore the museum for a while and take advantage of the coolness. The PSC was interesting, but honestly, not all that impressive to me. I love the Franklin Institute Science Museum back home in Philadelphia, and the PSC just didn't really compare to it. We used to have Girl Scout camp-ins at the Franklin Institute, which was the most popular trip that we ever took, so I guess I was expecting something a little more up to par with it. But for what its worth, it was an interesting place. After a few hours exploring around, we went outside and we were greeted with a blast of stagnant hot air. Walking just 2 blocks up the street had all of us covered in sweat. It was pretty gross.

We went to meet Elizabeth at a bridal shop. She just got engaged shortly before this trip and she wanted everyone to help her look at wedding gowns. The bridal shop also had air conditioning, so we got lucky twice in a row. However, before we went to meet her, we stopped at a Rite Aid to pick up some random stuff, and we were greeted by an angry woman talking to the cashier, who was pretty irritated with Rite Aid because she couldn't find a fan. Apparently, all fans, all over the entire city had sold out and the people who didn't buy one were just out of luck. I think thats when it hit us that this heat was actually a serious problem. Alice and Carol had come from Texas where they were used to weather like this. But we realized that there is a difference between being used to weather over 100 degrees and having a/c to cope with it, and not being used to weather like this and NOT having a/c to cope. The city was pretty much in a panic which we witnessed more as the day went on.

After watching Elizabeth model and try out various different dresses, we went to eat dinner at an Indian restaurant. We chose to sit outside because even though it was still insanely hot, even though night was setting in, this place was one of the unlucky restaurants without air conditioning, so it was even hotter inside the small building. I've never eaten Indian food in my life, so I was a little apprehensive, especially since I'm a really picky eater. Apparently, Elizabeth is known for getting people (like Alice) to try new things, so she was very helpful when it came to trying to figure out what would taste good and what didn't have any onions in it (I hate onions). We ended up ordering a bunch of stuff that we all shared, and I have to say that coconut curry chicken is AMAZING. I'm a little bit shocked to admit that I liked something new, but I did, and I'd happily eat it again.

As a random side note, Elizabeth had been carrying a fan around with her all afternoon. She got it from someone at work to cool us all down in her apartment. On our way to the bus stop, some random guy a few stories up in a building yelled down to her and started asking questions and talking about her fan. Apparently, he was also an angry person who was greeted with the lack of fans in the city when he went to buy one earlier.

Day 12, Thursday, July 30: We woke up to the news that the day before Seattle had reached its highest temperature ever. 103 degrees. First of all, I'm a little surprised that 103 is the hottest its ever been. I've definitely been in hotter temperatures than that before, but I guess when its not expected, and very unusual, and in a city with no a/c, then its a really big deal. A nearby town - Puyallup - reached record temperatures of 107 degrees that day. So while it was hot in Seattle, it was even hotter in some surrounding areas.

It was still pretty hot on this day, although news articles were happy to reassure us that the heat wave was going away (which translates into - "today its only 101 degrees. See? Its cooler!") We decided to go to the Seattle aquarium. A nice air conditioned building (yay for buildings that are required to keep things cool inside!), was just what we needed. We spent quite a bit of time at the aquarium, which is fairly large and packed with all kinds of sea creatures. Our favorite part was the otters. We all wanted to take one home with us.

And then, of course, we all had to get our individual picture taken on the cute wood carved otter bench.
The rest of the day was spent enjoying the local surroundings. We wandered around Pike Place Market for a while, and then checked out the first Starbucks across the street from the market. The last time I went to Pike Place, my friend, Mrs. M, introduced me to an amazing Russian bakery called Piroshky's. Since Mrs. M is from Poland, I took her word on the fact that this place was delicious (not that Poland = Russia, but its close enough!). So I dragged everyone to Piroshky's and they were all very impressed. I bought a delicious apple cinnamon roll, and imagine my surprise and delight when I realized that they also sell marzipan rolls! (If you've read my past blogs, I love marzipan, even though everyone around me seems to find it disgusting.) So I bought a marzipan roll too, which was absolutely delicious! Everyone else was very happy with the choices they made (apparently the potato, onion and cheese thing is really good, but since I hate onions, I can't imagine that I would agree), so I highly recommend checking this place out if you're ever in Seattle.

We then set off on a long hot walk. Actually, it wasn't that long, but it was so hot, that it felt long, to Elliot Bay Bookstore, which is apparently pretty famous, although I had never heard of it. Sadly, the bookstore was one of the many places in the city that did NOT have air conditioning so it was pretty uncomfortable. But its a huge bookstore and I could have spent hours in there. I ended up buying a Weird Washington book (great series that started with the original Weird New Jersey magazine), and a used hardcover copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I have the first 4 Harry Potter books in softcover, and I want to get them all in hardcover before they stop publishing this particular edition, so they all match. So I was pretty excited to find an almost perfect condition, used, hardcover book for only $10. Now I just need the first 3 in hardcover and my collection will be complete.

We set off back to the area of Pike Place Market to start heading home, and this walk was even worse than the one to the bookstore. I didn't realize we had walked downhill to get to the bookstore, so walking uphill for 10 blocks or so, in 100 degree weather, was not a very fun walk. The end was ok though because we ended up getting ice cream, and if you know me, ice cream can always make things all better :-). After ice cream we checked out some local cheesy tourist shops where we all purchased various magnets, sweatshirts, t-shirts and postcards. This was also when I bought the newspaper with the headline about the prior day being the hottest day ever in Seattle history. I thought that headline would be a good souvenir to keep.

Finally, it was back on to the hot, no a/c bus and back to Elizabeth's house for the night to rest up for a long, fun day at Mt. Rainer the next day!

(All of us at Pike Place Market)

(Jan and Alice with their drinks from the first Starbucks, and yes they are iced drinks since no one in their right mind would be drinking hot coffee on this day.)

Whidbey Weirdness (Its been a while since I ran into any...)

Dear Lady in the Dollar Store,

Yes, I am aware of the fact that I am wearing a shirt that says "Hard Rock Cafe Paris". Yes, I've been to Paris. I may have completely misjudged your words and intentions, but you seemed to think it was odd that I have been to Paris, yet I was shopping in the dollar store.

First, I have a house full of cats. 10 of them at the moment, along with 4 small foster kittens. They tear through certain toys like you wouldn't believe. I refuse to pay $15 for a stick with a string attached to it, with a toy dangling off the end. These types of toys are favorites of my cats (and probably all cats), but they really like to pull that toy off the string, therefore breaking the toy. Its much cheaper for me to buy 2 of them at the dollar store (and oddly, the string on the dollar store one is much thicker than the expensive ones), because in about a week, when they pull the toy off of it, I will have lost $2 instead of $15. That seems perfectly logical to me.

Second, everyone can benefit from saving money, so please take your weirdness and go ask other people questions about the places they have visited and give them weird looks. Actually, don't do that. They'll probably be just as annoyed as I was.

Thank you for your time,
Brooklet


Dear Weird Creepy Man in the Dollar Store Parking lot,

Yes, I am aware of the fact that there is a Florida license plate on my car. Yes, I am also aware of the fact that there is a United States Navy sticker on the back of the car. Yes, I am aware of the fact that I am VERY far from home.

In case you haven't noticed, the vast majority of this town is in the military. Therefore, its not odd to see Florida license plates on people's cars, or any other state for that matter. Its not weird. Really, its not. The simple fact that I have Florida plates and a Navy sticker on my car does not give you enough reason to stand in the parking lot talking to me while I load bags into my car (yes lady from inside the dollar store, I bought more than just cat toys). I'm really not sure why it was so amazing to you that I am far away from Florida. Perhaps you've never left Whidbey Island. That could possible explain your weirdness and creepiness.

Brooklet



Wow...so apparently it starts to rain, and the weirdos come out in full force! I have to admit that while these people are annoying, I kind of missed some of the weirdness :-).

Wonderful Washington Day 8, 9 and 10

One of these days I will get to the end of my 2 week vacation. So where was I? Day 8, 9 and 10 of Alice's visit.

Day 8, Sunday, July 26: This was Alice and Carol's last day on Whidbey Island. To my surprise (OK, I do have to admit that its beautiful out here), they were a little upset about leaving because they loved the area, and the easy access to places like the Olympic National Park. Not to worry though. They still had a week left of a Washington vacation. Alice's friend Elizabeth recently moved to Seattle. So after visiting me for a week, she had made plans to go visit Elizabeth. Another friend (of both Alice and Elizabeth), Jan, flew in from Kentucky for the week. Since I've lived in Washington for a year and still had never really seen Seattle, I invited myself along for the Seattle portion of the vacation (OK...I didn't technically invite myself. I was told I was welcome to join them, but I did feel a little bad crashing Elizabeth's apartment when I lived just 2 hours north.)

We left Whidbey on Sunday, and headed down to Seattle. Upon arriving in Seattle, I decided that I will never live in Seattle. Elizabeth lives in a cute neighborhood, but the streets go in 2 directions, yet they are large enough for only one car, AND people park their cars all along the sides of them. I was convinced I was going to hit another car head on, or hit one of the parked cars in my attempt to not have a head on collision. Not to mention the fact that I can't parallel park. So after finding Elizabeth's place, I had to switch seats with Carol, while Carol parallel parked my car. If she hadn't been there, we would have had a problem.

Carol and I were introduced to Jan and Elizabeth, and the 5 of us set off to find a place to eat dinner. We ended up at a small bar and grill called the Pig and Whistle. The food was great and so was the service. Elizabeth used to be a waitress, so she clued us into the "tricks" of being a good server. Basically if we call our waiter by name, and act friendly and flirty towards him (and this can work on both male and females, regardless of what sex you are), then he will treat us well. She was right. Our server was Michael, who sat and talked with us, professed his love to Elizabeth, and gave us a list of other restaurants to check out around the city. Elizabeth swears this is because of how we interacted with him. So I highly recommend the Pig and Whistle and if you go there, ask for Michael ;-).

We stayed at the Pig and Whistle for a few hours, just talking, eating and having a few drinks. Afterwards we walked back to Elizabeth's house and crashed for the night.

Day 9, Monday, July 27: Elizabeth had to work, so that left me, Carol, Alice and Jan alone to explore Seattle, a city that none of us had ever visited before. The most I had ever seen was Pike Place Market. We decided to make it an easy, yet fun day. We didn't know it yet, but this week was about to be the hottest week EVER in Seattle's recorded history, and we were already starting to feel that heat. We decided to go to Pioneer Square, which is the oldest neighborhood in Seattle, and go on an Underground tour. The tour was a lot of fun, but if you aren't a history buff then you'd probably be bored, although the tour guides are entertaining with their endless bad jokes and inappropriate sense of humor (the brochure advertises this fact). Apparently, the people who originally built Seattle weren't that bright for various reasons. But lucky for them, the original city burned down, and the current city was built on top of the old city (kind of like Underground Atlanta, although lacking the Civil War aspect). The old city still exists underground and that's where the tour took us. We got to see the old doorways of businesses long gone, the old sidewalks, a piece of the original water system (a hollowed out log), and other stuff like that, along with learning the history of the city. Some businesses that sit on top of the old city, use the underground for storage and garbage, so there were a few random things down there, like rusty old bedframes and a claw foot bathtub, but that made the whole thing even more interesting to me. I've been a bit grumpy about the history of the west since moving out here because its not my specialty. I majored in history and concentrated in southern American history. The Civil War is my specialty and my favorite historic time period. Since I was already in a crappy mood regarding our move out here in the first place, I was also a little bitter that it was taking me COMPLETELY away from what I earned my college degree in. As much as I'd like it to, Civil War history simply does not extend this far west. Thats ok though, because after this tour, I learned that Seattle does actually have a pretty interesting history. Not quite as interesting as the Civil War in my opinion, but interesting enough that it kept my attention enough for me to buy a book about it (the book was written by the guy who started the Underground tour).

After the tour we stopped at a candy store in the area, and we were quite pleased to see that they sold these incredible gourmet candy apples, and we were given a discount for wearing wristbands from the tour. Good candy and discounts make me happy :-).

Then we met Elizabeth, who had just gotten off work and set off to visit the Ballard Locks, which I had never heard of, but its apparently an interesting tourist attraction. However, we were taking public transportation and the bus we were on got stuck in some crazy, abnormal traffic so by the time we got out of it the locks were about to close. Thankfully we realized this before we got anywhere near them, so we just went home with plans to visit them the next day.

However, I had already scheduled a babysitting job for the next day, so after getting back to Elizabeth's, I got in my car and drove home, in order to make some money, and left the 4 others to have fun without me for a day :-(.

Day 10, Tuesday, July 28: This was the day I babysat all day, so I don't really have much to write about. Alice, Carol, Jan and Elizabeth went to see the Ballard Locks, and I babysat. I would have prefered to be in Seattle, but I'll just have to put that on my list of things to do another time. I did head back down there late that night though, and settled into Elizabeth's basement apartment for the duration of the trip.

More interesting vacation news to follow....I still have 5 days left to talk about!