Seattle Here We Are!

So I supposed this is day 1 in Seattle, but I can't start calling everything Day 1, 2, 3, 4, etc or I will lose my mind.

We slept a fitful night and got ourselves up. We unpacked in the kitchen for about 30 minutes and then cut ourselves off so that we could walk the dog.

Just to explain the weather - I wore capris, socks, sneakers, a tank top, a long sleeve shirt, and a fleece and I was downright COLD COLD COLD. Tom kept laughing and saying it was nice out. It was like 58 degrees. I was not happy, but I dealt with it.

We walked down the hill toward Green Lake - it only took about 15-20 minutes to get there. We stopped and got a breakfast sandwich and then walked around the lake. Finally after I could not feel my hands we headed off the lake. We walked back to the house and Harper was exhausted. I too could have gone back to sleep all day. We did lots more unpacking (entire kitchen) and started rearranging the living room area. We decided we will try to live without a tv for as long as we can. What with the internet, I almost feel like it's cheating or something. We'll see how long we can last.

Around 2pm I hit a rough patch of being starving, thirsty, and tired at the same time. I tried to go back to sleep with Harper, but I knew that the farmer's market was starting soon. Around 2:45 I gathered Harper, myself, and my backpack and headed to the market. Dogs were not allowed in, so I tied him up next to two other doggies. I walked around, but when you have NO food in your kitchen it can be a little overwhelming to try to get stuff from a Farmer's Market. I bought some yummy goat cheddar cheese, a loaf of sourdough rye bread, some sun gold tomatoes (not the most amazing ones I have had), a cucumber, an eggplant, and I think that's it. At this point in the day the sun was out and it was maybe 70. Nice, but not hot for me.

On the way home from the market I stopped at a little store called Picnic. They had wine and meats and cheese. I got some gooey triple cream cheese and some parmesan. I also stopped into a dog store and chatted with a woman, and then went to a wash-your-dog store and had the woman cut Harper's toenails. It was worth the $8 just so I wouldn't have to watch him HATE me while I did it. I walked behind some high school girls who actually made the comment to each other, "Jeese, if I had known it would be so HOT, I would have worn shorts." I wanted to scream IT IS NOT HOT you crazy people!!!! But I kept it to myself.

I ate a lot of cheese and then made a corn/eggplant/tomato/lime/avocado salad. We continued unpacking and unpacking and unpacking. Tom meanwhile had ridden his bike down to his office and then back. He made it alive although he said he did hit a patch of insane road without a bike lane where he sort of feared for his life.

Eventually Tom went and bought some beer. It took me two times of drinking "Session" beer before I had the AHA moment of realizing that was the bear Session the dog was named after. Boy I was a little slow there. Around 7:30 Tom tried to make me sit on the porch, but it was way too cold out for that. Clark and Megan came over and brought us a super cool poster of Seattle. It's a funky thing with all of the neighborhoods written out. It is really cool. I'll try to put a picture of it up somehow. We drank some beers here with them and then headed out to the Greenwood Ave strip. We stopped at a place called Oliver's Twist. It was super yuppie and expensive. We got beers, but the food was sort of out of control. I will eat just about anything, but this just wasn't what you wanted to eat in a bar. We drank our beers fast so that we could make the other bar down the street in time to eat some food. Second bar was 74th Street Ale House. We ordered some food - gumbo (eh), Mediterranean Plate (yum), and garlic bread (greasy and yummy) and drank some beer. The bar closed super early so we left at around midnight I guess.

On our walk home I came up with the plan for me to go on the Seattle news Weather cast. I wanted to tell everyone that it was very cold and that this was NOT summer, no matter what they all thought. I think I also wanted to call people "Apple Maggots" because on our drive through Eastern Washington we had seen signs on the road saying, "DO NOT EAT HOMEGROWN APPLES! Beware of the apple maggots." This might be my new way of referring to people.

Standing outside our house Harper began his usual howling, so we let him out. Then to sleep for us. Actually that part is sort of funny. We were lying on the bed with all of our clothes and jackets on talking to Harper and then we both fell asleep. We woke up at god knows what time and got under the blanket. We had our window wide open and we are sleeping under our quilt, not our down blanket. I was FREEZING. It will be super nice with that blanket on top of us.

Trip Cross Country - Day five

We awoke around 7:30am or so and went for a 1 mile nature loop at the campground.

With Tom and Harper in the lead we saw a snake on the walkway. Tom wanted to poke it with a stick and when he was about to do so the snake started RATTLING. I nearly ran the other way, but Tom convinced me to bushwhack around the snake. We kept walking and fortunately saw no more prairie rattlesnakes along the way. This walk started and ended with a suspension bridge. It was a very wiggly bridge that was mildly frightening to cross even for me. For Harper I think this might now be the scariest moment in his life. He refused to move and had his legs splayed out and GLUED to the bridge. I ran ahead and kept calling him until he finally made it across. When we finished the loop and came to the bridge again he was NOT happy. I got him across feeding him almonds as treats. After leaving the park we saw a BIG bighorn sheep on the side of the road munching on grass. That was a great wildlife sighting for us.

After this wonderful nature hike (sarcasm), we drove into Lander, WY for some breakfast. We ate at a Thai/American restaurant (random mix of foods). They had normal breakfast. For 25 cents more you could add sausage to your eggs. I figured it would be 1 sausage, but for 25 cents you got 4 sausages. I couldn't eat them all so I brought a sausage back for Harper who was very happy to eat it.

Now began our drive to Jackson. We drove and drove. As soon as I took over the driving, there was MAJOR road construction. We drove about 5 miles an hour on a muddy dirt road in a train of cars. Eventually that ended and we drove downhill into Jackson.

Emily's house was sort of at the edge of town right next to the Elk Refuge. Tom has been calling it a ref---uuuuge like a hoity-toity British person. It still makes me laugh. We hung out on her lawn briefly and then she returned. We got slightly more bundled up (it was COLD) and then grabbed the dog and headed for a hike at Ski Lake (in Wilson, WY).

The hike was very pretty and dotted with wildflowers. We made it to the top to the lake. Harper swam briefly and we hung out a little. Then we headed back down.

Back at the house we drank some tea and decompressed a little. We showered and got ready for a night on the town.

We ate dinner and drank flaming volcano bowls at Chinatown. The food was delish and the drinks were seemingly potent. We met a bunch of Emily's friends and had a great time. After dinner we went to the Virginian to mix with the local bunch. There were ranchers and locals and southern boys in plaid shirts. It was quite a mix. Emily ran into a guy she had recently translated for, and we took some pictures in the photo booth. We left there and went to The Wort to see the not to locals. There was a really intense girl dancing and she was all legs and elbows and was bumping people all over the place. It was fun to people watch.

We headed home around 11:30pm with a cab driver who LOVED telling us jokes about Irish people. He had a great accent. We found Harper on the couch of course and he howled briefly. To sleep we went.