Seattle: Capitol Hill, Redhook Brewery BBQ, and Alki Beach

Between afternoons in the UW library we have been able to spend some days seeing the sights!
 

A long walk we took on Saturday (8/10) from the University District to Capitol Hill called for a stop in the popular Volunteer Park

The view of the Seattle skyline from the water tower in Volunteer Park

It wasn't incredibly hot but the sun made the walk seem particularly long.  By the time we made it to Capitol Hill (the artsy gay district), we were very tempted to indulge in some old fashioned drive-in burgers and ice cream!  (The hamburgers were only about $1.25!)

Before catching a really awesome play later in the evening (called Gruesome Playground Injuries at the Little Theatre), we met up with my cousins Que (on the left) and Phuong (on the right) and my aunt in Capitol Hill for a quick coffee

The next day Que took us to her company BBQ at the Redhook Brewery in Woodinville, north the city at the top of Lake Washington.  Unfortunately she didn't recognize many of the people in attendance.  It would have been fun to meet some of her Seattle buddies.  

When at a brewery you have to take the tour!  While I like seeing how foods are made, maybe it was a good thing I forgot to bring my wallet; I don't think I would have liked to have too many beer samples (blah).

 

After stuffing ourselves on generous amounts of BBQ (pulled pork, chicken, sausages, hot dogs, and beefy bean burgers!), we took a drive out to Alki Beach to take in the views

West Coast Retreat

Now that my summer has "officially begun" (I turned in my final paper for my last online class this afternoon), I have the opportunity to write about returning to the West Coast after a 5-year hiatus.  Actually, I am in Seattle visiting Seth, and I have never been to this part of the country before.  After hearing so many wonderful things about Seattle I didn't think it could possibly live up to its reputation.  Well you know what?  I have been pleasantly surprised that it really is how I imagined it would be!  Progressive, grungy, a strong vegan/vegetarian presence, and ultra green in more than one way.  

Seth has been spending his days mostly in one of the libraries at the University of Washington--the library famous for its high vaulted, stained-glass "Harry Potter" reading room.  I have been joining him there to work on my class assignments, and I must say that the big university environment makes me nostalgic for UNC...  We are even staying in a small apartment  just on the edge of the university, amongst the rowdy frat houses.  Every other night or so one of the houses lights off fireworks by our window. It is lovely.

Another aspect I appreciate is being close to some family and friends who live in the area -- my cousins, Que and Phuong (sisters), and several friends and colleagues of Seth.  It makes the world seem just a little bit smaller.

En route from the airport.  I just thought this sign was funny.

Seattle is super environmentally conscious.  The library cafeteria at UW has bins for all types of waste, including compost. 

The plasticware, coffee cups, plates, napkins, etc can all go into the compost!  Even bathrooms compost the paper towels!  This is how it should be, no? 

The UW campus is incredibly beautiful

On sunny days the mountain (Mt. Rainier) comes out

I like the university's cute Husky theme :o)

The Saturday morning Farmer's Market in University District

A neighborhood butcher that sells meat I have never seen being sold:  Python? Camel?  LLAMA?  :o(  

Seth's morning past-time: Windexing and mopping a ballet studio so that he can take free classes.  After a long break, it is great he can get back into practice!

Wild blackberries seem to grow EVERWHERE in our neighborhood, particularly along the bike path we take during our morning run (the Burke-Gilman Trail).  Seth has six 32oz containers of frozen berries in the freezer which we are now using to make blackberry cobblers, and we gather more every day.

Final bits of summer: a visit from an awesome friend

I made it through the bulk of summer, keeping surprisingly (and unfortunately) very busy with course work.  The past two weeks though livened up when my good friend from high school and UNC, Monica Gray, came all the way out from New Mexico to visit me in Waltham.  Not only was it fun to catch up with her (I haven't seen her in a few years), it was also exciting to go out and do all the touristy things I only get to do when there is a visitor.  Happily the weather cooperated for the most part (ie. the intense heat and humidity died down) so we didn't have to melt during our day trips.

To sum up our week together, I'd say it was packed with typical New England charm: good coffee, crazy intense driving and confusing roads, heaps of excellent food, and long walks to lobster deliciousness.

The first day was a tour of Central Square, a walk to Harvard Square, a 'gourmet' pizza snack, the Museum of Fine Arts, and a hike to Chinatown to have dinner with Bo.  The long walk and dinner was the result of desperation after the Green line failed to show itself for a good hour.  Seeing Bo, however, was a happy bonus.

The next day was a Transcendentalist tour of a few historic hotspots: Walden Pond, Concord, Louisa May Alcott's Orchard home (this was surprisingly really interesting!), and Lexington.

Paying our respects to Mr. Thoreau

Back in Waltham, we spotted a poster from REACH hanging up on Moody Street.  Recognize anyone?

We made sure to have a couple good seafood dinners on the front porch.  MG liked to say the only seafood she can get in New Mexico comes from a can.

We spent one day driving along the North Shore.  There was a cute Maritime festival in Salem.

 

 

Rockport

After an unexpectedly intense day, it was nice to treat ourselves to some of New England's finest views and foods
 
 

Lobster Roll :o) :o)

Cute little streets of Rockport

 

A day on Boston's Freedom Trail.  Funny how the trail started with pork buns in Chinatown and led us to clam chowder!

North End was celebrating a Feast Day

Yeah, that is totally a drunk Italian waitress dancing on the patron saint's dollar-lined litter

The day ended with a meal with Bo and MG in the North End.  Words can't describe my love for the Italian food in this neighborhood (veal tortelloni with spinach and mushrooms).  We made sure to have a Mike's cannoli before, just to make sure we had room, of course!

Words also can't describe how great it was to be with some of my closest friends!!

A Summer for one

It has been exactly one week now since Seth left for a 2+ month stay in Seattle.  For the past year and a half he had been dreaming about leaving for the Pacific Northwest every time the temps tipped over the 75 degree mark.  Finally, he made it!  I am staying here, holding the fort in Waltham.  This will actually be the longest I have ever been by myself.  In college I had roommates; in Australia I always lived with other people; and since moving to Waltham (and Italy) I have only been on my own for just a few days at a time, usually when Seth would go to a conference for a long weekend.  Not having a companion makes me really wish I had a pet to borrow for a little while!  Actually, I am watching our neighbors' cats this week, so I expect I will be spending my evenings watching lots of TV shows with kitties on my lap!  I am a true cat lady.

Now that I only spend a fraction of the time cooking--one dish is enough to feed me for several days--I have more time to focus on other things, like catching up on reading and summer assignments.  I also can use this alone time to try out some modified diets, so I am going gluten-free for a little while; Seth would have no part in swapping regular pasta with rice or corn pasta :P.  This is a 'suggested exercise' to help dietetics students better understand and counsel people on modified diets.  So far it is pretty easy, except I do miss my peanut-butter honey toast in the AM :o(

Now to figure out what to do for the 4th of July.  All my friends (actually, shall I say both my friends?) already have plans.  It isn't too fun to have a cookout with a single veggie burger on a gluten-free bun then go watch fireworks on your own.  :-/

A Texas first-timer

Despite summer classes, I continued finding little escapes from Waltham (although I do love this city) by paying a visit to my brother's family just outside of Houston.  I had never been to TX before so although I was a little worried about what I would find (perhaps rattle snakes carrying guns, fanatical bible-thumping mega churches, or the worst: George W. Bush?) I was also excited to explore a new place.

It turned out that Houston was not too foreign and actually was a bit similar to Raleigh.  Although the topography was rather flat and uninteresting, I was surprised by the people.  At least compared to the Boston area, there was a bit more diversity and folks in general were quite friendly.  I actually felt jealous of Houston's large Vietnamese population, the heavy Mexican influence, and the good, cheap food (Tex-Mex and BBQ hasn't yet made its way into New England, unfortunately).  It would have been fun to see some other locations in TX, but those will have to wait; it is a big state.

I had the pleasure of going to Carter's class party on the last week of school

Sawyer did a good job entertaining himself, for a little while anyway :P

Carter cleaned house with 3 awards during the kindergarten awards celebration

The Landstrom Family, ranchers of Monarch butterflies

We had frozen yogurt to celebrate the last day of school.  If you look closely you can see that Carter has a kid-size forehead vein, just like his aunt!  (poor guy)

Just around the corner from the house is a VN restaurant (Pho Vy) owned by an old friend of Mom's from Vietnam.  She also had at one time been married to Mom's cousin.  It is nice to have some family connections in the area :o)

Visiting my favorite section of the Natural History Museum in Houston

We went to Spring Creek BBQ to celebrate Andrew's early birthday   

BBQ is one of the primary forces keeping me from becoming fully vegetarian.  Here I got to try some good ol' Texas brisket, which made me very happy.

The creepy 'ice cream man' that goes through the neighborhoods.  The jingly music was right but the seedy van was very wrong.

Happy birthday to my much, much older brother ;o)

 

 

On our last day we went to visit Andrew at work at the Texas Medical Center.  Here he is in his natural habitat.

Chuy's has some of the best Tex-Mex Houston has to offer, so it was a great final impression to take back home