Seattle Day Out

The Ladies

Dungeness Spit

Last week, my mom asked me if I wanted to walk the Dungeness Spit with her, the longest natural sandbar in the United States. It's just north of Sequim, WA, and I've been there twice before, but never managed to walk even halfway. However, this was a long time ago, and she promised me that it was only five miles. Five miles, I can do that even on a bad day, I thought, so I agreed.

Turns out it was five miles there and back - JUST on the spit, not including the mile walk to get to and from the spit from the parking lot. Getting to the lighthouse at the end wasn't all that bad, in fact, it was pretty nice. Very overcast, rather blustery, even rained a bit on the way out. I enjoyed it immensely. However, after puttering around the Lighthouse, taking some pictures, and getting cold, I realized my hips hurt. I thought - hmm, that's stupid. I walk 5.5mi, and it's my hips that are hurting? I figured it would go away, but it didn't. So by the time I finished walking the 5.5mi back to the car (which took about 3 hours), I was barely coherent from the pain. So that part wasn't fun. I'm assuming it was just the walking on the sand part, legs don't like sinking into the sand step after step. Next time I decide 11mi sounds totally do-able, I'll smack myself. Of course, I've never had that problem before, so I guess it would be difficult to predict that sort of reaction.

Anyway, for my hiking class, we won't be going on any sand. Just hiking in the Olympics and Cascades. :) I'm quite pleased I had the idea to take this course, it's going to be a lot of fun. The instructor is really into ultra-lightweight packs, so I won't have to do any of that 40lb pack/massive hiking boots garbage that M. had to go through when she took the class in 2001. I think the overnight trip will be most interesting. Last time I went camping, I had no problem sleeping on the ground, but it was a thick sleeping bag in a nice tent. I have a feeling I will forgo fluffy sleeping bags and big tents for more practical sleep needs, since I'll have to carry it all in with me. Should be fun! But no more of this walking miles on sand and rocks stuff. No thanks.

San Juan Island.... sans camera

Today mom and I went to San Juan Island with some friends of hers from Bellevue. It's an absolutely lovely place. I went there once before, to Friday Harbor, when I was in high school by whale watching boat. I got seasick. That wasn't so much fun. But today was wonderful. If I had been organizing the trip, I would have done things quite a bit differently, but I wasn't. For example, it's not exactly a large island. I would have preferred to rent a bike and see the island that way. Instead, we rode around in a big van. Also, we went on a short hike, and one of the ladies is rather overweight and could barely manage the 2.5mi or so. She's a lovely person, but she would probably do well to be more active. There was also a huge kayaking group, and it was such a beautiful day today, just as good as yesterday.

Unfortunately, I had only a disposable camera that I bought at the general store in Friday Harbor. Still, the place is simply so beautiful that my pictures will be good regardless of the inferiority of my equipment. There was one point, walking along the coastline, that I had to stop and just absorb the beauty all around me because it was so overwhelming. I didn't appreciate my home enough while I lived here before. I won't make that mistake again. Speaking of cameras, I believe I'm going to buy myself a new lens if I successfully get this job in Seattle. My current standard lens is fairly low quality, and I want to take better pictures. The camera body is quite good, but the lens really makes or breaks the picture, and I can see that clearly with the difference between the pictures I take with the telephoto lens and my standard, because the standard is a low quality consumer product and the telephoto is a medium quality product. I would like to get an actually good lens and see what I can do with it.

Last night, I saw '3:10 to Yuma' with M. It was wonderful!! I have always loved Westerns, it reminds me of going to visit my grandpa. We always watched the Sunday morning Western re-runs. I don't know how many reruns of Bonanza and Gunsmoke I've seen, but Marshal Dillon (played by James Arness) was my hero as a kid. (The Westerns were mainly because we weren't allowed to watch anything else but painting shows and the news, and you can only take so much Brillo-head before wanting to watch something else). Anyway, Russell Crowe and Christian Bale OWNED their parts, and Ben Foster did a fantastic job as Charlie Prince. I really, really enjoyed the performances in this movie. When I get Netflix, I'm going to order everything Christian Bale has ever done that I haven't seen yet. I am, as ever, completely blown away by his talent.

Kayaking in Liberty Bay

My uncle P. told mom and I at our barbeque on Saturday about a kayak rental place in P-bo that he and my aunt used to rent kayaks from and go tooling around Liberty Bay. So, mom and I made plans today to go kayaking, and it was a blast! It's not too expensive, either, so it was easy on the pocketbook and hard on the shoulder muscles, exactly what we were looking for. :) It's absolutely wonderful to be back home in Kitsap. I love this place more than anywhere else in the world, and that includes Vienna. So, that's a lot.


Today was my phone interview for the legal assistant position in Seattle. It went well, so I'm heading in for another interview on Monday morning. After that, there will be another final interview, if I pass muster, with the lawyer that I will actually be assisting. This will be a total of four interviews, but all that I'm concerned about is making a good impression and getting a good job. This particular job has benefits. Benefits! I'll be able to go to the dentist... most exciting. Wish me luck!

Ape Caves

Two days ago, I had the pleasure of going with my mom, her friend, and his friend and son to the Ape Caves at the foot of Mt. St. Helens. They're called the Ape Caves, not because there are any apes in this part of the world, but because the explorers who found them in 1951 were part of a local club called the 'Apes,' a somewhat less popular variation of the 'Eagles,' I would imagine.

Anyway, it was about 2.5m total crawling and walking through caves, which was at first boring - the lower cave was almost entirely walking until the very end when we got to army crawl - but got better, as the upper cave was mostly giant rock falls. I was afraid of the dark when I was a kid, but have since moved on to water, so dark enclosed spaces aren't much of a problem for me, and it was really quite fun to climb around in a cave with nothing but a tiny light clipped to my Glacier National Park visor (better souvenir than one of those resin figurines). The third picture was taken of three of us inside a lava tube created by a tree - the tree burns while the lava flows around it, but doesn't entirely burn up until the lava has cooled, at which point a tube is formed. I don't recall how long it was, but it was quite fun. At one point, I felt rather like a gopher. Anyway, if you ever need something to do on a weekend or day off, check out the Ape Caves. Much fun.

Tomorrow, we're planning on going hiking at Rainier. I haven't been there in quite awhile, and I'm really looking forward to taking some pictures with my camera. I got my Singapore pictures developed, and even if I do say so myself, some are really quite good.

Washington State Ferries and Mt. Rainier

Today I went for a walk at Manchester State Park, close to my mom's house on the Manchester/Port Orchard border with my friend K.. It was, as usual, absolutely perfectly beautiful there. When it's not raining, it's the best place on earth.

Things that define the Pacific Northwest (and by PNW, I mean specifically my small corner of it: the Kitsap Peninsula) as the best place on earth:

• the Puget Sound and attendant waterway system
• views of Seattle when it's not raining
• the omnipresent evergreens
• the ubiquitous rhododendrons
• the Mountain when "it's out" - meaning if you can see it because it's not raining
• the variety and quanitity of good coffee shops
• the sun when it's not raining
• the ferries

Most of all, it's the best place on earth because it's home. :)