Rainier...so close...yet...

No, didn't summit Rainier, but we did a mini-hike and camped out. This pic is about the extent of our view; there were no other opportunities for shots as the clouds moved in for the rest of the afternoon and this morning we had a fair bit of rain. On the way home we stopped at Jimi Hendrix's grave. People leave guitar picks in addition to flowers.

Seeing the sights in Seattle

Pike Place -- one of the first stops

Get your fresh crab here FRESH CRAB! (that doesn't translate well to the written word...please imagine a guy selling programs at, say, a Yankees game)

Everything at Pike Place is FRESCO!

Including Pepe....

Simply Stated

Angela, Rob and Sophie's Visit

Don't be fooled by the barks that I got, I'm still Dabby from the park.

Don't forget your sugar tongs!

Sharing a cuppa with A&R

Me and Sissy

At this random country village in Bothell

Mailbox Peak

I printed off someone's trail directions for this hike and brought them along for entertainment value. He described the wood nymphs that sang Gilbert and Sullivan songs and 10 foot talking seagulls at the peak. We smoked everyone we came across, but got stuck behind guys with weights in their packs, apparently training to climb Rainier. The trail was narrower and steeper than anything we've climbed, even Mt. Imlay in Australia. 8 miles roundtrip, 4841 ft at the peak. The views of Rainier were exceptional and the wildflowers were abundant. We left a little note in the mailbox, for posterity. Or, until some schmuck goes up late one night and has nothing else to use to make a fire but the letters in the box.

Mailbox Peak

what do these look like to you???

Me and my fiance : ) with Rainier in the background

You've got mail!

Our local volcano and its 14,000 feet of glory.

As permanent residents of Washington state since April, I and my fiance have tramped the mountains, biked the trails and run through the trees. Hailing originally from the hellish vortex that is the Coachella Valley in southern Cal (via Austin, TX) we reveled in the first bearable summer of our lives (save for those heinous three days in July). Come fall/winter, you might expect these two Californians would have become weather-whingers. But even the wind, power outages and freak snow storms didn't deter us from exploring further afield (see outdoor/weather-related photos on this blog).