About Seattle...

In case you've never been here, let me clue you in on a little secret: Seattle is amazing! Now, I say that after having been here mid June-August, which I've heard are the nicest months of the year, so I'll have to give you an update during the rainy months, but right now I'm loving it!

Coming from Winston-Salem (avg summer temp approximately 92, humidity 98%), one of the best things so far is that you can actually do things outside in the summer! I'd say that for the past two months the average temp has been about 75, sometimes high 60s, and sometimes mid 80s - all of which are perfect for hiking, and I've even been swimming a few times in Lake Washington. We have had only three rainy days that I can remember since being here, and I think only two of those lasted all day. Sometimes it's cloudy in the morning, but it almost always burns off by lunchtime.

Have I dispelled the weather rumors for you yet? I had heard horror stories about Seattle being cold and rainy even in the summer, so I guess I was prepared for the worst, and every day for the first few weeks when Brent had a spare second I was like "We have to get outside NOW!! Who knows when it will be nice again?" But now every day is nice and I'm starting to take it for granted, I'm sure it can't continue forever...

Ok, enough about weather, how about some proof? One of the first places we visited when we were here looking for an apartment for a couple of days was Snoqualmie Falls. So ginormous and amazing! Except for the fact that the hiking trail to the bottom is apparently closed until like 2013 - laaaame.

We also checked out Franklin falls while we were up in the Cascades, and the trail was definitely open!

brent explaining the finer points of fly-fishing...

Another must-do if you're ever in Seattle is a visit to the Ballard Locks, otherwise known as the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks. It turns out that Lake Union/Washington weren't always connected to the Sound/Ocean, but people wanted them to be connected so they dug a big channel between them and because of the height difference, installed locks. That pretty much sums up the 30 minute tour - though there are other fascinating facts (such as, the locks require no "energy" to run, just the water that's already there, and are free for boats to use...) and I highly recommend the tour.

The other part of the locks is the "fish ladder" which is how Salmon and other fishies get from the Sound to the little streams and such where they spawn. There is even a big viewing window where you can spy on them as they make their way up the locks! Right up my alley.

fish ladder!!

glass could use a little cleaning, no? But look at those big chinooks!

Of course we occasionally visit the famous Pike Place Market...

I'm convinced that the flowers are the best deal in the whole market - those were $5!

It's usually much too crowded for pictures - this was at the very end of the day and kind of a fluke that there are no people in the picture at all! haha. I was there last Saturday (bad idea!) and I could barely breathe, let alone move! I was worried that I wouldn't be able to make it to the place I wanted to go and get back before my 30 minutes of parking expired (don't worry, I made it).

I'll do some more posts soon on our other fave places...well, mostly MY fave places, since Brent has been kind of MIA for several weeks. In case you're wondering about that, intern year is not (quite) as bad as everyone makes it out to be! I honestly thought it would be worse, but I guess that means I had pretty low expectations ;)  But Brent usually doesn't have to be at work until 7am (sometimes 6:30), and most days is home by 6pm - but there are "admit" days that are much worse where he doesn't get home 'till at least 8 or 9pm, sometimes as late as 10pm. He does only get one day off per week (on average - sometimes he can go 10 or 11 days without a day off), but the upside to that has been that his days off are random, a Tuesday here, a Friday there, so when we go out to do things they are usually much less busy than they would be on a Saturday or Sunday. Speaking of Sundays, I think he's only had three off since we've been here - I'm sure people at my ward think I'm single.

Ok, enough for now! We've also had tons of visitors already (and several more coming in the next couple of weeks) and been to Portland, Spokane and the Olympic Peninsula....but I'll save those for another day (which probably means like two months from now...haha).