Rainbow bright

Ever have one of those days when the world is spinning in color? Everything is swirling all around. Spiiiin!

In other words - this was my attempt at taking a creative photo where the colors of the rainbow that I have on a glass paperweight can really shine. It does look colorful but I do not think I spun it enough. Also I should have tried it somewhere that the glass would not get so much reflection on it.

A glimpse of Eastern Washington

The change in the scenery of Washington state is astronomical when you cross the Cascades. From green and wet to dry, flatish and yellow. An intense contrast. I keep joking that in the winter I need to take a trip out to eastern Washington to get more sun. But that also means that I'd have to drive over the passes - might be just easier to fly to Hawaii or Cali?

Two of my teammates and I went on a day trip training in Kennewick and decided to make a road trip out of it. Kennewick is 3.5 hours from Seattle drive, and in addition to that we took the long way back through Leavenworth. The trip to the training started at 5am and was made without stops - got to make it to training. :) After a fun day of training (this was a 'customer connection' training where we listen in to call center calls - I found it super interesting), time to head back.

The first detour was taking the Yakima Canyon Road instead of the highway. Not that you would have noticed, because we were driving at highway speeds. If somebody has a BMW, you should drive it as such, right? Anyways - it was a roller coaster, but oddly fun. The above photo was taken in the canyon.

The next detour was driving up to Leavenworth instead of taking the I-90 pass over the Cascades. There was 'rock-blasting' on I-90 so the northern pass seemed like less stops - and going fast was one of the requirements for the trip (one again, the BMW). Leavenworth is a "Bavarian" village in the northern Cascades. Adorable, and a complete tourist trap. But it has a great Munchen Haus with bratwurst and beer. I've stopped there on every pass through Leavenworth and loved it. Not expensive sausages, and amazing mustards and sauerkraut to cover them in. Fun trip. :)

Featured vegetable: Asparagus

Asparagus only entered my regular diet about a year and a half ago. It is an odd looking veggie, and one I stayed away from because of ignorance. That was of course before I discovered just how amazing it is grilled with some oil and then sprinkled with a tiny bit of salt and pepper. Delicious!

Now asparagus is something that it is hard for me to resist when I see in the store. Especially when it is now in season and everywhere. What to do? Buy it, eat it and adore it. :)

Hike report: Wallace Falls

Wallace Falls is the hike I have been to the most in Seattle. Last Sunday was my third time there - pretty impressive considering how long I've been living in Seattle. This is a hike I like returning to. It is easily accessible in both summer and winter, and is enjoyable in both rainy and sunny weather. Perfect for the PNW area. Not a long hike (and the upper falls are not necessary), but it does have enough elevation gain to keep things interesting.

Unfortunately, most of Seattle was of the same opinion last Sunday. The parking lot was jammed with no chance of getting in without waiting an insane amount of time. We had to park a quarter of a mile or so from the start of the hike (and down a fairly large hill). I was terrified that the hike would be spent elbowing people out of the way. Surprisingly - people seemed to spread out fairly well and though I didn't get to experience the solitude that I so enjoy when being out in the woods, there was no mob-attacking-waterfall feeling.

I was trying to practice taking photos of waterfalls... naturally. Unfortunately I couldn't get the tripod to fit together in the morning so I had to leave that behind. Balancing on a railing on holding a camera makes waterfall photos a lot more difficult. I have not figured out the right set of settings for a good waterfall shots. I can get the shots exposed fairly well... but I cannot get them to have the beautiful running strands of water. This just means I need to go on more waterfall hikes. :)



This photo is actually from a year and a half. I really like how I captured the running creek on that trip. The water was even more impressive last weekend - the spring runoffs are in full swing (yes, you heard me... spring).

Seattle Eats: Sushi and Steak

A new sushi discovery for me last week was Nashino. It is located by the Arboretum (aka not in my usual walking radius) so it was exciting to get out there for a girls night.

This is now my favorite place for sushi in Seattle. A little problematic since it is more expensive than the places downtown and is further away and you need a reservation, but I am willing to deal with this. Special trips out there must be made.

The sushi was amazing. Extremely fresh and melting in my mouth. It was a little sad that the rolls came as 4s instead of 6s, but I was willing to deal with this to get more of a variety. I was especially amused by one roll that had asparagus in it.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the sake there. We got one of the frozen bamboos full of sake. It was so good! Whenever I've gotten cold sake before it has just come in a wine glass. Maybe the bamboo is what does the trick to make it delicious? :)

And pictured is the dessert. Do I really need to explain that it was delicious?



My love of the Metropolitan Grill is well documented.  Amazing steak. Chill atmosphere. Great lemon drops. What more does one need for a date night? :)

Trip report: Mt.Rose

On a super sunny day, all of the hikes right near Seattle are bound to be filled with people and allow no privacy or solitude in the woods. Therefore the solution is to go further: the Olympic Peninsula. On a particularly beautiful day we headed over to Mt.Rose which is on the south-east corner of the Olympics (aka, no need to take the ferry!) The trip reports said there was snow on the top, but they were hard to read as the last two were written from the POV of dogs (who does that...?).



The hike itself started off beautifully. Starting from a beautiful intensely blue lake and immediately heading steeply uphill. This is a steep hike: 3500 ft elevation gain over 3.25m trip up? That would be a lot. But elevation gain I can handle - intense amount of snow and no trail? Thats something different.

The top of the trail was a loop so we saw some people come out the left side when we got there and we decided to go right (since that MUST have been what they did). Oh no. At first I was convinced that we were not on the trail at all - there were lot of fallen trees and only one pair of footprints every once in a while. A little further on, the trail completely disappeared under the snow. You could still see the markers every once in a while, and the lone footprints at times.

Apparently at this point in time the trail had lots of switchbacks. Well this is not easy to tell when everything is covered by thick snow, so we just plowed straight with no switchbacks. Super steep. When we got to the ridge, we lost the trail completely (but came upon two guys who were also looking for the summit and way up). The summit appeared to be on the left so we followed the ridge for a while.



Ridges and lots of snow are not my friends - I do have a bit of avalanche fear. And when I am walking on an overhang in super deep snow, sometimes sinking to my waist in it, a little bit of fear exists.

Thankfully, after a long trip along the ridge we finally found the summit, and a much more footprint defined and marked trail down on the other side of the loop.



The summit itself is nice in that it is a giant rock in the snow. Aka - you can sit on a dry spot after a long, long trip on snow. Very enjoyable. The view was a little covered by trees, but still amazing. I enjoyed the fact that there were not many people out. No crowds = awesome.



The way down was also painful on the knees. To mediate that we slid down a bunch of the snow-covered part. Though once the snow became patchy that was too dangerous and then it was down to walking carefully up the steep trail.

Overall, a fun hike. I am not sure I'd return - I am more excited to try the neighboring mountain: Mt.Ellinor, which is supposed to have a super-duper amazing view from the top. A little to much snow there for now, but maybe later in the season. :)



The mountain we hiked up is in the middle of the frame here - not covered in snow on top (or so it appears). I believe Mt.Ellinor is one of the peaks on the right side.

Lanterns and Flowers

I often return to Pike Place Market and find fun things lurking around the corner. One of the new discoveries of my last trip was super quirky light fixtures on the south side of the market. Love them! They had various guys walking around on all sides of the staircase holding the lights. I love the combination of practicality and art. :)



These beautiful flowers are in the Cascade Community patch which I've wandered by before to see the great scarecrows they have. Right now the whole thing is blooming all over. Absolutely beautiful. I see some veggies starting to come up also - hopefully they'll get to wait until the owner gets them. It is hard to resist the deliciousness. :P