The View

Just regular things happening over here in the PNW, but it's pretty beautiful to look at while I go about every day life.

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Thanksgiving in Canada

Like a true American, I skipped town for Thanksgiving and celebrated in Canada where they don't have Thanksgiving.  Black Friday sales, however, they do celebrate.  

I gathered my bags and hopped in the car to head north to Whistler, B.C. for a nice little vacation.  The plan was to shop, enjoy, eat & drink, and not think about school.  Mission accomplished.

I don't ski, but I loved Whistler.  Skiing scares me and makes me cry.  Plus I don't have any of the gear (my peacoat just doesn't do the trick), so the cost of renting equipment so that I can go injure myself just isn't that intriguing to me.  I made the right choice.

We stayed at the Chateau Fairmont so my friends were able to ski-in, ski-out to their little hearts' desire.  I, however, chatted up the concierge, who guided me in the direction of the village and shops.

I was a little afraid the village was going to be a bit of a hike, but it turned out to be about a 5 minute walk from our hotel.  And a lovely little walk it was....

There was snow when we first arrived, so my first day in the village had a lovely layer of snow blanketing the ground.  I grabbed a hot chocolate and did some window shopping.

Even with the clouds and drizzle, it was a lovely morning to wander around.  I dodged raindrops and explored the shops.  I even found a neat handmade bowl that I couldn't live without.

Once I bought my bowl, I headed back to the hotel to grab a sandwich and unload my new purchase.  Being Thanksgiving and all, I chose the turkey sandwich and snuggled up with the Canadian version of Black Friday Sale ads to see if there were any deals I couldn't live without.

Once I planned my Black Friday stops (really, one store), I headed downstairs and found a cozy place by the fire with a view to have a drink and wait for my friends to head back.

We headed to dinner, watched the Seahawks game, and were ready to turn in for the next day.

The hotel was all decked out and ready for Christmas, so I was in the mood for some more village shopping the next day.  With only one stop on my plan for the day, I was happy to meet up with some of the ladies, walk the dogs, and then head to the village for some afternoon cocktails.

I don't know where the day went, but I do know it passed quickly and included a lot of stops for drinks with the girls before meeting up with the guys for dinner.  I did leave with some new clothes and a nice winter hat so that I can fit in around Seattle (I'm trying to look good in hats like people in Seattle do).

I took my time the next morning- ready, but not ready- to pack up and leave.  Grabbed a croissant and coffee in the morning and then found a book to devour before heading out.

Seattle is so pretty, but it was still so hard to leave this lovely view!

Not my traditional Thanksgiving, but a wonderful Thanksgiving adventure all the same!

New shiny things

Hi!  I'm coming at you from my new computer which is a completely blank slate right now.... mostly because my old computer was SO OLD that it won't locate the new computer in order to transfer all my files.  So while the transfer should be SUPER EASY and REALLY CONVENIENT and only a TINY BIT TIME CONSUMING... it has now become me manually saving all files to jump drives and trying to transfer them over.  I've exhausted all other options (except the one where I haul a desktop computer and new laptop computer through the three story mall in downtown Bellevue).  Plus my other computer was around seven years old and guess what...they didn't have the iCloud then  so it's totally not there.  This might be my own fault since I didn't keep the operating system updated and therefore was running Snow Leopard circa 2009.

me trying to figure out computer things

In other words, I'm currently rocking out to the only 47 songs I could get to transfer off of my phone (out of thousands), and I have 0 pictures to show you (out of 8,000+), and all my school files are in various locations on jump drives, desktops (school and home), and floating out on dropbox somewhere.

This might sound complain-y, but I am SO EXCITED.  My new machine is shiny and fast and light and not glitchy at all (except that whole transfer thing, but that is totally the other machine's fault).  Plus, transferring everything manually means I can organize my files as I should have been all along, so I guess there's a silver lining.

I purposefully went out in the rain today just to buy this because I knew I would have all day Tuesday-Veteran's Day- to sit at home and play with it.  I'm also hoping it will motivate me to finish some projects for my Teachers Pay Teachers store and to keep my blogging more updated (mostly my teacher blog more than this one) since updating should be faster and easier... and more fun!  Yippee!

So off I go to technology world!

Washington Octobers

Fall in Seattle means rain and fog.  According to my twitter feed, this October has been one of the rainiest Octobers on record in Seattle.  The fact that I live in the clouds means I can't see those awesome mountains I'm used to.  Instead, I look at fog. 

But we did have a few fabulous fall days squeezed in between the raindrops, and even a "rainy day" usually consists of a few cloud breaks here and there.  On a lovely Sunday a few weeks ago, the sun came out and the weather was delightful, so I called up a friend and asked to do something totally Seattle-ish.

We hit up the Fremont neighborhood for some delicious subs at Royal Grinders.  We found a seat in the sunshine outside where the patio has all kinds of embellishments embedded in the cement.  I found a watch stuck in there (it's not in this picture, though, so don't search too hard).

We ate our sandwiches right next to the somewhat controversial statue of Lenin that everyone talks about when I mention Fremont (that, and the troll).  So here he is.  I don't know why his hand was red when we visited this time, I don't think it usually is, but what do I know.

Parking was ridiculous (or, normal) because it was a beautiful Sunday and also because the Fremont Sunday market was going on.  We wandered through (it's more of a craft/hipster market so no fruits or veggies this time around....also nothing I needed) and then meandered through the streets of Fremont back to the car.

We set off for the Ballard Locks, because even though I've been there before, I was hoping to catch the fish in action this time around.

We did luck out because the boats were coming and going and the locks were in complete working condition (last time I visited it was February and cold and rainy so there weren't any boats out and about...and no fish).

The locks are quite the tourist attraction, although it's not super exciting to watch boats sit around and wait to be taken to higher water.  We did it anyway, because as a local I think I should know how these things work.

So we did hang out for awhile and admired the lovely view and enjoyed the sunshine.

Then we took a short walk in the garden, which was decked out in it's fall colors.

The great thing about Seattle, is because of the rain and temperate weather, there are some flowers out all the time!

Lots of people out enjoying each others company or a good book.  Unfortunately, we were a few days or weeks too late to see many fish in the observatory so it was mostly just watching water rush by our faces.  We do think we spotted the tail end of a seal playing in the water, though, so that was the extent of our wildlife viewing excitement!  

Now I've officially lived here for just over 3 months.  Wild!

Tis the Season for Pumpkins

It's fall!  The leaves are changing, and the rainy forecasts are mounting.

I do like the autumn season, although not in the way that Pinterest Nation has romanticized it.  But the changing leaves are gorgeous before they start falling and becoming crunchy and kind of gross looking.  I'm hoping to get out for a hike sometime before the leaves fall...if the weather cooperates!

I am not a pumpkin spice person.  I think the PSL from Starbucks looks gross.  Actually I think almost anything pumpkin spice is gross, the only exception being pumpkin cinnamon cheesecake.

A lot of people are all excited to start baking because it's fall, but I love baking all the time, so it doesn't seem like a "fall" thing to do.  I do make pumpkin (no pumpkin spice!) butterscotch muffins because they are delicious.  Otherwise I steer clear of the pumpkin fad.

Caramel apples, however, that's a different story.  Load up.  It's healthy.

But, tis the season for pumpkins, and I found just the kind that are perfect for me.  The Pacific Northwest is known for it's glass art, and every year the glass pumpkins are the thing to seek out.  Seriously, google glass pumpkins.  Everything that shows up is from this part of the country.

The Tacoma Glassblowing Studio takes it's glass pumpkin patch on a traveling tour in the fall.  I've become a bit obsessed because they.are.awesome.  I'm totally in love with them!

Seattle Seahawk glass pumpkins...obviously!

Their "patch" has thousands of hand made glass pumpkins.  All sizes, all shapes, all prices.  I think the biggest/most expensive one I saw was something like $365, but those were few and far between.  People were loading up on glass pumpkins.

I actually had my eye on this awesome white pumpkin that was kind of tall and skinny-ish and totally cool, but I was so busy scoping everything out and admiring everything and I didn't want to carry him around.  When I went back to scoop him up HE WAS GONE.  I was so sad.  I searched all around for another one like him but there weren't any.  Lesson learned.  PICK UP THE PUMPKINS AND CARRY THEM AROUND.  They actually did have a holding section which I thought was kind of silly, but now I understand.

 I finally settled on an adorable dark blue/black pumpkin with a super curly goldish/yellow stem who is kind of medium tall and super glamorous as far as pumpkins are concerned.  I carried him around everywhere and could hear people talking about him as I held him and I was so afraid they were going to take him out of my hands!  My little pumpkin is home safe and sound now and gracing my windowsill where I plan to keep him year round.

I may have just become a glass pumpkin collector.  This pumpkin patch was way better than the real thing.