After two weeks in the perpetual summer of Hawaii, I was more than happy to come home to fall in Seattle. We've even had our first real rainstorm! Most of the week, I was busy catching up on work, but I really got to enjoy fall over the weekend. Saturday morning, Andy and I were up early to drive over the pass and meet a friend for some elderberry picking! It used to be an annual fall tradition with my family, but I hadn't been in several years. It turned out to be the perfect way to welcome fall. We lucked out and found brought home a great haul so we'll have enough elderberry juice for at least a few years. After we'd filled all the bags we brought, we stopped by a fruit stand outside Wenatchee to pick up some late summer produce. Before heading home, we also made a stop for lunch at our favorite barbeque place in the state. We ended the week with a lazy rainy Sunday at home - the perfect way to recover from a stressful week of catching up at work!
Read moreLife: Week 36
We spent our second week in Hawaii roaming the island, starting with a drive from Kona to a tiny studio cottage in Pahoa. After driving all day, we spent the afternoon reading on the small patio and enjoying our new jungle setting. We split our two days on the west side of Hawaii between a visit to our favorite snorkeling spot from our last trip to Hawaii and a long day in Volcanoes National Park. Both were just as good as we remembered from our last trip to Hawaii, especially the National Park, since Kilauea was much more active than the last time we visited in 2012. Another change from our last visit to Hawaii - the Saddle Road is now much safer, so you can drive a rental car on it without invalidating insurance, so we took that route through a lunar landscape back to Kona. With our last few days on the island, we visited one last beach and had lunch at Kona Brewing for a second time. We ended the trip perfectly with drinks and a free Ledward Kaapana concert at Don's Mai Tai bar. I always love visiting Hawaii, but I was very happy to come home to some clouds and cooler fall weather!
Read moreLife: Week 35
What to say about week one of our two week vacation in Hawaii? We visited a few old favorite places, tried several new ones, and even stumbled across a Harry Potter marathon to watch over breakfast every morning for Labor Day weekend! I'll have plenty more to share about this trip soon - once I get through the hundreds of photos I took - but for now, I'll let some of the photos from my phone do the talking!
Read moreLife: Week 34
This week was hectic, between catching up on work after being in Florida last week, then preparing for my upcoming two week vacation. Thankfully things were still slow enough that I was able to get plenty done over the week between trips. I even had time for a few Powerline Trail walks, and time to make some lovely summer salads for lunch! Sadly, I missed out on the eclipse on Monday entirely - all I saw of it was the dusky light out my window near noon. Hopefully the next time one comes around, I'll have a little less going on!
Read moreLife: Week 33
I was all over the place this week, quite literally. Monday, I jumped on a plane to spend most of the week in Florida for work. After work, instead of walks on the Powerline Trail, I found myself walking on the beach. They were short walks, since even with the ocean breeze the humidity and heat of Florida were a bit too much for me. Still, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Florida, especially the delicious food, and the Cuban coffee a coworker made for the whole office on my last morning there. Our company is spread out across the country, and this was the first time we got together as a team in one office, and there was lots of good conversation and laughter. No one in the group had ever been to Washington, so they were all curious to know if it's really as cold and rainy as they'd heard. It's so funny to me to leave home and hear how by beloved green state is perceived.
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