Caroline's Corner

I can not believe how far behind I am in the blogging.  I realized that I am probably not going to catch up exactly, as we've seen and done so much incredible stuff this summer.  So I will do my best to recap, and then go back to it to fill in the details when I can.  Here's a list of people we've hosted and places we've visited this summer...

 

 - Melyssa was in town for work and we explored and hiked up Rattlesnake Ledge (http://www.weekendhike.com/2009/02/rattlesnake-mountain-rattlesnake-ledge.html - do not believe the "easy hike" claim).

 - We went to the Methow Valley (Winthrop - http://www.winthropwashington.com/, Twisp - http://www.twispinfo.com/, Leavenworth - http://www.leavenworth.org/modules/pages/index.php?pageid=1)

 - I went to Phoenix, San Diego, and Riverside for work

 - We saw Tegan and Sara at the Showbox

 - We saw Los Lonely Boys in Tacoma

 - We saw the Kings of Leon in Vancouver

 - I went back to Leavenworth for a conference for work

 - We visited Dan and Heidi in Farmington, NM

 - I stayed in Albuquerque for work

 - Alex and Rebecca came and we went with them and Sharon to Olympic National Park and stayed in the Roosevelt Cottages (so cute!) - http://foreverlodging.com/lodging.cfm?PropertyKey=70

 - Allison came to visit and we went to Bumbershoot

 - John went on a hiking trip with the guys in Yosemite

 - Megan came to visit and we did karaoke and a hike to twin falls - http://gorp.away.com/gorp/eclectic/family/seattle_fam7.htm

 - John went to Norfolk for work

 - Tristan is currently in town, and yesterday we went to Salmon Days in Issaquah - http://salmondays.org/

 

I am exhausted just thinking about it, but we've had SO MUCH FUN!  Apparently this was the best summer weather-wise that Seattle has had in the recent past, and people were out and about everywhere.  Now that it's getting cooler and grayer I understand why everyone had such a "GO, GO, GO!" attitude.  Pictures are posted on our flickr site, so check it out - http://www.flickr.com/photos/evanses/. 

 

What's next, you might ask?  Here's what's upcoming...

 

 - Courtney and Fern are getting married on Edisto Island next weekend, so we'll be heading that way for a fast trip.

 - We are going to host an open house at our place.

 - Rebecca is coming up for the weekend.

 - We are going to Cape Dissappointment for Halloween weekend.

 - We are going to Long Beach for a weekend to see Allison and Mike and attend the HDR SoCal Holiday party as Alex and Rebecca's dates.  Hee hee.

 - We are going to see Regina Spektor at the Paramount.

 - My parents and Allison and Mike are coming for Thanksgiving.

 - We are going to the HDR holiday party at the Space Needle.

 - We are going to see Pete in Morrocco with Alex and Rebecca over Christmas and New Years.

 

So the fun continues, and I wouldn't change a thing, but please look for me to be more regular in my blogging updates in say, January. Because in between all that fun John and I have both been working really hard and trying to be number one at our respective jobs, which can take it out of you in a computer-screen-drain kind of way. 

 

Other highlights include that Chloe has adjusted to being a high-rise kitty, and is loving watching the swarms of sparrows that are flying around over Elliot Bay right now.  We also bought some bedroom furniture, which is fabulous. However, furniture shopping is not for the faint of heart, it was quite an adventure. The sunsets from our balcony are insane right now, all the colors are really intense and gorgeous over the Olympics.  And the moon on the water of Elliot Bay was also beautiful this morning when I woke up at 3:30 for no good reason. 

 

So stay posted for more details...

 

 

John and I headed to Vancouver for a brief overnight stay a couple of weekends ago.  We needed some time away from the "getting settled" and some time to just relax and enjoy each other's company.  I had seen that the Kings of Leon were playing there, and were not playing in Seattle (what's up with that?!), so I got us tickets and we went. 

 

If you don't know the Kings of Leon, check them out.  They are really good - it's just rock 'n roll, and their lead singer has the most interesting voice (and reminds me of Charlie from "Lost").  Here's a link to thier website: http://www.kingsofleon.com/. The last time we saw them it was at a much smaller venue, so I was unsure of what to expect from a ginourmous arena show...but it was AWESOME.  Who knew that everyone under the age of 25 in Canada loves KOL?  I mean, was it weird that John and I were the oldest people there?  Sure.  But was it incredible to hear the ENTIRE arena sing along to every song?  You bet!  And the band sounded so together live.  I've heard that they are fighting and irritated with each other, but there was nothing in their sound or between the songs that would indicate any of that.  They were just fantastic. 

 

We stayed close to the GM Arena, which was a pretty fun part of town. I found our hotel online for a really good deal, but it must have been a slow weekend, because it was fancy!  We went to a fun dinner after the show at a little Irish Pub and went to sleep.  When we got up on Sunday we walked down to the water and took the water taxi over to Granville Island (http://www.tourismvancouver.com/visitors/vancouver/about_vancouver/neighborhoods/granville_island) and had some brunch and walked around and looked in the little shops there.  It was so cute! And the harbor was great...tons and tons of fantastic sailboats to drool over.  Really fun.  Then we walked back to the hotel and got our car and took a drive around Stanley Park.  I wish we had more time to look around there, it was beautiful.  Even their website is cool: http://vancouver.ca/PARKS/parks/stanley/.  Then, sadly, it was time to head home. 

 

I can't wait to go back to Vancouver when we can stay longer!  What a treat to have another fabulous city to explore so near to us in Seattle!

Last weekend we really made a sizeable dent in the "getting settled".  It was hard to be inside, because the weather was fantastic, but we were determined.  Check out the pictures to the right.

 

We woke up on Saturday morning, and there was the weirdest, really thick fog overlaying Elliot Bay.  Bizarre.

 

First, John decided that we needed to do something about the "lighting situation". The lights in this apartment are not well spread-out.  So, there are a ton of lighting options in the kitchen - you can cook by mood - but no permanent lights in the living room.  This was very frustrating to John, as he likes to have the inside of the house look like noon outside while he's eating.  At any rate, we went to Home Depot and got a light fixture to hang over the dining room table, as well as two lamps to go in the living room.  The lamps were a breeze to assemble, so I did those.  They look great!  The light, however, proved not to be such an easy project.  First, the wiring was not what John expected, and it took a lot of time, as well as one shock to get it figured out.  That was alarming.  Then, the ceiling is ridiculously hard poured concrete, and there wasn't much that was going to create a hole to hang the lamp from that could be done with a normal drill.  So, John had to go rent a pneumatic drill from the nice guys at our neighborhood Ace Hardware.  It wasn't easy, but the light was finally in place, and it looks great!

 

While we were at Ace (three times that day...) we got a little grocery cart.  We park in the basement of our building, and live on the 12th floor.  Yes, there is an elevator, but in the grand scheme of how I want to spend my time, gropcery shopping isn't at the top of the list, let alone going up and down the elevator three times to haul the groceries up. So we got this cart, which is super fun - you just pile all your bags into it, wheel it into the elevator, and voila!  You and all your groceries are home!  It's genius.  I vaguely remember having smoething like this when I was a really little kid...Mom, can you confirm?  Anyway, I'm real excited about the cart.  :-)

 

Finally, I spent some time (while John was wrestling the light) getting the entry hallway a little more together - it's now the only place we have pictures hanging! It looks great, I am really pleased to walk in every day. Coming home to that is much more claming than coming home to wall to wall boxes.  Very nice.  And I spent a little time in the office moving furniture around and getting it a little more settled.  Things are coming together!

It's been nice and hot in Seattle...and I mean really hot!  I was standing outside waiting for the bus after work on Wednesday, and I felt like I was melting.  And I know hot, I mean, I grew up in Florida, there is no place that can be more sweltering.  But it's been insane here. 

 

So last weekend we went with Sharon and our new friend Beth up to the north Cascade Mountains.  We visited Winthrop, Mazama, Twisp, and Leavenworth.  Yep, we did all the funny "theme" towns.  It was a great weekend - the scenery coming over the north Cascades Highway is incredible.  More pictures will be posted on my Flickr site shortly...we did a really awesome bike ride, listened to some really bad live music (but how bad can it be, it's live!), and stayed in a hotel where all the rooms are above an independent bookstore and have the theme of a book or author.  Here's the one we stayed in:  http://innsbruckerinn.com/rooms/patrick_mcmanus/ It was super fun, and made me feel like I live here, since I was doing locals-type exploring. 

 

Beth had to come back early, so we were down a car, meaning that Sharon, John, and I all got to ride in the truck from Twisp to Leavenworth to Seattle.  That ride convinced me that we need a different car...the truck is awesome for two people, but when you add a third person, the backseat is uncomfortable, and adding a fourth person would be downright impossible! What do I want?  Well, what I really want is a brand-new, shiny Lexus SUV.  But let's be realistic here.  I have started looking on Craig's List at...VW Westfalias!  How FUN would that be?  We could take ALL our friends, and cook them a meal on the way!  I don't want one of the super old ones, because they all seem a little beat-up.  I don't want one of the super-new ones, because they look weird.  I want one from about 1985 - like this one: http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/1296774117.html FUN! I doubt John will ever give up his truck, and I don't know if I would really want to drive one of those around Seattle as our only car, but it's fun to think about having one. 

 

So this weekend we are just going to hang out.  John has been out of town most of the week, and I am heading out on a southwest tour next week (Phoenix, San Diego, Riverside), so we are going to enjoy being at home.  I heard it's supposed to cool off all the way to 85 degrees, so maybe we'll be able to get outside without withering away at some point.  It's Seafair this weekend, so maybe we'll check that out - might as well, since it's THE summer event in our new city. http://www.seafair.com/ 

 

Here are some things I am currently excited about, just FYI:

1 - my sister is coming to visit over labor day weekend!  Can't wait!

2 - Ronin!!!!  Check out Yuka's blog if you don't know what I mean. 

3 - getting to see some of my peeps that I've been missing horribly while I am in San Diego for a day. Especially excited about sleeping in "my" room at Rebecca and Alex's house.

4 - figuring out a rug for the living room - it's gotta be done soon so I can decorate the rest of the place!  MAybe I'll see something cool this weekend.  I found an interesting one on overstock, but can't decide if it's totally tacky or not. 

5 - getting the rest of the boxes, etc. out of the hallway this weekend, so I am not greeted by that every time I walk through the door.

6 - the really interesting meeting I attended today in our Burlington office.  I hope that it turns into project work, as it would be really cool.

7 - that it's the weekend, and I just sent my last work e-mail!  Yippee!!

 

 

So I am making this blog post just under one month since the last one...but the good news is that we finally have internet service (and cable!) at home, so these will hopefully get a lot more frequent. I have a ton of pictures to post, but seem to have lost the charger for my camera, and I can't get them off the camera without some power.  So, I will do my best to find that today and to post pictures.  Here are the highlights of the last month.

 

We had a great time on our trip. After leaving James and Lida we headed to the Redwoods National Park. It was incredible - if you haven't been, put it on your list! I think we could have spent a whole week there.  We camped under some really big trees and did a couple of little bike rides. Then we went to the Oregon Caves, which were pretty cool.  They give guided tours to limited amounts of people in a group, which we didn't know, and that was really neat. We learned a lot about the cave and it's history.  Then we headed to Crater Lake. It was gorgeous, and there was snow on the ground!  Who knew there would still be snow in June?!? The lake is the most gorgeous blue color, it just made me want to go swimming in it. But the mosquitoes were BAAAAD, which made for some hilarious people-watching through the window of our closed-up-truck.  From there we headed back to the Oregon coast and just slowly drove our way north, staying in a very cute little place overnight the last night of our trip. It was great fun, although a lot of driving.

 

Since getting back to Seattle we've waged war against the boxes and the junk. We have a lot of stuff, not all of it necessarily stuff I think we need to keep. So there has been a lot of sorting, moving stuff to storage, taking stuff to goodwill, etc. I think we are almost there, so whenever anyone wants to come visit, the Evans B&B is open! We actually did have our first out of town house guest, Melyssa. She was here for work and stayed an extra couple of days, which was really fun!  We took her to the Space Needle, which is a very short walk from our place. We also went hiking one day, out to Rattlesnake Ledge. It was literally a straight up hike, with LOTS of elevation gained.  But the view from the top, wow!  And it's so cool to be in the mountains with trees again. I love and miss San Diego, but the no-trees thing going on in SoCal is one thing I don't miss.

 

Right now it's light until about 9:30 at night, which is crazy. So after work one day this past week we went on another hike, this one up to some waterfalls.  It was through some big trees, and a ton of ferns, which I love.  Pretty cool. We are considering a drive out to Rainier tomorrow, depending on how the errands today go. So, that's pretty much a catch-up on what we've been doing...I will post pictures as soon as I can find my charger!

After the pack and load, I took Chloe on the plane and we went to Seattle. It was a much easier trip for anyone who remembers the story from when I brought her to California, thank you very much! We arrived at our fabulous new apartment, and settled in on our air mattress for a week.  Sharon was super during this time, taking me all over, showing me everything there is to know about Seattle, from where the Trader Joe's is (v. important!) to how to take the water taxi across Elliot Bay to West Seattle.  Work that first week is kinda a blur, and I am sure it will get better; it was a little bit overwhelming meeting a ton of new people. 

 

Sharon took me on a driving tour of the Puget Sound the first weekend I was there, it is so green and gorgeous there.  I forgot my camera (boo!) but she sent me a couple of pictures from the ferry leaving downtown Seattle headed for Bainbridge Island.  Hee hee.

 

John got there Sunday and we prepared for another week of work and unpacking...our stuff arrived on Tuesday.  It was a madhouse, there was unpacking happening everywhere!  It was crazy!  But so far, it seems like all our stuff made it (I wish they had lost a few choice things...) and nothing I've unwrapped has been broken. Awesome job United movers!  So we unpacked as much as we could in between working and getting ready to leave again. 

 

We flew back to San Diego on Friday and went into work to clean out John's office.  Yes, I am serious, he hadn't finished that...grr.  Then we had a really nice dinner at the 3rd Corner in OB with Megan and Roree.  On Saturday we woke up and took care of a few last-minute items and headed on out.  We drove through L.A. traffic - why would it seem like rush hour at 2 PM on Saturday?  How annoying, and how can anyone live there?  And then jammed up I-5 until we hit the Bay Area, then headed up the 101 to Novato to our friends James and and Lida's house.  We planned to stay one night, but when James infromed us he had snagged free tickets to the Nascar event happening at the Sonoma Racetrack on Sunday, we decided that it would be silly to forgo free tickets.  So we packed up the cutest baby ever, their daughter Maren, and headed to the races. 

 

I had no idea that I would like Nascar as much as I did.  First, it was everywhere-you-look people watching of the highest order.  Second, there's fair food!  Yum!  And third, it's quite a rush to see cars drving that fast. I can't put my finger on exactly why, but it was very cool.  Who knew?  We stayed until the race was about half-fininshed, and then headed out to get Maren home and to beat the traffic.  And before you call Children's Protective Services, James had box seats, so Maren's little ears were not exposed to the noise! We had a really nice dinner and played a hilarious game called Wits and Wagers.  Check it out, it's fun.

 

So this morning I woke up super early for some reason, and decided to catch up on my blogging.  I don't know that I'll get a chance on the rest of this trip, but John and I are excite to be taking a week off to explore our way north through NoCal and Oregon.  Many pictures will be taken, so stay tuned!

So yesterday we woke up and freaked out because it was already 7:30!  How in the world did our Chloe-alarm clock let us sleep in that late?  The packing team from the movers arrived about 15 minutes later, and it was off to the races.  There were 2 guys, and they were awesome.  They worked really hard, and wrapped EVERYTHING.  It was amazing.  Our house became FULL of boxes.  Check out the pictures!  It took them 8 hours.  I had no idea we had so much stuff. 

 

Then this morning the moving truck pulled up outside our apartment, and the guys pulled out all the boxes and started their game of tetris in the truck.  They wrapped our furniture in tons of thick saran-wrap style plastic. It is nuts. They've been working for 4 hours, and they are almost done.  This moving stuff is time consuming! 

 

Luckily, when movers pack and load you, they don't want you to touch anything.  In fact, there were a couple of boxes that we had brought from work that they unpacked and repacked yesterday, just so they wouldn't be liable for anything breaking from my poor packing job.  So, it's been really nice to work from home yesterday and today, I've actually gotten a ton of stuff done!  Right now I am sitting on our back porch working on a proposal.  Pretty good "office"!

 

The weirdest part about it all is that we won't see our stuff for another couple of weeks - it just lives on the truck for a while, until the driver fills up the truck with the rest of his loads.  Then he starts driving and delivering, and since we are on opposite ends of the route, we are first to load, last to deliver. 

 

The most disturbing part about all this moving is the HUGE dust bunnies that have been left behind.  It is disgusting in our apartment right now, and I have no broom - it's been loaded onto the moving truck!  Oops!  Guess we'll have to very nicely ask our neighbors if we can borrow theirs...

 

 

Whew!  What a whirlwind!

 

We are packing offices, home, and the garage...loading...and I am flying with Chloe on Sunday to Seattle! For all of you who remember the last time I took her on a plane, I DID get some sedatives, never fear. I can't wait to be settled in and MOVED. 

 

I am most looking forward to the vacation John and I are going to take once our stuff arrives in Seattle and I find a good pet-sitter.  I am going to fly back down and John and I are going to drive up the coast and camp and B&B it up along the way.  I am ready for that little break, for sure! 

 

On an unrelated note, I am watching this "Inside the White House" business on NBC...pretty cool.  Missed the show last night, but I heard it is being re-aired on Friday.  Check it out, there's a lot of behind-the-scenes that is very interesting.

 

It's really sad to be leaving San Diego, and I have to tell you that I've been trying as hard as possible not to think about that too much.  I've been insanely busy, so being distracted has not been too hard!  But...it's coming.  And I am going to try to focus on the wonderful memories we've made here, on the fantastic friends we have that we'll continue to travel with and visit, and the good work that I've been fortunate enough to be able to be involved in.  I feel really lucky to have lived here, and I will miss it, and especially the people, a great deal. 

So, it's been a while for posting, mainly because I wanted to be able to give the news if indeed it was going to happen.  So, here you go:  John and I are moving to Seattle!  It's really weirdly strange to write that down...

 

We are heading up next weekend to check out apartments.  We'll stay through the week to work, meet people, and I'll interview for the position I would like to get.

 

We are both transferring - John has a major client there and it just makes more sense for him to be there.  I am still trying to figure out what my position will be up there, but HDR has promised that they'll find a place for me.

 

We imagine we'll be moving around the beginning of June. 

 

It's sad and exciting at the same time.  It's REALLY hard to think about leaving San Diego.  But it's also fun to think about the new adventures we'll have. 

 

At any rate, there's the news.  Now I promise I'll get back on the blogging more regularly!

I met my friend Megan in San Antonio last weekend for a little visit. She lives in Atlanta, so it was a good meeting point for us.  We originally were going to head to Austin, but when we couldn't get a hotel room we figured out that it was South by Southwest, so we went to SA instead.  Once we got to SA we figured out that it was spring break!  I had no idea that SA would be such a destination to take your elementary-school aged child on his/her spring break.  But it was PACKED. I have to say, if I acted like many of those kids do in public, I would have gotten a swift hand to the bum. Wow!  Overall it was a fun weekend, tho.

 

Friday when we got there we went and walked around the Riverwalk and took in the sights.  We had dinner out and were so worn out that we ended up taking a cab back to the hotel! The Riverwalk is fun, just a ton of restaurants right along a path that lines the river.  I am amazed that we didn't see anyone go in the water while we were there...and there were a couple of times when it felt so crowded that I was worried I was going to go in! We asked our cab driver what to do the next day, and he said that a lot of the fun of San Antonio is in visiting the little areas outside the City.  Many of them are German settlements from way back when, and they will have festivals, and are just fun to go check out. 

 

So on Saturday we woke up bright and early, booked our tour of San Antonio (I'll get to that), and headed out of town to see Gruene - pronounced "Greeeen", like the color. We went there because it was nearby (30 minutes) and they were having a craft festival. It was a lot like going to the farmer's market in OB or Hillcrest, but without the vegetables, and in a DARLING, old-timey town. There were about 50 easy-ups with little craft-y tables set up underneath them.  Plus the town has about 10 antiques stores, a couple of restaurants, and some bed and breakfasts.  We went into a couple of the stores - one of them I wanted to ship the entire contents back to my house, it was so cute!  We had a nice lunch at Mozie's, which was just-opened, but in a very old building.  Then we went over and checked out the oldest dance-hall in Texas.  There was a band playing, and it was PACKED!  It was a really cute little town, and I am glad we went to see it.

 

Then we headed back into downtown to our hotel and our tour...on SEGWAYS!!  It was SO FUN!  I had never been on one of those contraptions before, but have been interested in them since they were first revealed, after being called the "ginger" by their inventor.  It was awesome.  We were in a group with a Mom, Dad, and their daughter - the mom was celebrating her birthday.  Our tour guide, Brett, was chock-full of SA information.  He had a story for everything, and could answer every question any of us had.  We zipped all over town, and the Segway is the way to go!  It's about as fast as riding your bike, but takes a lot less effort when you have to go up a hill.    After about 15 minutes I felt like it was just an extension of my body, and I was no longer worried about losing my balance or falling over.  If you ever get a chance to ride one, I would highly encourage it, they were just so fun. 

 

So, the weirdest part about this weekend is that John was ALSO in SA.  He had to be there for work, though, and was working ALL WEEKEND (poor thing!).  But after we finished our very fun tour we met up with him for an authentic Mexican dinner.  We went to a restaurant called Rosario's, which was ginourmous. I would highly recommend it if you are ever in SA and want a delicious Mexican meal that will make you full for the next 3 days.  It was really tasty, and it was fun to get to see my honey for a few hours!  He had to go home early, tho, so Megan and I went to the karaoke bar on our own after we dropped him at his hotel. 

 

On Sunday we woke up, packed, and went to tour the Alamo.  Just as we were getting there (and you just walk in, you don't have to wait in line or pay for anything, which was kind of surprising), there was a docent gathering people into the large courtyard to tell the "Alamo Story".  So we sat down on a bench and listened to the story of the Alamo and the other battles for the freedom of Texas.  It's a very touching story.  Our tour guide from Saturday, Brett, had also told us the historical tale, and I have to tell you, I liked his version better.  It was much more colorful!  But it was neat that we just stumbled into that presentation. We wandered around the grounds of the Alamo, looked in the museum, and then it was time to get me to the airport.

 

Overall it was a great trip!

 

P.S. I added the photos to our flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/evanses/