Seattle

was awesome. The end.

Just kidding. I have lots of details and photos to share - I know this post is a bit overdue, but I haven't been exactly sure if I should break up our trip or just go for one long mega-post.

Mega-post it is.

We arrived on what I'm told was one of the first nice days in Seattle. And it was so nice. Coming in on the plane, there was a beautiful view of the mountain (and what a lot of snow it had!), the sound, and the Olympics. Everything was so green. And blue. And sparkly.

I was on the ground in Seattle for approximately 1 hour before cupcakes were consumed. Outstanding. This was followed by a very nice dinner with some of our closest Seattle friends. How I'd missed it all - the friends, the food, the trees....

On Sunday, our very good friends Scott and Meredith threw us a super-awesome baby shower. They truly went all out - someone described the event "like Martha, but without all the pretension." The food was amazing, the shower game (matching children's books and their main characters) fun, and the company outstanding.Monday, Mike did his song and dance at the University. I didn't attend, but all reports indicate that it was a glowing success! I did attend the dinner in his honor that evening; it was so nice to see some of his advisors again and to see how proud they were of him.

Tuesday, Mike worked in the library. But, first, we went for super-yummy brunch with SYL and Cee. Here's a photo taken post-brunch (I had a big breakfast, to be fair).Wednesday, we left on our little side-trip to Leavenworth. For those not in the know, Leavenworth is a small town on the eastern side of the Cascades (up over Steven's Pass). The town has a Bavarian theme to it; it's very popular for Octoberfests (and the week after we were there, they were planning an accordion festival - so sorry to have missed that!).

Leavenworth is a little kitschy, but being nestled right in the mountains, it's also totally beautiful. We stayed at this lovely B&B on the outskirts of town. Here are some pictures taken at the B&B (the first two show the view from our room).The B&B also had, of course, a pet goat.I cannot stress enough how idyllic and tranquil and green Leavenworth was. Part of what made it so beautiful were all the mountains. The mountains, however, did not make for easy hiking (which, alas, was the only kind of hiking I was up for). We did manage to find a one-mile flat nature loop, though.What else was there to do in Leavenworth? Well, German towns aren't known for their vegetarian-friendliness. Luckily, this was a German-ish town near Seattle, so there was, in fact, a very good vegetarian sausage to be had.So good, in fact that one of us went back to the sausage restaurant and had the same thing again for dinner. I won't tell you which one of us, but I do think the picture above speaks for itself.

Another low-impact activity we did was to play mini-golf at the Bavarian-themed mini-golf course in town. Mike won, but I did give him a good run for his money.Friday morning we drove back across the pass.Friday afternoon I got to hang out with Jen Em and Daisy. Here are a few Daisy shots:And then Friday night was book club. Here are the book club ladies.Book club also featured a very special dessert made by Meredith: whoopie pies. They were good.Saturday morning we got to spend some time playing with Zachary.The rest of Saturday featured a trip to Green Lake, more cupcakes (hooray!), and a very nice farewell dinner with Bee & Cee and SYL (although Kris was missing).So that was our trip. It was good - so good - to be back in Seattle. We had a wonderful time; we really do miss our friends and it was so great to be able to spend time (although not enough) with so many of them. Thank you, friends, for re-arranging your schedules to see us!

We also appreciated the trees, the cooler temperatures, and, yes, the rain. Although, just to make sure we weren't getting too sad without any rain, we had a massive storm here last night - complete with hail, power loss, lightening, etc. Take that, Seattle!