Marina/Gardens

Hello Everyone!

Before I get to the pictures you just KNOW I'm gonna post, I have a little bit of news. Things are going well for me in my new job but things are not going so well in my new apartment building so I have decided to move closer to work. Right now I live north of downtown Seattle and work is south of downtown. It's quite a commute. I know moving is a huge pain and a little risky since I'm only a contractor at Alaska Air and have only been there 1 month, but I have a good feeling about it. I've already found an apartment in Auburn, which is only 11 miles from work.

Here's how I see things right now: I've developed this new love of life, travel, and outdoor adventure but I need money to fund these things. Alaska Air is a great place to work and I really like my job and my co-workers so I am going to do everything in my power to make sure I am successful there and perhaps they will even hire me permanently at some point. I am married to my job right now and most of my energy goes towards being good at it. I try to squeeze in fun in my spare time whenever I can and whenever the weather allows. Living closer to work will shorten my commute and give me more time to play. I will also be living one hour closer to Mount Rainier and Auburn has fantastic views of the mountain I'm told. Hey, did I mention my new gear?? I bought a tent, sleeping bag, air matress, collapsable chair (i'm not roughing it that much) and other miscellaneous camping gear. I also got a new backpack which is teh awesomest! It may be a while 'til I actually get to use my new toys because this move is going to be a financial burden. But I will go to Olympic Nat'l Park one of these days and when I do, it's going to be fabulous. Now onto the pictures...

~~ Des Moines Marina ~~

Well, Friday was supposed to be the nicest day of the whole weekend, go figure, so I decided to squeeze some outdoor time in around work. I took a long lunch and went down to the marina, camera in hand, and walked the rocky beach. It buoyed my spirits (ha, get it?) and I was more productive once I got back to work.

~~ Kubota Garden ~~

After work I drove to Kubota Garden and enjoyed the lush scenery until the sun went down.

The park is open sunup to sundown and is only about 5 miles down I-5 from the office so I imagine I'll be stopping frequently before or after work to enjoy the serenity of the gardens.

Pretty leaves

I love this tree. The bark on the trunk reminds me of an elephant's leg and the leaves are a fantastic color!

panorama-mania

I'm getting more competant with the panorama feature of my camera. I'm hoping to get a new camera soon though, one with a better lens. We'll see.

~ Good bye gardens, I'll be back soon.

Et Cetera

Miscellaneous ramblings on my part.
I forgot to include some Mt. Rainier info in my last post so here goes.

Mount Rainier National Park was established on March 2, 1899 and encompasses 235,625 acres, ranging in elevation from 1,610 to 14,410 feet above sea level. The mountain is an active volcano encased in over 35 square miles of snow and ice, surrounded by old growth forest and stunning wildflower meadows. The park is also rich in cultural resources and was designated a National Historic Landmark District as an outstanding example of early park planning and NPS rustic architecture. ~ as printed on the package of my Mount Rainier mousepad. Cool huh? I guess if you're a geek like me.

What this little snippet fails to convey is the real danger the volcano presents to the surrounding communities. It is a ticking time-bomb and volcanologists agree that it is long overdue for a major eruption. Hopefully officials have learned something from the Mt. St. Helens disaaster and have early warning systems and evacuation plans in place. But it's nearly impossible to be completely compared when you're dealing with mother nature.

On a completely different note, I got some more outdoor gear yesterday. Yays!!
I got a small tent, a folding chair, and other little camping supplies. I also got a new backpack - double Yays! It's a really awesome pack and perfect for day-hiking except it is just a tad, a smidge tight in the waist where it buckles. That's okay though, in fact it's perfect incentive to stay active and lose weight so I can wear my new backpack more comfortably!

I'm sure I'll be posting new adventures soon. The weather for this weekend is not looking so hot. Friday is supposed to be fabulous though, so here's hoping the meteoroligist got it wrong and the nice weather pushes back to Saturday. *fingers crossed*

My Sunday

So, what did you do this weekend? Myself, I didn't do that much - just took a 16 hour trip on Sunday, driving 330 miles and taking 550 photos. Very much to the dismay of my orphaned cat.
(For those not keeping track, that's more photos than I took on my entire Vegas vacation!)
I know, I can hardly believe I did it either. I must be posessed because this is not the Angela I know. I'm beginning to love sun-up to sun-down daytrip adventures. The plan was to drive out to Snoqualmie Falls, 35 miles or so, spend a couple of hours there and drive back. I spent a few hours there, but I didn't drive back. It was too beautiful outside to go home - can you blame me?! My cat can, and does. So here's how it went down, I went to bed at midnight, got up at 5am, and hit the road.

Washington in the early morning. There's really nothing special about this picture, I just wanted to show a typical view out here. (I like the bird flying overhead). Yes, I'm aware that photographing while driving is dangerous but my tripod was seated right next to me so it was very easy and there were virtually no other cars on the road so early in the morning, if that makes you feel any better.
On the way to the falls I spotted two deer grazing alongside the road.



They are heading to Seattle apparently.

I arrived at the falls around 7am. It turned out to be a beautiful day weather-wise, just as I had hoped. Here are some of my favorite pictures from Snoqualmie Falls Park.







Lots of pretty scenery at the falls











Garter snake sunning himself. If you click to enlarge you will see his tongue is out :p

This wide-angle shot is the so-called "money shot" of the falls but unfortunately the rainbow could not be seen from this angle. The building on the left is the Salish Lodge and it's very nice.

I love trees and the trees up here grow strangely compared to those in Minnesota. It's quite beautiful.



Taken from the lower observation deck. The 1/2 mile hike back up the steep incline was a good workout for me. Good thing I wore my new hiking shoes with good traction.

Tada! My new hiking shoes. I luv them!

Play the video to see the waterfall in action

I left the falls around 10:30, grabbed some food and could NOT bring myself to drive home. So I impulsively drove down to Mt. Rainier National Park and boy am I glad I did. My first visit to the park sucked compared to this one (with the exception of spending time with Julian) This time I got to see a lot, lot more. The weather was perfect and the views just kept getting better and better as I drove up the mountain road. The phrase repeated aloud was "Are you kidding me?!" each time I saw something spectacular. It was a phenomenal experience for me. I saw a ton of wildlife and great mountain views. Here are just a few of my favorite photos.

The photo above was taken on my way to the park.

The photos below were taken inside Mt. Rainier National Park.


I didn't do a thing to this photo, that is truly the color of Kautz Creek and the dry bed around it.

I like to call this next series of photos "Zooming in on Mt. Rainier"



This little bird was pretty but I wanted to ring it's little neck because it wouldn't stay still so I could take its picture. Oh the nerve! The photo was taken at the National Park Inn where Julian and I stayed and where I have reservations for later this year. I'm quite enraptured by Mt. Rainier if you can't tell. I'll be getting my money's worth and then some on my annual pass.

It was a different story with this little fella below who gladly posed for his close-up. Actually he scared the crap out of me at first. I opened my car door and was getting out, camera in hand, when I saw something flapping toward me. I wasn't sure if he was trying to land or about to claw my eyes out. At first I thought he was deranged. But as he sat there staring at me with a "Aren't you going to feed me, Dummy?" look on his face I realized that wasn't the case. Someone must have been feeding this little guy. Not a good idea to feed the wildlife. As a rule I try to keep my distance. He gave up and flew away when he realized I wasn't good for anything except taking his picture. He's awful cute huh.

Below, (drumroll) is the grand finale of Mt. Rainier, complete with video of an amazing view.






It must have been 7:30pm or so when I left the park. Once I got outside the park, I continued to see wildlife. I must have seen a total of 50 different deer throughout the course of the day. Just outside the park they travel in groups of about 10. The deer below is alert because 5 of her friends are sprinting towards her. They all ended up taking off which is odd since they are not very afraid of humans or cars.

As I got a little farther down the road I discovered why they ran.

Did this little guy really think he was going to have venison for dinner?
Silly coyote, the roadrunner always wins :)


Here are some elk just taking it easy. They have no clue how awesome the view is from where they are do they?

Wrapping it up, these were my final shots, just taken along the road somewhere. I tried in vain to get a sunset photo - it was a pretty sunset. When the sun dipped below the treeline the evergreens were backlit in pink. But you'll just have to take my word for it because I could never find the right place to stop and get a good picture of it and I was running low on gas and had to stop and re-fuel. Bummer.


So ends my daytrip. I got home sometime after 10pm. I was tired but the trip was SO worth it. I'm already planning my next trip in my head. Memorial Day weekend is coming up and I'm thinking Olympic National Park! Oooohhh (anxiously rubbing hands together) We'll see. You can't plan too much though or you lose some sense of adventure. 'Til next time!

I HEART WASHINGTON!! / Happy Birthday Grampa Shorty!

I've been writing about my sightseeing a lot, but have I stopped to mention how much I absolutely love living here?? How I feel that I was born in the wrong state and I am finally home? Well it's true. Minnesota is a lovely state in it's own right, but the Pacific Northwest is the climate for me. People complain that it's damp, rainy, and cloudy here. I just see the light rain as an ocean mist! And the weather changes dramatically throughout the day, clouds roll in, it might sprinkle a light rain, then the sun pops out for a while. And I think the clouds are pretty. It also smells lovely here. The air is as fresh, crisp, and fragrant as the apples they grow here. Everytime you walk outside you smell a mix of fragrant flowers and spring rain with just a hint of ocean breeze. They say Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes, but they've got nothing on Seattle. I've never seen so much water as I have here, there's more water than land. I recently discovered Angle Lake just a few blocks from my work. I like to go to the park there on my lunch break. I also discovered the Des Moines Marina about a mile or so from work. Now THAT feels like the ocean. There's a water front park with sand, seashells, and sea gulls. I love to walk the long pier and watch the people fishing. Fishing was big back in Minnesota - but nothing like it is out here. Here, people do it for a living. It's supposed to be nice out tomorrow so I'm going to head out to Snoqualmie Falls. I haven't seen enough of downtown Seattle yet to say I love it, but what I've seen of it is great and it's right on the water so how could I not love it?!

Oh my, I just noticed the date. Today would have been my grandfather's birthday. Happy Birthday Grampa, I've been thinking of you. That trip was for you.

My Grandpa Shorty took me on my first ever road trip leaving the state of Minnesota. I was in 4th grade I think and it seemed that all my friends were taking trips out of state to places like Disneyland, etc. Even my own parents were taking trips, but I had never even left the state. So I whined and complained, all I wanted to do was leave the friggin' state! So my Grandma packed us some food and Grampa and I headed out together in his blue van to the far away land called Wisonsin. It seemed so very far away to me, it was like entering a different world. Even the road signs looked different, as they used wooden posts instead of metal. And the chocolate milk tasted better too 'cause they had more cows there. We stopped to visit the mysterious and thrilling Crystal Caves. I still remember what the guide taught us: stalagtites hold on tight to the ceiling and stalagmites might one day reach them from the ground. At least I think that's what he said, it was a looong time ago. I'd like to think it was no coincidence that the rental place in Vegas was out of cars and gave me a blue van. It was almost as if Grampa was there with me on that trip.