Local sight seeing
The job search continues. And while there are some minor progressions on that front, the superstitious part of me says to stay quiet until something firm is in place. I will listen to that side of me at the moment. Fingers crossed things work out, I'm channeling positive thoughts and energy every passing day. I even submitted a writing sample today, which made me question a previous writing sample, which made me think that I better stay up to date with my writing skills. As if I haven't written more cover letters in the last few months than I had in my entire life before that!
Anyway, there are some more lighthearted things to write about. Marcus sat the bar two weeks ago and got two hellish days of testing done. Celebration!!!! I went with an depleted Marcus to Bitterroot down in Ballard to feast on some happy hour bbq and some strong whiskey cocktails to celebrate. Then the next few days were spent recovering somewhat and I slowly watched the life return to the dear man's eyes. He's back!! And now that he's back, we can actually get out and about a little bit to see some parts of Seattle that Marcus hasn't seen before.
In an effort to hide the birthday getaway location, I took Marcus east of Seattle, out to Snoqualmie Falls to get in some waterfall time. The last time (and only other time) I went to Snoqualmie Falls was with Peter and one of his friends, wanting to see the location of the cult TV show Twin Peaks. As I frequently do, I fell asleep while they were watching episode after episode only to wake up to blood curdling screams. It didn't really make a great impression, but since it's a big reason people go out to visit Snoqualmie, I streamed an episode for us to watch the night before. We only made it through one episode due to the heavy dramatics and the familiar, frequent blood curdling screams. Twin Peaks is a cult to which we do not belong.
Snoqualmie itself is lovely, though! We took a stroll through the woods down to the lower viewing area, admiring the huge mossy trees and signage along the way.
A classically gray and sprinkly day, we definitely got damp tramping through the trees. It was fun, though, and we're determined not to let the rain stop us from doing anything. Certainly can't wait around for the weather to turn fair in this area.
We drove through the old town center and walked around on very empty sidewalks. Then we continued our sight seeing at the Twede's diner over in North Bend, another Twin Peaks sight. Although the original cafe burned down a number of years ago, the diner was still appropriately old-looking with the sparkly blue vinyl booths and laser overhead lighting. We ordered, as our friends Candace and Chad would say, a very slutty meal. A giant burger and fries accompanied by an Oreo milkshake. They split what would typically be a meal for one onto two plates for us. Naturally we didn't finish the entire meal.
An excellent day excursion and I have a feeling there will be several more in the near future.
Fast forward to Marcus's birthday weekend. It's his 30th birthday, usually one accompanied by a large bout of celebration, at least in Australia. There were a few tricky factors for planning this year's birthday extravaganza. Being as we're still unemployed, I had to stay a bit financially conservative. We're also living out of each others' pockets at the moment so I had to steer the computer screen away every time I was working on part of the surprise. And what with one of our laptops pooping itself a few weeks ago, we were sharing the one computer which meant I had to be very careful not to leave anything open (and hope nothing would come up in internet history or in any auto-fill).
My first thoughts about the birthday were that he wouldn't get to celebrate the big milestone birthday with his friends and family. But I thought, they could still be a part of the day, so I messaged all of his friends on Facebook and asked them to make a little video with a birthday message and send it to me. I had a good collection of videos to play for him on the day. :) I also emailed with his mom so we could figure out a good present she could get him from overseas. Success. Definitely got on the family and friend involvement.
Next I had to figure out a destination, one that would have a great activity or lovely scenery and most definitely a good place to go for dinner. We haven't gone out to the San Juan islands at all and I thought that would be a great trip so I searched through a number of the different islands and decided on Orcas island. Booked in accommodation and dinner reservations, looked at some of the activities around the island and got the ferry schedule on hand.
Saturday morning. Early wake up. And I beat Marcus at singing happy birthday. Every year he sings happy birthday to himself in his funny little singsong voice, but this year I got in before him. :) Didn't hurt that I was waking him up at 6:30am. A little cruel on the birthday morning, I know! But I made up for it by going to this great doughnut place for breakfast, Mighty-O Doughnuts in a little pocket of our neighborhood he'd never been to. Great surprise, especially since he thought I was walking him into the pub next door to start the day off with a drink. Ha! Good doughnuts, too, we got an original, two French toast doughnuts, and a peanut butter. A guilty, guilty pleasure that can't be denied on a birthday.
The two hour drive to the ferry terminal at Anacortes went by quickly enough and we slid into the ferry line 15 minutes before departure. Golden. It was one hour ride over to Orcas Island which we mostly spent looking out the window, hoping to see whales (optimistic) and seeing lots of cormorants instead.
I'm pretty sure I've been to Orcas island once before, years and years ago I think Peter and I drove there on a whim. But I didn't remember any of it and definitely underestimated the size of the island. It's 57 square miles in area and it's about 20 miles from one end of the island to the other. Much larger than I thought, and definitely an area where you'd want to have a car if you want to see much of the island. In fact, we spent a lot of time in the car. Not that that was a bad thing since it was windy and rainy that day and not terribly conducive to spending much time outside. We drove around to some smaller villages on the island and didn't find much there, this time of the year being the off season. Then we drove up the mountain in Moran State Park, though only did a quick walk to one of the viewpoints since you have to pay a $10 fee for a day pass to hang out in the national park.
We headed up the mountain again and were able to drive all the way up to the top of the mountain (it had been closed the day before).
Then we drove around to a few other parts of the island, headed back to the ferry terminal and let some tiredness overtake us for a while. I don't know why it was an exhausting weekend, but we were wrecked when we got home. I went straight to the couch, snugged up to Marcus and fell asleep.
A lovely weekend but we were glad to get home. The first time we've been thankful to get to our new home here in Seattle. Hopefully that's a signal of good things to come.
Anyway, there are some more lighthearted things to write about. Marcus sat the bar two weeks ago and got two hellish days of testing done. Celebration!!!! I went with an depleted Marcus to Bitterroot down in Ballard to feast on some happy hour bbq and some strong whiskey cocktails to celebrate. Then the next few days were spent recovering somewhat and I slowly watched the life return to the dear man's eyes. He's back!! And now that he's back, we can actually get out and about a little bit to see some parts of Seattle that Marcus hasn't seen before.
In an effort to hide the birthday getaway location, I took Marcus east of Seattle, out to Snoqualmie Falls to get in some waterfall time. The last time (and only other time) I went to Snoqualmie Falls was with Peter and one of his friends, wanting to see the location of the cult TV show Twin Peaks. As I frequently do, I fell asleep while they were watching episode after episode only to wake up to blood curdling screams. It didn't really make a great impression, but since it's a big reason people go out to visit Snoqualmie, I streamed an episode for us to watch the night before. We only made it through one episode due to the heavy dramatics and the familiar, frequent blood curdling screams. Twin Peaks is a cult to which we do not belong.
Snoqualmie itself is lovely, though! We took a stroll through the woods down to the lower viewing area, admiring the huge mossy trees and signage along the way.
A classically gray and sprinkly day, we definitely got damp tramping through the trees. It was fun, though, and we're determined not to let the rain stop us from doing anything. Certainly can't wait around for the weather to turn fair in this area.
We drove through the old town center and walked around on very empty sidewalks. Then we continued our sight seeing at the Twede's diner over in North Bend, another Twin Peaks sight. Although the original cafe burned down a number of years ago, the diner was still appropriately old-looking with the sparkly blue vinyl booths and laser overhead lighting. We ordered, as our friends Candace and Chad would say, a very slutty meal. A giant burger and fries accompanied by an Oreo milkshake. They split what would typically be a meal for one onto two plates for us. Naturally we didn't finish the entire meal.
An excellent day excursion and I have a feeling there will be several more in the near future.
Fast forward to Marcus's birthday weekend. It's his 30th birthday, usually one accompanied by a large bout of celebration, at least in Australia. There were a few tricky factors for planning this year's birthday extravaganza. Being as we're still unemployed, I had to stay a bit financially conservative. We're also living out of each others' pockets at the moment so I had to steer the computer screen away every time I was working on part of the surprise. And what with one of our laptops pooping itself a few weeks ago, we were sharing the one computer which meant I had to be very careful not to leave anything open (and hope nothing would come up in internet history or in any auto-fill).
My first thoughts about the birthday were that he wouldn't get to celebrate the big milestone birthday with his friends and family. But I thought, they could still be a part of the day, so I messaged all of his friends on Facebook and asked them to make a little video with a birthday message and send it to me. I had a good collection of videos to play for him on the day. :) I also emailed with his mom so we could figure out a good present she could get him from overseas. Success. Definitely got on the family and friend involvement.
Next I had to figure out a destination, one that would have a great activity or lovely scenery and most definitely a good place to go for dinner. We haven't gone out to the San Juan islands at all and I thought that would be a great trip so I searched through a number of the different islands and decided on Orcas island. Booked in accommodation and dinner reservations, looked at some of the activities around the island and got the ferry schedule on hand.
Saturday morning. Early wake up. And I beat Marcus at singing happy birthday. Every year he sings happy birthday to himself in his funny little singsong voice, but this year I got in before him. :) Didn't hurt that I was waking him up at 6:30am. A little cruel on the birthday morning, I know! But I made up for it by going to this great doughnut place for breakfast, Mighty-O Doughnuts in a little pocket of our neighborhood he'd never been to. Great surprise, especially since he thought I was walking him into the pub next door to start the day off with a drink. Ha! Good doughnuts, too, we got an original, two French toast doughnuts, and a peanut butter. A guilty, guilty pleasure that can't be denied on a birthday.
The two hour drive to the ferry terminal at Anacortes went by quickly enough and we slid into the ferry line 15 minutes before departure. Golden. It was one hour ride over to Orcas Island which we mostly spent looking out the window, hoping to see whales (optimistic) and seeing lots of cormorants instead.
I'm pretty sure I've been to Orcas island once before, years and years ago I think Peter and I drove there on a whim. But I didn't remember any of it and definitely underestimated the size of the island. It's 57 square miles in area and it's about 20 miles from one end of the island to the other. Much larger than I thought, and definitely an area where you'd want to have a car if you want to see much of the island. In fact, we spent a lot of time in the car. Not that that was a bad thing since it was windy and rainy that day and not terribly conducive to spending much time outside. We drove around to some smaller villages on the island and didn't find much there, this time of the year being the off season. Then we drove up the mountain in Moran State Park, though only did a quick walk to one of the viewpoints since you have to pay a $10 fee for a day pass to hang out in the national park.
It was pretty cold! And that's the one picture I got of us without my hair flying in both our faces. :) And there was snow! Certainly a first time that Marcus has had snow on his birthday! Excuse the thumb.
Then we came back down, checked into our hotel and had a walk to the recommended lunch place, Rose's Bakery. A tasty pizza and soup later, I decided we should stop in at the bakery on our way back to the hotel. Actually, I had called a few days before and ordered a bit of a birthday cake, or their version of a birthday cake. I told them when I'd swing by to pick it up, and the guy I talked to was pretty lovely and seemed excited about what they were going to put together. Marcus, none the wiser, came into the bakery with me (this is nothing novel what with my love for bakeries) and I walked up to the counter and asked if they had something in the back for Tina. The lady gave me a blank look, so I clarified a little, said I'd spoken with a man a few days before to order something.... she went to talk to her bosses, the owners, and came back with a look on her face that said "we have nothing ready" and asked me to come back in 15 minutes. I was there two hours after the appointed pick up time! L-A-M-E!! Surprise ruiners!! After Marcus figured out what was going on, he told me to cancel it. Not big on people that don't hold up their end of a bargain in our household.
So we walked across the street to the chocolate shop and bought some truffles, and on our way back to the hotel the bakery owner approached me to ask if I had a few minutes. I figured I'd give him a second chance and went in, sending Marcus back to the hotel to start Skype dates with his family. The owner told me his partner (the pastry-making half of the business) had just gotten back from a cake convention and had some cakes. He presented me with a chocolate mousse cake and let me try a piece. It was tasty, but chocolate mousse cake isn't exactly a Marcus cake and I told him so. Scrambling, he asked if I liked raspberry and came out with some little raspberry desserts. I figured I did need at least some kind of birthday dessert, so I took one. He must have felt a bit guilty (though he certainly didn't show it) because he gave it to me for free. It was the most awkward birthday cake exchange I've ever experienced, then I realized I must have picked up my mom's knack for getting free birthday things. On my 16th birthday she ended up getting a free cheesecake. And a free night at the Coeur d'Alene resort. I suppose she taught me to speak up when people weren't holding up to their word. :) Anyway, thanks for passing on the free birthday cake energy!
Marcus Skyped with his mom and brothers and their wives and families which was really nice. Then we decided we'd check out the hot springs on the other side of the island at Doe Bay. I read that there was a time of day that was clothing optional, but didn't really think anything of it. Probably should've given it more heed, though. Because we spent the next few hours with a bunch of nudies! I had looked at staying at this resort, but it looked a little more hippy than Marcus would prefer, and while it was nice and in a beautifully quiet nook, I'm glad we stayed elsewhere. The hot springs were really just three soaking tubs and a sauna. The soak itself was really nice, much more relaxing than either of us predicted. Lovely view out into the sound, rain pattering on the patio roof with a cold breeze on the skin outside the water. It was really, really nice. Except maybe for all the boobies, penii and butts running around! Ha! Welcome to Orcas island Marcus!! And happy birthday!!! Marcus was talking to one of his brothers later who jokingly said he was going to try to arrange a stripper. Marcus told him I'd covered it, lots of naked people. And of course, yes, a little prude on our part, mostly trying not to look too obvious that we were looking away from their nakedness. But they were all super comfortable in their skin which was quite good, really. It makes you realize just how prude we tend to be. There's a reminder. Maybe we need to get a little more comfortable in our skin. :)
We went back to the hotel, showered up, and headed out to dinner which happened to be at the restaurant of our hotel. It gets the best reviews in town and for such a quiet island, it was pretty busy. Dinner itself was fine, nice food though it won't get ranked in our favorite meals of all time. I had also spoken to the restaurant people the week before to see if they could arrange anything special for Marcus's birthday. They weren't terribly creative, but said they would do a candle on Marcus's dessert. Good enough. We ordered a cardamom creme brulee and when it came out it was quite obviously without candle or fanfare. A double birthday dessert bust!! Tell you what, Orcas island, you fail miserably at birthday desserts! I was so disappointed I made Marcus promise me that he'd let me make him a birthday cake when we got home. Surprisingly, I've never made him a birthday cake and it seemed like this was signaling the need to change that.
We went out to the one pub on the island afterward, had a drink and got into our typical buzzy serious discussions of politics and the future. Came back to our hotel and called it a night (though strangely early at 9:30!).
The next morning we took in the view from our window, then headed out to take advantage of the $7 breakfast special. Outrageous.
Then we drove around to a few other parts of the island, headed back to the ferry terminal and let some tiredness overtake us for a while. I don't know why it was an exhausting weekend, but we were wrecked when we got home. I went straight to the couch, snugged up to Marcus and fell asleep.
A lovely weekend but we were glad to get home. The first time we've been thankful to get to our new home here in Seattle. Hopefully that's a signal of good things to come.
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