Sunday, June 29, 2014

Exploring Ballard & Discovery Park

Good evening!
We are winding down this Sunday after a nice weekend, hopefully you are doing the same! Friday night we had a great time out on the town with some of my co-workers, don't worry we didn't stay out too late! We had to get up bright and early the next morning for a vet appointment for Peach & Herb, as you can see they were thrilled to be there:



After our vet visit we met some of my coworkers for brunch. We have developed a weekend brunch club with these wonderful folks and it's been a great way to try out a lot of different places around the city. I think that's one of my favorite things about Seattle, we have yet to have a bad meal yet. There are endless choices for delicious food on every corner. We have pretty much been eating our way through the entire city. Saturday night we decided to continue the food fest and head over to explore the Ballard neighborhood. 

First we stopped at the Ballard Locks to see the "Salmon ladder." The Ballard Locks allow boats to pass between the salt water in Puget Sound and the fresh water in Lake Union/Lake Washington. We watched a few boats go through the locks but the main highlight was watching the salmon run "upstream" through the ladder. Without actually seeing it in person, it's a bit hard to visualize. The water was flowing so quickly, it was amazing to see how much strength the salmon had to get up through the ladder.  









Today we went to Discovery Park for a hike and spent some time down at the beach. It's amazing to find a park like this within the city, over 400 acres of beautiful land, hiking trails and shoreline just 15 min away from our apartment. The tide was out so we took the opportunity to explore the tide pools and a nearby lighthouse. 






We finally found a beach house we can afford...I think the roof would be a little leaky though. 







After a nice hike, Trav really wanted a coffee. Real men drink their Starbucks out of their hiking boots...


Here are some other random highlights over the last few weeks. One of them being the purchase of our very own meat slicer : ) Every girl needs a meat slicer, right? For those of you who know me well (and know my Dad), this is not going to come as a shock to you. Travis and I are both big fans of delicious fresh deli meat and we are quite picky about buying it. This is a result of my Dad providing us with a constant supply of delicious Hormel deli meat every Sunday when we'd head over for dinner at my parents' house. However, now that we aren't in Minnesota anymore, we had to take matters into our own hands. Sort of...the "Meat Fairy" did pay us a visit and send us a whole deli turkey (and a smokey pork loin) via overnight mail in a foam cooler. My dad clearly knows the way to his daughter's (and son in law's) heart! We put the meat slicer into action and made some delicious smoked pork hot sandwiches. 



A quick shot of my two new favorite spices I discovered at the market. The smell of the smokey sea salt alone is enough to make me hungry. 


A quick stop at the rose garden on the waterfront trail while out for a run. 


Not a bad place to stretch after a nice run on a sunny day. 


And a closet dwelling cat just for kicks...

Hanging in the grass on a sunny afternoon by the waterfront trail. 

We miss you all, hope you are gearing up for a great 4th of July! We will miss being out in the sun and jumping in Lake Minnetonka for a dip, but we are excited to explore and relax a bit out here for our first Independence Day in Seattle!

Cheers!
KP

Monday, June 16, 2014

5 Wonderful Years

Hello and Happy Monday!
Today will be a short update since this weekend was quiet and I have a real doozy of a headache today, ugh! First of all, a belated Father's day shout out to all the Dads out there...especially ours! Jim Engstrom, Tom Peterson and Jack Biersdorf, thanks for all of your love and support, we'd be lost without you!

Last Friday we celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary, yay! I can't believe how quickly the time has gone! It's crazy to think that all of this started when we were just 12 years old in a middle school classroom. I clearly never thought I'd be marrying the guy with the bowl cut sitting next to me in Science class : ) But I'm sure glad I did! 

Celebrating our five years together felt especially important this year because I honestly don't think we could have taken this leap of faith and moved to Seattle without complete and utter trust in each other. It was a bit of a risk not knowing how things would turn out, but knowing that I had my best friend with me everyday by my side is what gave me the confidence to pursue a new chapter in my career and leave our friends and family. Since Travis and I have been together since we were kids, I really mean it when I say I can't imagine my life without him. Long before he was my husband he was a part of our family and my closest friend. Lucky for us we both got a bit cuter as the years went by (no more braces, white eyeliner, curly bangs, bowl cut, etc.). 

To celebrate our anniversary we got all dressed up and went out for dinner at Palisade, a nice restaurant on the water in Seattle. Travis enjoyed a cedar plank salmon while I enjoyed a nice steak (I am clearly my carnivorous father's daughter). Trav bought me some beautiful flowers from the market too! Here are a few shots from dinner:







The rest of the weekend was pretty low key. We both had crazy work weeks last week so we were looking forward to the first weekend in Seattle where we really had no plans. We didn't even do our normal weekend hiking routine. Instead, we had a nice breakfast Saturday morning and then enjoyed walking by a Classic Wooden Boat Show on the waterfront. Dad, you would have loved seeing these, they were so cool! The entire marina was full of beautiful wooden boats. 


The only other eventful thing to note is that we are going to be moving into a new apartment (again) in July! The one we are currently in has been VERY noisy. We were hoping to move up to a top floor unit in our building but it is not going to be available, so we are transferring to another building a mile up the street. Since it's the same management company we don't have to break our lease so it will be easy. It's much larger than our current apartment and will be a lot quieter. Overall it feels like a much better spot for us, we are looking forward to it (except the moving part). Let the packing begin...again : (

Not too much else to report. Here are a few other random photos from the weekend. Some delicious red velvet ice cream I enjoyed on Sunday, and a few cute felines : ) Oh and don't forget the cruise ships that are constantly outside our front door taunting me...I just want to jump off the end of the pier and climb onboard. 




I guess that wasn't very short after all...most of you know I'm not usually at a loss for words : ) Hope everyone is having a great week!
Cheers!
KP

Sunday, June 8, 2014

MN and Mt. Rainier

Hello and Happy Sunday Evening!
We are kicking our heels up after a busy week! So busy, we are a week behind in our blog entries, so this will be two posts in one! Last weekend we went home back to MN for my sister Molly's wedding reception. She and her wonderful husband Kelsey were married back in Dominican Republic in February with a beautiful beach ceremony so this was the last hoorah to celebrate with everyone who didn't join us in DR. It was a quick visit home, just over 48 hours in Minneapolis, but it was GREAT to see family! 

It was actually harder to leave this time than it was when we moved 7 weeks ago since we realized how much we really miss our wonderful friends and family. We had a great time at the wedding, cut a rug on the dance floor and a few of us (Travis in particular) stayed out quite late and paid for it the next day! Unfortunately I had a bad cold all weekend so I headed back to the hotel at 1:00 am (early compared to the rest of the crew) and hit the sheets. Here are a few shots from the wedding night, I didn't do a great job of snapping pictures. Trav, Steph and Jamie enjoyed a 3 am pizza as you can see : ) Thanks to Molly and Kelso for a fabulous night, we had a blast celebrating the two of you! 



There was another picture like this one above with my cousin Mary in it too, but it turned out super blurry. Sorry Mary! 


After a long work week I finally recovered from my cold (thanks to a few early bed time nights - not ashamed to admit some were before 8:00!). The weekend couldn't come soon enough! We tried a few new restaurants in the neighborhood, a Korean Fusion place called "Kushibar" and "Mama's Mexican Kitchen." Both are nearby our apartment and they were pretty yummy! 



After all that dining out we wanted to do some cooking at home so we took advantage of the GORGEOUS weather Saturday night and cooked some flank steak fajitas on the rooftop with a pitcher of margaritas (Trav's favorite). It turned out pretty delicious!



We rounded out the weekend with a fabulous hike in Mount Rainier National Park today. It was the longest hike we've done so far at 8 miles round trip. Before even beginning the hike we were able to get some amazing shots of Mt. Rainier while the clouds were at bay. The park had a ton of variety as you'll see below. There was a large bridge overlooking Carbon River, which is the river along the trail we took today. 








The trees in the forest were MASSIVE and some of them were up to 600 years old. You can see the scale below in the photo where Travis is next to an overturned tree, the roots alone are probably 20 feet high. 






In addition to the dense forest the Carbon River ran along the trail. We crossed over it using a series of log bridges, which were a bit unsteady so we were a little weary, but we got across nonetheless. 




The reward for crossing the river was a beautiful waterfall. We stopped to eat lunch there sitting on the rocks and enjoying the view and the cool air coming off the falls. It was a great way to refuel before turning around to head back. 





Sorry for the lengthy post, it's tough cramming two weeks into one! We hope you all have a wonderful week ahead of you! 
Cheers!
KP