seattle spring continued

it's still spring in seattle and we've had some mixed weather. the past week or so has been typical seattle- CLOUDY! but it's also been chillier than normal with average temps 5-10 degrees cooler than expected. it's making it impossible to put my tomato plants out! i have noticed some new blooms around the neighborhood though. the dogwoods have been exploding all over town for the last three weeks. (by the way, there are pink dogwoods! they are the color of flamingos!) irises are just starting to open. the wisteria has suddenly blossomed over the last two weeks and can be seen all over town. the cherry trees are starting to grow cherries! and i've even spotted some peonies and roses getting ready to bloom over the next few weeks. today, it is beautifully sunny, but WINDY!

we've been busy since i last posted. we went to denver for the weekend mid-april. once again, i did not take a single picture, despite hauling my camera everywhere we went! another all-too-fast visit, but we were able to see a lot more friends than we did in february. we are not sure when we will be back, but hopefully at some point towards the end of the summer.

anthony's long-time friend casey flew into seattle from china last week and has been touring the city with us. i'm hoping he'll get to finally see the mountains today with the big clearing. we spent saturday at alki beach (another beautiful seattle park) and walked the shores picking through shells and crab bodies and taking pictures. we also saw a juvenile bald eagle!!! he was also walking along the shore and even had some snacks while we watched. yesterday we took the light rail to safeco field for a mariners game. lots of excitement all around. i have to say, i was pretty impressed with the light rail and recommend it to visitors trying to get into the city from the airport. also, i was amazed by the baseball stadium! the roof opens and closes (what's that called again?) and the lights were fantastic. there was also some pretty great food. we saw thai, sushi, philly cheese steaks, and chocolate dipped strawberries among the regular game fare. a great way to spend a sunday afternoon!

finally, we got the keys to our new rental home! we are moving to a beautiful house in a beautiful neighborhood. we will be taking our time, moving over the next few weeks. we have moved some boxes already and are packing little by little each day. it's hard to really see in this picture, but we have so many beautiful trees and other foliage in both the front and back yards, it's difficult to get a good angle! we still have a guest room, so please come visit if you can!

another seattle park: carkeek park

we had gorgeous weekend weather and decided to pick another seattle park to explore. this time, we found ourselves at carkeek park in northeast seattle. this park is over 200 acres and offers the most spectacular views of the olympic mountains and puget sound than anywhere else we've been so far. i have to say it rivals (and even beats in my opinion) the beauty of alki beach. there is a lot of variety in terrain, with a huge beach, open grassy spaces, and woody trails. salmon can be found in the stream that runs through the park and there are areas where dogs can run off leash. there are about 6 miles in trails, but they are all pretty short and run into one another. this definitely isn't the site for serious hikes, but would be a great place for some trail running. additionally, dogs are not allowed on the trails that cross the stream, nor can they access the beach. so, if you want to take full advantage, leave the pups at home. we ended up taking them back to the car to check out the beach for a few minutes, but never got the chance to visit the stream.

skagit valley tulips

we finally got to see the skagit valley tulips, and they are incredible! located about an hour north of seattle, the town of mt vernon hosts thousands upon thousands of visitors every spring for the tulip festival. the tulip festival lasts for the entire month of april every year, regardless of bloom dates (which can range over a month). they rotate their crops and have many fields spread over about 20 miles of land. the flowers in this section (roozengaarde) are the very same that are grown in amsterdam. they ship flowers all over the US throughout the year and have more varieties than i could even look through. you can also order bulbs or buy potted or freshly cut flowers on site. we ended up taking home several bunches and can't wait until they open! i imagine there are different varieties available every week, which of course makes we want to go back again and again! there are also daffodil and iris fields in the area (as well as several wineries), but we didn't make it to those this time around.

it was impossible to actually capture the enormity of these fields on my point and shoot, but i hope these photos give you some idea as to how incredible this place really is. we only walked through about a quarter of the area, missing hundreds of varieties and millions of tulips, but the area is so vast i can't imagine doing it all in a single day. if you plan to come to seattle at all next year, come in early april. spring in the northwest is a can't-miss event, and the tulips are absolutely unforgettable! but i urge you to bring your fanciest big girl camera. you'll regret it if you don't. :)

the reason i moved to seattle

after a whole lot of frustration and self-advocacy, i received this email this morning:

"Dear Ms. GoHollo,

Congratulations! After careful consideration of your application, the MSW Admissions Committee is pleased to recommend you to the UW Graduate School for admission to the MSW day program for fall quarter 2010. We recognize the strengths you will bring to the school and selected you from a pool of over 600 applicants. We look forward to seeing you in September!"

it has been such a long journey, but i have appreciated the obstacles.

thank you for holding me up these long, long months.

a canadian easter

anthony got the rare opportunity to take a day off, so we took advantage by driving up to vancouver, british columbia for easter weekend. of course a huge rainstorm followed us all the way from seattle to vancouver! (for those of you expecting tulip pictures, the soggy drive prevented us from stopping in skagit to see the tulips, but we've already got that rescheduled.) however, i was prepared with my galoshes, rain coat (with hood!) and umbrella. once we checked in, we decided to brave the elements and walk to english bay. it was beautiful, but i got the sense it's breath-taking when the weather is clear. still, we were able to pull out the camera and get a few shots during the downpour. we walked all over the west end, and were chilled to the bone by the end of it!

the next day we did more exploring on foot through gastown and chinatown. we even walked around the convention center to see some remnants of the olympic fanfare. the scenes from the convention center were spectacular, with views of the water, mountains and even gastown (behind anthony in the picture). in chinatown, we stopped at the chinese garden. we didn't do the full tour, but still enjoyed the beauty of the public park. areas like this (and we came across a few) really reminded me of seattle. lots of beautiful, nature preserving parks and gardens surrounded by sky scrapers and city noise. i think it's what makes such big cities desirable places to live. you've got all the amenities of city living, but pretty much anywhere that you live in the city you can still walk to a beautiful open space.

on our final day (easter sunday) we enjoyed the vancouver art gallery (particularly the visceral bodies exhibit) before walking to easter brunch. overall, we had some hits and misses (we couldn't find an open dim sum restaurant in chinatown, but instead got great veitnamese in a PACKED hole in the wall), but enjoyed our short vacation. next time we head to canada we're hoping to spend a weekend in victoria, british columbia. long weekend anyone?

stay tuned for this weekend's tulip festival!