Im not a bum, i promise

Jordy really is my inspiration here. Replace his hookah with a view of seattle, (i'll put the picture below) and listen to the string cheese show he got to witness at red rocks and we're pretty similar dudes living 2000miles apart. I have no jungle adventures to report on, but i do have whales eating seals to talk about.

My parents were in town last weekend and we did everything, seriously everything. I'll list them below with quick notes so you all feel like you were here. If you do come, i'll probably do a similar abridged route with you as it went so smoothly.

-Breakfast with Catherine and Parents on cap hill
delightful restaurant opening half hour after arrival, great food good people but sad goodbyes as catherine departed for Steamboat and Boulder after eating. She made it home safely and without trouble, she's now back in MN till school starts

-Pike place market
Crazy tourist destination where you can buy fresh fish/vegetables/flowers and souviniers, I better get good at cooking fish cause this is the place to buy it cheap and fresh.

-Seattle Aquarium
Preschool and elementary school is still not in session, wouldnt recommend until fall when their back in school, but lots of fun fish to see and touch,(yup you can touch some of them)

-Downtown Overlook
Midway up Queen Anne sits a park overlooking the Space Needle and Downtown, a good place to stand for a few minutes and look at seattle. Also a fun place to stand in the background of awkward wedding photographs occuring in the foreground.

-My Apt
A quick stop by to show them my new pad, My patio overlooks lake union and downtown, no space needle though, see picture below


-Ballard Locks
Here ships move between Lake Union(freshwater) and Puget Sound(salty) by going up or down about 10' in elevation. Salmon also make this trek through the fish ladder. Neverbefore have I seen a live salmon, or a fish 3'long and 30lbs. Pretty cool place to watch salmon climb a fish ladder.

-RedDoor Brewery
It feels like new belgium inside, but its just a bar in Fremont that loves New Belgium beer more than its own. A little patio lunch and we were on our way, again

- Nap?
I think this is when we took a little rest

-Space Needle
Youve seen it on the Supersonics jerseys and in the background of Frasiers apt, we went up all 540' of it and viewed the city. Mt. Baker and Rainier in the distances, Puget Sound and Lake Union at foot, and the city to say the least. Pretty cool way to see seattle once again

-IKEA?
I needed a dresser, so this made the best use of our time before eating. We found a great dresser that only took me 4 hours to assemble

-Dinner at Salty's
Sitting at water level across an inlet of puget sound from downtown we watched the sunset reflect off the buildings and then watched seattle light up. Heres pictures from my patio of Seattle at night.



-Whale Watching
Off to the SanJuan islands we took a 6hour cruise on a yacht to where whales live. We made it out to Vancouver Island Canada to find some. We were the 2nd boat of the day to find whales, and it took us plenty long to find them. A brisk day on the ship I was bundled in my recently purchased Whale hat and a jacket, we braved the cold weather for some orcas. The whales had made a seal kill in the water and were eating/playing while moving around. The male had a 6' dorsal fin, and then 2 young orcas were near as well. Never having seen a whale in person this was very cool, and I'd like to see more of them

Large Male Orca

Little Orcas

-Sunday see where Andy works day
-Vashon Island
A little ride on a ferry followed by a factory tour of a building all but shutdown, I showed my parents where our equipment used to be, and what used to happen in each of the rooms. They got a good view of where I spend my days, and what it is I do at work.

-K2 Seattle
Here we toured what is to come, where K2 is moving. Am impressive facility in seattle, I showed them the equipment formerly missing on vashon, showed them a little about how skis are made and they got to see where I will be working in the coming 2 weeks. I'm sad to leave vashon, but excited to get back 3hours of my day currently eaten by my commute. Heres a picture I took leaving work a few weeks ago

Vashon ferry dock

-This about covers our weekend, A final dinner at Ivars Salmon House where we enjoyed a huge piece of salmon that capped off the weekend. I miss colorado and want to go back and visit often, If i didnt have this job here I would leave my orca friends behind and come home.

In store for next time....
Mt Hood again this weekend to visit mr. Paul Rozsypal (ski coach for CU) and the aspen ski team
Following weekend is Catherines 21st bday, back to boulder for a few adult beverages with some great friends
Following that is 4 days in LosAngeles visiting more great friends and hopefully a sister.
Leaving LA i head straight to HongKong China for 2 weeks, Working in the peoples republic. After that hopefully some downtime in Seattle. I apologize for the ginormous size of this blog, expect more shorter ones to follow.

My new favorite whale hat