Tag: summer
In the summer of 2013, Andreea came by to visit for a little while. This was her first time in the USA, first time in WA state, first time in Seattle. The weather was the perfect example of summer in Seattle, even though it was already middle of September.
BTW, funny story, Andreea arrived on a Friday and I was supposed to switch apartments over the weekend, so our first weekend together in 1 year was spent … packing, unpacking and moving the furniture around (it was only a move between floors, but still a move).
So, after we settled in our new apartment, on a sunny weekend, we took a tiny break from day to day activities and went around the city. First stop was University of Washington where we went into the amazing Suzzallo Library – I believe I have some other pictures from inside, will add them some other time. This inscription though is what stays above the cafeteria… (“Books well read fine tutors make”)
We walked a bit outside, went to the fountain…
After that, we decided to go to Gas Works park in Seattle – this park has an interesting story and a nice view of the downtown area. The park was initially a coal gasification plant – and you can still see the remnants of the factory / plant around. As to the view…
Last, but not least, there were two people doing a “color” photo-shoot that seemed to enjoy themselves a lot.
After the park, we went to the place where one takes the most iconic picture of Seattle: Kerry Park. From here, on a nice, sunny day, you can view the downtown (with the Space Needle, EMP and all the skyscrapers), while the backdrop is beautiful Mount Rainier. So, we took the opportunity to promote our university 🙂
See you sooner this time!8
After another half a year hiatus, coming back with pictures still from 2013. This is a trip that I took with my better half to Hurricane Ridge in September 2013.
The trip was a bit far, but really cool – the road was very windy and very fun to drive on while getting from Port Angeles to the ridge. And while we were doing the hike … we saw quite a few animals (we call them Alan and Steve):
Next up, we were “attacked” by chipmunks.
Last, but not least, on the way back we ran into some deer walking on the path.
We were a bit tired, but the views were gorgeous and we had quite a bit of fun.
/cd
Blanca Lake is one of the cooler, “in this for the end” hikes. It takes a while to climb up and down to the lake from the parking lot, but the lake… This is a hike that I intend to do again and possibly spend more time around the end of the hike, at the lake. Rough estimates for this hike: about 7h both ways, with 1h to spend at the actual lake. The hike is made of 3 portions: a long portion of abrupt switchbacks through the forest followed by a plateau with small ups and downs and an abrupt descent to the lake. All in all, a nice hike. More pictures, less words.
Here we are about 1h into the hike. Spirits still up.
After about 2 more hours of “are we there yet?”, short breaks for water and physical wear-out, we got to see this:
I had seen pictures of the lake … but this looks amazing!
Small glimpses of it.
Until we got to the edge of the lake. The water looks amazing, even though I would not drink it 🙂
The “source” of the lake is this glacier melting during the summer.
And finally, proof that I was there 🙂
On the way back, we stopped for a bit (even though the hike was a lot easier on the way down – go figure) to admire the northern view towards Mount Baker.
Over and out,
/cd
This is the last part of the 2013 summer trip that I did with my parents. After visiting me in Seattle and we went on our awesome Hawaii – Vegas – Zion – Grand Canyon – Seattle trip, we decided to add one more flag to the map of visited cities (this is a figure of speech, but I actually have a map of Romania and I have marked on it all the trips that IÂ have taken as a kid with my parents in Romania – it’s pretty cool and full).
This trip began on a Thursday evening / night when we left Seattle and caught a red-eye (overnight) flight to New York. My parents would then follow their path back to Bucharest and I would fly back to Seattle. Anyway…
We flew for 5 hours, meaning that we had to get at most that much sleep – it was not easy or comfortable. We got in New York around 8AM local time (5AM Seattle time) after only a couple of hours of sleep. We took a cab to our hotel (in Manhattan) and since the room was not ready, we had to go start visiting.
Short definition: New York has multiple boroughs – Manhattan being just one of them. The others are Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island.
So, we got breakfast (and MUCH NEEDED coffee) and we did what any tourist does – get tickets for a hop-on hop-off in the city and start visiting. We got on a bus with plans to head over to see the Statue of Liberty and possibly Ellis Island. Of course was not a good enough stimulant, so I fell asleep on the top level of a double-decker and I woke up with the sign above approaching me at a pretty high velocity (fortunately, it was a bit higher).
We got off the bus in Lower Manhattan, close to Wall Street and took a boat trip to the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately, in order to actually climb in it, you need to book in advance – and moreover, the Statue was closed just until a day before due to Sandy (the hurricane). So, we strolled around for a bit.
That guy above ruins a pretty awesome pic. And below: Mom and Dad after a sleepless night, Lady Liberty and a bit of rain.
The Statue was nice, but it was also a bit disappointing. The statue is such a landmark that appears in so many movies – at least the ones that I watched as a kid – and it looks so impressive …Â and then you’re there and … it’s just not the same. I am pretty sure that all the movies just want to make it look bigger. Especially by putting the city with the skyscrapers in the background – see here:
As I mentioned, the island was just opening that week and you can see people were still working on remodeling after the hurricane.
After a while, we came back to the city and went through the city – just outside Times Square I got my very own version of the posters one can see everywhere with the yellow cabs:
Riding in the bus was pretty fun – on the one hand, you have a good perspective of the people on the street, of the buildings and everything going on around you. On the other hand, New York-ers look to be not so shy, so they don’t mind snapping photos of them.
In the picture above, there is so much stuff going on – first the person waiting while everyone else is moving, then the flag, then the blue building squeezed between the other two gray ones and the “American DollHouses” sign.
Even though we didn’t have the best weather for outdoors visiting – the clouds were pretty bad, but it did not rain – the trip was fun.
Switching to inside for the next post.
/cd