Argentina again

While I stay home making money to pay the bills, Miles is back in Argentina for the International Palaeontological Congress. It's hard not to be jealous. I studied Spanish for so many years, but I've never made it to a Spanish-speaking country... and there goes Miles (the guy who made a D in his first semester of Spanish before returning to Latin) on another trip to South America.  Hopefully, this time he will bring me back more than handmade chili bowls and wine.

Destination: Beach

Miles and I are adventure vacationers. Since getting married we've explored Mackinac Island; Arches National Park; Southwestern Colorado; New Mexico; Savannah, GA; New York City; Indianapolis; the Seattle area; and countless national and state parks. When we go on vacation, we tend to spend the whole time museum hopping, hiking, looking for rocks, and sightseeing. In between all of the fun, we seek out the best restaurants and eat our way through vacation. We always have a blast and the vacation is usually a spring board for our next vacation.

At Christmas, we went to Seattle and had a fabulous time. We did our usual adventure stuff, but because of the holiday, we also had a chance to relax and just really soak up our vacation time. After Seattle, I thought of nothing but a beach vacation... A whole week of soaking in vitamin D, reading, and sleeping.

It felt a little weird to do a beach vacation and up until the day we left, I had my doubts. I kept imagining Portland, Maine; the Redwood forest; and the Grand Tetons. I looked up last minute flight deals to Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and anywhere else other than Florida. Because if I should be taking a vacation, it should be an adventure.

Now, I couldn't imagine visiting someplace else (okay, I can, but...).  I spent over 5 hours a day playing in the sand and in the waves, reading, sleeping, and just watching the water. I thought for sure Miles would be bored, but he enjoyed some much needed downtime, too. I might not have been an adventure, but it sure was a vacation.

The (no-so) Crazy Friday Nights

Three things about this picture:
-Instead of drinking, watching TV, or going out, Miles is reading for his grant proposals. On a Friday night. Someone stop the presses! He's learning already when to squeeze it work.
-We keep the house set at 65 in the winter when we're home and at 62 when we're not home. Call us crazy, but we like the cold. Also: I'm cheap! Any hotter and our system just seems to run nonstop.
-Throughout my flu, Lewis and Clark didn't leave my side. Such sweet kitties of mine!

Olympic NP

On our final full day in Washington, we decided to visit Olympic. Only it was cold. And raining. I should have known our beautiful weather would come back to get us! We tried to see the mountains, but true to typical PNW weather, it was foggy. So, we headed out to the coast to get our first glimpse of the West Coast.

The drive was long and wet, but I was so excited to see the Pacific Ocean! I think this was (one of) Miles' highlights. He got to look at rocks and driftwood and prance around like a child. Word of advice, if you do decide to visit the west coast via Olympic and you want to visit Forks, WA from Twilight, make sure you are either a) prepared for teeny tiny mom and pop eateries or b) pack a lunch. While we did find a good burger drive in type place, next time (and yes, there will be a next time) we'll pack something.

Rainier NP (A must see)

I'd say one highlight of the trip for me was Rainier NP. I got to wear my LL Bean boots and run through the snow! We really didn't know what to expect when got up to visit the park. We had to rent chains for our tires because of icy roads... only it was in the 50s at the top and everything was melting! Seriously. Snowfall for this time of year has been well below average and the weather has been warm. 

One perk of visiting off season is the low number of tourists. The roads were pretty clear. There was a good number of snowshoers, but we didn't have to fight any ski traffic because the national park wasn't actually allowing skiing to take place.

There is one picture below that has us in jackets. I feel like I should say that those jackets lasted about 45 seconds after the picture was taken. We decided to go hiking around in the snow and it was entirely too warm for all of those layers. It was perfect vacation weather!

One more thing: those trees!! They smelled delicious and were so darn cute. I'd move there simply wake up to those evergreens everyday.

Adventures in Space!

The one thing we didn't want to do on our trip to Seattle was over-schedule ourselves with a million things to do. As a teacher and a graduate student, we're both tired. Seattle was not just a trip, but vacation. We went to NYC back in February and when we got on the plane home, we were exhausted by all we had done. We didn't want that for this vacation, so instead of planning things to do each day, we basically did what felt good.

That meant we spending Christmas day in bed. Literally, I spent almost all of Christmas day in my jammies watching the water and Christmas movies. With most of Seattle closed, we couldn't do a lot. We could have gone sightseeing, but we thought laying around would be better-- and it was.

The one thing we did have planned that day was dinner at the Space Needle and I'm so glad we did. Miles made our reservations for 4pm which meant we would be able to see Seattle in daylight, sunset, and at nighttime. Needless to say, the views were amazing and dinner, a three-course meal, was worth every penny we spent (which was a lot).

Starbucks & Pike's Market

  

Question: If there is a Starbucks on every corner and a college student visits Seattle with the goal of drinking as much Starbucks as possible, how many cups of coffee will this college student drink?

Answer: Enough that the night owl, who likes to sleep in, was happily up at 5am every morning.

Our only disappointment with the original Starbucks is that there wasn't a place to sit and drink. We would have liked to enjoy our early morning coffee, but I guess walking and sipping isn't that bad either.

Let's also talk about Pike's Market. It's possible that this place has more happy smells than anywhere else I've ever been. Our hotel was just a block away from the market, so Miles and I spent some time exploring and smelling. My only regret is I couldn't eat everything! Everything was so fresh and smelled so good.