Force of July Seattle

Karen and I took a trip to Seattle, just to get away for the 4th. I still have a beard and Karen has been training for a marathon and a triathalon and eating healthily so she's in really good shape. I still take comfort in the fact that if I fall unconscious that she could fireman carry me to safety. Anyhow, this picture was actually taken on the last day of our va-kay at a local breakfast joint in Redmond, WA. Note the smiley face... I was hungry.

 On Saturday, we met up with one of karen's classmates. On a street called Keystone Place, I found what heaven would be for me: Coffee on one side of the street (Zokka's, local Seattle roaster) and a donut shop on the other (Mighty-O's, I only learned later that it's a vegan donut shop... still decent otherwise.) Much emboldened by the single expresso and half of Karen's latte, we biked on the Burke-Gillman path from the Univ of WA (in red). We went west to Ballrd and crossed the lake on the Chitten Salmon gates.We had lunch at the gates and watched a couple boats go through the panama canal'ish flood and lock system.On the far side of the river is the salmon locks. No salmon right now though. We crossed the river and then came back on the Ballard Bridge back to UW. For a total of 15 miles. It was precarious at some points because some of the streets didn't have bike lanes and it wasn't clear how we were to get onto the bridge. Otherwise, good fun, great exercise. We saw this sign at the Ballard open street market. Yes, children should be kept on short leashes at all times.

We stayed at Karen's friend's house in Redmond. I had some fun with the refrigerator magnets. I'm sure they think I'm a little odd, but oh well, the only person's opinion that matters is Karen's who does a good job of putting up with (resigning self to) my idiosyncrasies.


Once back home, we had to assuage our needy cat, who was understandably such since we left him at home for a whole 2.5 days alone. We gave him lots of food, water, and 2 inches more of potty. He was fine. Just needy, hot (it's been in the 90s recently) and almost 36 inches, paw to paw.