My Kind of Seattle Day

Jeremy has had a pretty ridiculous schedule since we got here. He works all the time. I know he would like to relax any time that he's not at work, but he's a good sport and takes me out to do fun things. Yesterday was one of those days.

The University of Washington has a little place behind Husky Stadium that rents canoes. You can take them out and paddle around Lake Washington. Yesterday we paddled out to a different part of the lake. It's pretty marshy and full of ducks and geese. The birds on the lake are used to people (and their food) so they swim right up to your boat. It's pretty cool to have little ducklings surround your boat and swim with you for a bit.

I learned why you're not supposed to feed the ducks. We had some peanut butter crackers and the ducks went crazy for them. Right after this picture was taken, that duck ate the cracker right out of my hand. It would have been fine, but I thought it was going to take my finger with it. When the crackers were gone, the ducks weren't full. They do this thing where they stand up in the water and I was convinced they were going to jump in the boat. I'm done feeding ducks for a while.

The first crane we saw flew away before we could get close enough for me to take a picture and I spent some time talking about what a wimpy bird it was for flying away. This one, however, wouldn't fly away even when I wanted it to. We got really close to it and it kind of freaked me out. I even splashed it with the paddles to make it fly away- nothing. I'm sure he spent some talking with his friends about what a wimpy girl I was.

There are lily pads around the edges of the lake. I love the flowers that grow in the water. I'm not sure how that happens, but I like them.

Unfortunately, we don't have a picture of the most entertaining part of the lake trip. When we found out we were moving to Seattle, I immediately thought of hippies.  I haven't been disappointed. They are everywhere here. Yesterday we saw the best ones yet. If you hear "hippie" and it makes you think of 60-year-old with long hair, bathing naked in a lake, you would be correct. We saw a group of 6 or 7 chilling by the banks in all their hippie glory. And they were not shy. Think of a 65-year-old with long gray hair giving you a full frontal in knee deep water. That was our view. Once I got over the slight shock of seeing the group of nakies, I realized I was grateful. A lot of people in Seattle don't seem to wear deodorant, so at least this particular group would be getting rid of that BO for a while.

After canoeing, Jeremy and I went on a quest for a green pepper for dinner. There are little corner markets all over our nieghborhood, but they are more like glorified 7-11s that sell Costco canned food. We went to a couple of the markets and couldn't find any veggies, so we decided to bag it and go down to the lake. We found a new water spot that we love. It's only 4 blocks from our place and I think it's where we will be spending our evenings from now on. There were people and dogs swimming nearby, despite the "No Swimming" signs they had to pass to get in the water. We like walking down to the water to read or just sit. It's so relaxing to be near the lake.

There was another market just across the street from the lake so we made a last-ditch effort and headed into Pete's Deli. It was my dream market. It's this cute little mom and pop shop and I fell in love with it. I can't believe I didn't find this place before, but I will be a regular now.

We came home and made dinner and relaxed. It was a perfect day. When I imagined life in Seattle, this is exactly the kind of day I hoped for. Just exploring, discovering new things and spending quiet moments together. It's so fun to be a newlywed, and I can picture days like this well into our old age. This city is amazing and we have so much to see and learn here.

Seattle, you're growing on me every day.