Living Life in Seattle

April 19, 2011 | Category: Cities, Driving, Hiking, Lakes, Mountains, Seattle, Sunsets, Travel, Washington

Ariel and Anna at Kerry Park in Seattle

So towards the end of 2010 which I spent the vast majority of road tripping around the country, I started getting pretty burned out of all the traveling and driving. In November I found myself “living” in Portland. For Thanksgiving I was going to fly back home to Georgia to visit my family. Plane tickets were substantially cheaper flying out of Seattle than Portland and so I drove on up north from Oregon to Washington. Thanksgiving was wonderful and when I came back out west, I basically figured, “Well, here I am. I don’t feel like going anywhere so I’ll just stay here in Seattle.” Turns out this unplanned decision has worked out quite well… 🙂

(This post is being written mid-April, nearly 5 months after I started to settle into Seattle… whoa…)

So anyways, after I came back to Seattle, I figured that I’d just chill here and wouldn’t you know it, very much to my surprise, when I stopped tromping all over the country, I found that right here was just what I was looking for! The people here are pretty awesome (outdoorsy and cool), the beer is delicious and the coffee is everywhere, there’s close access to mountains and water, and oddly enough I actually like the weather! It definitely rains here a lot which understandably gets some people down, but to me the rain feels really refreshing and enlivening. It’s a cleansing and nourishing rain. That said, it’s AMAZING how much you come to appreciate the sun and the feel of warm sunlight against your skin living here… 🙂

For this post, I think I’m just gonna share a few pics that I’ve collected over the months on my phone, sights and scenery and cool whatever-we-happen-to-be-doing.

Evening stroll through the Pike Place Market

Like Kerry Park (very top photo), one of the classic places to go in Seattle is the Pike Place Market downtown (above). hm, I may have to go back here again and take more pictures. Basically you’ve got a bunch of street shops in this market right along the water, fresh fish (the fish dudes literally toss the fish around the market.. it’s cool), the original Starbucks (remember how the name of their drip coffee is the Pike Place Roast?), sweet brick roads, and plenty of places to get your nom (f0od, duh) on.

I met a girl out here too. Her name’s Anna. She’s pretty awesome. She flew out to Chicago to go audition for a role on the TV show Glee which we both love, and when she came back she auditioned right here in Seattle for a new American Idol’ish TV show called The Voice. Here’s a shot of her auditioning.

Anna auditioning for a new reality TV show called The Voice

While she didn’t make it through for either Glee or The Voice, I’m so proud of her for auditioning. Seriously. It’s awesome to find someone who’s passionate about something she loves and willing to go buy a plane ticket to fly halfway across the country and try out for something she really loves.

But speaking of not traveling as much, the northwest can have some pretty killer sunsets, when conditions are favorable. One evening Anna and I were coming back from the store and found this welcoming us as we walked back together to the car. What a treat. 🙂

Colorful parking lot sunset

Here in Seattle, whenever there’s sun people take FULL advantage of it! One afternoon we had some sun and so the two of us decided to take off for a hike. Anna’s roommate recommended a sweet location she often takes people to, an overlook called Rattlesnake Ledge. We hopped in the car and drove east towards it and, ah nuts, it started to rain on the way there. Nevertheless, we both had a great time hiking up together, Anna got to try out some of her new hiking clothing she’d recently picked up, and we were indeed treated to a sweet view.

Anna and Ariel at Rattlesnake Ridge

When I got to the top and we got cell reception, I checked my phone and saw that I got a call about an interview to work with REI Tacoma. Sweet! I’d wind up making it through to the second round of interviews but ultimately not making it though. Oh well. 🙂

I’ve been shooting mainly with my iPhone 3Gs these days.. just so much more convenient than shooting with an SLR, it’s always available, and I haven’t been too into photography lately. One thing I like about it is you get all these cool custom cameras and filters in some of the apps. For example, here’s a shot I liked taken with an app called Hipstamatic. It was shot in the car outside REI. In the bottom-left hand corner you’ll see one of the compasses I have in my car (which I should probably get rid of b/c it doesn’t work well) as well as my solar charger (to charge my phone.. and actually does charge in cloudy weather, albeit slowly).

Rain outside REI Tacoma

Back in Seattle there’s this hilarious improv show we like to frequent from time to time. If you’re a fan of the TV show Whose Line is it Anyways (aka “Whose Line” for those in the know 😉 ), you’ll love these guys. It has a similar premise. They take random audience suggestions and tie them into various games that they play on stage… These guys are hilarious!!

Jet City Improv performing

One of the popular parks here in town is Gasworks. One of its claims to fame is that a scene from the movie “10 Things I Hate About You” was shot here. If you’ve seen the film, remember the part with the paint fight? That was shot here at this park, out of the frame to the left of where this image shows.

Looking across Lake Union to downtown Seattle from Gasworks

There’s some crew team boats in the distance you can see, Lake Union, the Space Needle on the right side of the horizon, and the walkway in the foreground that winds through the grass. This park is pretty hilly in places which makes it extra fun to play, something people definitely do when the sun is out. 🙂

Kite flying at Gasworks

Yeah, there’s plenty of cool fun things here to see and do. 🙂

Anna playing putt-putt

🙂

5 Comments

Amanda
on April 20th, 2011
1
Ariel, you’re in Seattle now?! Sweet. Anna seems fun! I’ll be out in Seattle at the end of August. Hopefully with Laura and others….you planning to be there then?! I know you sort of follow the wind…

Miss you dude.
Ariel
on April 20th, 2011
2
Amanda! Definitely keep me posted about you and Laura coming on up here. 🙂 Miss you guys too!
Davidya
on October 20th, 2011
3
Ariel!
You’ve ended up in my part of the woods. I’m in Vancouver, just a few hours north, and across the border. Sounds like you’ve had quite an adventure.

Myself, I just got back here after a year in the US Midwest getting my Masters degree (long story). Have left a few times but always ended up back here. Love the Pacific NW.
Elaina
on January 9th, 2012
4
thought you might like this Ariel:

http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/iphone-slr-mount/
Ariel
on January 9th, 2012
5
Great to hear from you Elaina! Definitely a cool product, but kinda defeats the purpose of a small pocketable go anywhere camera, doesn’t it? 🙂