New phone

Welp, I'm about 5 years behind, but I finally ditched the Blackberry and jumped on the iPhone bandwagon! With the release of the iPhone 5, I decided to go for it. I mean, if there's so much anticipation about a phone that people wait in ridiculous lines just to get it, it's gotta be good, right? Well maybe not according to this commercial (love it). Clint might also scold me for not doing endless amounts of research on it, but I'm just going to go with the masses on this one. Jumping off a cliff later? Sure, I'll join.

shiny new toy

playing with the panorama camera feature - the lobby at my office

view from Clint's condo

So my consensus so far? It's little, fast, pretty, and I love it.

Walk for Wishes

This past Sunday, Maureen and I helped out the Make-a-Wish foundation by volunteering our time at the Walk for Wishes held a Marymoor Park. Make-a-Wish is the official Chi Omega philanthropy, so the alumni group had set up this opportunity for us. Note to self: stop making early morning plans for weekends no matter how good it sounds at the time (i.e. races, volunteering, etc.). Looking back, of course I'm glad I did it...I helped out with a good cause AND got to spend some quality time with my Weiner Boo...but having to get up early on a Sunday had me questioning my logic.

We arrived at the park, found the other Chi O alums there to help, and got our assignments. Weiner and I were stationed together at a fork in the path to make sure the runners and walkers stayed on course. I think we were also supposed to cheer them on, but we were mostly busy chit chatting.

Congrats walkers!

After the walk, the two of us treated ourselves with lunch at Red Robin. I won't say who, but one of us got lost on the 2 minute drive from Marymoor to the restaurant while the other waited for 20 minutes, and it wasn't me. Lunch was great, and I had a blast catching up with Weiner as always.

The race attendance doubled in size this year and they raised over $220,000, all thanks to our help (probably). Way to go us!

I'm handy!

Another house project completed! I hung up some peg board in my laundry room so I can get to my tools easier.

After a few test holes to find the studs and a trip to Home Depot to get longer screws, I finally got the thing mounted. So proud!

Salty's Sunday

Last Sunday, Clint surprised me with reservations at Salty's for their all you can eat brunch...boy does he know the way to my heart! I've been wanting to go for a while now that I live so close, and this was the perfect treat for our lazy Sunday.

We got there at 11:30a and had 3 hours to graze before they closed up shop. I tried to pace myself, but the food coma I endured afterward was inevitable. I started out with a plate of savory breakfasts...eggs benedict, hash browns, sausage, bacon, and some mac n cheese thrown in for fun. Next I moved on to seafood...crab legs, peel and eat shrimp, oysters, smoked salmon...so much good stuff! I also tried the ravioli Clint had prepared from the pasta bar, so delicious. Stuffed at this point but not wanting to miss out on anything, I had waffles, pancakes, fruit, prime rib, and even fair scones (this was a special treat since we had opted to not do the Puyallup Fair - it was just too much effort to make the trip, so scones made up for that!).

one of Clint's many plates

delicious scones!

At this point I was painfully full, but couldn't pass up dessert! I hit up the chocolate fountain and dipped just about everything available...including my hand, whoops (that can't be sanitary). We then topped it all off with cookies and freshly made donuts. I'd say we successfully conquered that buffet!

Thanks Clint, you sure do spoil me!

gorgeous view from our table

September Birchbox

Birchbox time again! This month was pretty good. I got a package of tea, nail polish remover wipes, perfume, face wash, makeup, and a bottle of nail polish. I liked the nail polish remover wipes so much  that I may just purchase them! I always seem to let my polish chip and never think to take it off while I'm at home. Instead I get to work and am embarrassed to show my hands, so it'd be handy to have these in my purse when I need them.

The polish itself is pretty hideous. From the bottle, it looked like a fun color, but turned out to be puke green. Sure wish I had a remover wipe with me the day I wore it to work...

yuck

My coworker and I did some exchanging, and she gave me her make-up brush guards and a perfume sample. I gave her the tea (she wouldn't take the polish...). Now we'll see how the other samples stack up!

Mopeds...meep meep!

We decided to rent mopeds while on San Juan Island, and I couldn't have been more excited! I've never been on one before (one of my regrets from our Hawaii trip last year), but have always wanted to give it a try. It ended up being the funnest (yes, funnest) thing ever! At first I'll admit I was scared for my life (the pep talk about accident statistics and no hospital on the island from the instructor didn't help), but after a while my nerves calmed and I was unable to unclench my whole body and enjoy the ride.

We got to Susie's Mopeds where we made our rental reservation, and were given the full run down. The guy even made me do a few pre-practice runs in the driveway before letting me out in the street where everyone else does the actual practice run...I must have looked reckless.

learning how to operate them

Clint's practice run

We were even given a map that showed a loop around the entire island that had places of interest to stop and check out. It ended up being a pretty cool way to tour and see everything on San Juan.

our map

We took off and headed south to our first stop, the American camp during the war when the ownership of the San Juan islands was being disputed over between the British and the Americans. We checked out the little community center there and learned all sorts of San Juan history. Clint especially loved the 12 minute informational video, such a nerd.

so excited to learn!

After getting all educated, we walked around the grounds and checked out where the American soldiers were stationed. From the video, we learned that while the English were having parties, building elaborate homes, and living it up in general at their camp, the Americans were living in a dump while suffering from depression and alcoholism. Get it together Americans!

desolate American camp

We jumped back on the mopeds and headed further down the highway to get a closer look at the light house on the southern most tip of the island. The views along the way were amazing, and it was turning out to be a nice sunny day.

sweet helmets

We got off and wandered around the light house for a bit and saw some people trying to spot some whales. Guess they weren't out that day though, so we didn't luck out.

whale watching with no whales

Back on the road, we back-tracked to get on the big loop around the island again and headed towards the lilac farm. Clint wanted to skip it, but I didn't want to miss out on anything so I convinced him to make the stop. Turned out to be not much to see (it did smell pretty), but glad we went anyway.

thumbs up to lilacs

We then continued up the western coast towards the British camp, but pulled over a couple times for some photos.

overlooking the Straight of Juan de Fuca,
but still no whales

We also came across an Alpaca farm.

oh hi!

We eventually made our way to the British camp. After all they hype from that video, I think I was expecting a lot more...but the garden there was pretty.

seems just as desolate as American camp

garden in full bloom

Once we were done at British camp, we realized we better stop dilly dallying and get our mopeds back to Friday Harbor. Since we had spent the the entire day before at Roche Harbor, we decided to skip that part of the loop and just head straight back. 

By this time I felt more comfortable on the moped and cranked it up to full speed...a whopping 35mph! We were sharing the highway with cars, so we had to pull into the shoulder for them to pass, but we did get our chance to blast by some bicycles.

We made time for one more stop before getting back to Susie's, and that was to say hello to the San Juan icon, Mona the Camel! There are many rumors as to how a camel came to the island, but you can read the true story here. Mona didn't come up close for a visit, she was busy eating, but we did get a few pictures.

sorry to bother you...

After a full day of mopeding, we made our way back to Friday Harbor (passing up the winery...next time). We had a blast, so glad we went!

San Juan Island: Day 3

Sunday morning we woke up to take advantage of breakfast again (mmm, pancakes) and filled our packs with some bagels for later. We got back to our tent, showered, then packed up to head home. The weather was cloudy, so we were happy that we were able to take advantage of the good weather the day before. When we checked out at the lodge, we went out on the deck that had been off limits to us due to the wedding to at least see what was out there. There are a bunch of chairs and couches set up, and even a fireplace. Perfect spot to sit and relax at the end of the day.

goodbye Lakedale

Since the shuttle didn't run as often on Sundays, we had a cab come pick us up. The cabby showed up in a old yellow Mercury with checkerboard stripes. He even dressed the part with a driver's cap on. Once we got in, I noticed a little puppy sitting on the floor next to the driver, so cute! He took us in to Roche Harbor where we were scheduled to fly out of.

Once we got to Roche, we realized we had quite some time to kill before our 5pm flight, and not too much else to see. The little marina town was pretty deserted compared to Friday, plus the weather put us in a lazy mood. We did some walking around, checking out the shops and the little street fair, but that didn't take long. Fortunately, we found some cozy chairs next to the bocce ball courts to post up in for a bit while we took our packs off and relaxed.

street fair

Friday weather...

compared to Sunday weather.

taking a load off

I actually got a little nap in while Clint listened to some stock market podcast on his phone. When I woke up, it was only 3pm. I decided to walk down to the dock and see if there was a chance of getting an earlier flight home. I happened to time it perfectly as a plane was just landing. Unfortunately they only had room for one to Seattle, so I flew home without Clint...I kid, I kid.

I headed back to Clint to tell him the news, but was getting a little too stir crazy to keep lounging around.  So, we decided to do some more exploring. We found a development where you can buy a plot of land and have a house built, so we checked out all the empty lots to find the best one to buy when we are rich. We headed to the top of the hill and liked the view from up there the best.

view from our future vacation home

We also came across the trailhead for the lime quarries, so we hiked into the woods a little bit to check things out.

one of the quarries

refusing to stop chewing for a photo

lime kiln stuff

waiting for him to read every last word

After our lime mining history lesson, I was in the mood for some clam chowder. We went back to the Madrona Bar & Grill and sat out on the patio again. We had just enough time to enjoy a bowl of soup before our plane took off.

We made our way down to the end of the dock saying goodbye to all the fancy boats and were ready to board. Clint ended up getting stuck helping get everyone's luggage on board after I had him pose for a picture, what a good guy.

cheese!

happy helper

Even though it was a gray day, the views on the way home were still amazing. I recommend everyone travel by seaplane, makes you feel fancy! We were sad to be leaving since we had such an incredible time, but we'll be back!

goodbye San Juan

home, sweet home