Layne's Blog: Summer in May

A couple weekends ago, Seattle surprised us with the most gorgeous weather I've ever seen in May. The entire city was out and about enjoying what was hopefully a glimpse of what our summer will be like.

Clint and I took advantage of the sun by starting our Saturday with an early morning hike (yes, waking up at 8am counts as early). We headed to Rattlesnake Ridge which neither of us had hiked before. The parking lot was already getting crowded, so we made our way to the trailhead and started our 2 mile hike to the top of the ledge.

It was a beautiful day for a hike, and there were quite a few people already out on the trail. I only complained a little as I huffed and puffed up the mountain stopping a few times to rest my old lady knee. Hikes are hard.

But as soon as we got to the top, it was all worth it. The view there is amazing. You're facing east, so it would be a great spot to catch the sunrise. The ledge was super crowded with everyone and their dogs stopping to rest and have lunch. Clint and I found a spot to sit to rest and have snacks.

I'm a hiker!

Clint and Mt. Si

plane flying by and "waving"

looking down at our parked car

As we made our way back down, we realized we had come just in time. There was a constant stream of people on their way up making it difficult to pass them as we continued down to the bottom. We eventually made it down and back to the car to find that Clint had a message about joining his friend Matt on his sail boat. Can't turn that down, especially on opening day for boating season!

I headed home to change and then met up at Duane's place where we all drove down to the dock together. Turns out I was the only girl, but I wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to go on a sail boat for the first time just so they could have their guy time...I make everything more fun anyways, right?

We ~~helped~~ watched Matt get the boat ready and the sails hoisted, and we were on our way. We headed through the cut out to Lake Washington and passed by the log booms for the Windermere Cup earlier that day. Being such a nice day, every boat in Seattle seemed to be out enjoying it. Once we were out in the open, we put up the sails. Matt's boat is pretty fun, it holds up to 8 people, but it was nice only having the 5 of us. We switched from side to side as the boat tipped back and forth. It was cool to see how it all works.

After sailing, we went to Belltown Pizza and had the most delicious dinner ever. By far my favorite pizza, I could eat there everyday.

The next day was just as beautiful as the day before. Anne had invited me out on her boat to put around Lake Union. Since Clint had plans to golf with some friends, I jumped on the chance to be out on the water again.

It was just us girls...me, Alicia, Candace, Shannon, Amber, and Anne as our lady boat captain. We drove around Lake Union dodging paddle boarders, seaplanes, and Ride the Duck boats. Another great day to be out enjoying the weather, even Gas Works Parks was littered with people.

Being Cinco de Mayo, Alicia brought fixings to make the most delicious homemade guacamole. We celebrated by stuffing our faces, drinking Mexican beer, and singing along to Selena...the perfect Sunday in my book.