Here and Back Again

[Foreward: Sorry it's been so long. I had a lot of editting to do with this post, and things didn't always come out the way they were supposed to, especially if they get erased. I hope you enjoy these as much as I liked having the opportunity to take them.]

I've seen this tag in a few places while I've been walking around. I don't know if it's associated with anything, but if you're going to see graffiti, it might as well be this.

There are a lot of plants here that I've never seen before.

Seattle has a lot of bridges. This one was taken on Univeristy Bridge looking at I-5 going over where Portage Bay and Lake Union meet. And yes, the whole city looks like the background.

Good people. The closest is Mojdeh who is the one who opened all the doors for me here.

I thought this was hilarious. To park here, you have to hop the curb and travel a good 15 feet "inland". I guess some people really want a drink of water.

Another oddity here. Most places don't have air conditioning because it hardly ever gets above 90. Also, some don't have central heat; instead, they have individual heaters in select rooms with these "comfort zone" termostats.

Seattle really is a city dropped in a forest. Trees and vines and foliage are omnipresent.

This is possibly the bluest picture I will ever take. People have forests and botanical gardens instead of lawns.

This is in the Greenlake neighborhood, which is one of two neighborhoods that are notorious for monsterous all way stops. It just seems like the city planners couldn't come up with anything so they just said, "You figure it out." This is a very busy 5-way stop.

This is Green Lake itself. If you go to google maps and look up Seattle, it's the green blob in the north central part of the city. It's a great park with sports fields, a community center, a monterous playground, and paddle boats and kayaks.

This is someone at the race unity picnic in Everett, the town where I work.

Again, if you like to photograph nature, walk down the street.

I've discovered the pleasure of having enough time to cook decent meals. While my culinary expertise hasn't widened much, I definitely enjoy eating a home cooked meal typically accompanied by a generous salad. A small Trader Joe's is about 4 blocks away, and it's the cheapest grocery in the area. Food at regular groceries is really expensive here, with everything a good $.50 more on each item than Urbana. This picture reminds me of some muppet character.

More good people having fun at the Baha'i booth during the International District's (Chinatown) annual festival.

More examples of dense foliage. They have the stuff dripping off of overpasses and all kinds of places where you wouldn't normally expect to see it.

People use parks here. It's unbelieveable how many people are in the parks on the weekend. Not a single part is unused. I think people just know how to take advantage of the good days, since they get so many gloomy ones throughout the fall winter and spring.

This ref talked so much smack to the players while they were playing, I guess to keep everybody in line and to maintain the pace. It was really funny.