LGO Reunion Week!

It was LGO reunion week the other week. There were 4 out of 5 days in a row that I hung out with other LGO students. Some of which I haven't seen in 7 months (that's a long time after spending so much time together at school).

Reunion week started with a invitation from Noramay to join her for dinner at her place. She worked at Boeing prior to LGO and therefore owns a house in the area. She had a week off from her internship at Amgen and thus was in the area. Soji, our other Boeing LGO intern also came along.

Dinner was a delicious truly mexican tacos, and they were delicious.... easily the best tacos I've ever had (I'm not exaggerating). After dinner, Noramay showed us around the area.

We started at Snoqualmie falls, while it was no Multnomah Falls, it fit the evening perfectly. There was not too much walking after a very filling meal, yet beautiful scenery, and most importantly... great friends.

Beautiful rainbow next to the falls.
Noramay then took us to Pine lake... a lake where pine tree grew all the way up to the very edge of the lake.
There was an empty lifeguard chair in the middle of the water begging to be used (thanks to Noramay's suggestion to jump out to it).

Volunteering!

One of my goals for living in Seattle was to spend some time volunteering. Volunteering is something I used to do ALL the time in high school, then college, post college, and now college again have given me plenty of excuses to stay away from it. Well excuses no more, I have joinedSeattle Works, a volunteer organization for 20 and 30 year olds. They post a calendar of events you can volunteer for, you sign up online and an email with directions appears in your mailbox, then you show up. It's that easy.

For the summer, they have something called Team Works, where you join a volunteer team of about 15 people. The team meets once a month during the summer to do volunteer projects. They also meet socially on the side and thus it provides a great mechanism to meet new people and help out the community.

While I missed our first event due to a family reunion, I did not miss our groups first social event. We went to Golden Gardens park for a beach bonfire. Unfortunately, we didn't get a fire pit because the place was PACKED. It was basically the first nice week of weather (despite the clouds you see in the sky) and everyone was out!

We have a great pitch in dinner complete with gas fired grill over which we roasted marshmallows for smores.

A beautiful evening (even though there were clouds).
What's left of the group before departure!

New Look!

I've been wanting to update the look of my blog for a while, but today when I stumbled across the new "template designer", it knew today was the day.

The rainy background seemed appropriate to enforce the assumption that it ALWAYS rains in Seattle. The locals like the rainy reputation because they don't want this place "completely overrun like California". Since I'm trying to blend in with the locals as much as I can (which is easier than I thought cause so many of them are transplants from the midwest), I thought I would do my part to strengthen the rainy reputation. Please disregard all posted photos of beautiful sunsets and blue skies... those are just examples of my mad photoshop skills.

Family Reunion

I flew home for my 2nd time this summer for a family reunion. While I was nervous about the intense heat and humidity that I expected in Indiana, it turned out to be beautiful and 70 degrees for much of my visit (I'm not used to the weather anymore, I've been away to long and especially enjoying the mild climate of Seattle). Thank you Indiana!

Anyways, I was home for the annual family reunion on my dad's side. This year was special because EVERYONE made it. That may not seem like a big deal, but to my knowledge, this has never happened. The total count came to 61 people who spent three days playing golf, swimming, relaxing, eating pizza, playing cards, and enjoying each other's company. We have been doing this same event for 10-15 years now!

It always starts on Sunday with the golf tournament. 12 to 16 of the guys head out on the course for a scramble... and it is serious competition. The winners get possession of the famous gold club trophies and have bragging rights for the next year. We're talking serious... so serious I went to the driving range the day before with my dad and brother...

Thunder storms didn't keep us from finishing...

and when we were on the course, the was always complete focus on the game of golf.

After golf, we head to the pool and cool off before an evening at the local pizza joint, where we completely take over every year for a delicious pizza dinner followed by the annual group photo (count the babies, there are 5 under a year old, one was about 10 days old!!!)

Evenings consist of beer and cards... euchre being the game of choice.

As I mentioned this happens ever year. We do the exact same activities in the exact same sequence, but every year it is so much fun. I missed it last year due to class in Boston. Just by looking at my watch, I knew what everyone was up to. We are very fortunate to have a great family who enjoys getting together so much!

And as always, a big thank you to Grandma and Grandpa who pay for much of this great event every year.

More of Seattle

I've got some more pictures of Seattle to share.

Here's the flowers outside of my front door with the space needle and mount Rainier in the background early one morning on my way to work. (look between the buildings for the mountain).

Street performers at Pike's Place Market. I enjoyed their outfits.
This guy was GREAT on the piano!
The FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER!
The evening view I typically get to experience. Not bad, if only that one building were turned just a bit to remove the glare.

Sights of Seattle

Lately, I've been hopping around Seattle frequently. Almost every day I run or bike somewhere new. There's always a new view to be seen or a new hill to climb. Here are a few shots from around town...

Here's the view of Mount Rainier from a plane as I flew back into Seattle from a wedding in Indiana.

Here's a local park at night... it's like a party waiting to happen.
Here is my favorite place in the city. It's about 4 blocks from my house and I try to finish all of my runs there. It has the best view of the city...
and the sound!I live on a hill, a very steep hill. In some areas, the roads stop and public stairs begin so that pedestrians can get up and down the hills. There are about 50 sets of stairs sprinkled around the hill of all different styles. I particularly like this one for the canopy above.

Seattle Center

I live two blocks from Seattle Center... home of the famous Space Needle and Key Arean where the Supersonics used to play. Overall, it is about 5 blocks wide and 5 blocks long full of museums, indoor and outdoor pavilions, skate parks, and fountain (my favorite of course).

The largest fountain called the international fountain is a great place to cool off as it was designed to run through. Occasionally, the fountain "performs" with changing water jets synchronized to music. While it is not Bellagio Fountain, it is still entertaining.

Seattle Apartment

For those who don't know, when I left Boston for Indiana, I did not have an apartment in Seattle lined up. My plan was to get here and find one. Three days before I left Indiana for Seattle, a craigslist add responded and came through.

I would say the previous 3 months of Craigslist searching (including the pre-internship visit in April) gave me enough experience to feel good about agree to an apartment with two roommates who I had never met and an apartment I had never seen. Based on the location, apartment description and short phone conversation, I was confident that I would work out. I'm guessing that most people would not be comfortable with this situation. My thoughts... how bad could it be?

Well...

Upon arrival, the two new roommate walked out to my car and greeted me, then proceed to help unload everything! We were done in a few minutes! They then looked at me and my sister and asked if we wanted to see the town? We proceed a few blocks to the neighborhood center and were quickly acquainted with many of the local bars.

That night, I learned there is a great thing about Seattle called Happy Hours. They can happen at any time depending on the bar or restaurant (unlike Boston which has NO drink specials). For example, one place has a happy hour from 10pm till close! And the best part, the Happy Hours typically include great food!

All in all, the apartment has been great. Great roommates, great location, and great view (see below). Many people would consider my craigslist experience "lucky", but I arrogantly reply that it was due to my craigslist skill. I also attribute it to the great advice I've received from countless people (you know who you are... thank you!!!).

And now for some pictures of the apartment.

Here is the view from out living room. Two HUGE windows that meet in the corner! It's great!

You can see the Space Needle and skyline!

View from the balcony, as always, the powerlines look much worse in a picture than in real life.
Sweet stainless steel counter tops.

Who doesn't want two fridges?