Real Rock Climbing

Here it is! The day I've been waiting for... my first time real rock climbing! The Group decided (after approximately 53 reply-all emails) that they would be heading out to The Exits on Friday. I quickly found out what they meant by "the Exits". At exit 32 and 38 off of I-90 there are some pretty good rocks to climb and they are only about 30-45 minutes away from downtown Seattle. Not a bad gig.

I headed out straight after work to meet up in the parking lot. We then hiked about 7 minutes up to the wall through gorgeous Northwestern forest. And there we were, at the base of the first rock wall I will ever climb! We dropped our packs and started gearing up - harnesses, ropes, carabiners, chalk bags, and ATC's!

*For a complete definition of climbing terms that may be use in this post and in future, please refer to Kristina's blog post on climbing.

The climbing started with Old Brad (I'm new Brad) leading a nice route with a 5.10 difficulty rating. He descended from the top and look at me and said "your turn".

I handed him my camera and approached the rocks nervously - arms still a bit sore from the climbing two day prior. I shook out my arms one more time, conducted on last setup safety check and thought "here goes nothing!"

"On Belay," I called checking to make sure my belay buddy was ready. "Belay On," I heard back. "Climbing!" I announced. "Climb on!" came back. I put my hands on appropriate starting holds and stepped up onto the rock with my feet. I then shifted my glance from my feet to my hand and started the ascent.

It was amazing! There were so many different holds and so many different ways to climb the same route! I couldn't believe how many different natural rock formations fit your hand so well or how a very small lip could easily support your weight without slipping! With a few blunders and peeling off once, if I recall correctly, I made it to the top. It wasn't pretty, but it was FUN! Next route, I'll try to clean up a bit!

The routes were between 35 and 60 feet high! Looking at rock walls, I still find it hard to believe that someone, let alone me, could climb up the side (with proper safety equipment of course).
One group member, Abbie, brought her dog along, who apparently got pretty bored with all of our vertical ascending!

This was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had and look forward to the next opportunity climb, which come to find out, is sooner than I think. I couldn't thank The Group enough for including me on this adventure and future ones! Hello Exit 32 come Sunday! Stay tuned!

Climbering

I'm jumping ahead along my summer timeline, but this is worth it. I recently met a group of people who frequently go rock climbing and welcomed me to join them!

My first outing with "The Group" was to Marymoor Park, a large park in Seattle home to baseball diamonds, a velodrome, outdoor movies, big name concerts, and a man-made outdoor climbing wall. This manmade wall was a great warm up for me, it had been about 2 years since I climbed last (I don't count climbing at leadership camps such as Outward Bound or the Warren Center). This was also my first official time climbing outside!

The wall simulated real rock since it wasn't a flat wall with distinct holds like most indoor gyms. This presented a new challenge. Instead of knowing where you next hand must go (due to the clearly marked route), I had to feel around to see what I liked best. This meant I have to make sure I have a good hold before I start searching for the next hold because it can take longer than I expect!

The weather was once again beautiful and many people were out climbing!

Even kids!

Man Made Mountains!!!
My new climbing friends Kristina (on wall) and Gwendolyn (on belay). These girls can kick my butt climbing!

We enjoyed climbing, talking, and sitting around eating our brown bag dinner. I made several 'friends' outside of "The Group" with the large pan of rice crispy treats that I brought to share. It was a great day knocking off my climbing rust! I have a long way to go, but it's coming back quickly... it needs to come back quickly because my next climb will be on real rocks in two days! More pictures to come... much more!!!

Jason Visits!

My college buddy Jason came in for a weekend, and the weather was BEAUTIFUL! Despite some flight delays, we had a very enjoyable fun filled weekend.

We started by heading up north to Mulkiteo where I had a volunteer event. After the event, we headed to the local beach for lunch at Ivar's and enjoyed the view.

On the pier, people were crab fishing. They had fishing poles with this cage on the end. They would cast the cage into the water and swiftly pull up some crab!

We returned to the city and headed over to Seattle Center for one of my favorite games... bocce ball. It was a beautiful afternoon to throw 3 lbs balls around the open fields.

We ate dinner at Peso's, a great mexican restaurant with an incredibly intricate bar. They ALWAYS have good music playing as well.

On Sunday, we explored Seward park. This park one of many located within the city limits of Seattle, yet you feel like you are very far away!

In the afternoon, we went paddle boarding. It looked pretty interesting, and it was a lot of fun to go out into the middle of Lake Union, but I'm not sure that I would do it again. Next activity on that lake... kayaking!

Come visit Seattle when it's beautiful while you can!!! The rain is coming!

Another bike ride

No Mercer Island yet, but here are some shots from a different ride. I went down to the water front near downtown Seattle like I usually do, but this time I had my camera with me.

Here's a shot of Pier 70 where MTV's The Real World: Seattle took place back in 1998! Not quite as cool as it looked on TV.

Here's the water fountain near Pier 70. There is a statue of a boy concealed by the water spraying high into the air.
A beautiful sunset.
The view south!
I found these clouds to be intriguing. To me, each row of clouds looked like it had the profile of a wing.
Ahh, the sunset again. But here's a good example of beach and saltwater with a mountain backdrop.

Gardenteering!

I volunteered at another Seattle Works event. This one was at a local food pantry garden. The garden grows a bunch of great food for the local pantry. And to think I always thought that food pantries only had non-perishable goods.

It was fun to get into a garden, pull some weeds and do some weed eating. It reminded me very much of growing up with a garden in the backyard... only this one was MUCH bigger.

We worked in crews and headed down the rows of beans pulling weeds. Pretty basic work but it needed it!
Action shot!

Biking Around

Most days afterwork, I head home and either jump on my bike for a ride or throw on my running shoes for a jog. Each time I head out, I try to take a different route, exploring a different part of the city. It helps me learn where I live (I like to know my area) and find things that many people don't know about... like hidden gardens or great views. Sometimes I'll even take my camera and snap a few shots. Here's some pictures from one of those trips.

I set out for Discovery Park, a park seated nicely on Puget Sound near the Magnolia area of Seattle. I had been there before on my bike, but didn't realize there was a lighthouse out on the western most point. My trek out to the point lead me down a very steep hill... VERY steep. I briefly let off my brakes and hit 41 mph before I even realized it!!! We'll just say that was a lot of fun on the way back.

I got out there and jumped off my bike to walk the remaining yards down the sandy trail to the lighthouse. The house itself wasn't quite as tall as I was expecting, but nice no-the-less.

The Puget Sound is one of the few areas that I'm aware of where when sitting on a salt water beach and looking out across the water you see mountains! And if you look to the south, you can see Mount Rainier as in this picture... look closely where the green coast on the left descends into the water in the middle, there is a faint outline of Rainier in the background.
On my way back, I stopped at the Chittenden Locks, famous for the fish ladder built opposite of the locks. Here is a picture of the locks:
And here's the fish ladder. Apparently, salmon smell the fresh water and are attracted to it. They then swim up these various ladder rungs until they are on the freshwater side of the dam.

Here's the dam! The white tubes are how fish go back to the ocean. The tubes have sensors in them for tracking/counting fish to study migration habits. Kinda cool!

As you can see, it was a great day for a ride. I think I put in about 23 miles that day! Someday soon I plan to ride around Mercer Island, that should clock in at around 30 miles... we'll save it for a weekend.

Bite of Seattle

It seems like every city has a food festival these days. In Seattle it's called the Bite of Seattle and it was about 3 blocks from my apartment at Seattle Center. There was over priced food and under-priced entertainment.

When I first walked up, I head a great band rocking some classic and modern covers. I thought they sounded pretty good, until I got a closer look and noticed they had a KEY-TAR player! At that point I KNEW they were good... as I chuckled to myself while watching the guy rock out on the key-tar.
Despite it being the last day of the festival, the crowds were still lively. Here's a shot of the main stage area with lovely Queen Anne hill in the background, crowned with 3 radio towers.
I continued exploring Seattle Center only to find the strangest yet most entertaining competitive event I believe that I've ever seen.... dogs long jumping into water. They had a platform, on which the girl is standing, next to a pool of water, into which the black dog is jumping. The dog would start on one end of the platform and take off running toward the trainer on the other end of the platform, who would throw a toy out over the pool of water, as seen just above the dog's head in the picture below. The dog would then jump into the water and retrieve the toy. Whoever's dog jumped the furthest won. Exciting huh? We'll just say you needed to be there.
The splash of the dog landing a 25 foot long jump.
With dog water long jumping under my belt, and enough cover bands to last me a while, I headed home. On my way, I stumbled across a few living copper sculptures. This guy from the crowd joined the show.
All in all, good to see. What's next for the Seattle center summer line up?

Relaxing

Sitting on the couch... enjoying the view! Not bad!

LGO Reunion Continued

The very next night, I unexpectedly got a call from Kuldip! Apparently all of the Amazon interns were in town at the Amazon headquarters. I quickly jumped on my bike and joined her and her co-workers/interns for dinner. Another intern, Saketh, from her Reno facility who was visiting with her is a current MBA at my favorite school in the country.... PURDUE!

Between catching up with Kuldip, reminiscing about Purdue, and meeting new Seattle people it was a great night. I got to bed later than usual but it was completely worth it.

I was able to catch back up with Kuldip Saturday night as well.

Sunday morning, I joined The Rob Jackson (LGO classmate, Amazon Intern, previous Boeing Employee, and all around awesome guy) for breakfast before he flew back to the lovely midwest (Lexington, KY to be exact). After breakfast, I once again caught back up with Kuldip and Saketh. We spent the day exploring Seattle. It was great to show someone all of the cool places that I've found... hint hint for anyone traveling to Seattle in the next few months.

I would say the highlight of my day was when Kuldip and I ran through the International Fountain at Seattle Center. It was something that I've always be wanting to do, but to run through it alone seems lame. We were out there when it was doing it's choreographed "dance" to music so we never new when it was going to spray. As with any unpredictable fountain, the goal is not to get wet, yet stay there until you do. At one point, Kuldip yelled "wouldn't it be funny if this jet sprayed up", just as I turned to look the very jet sprayed her in the face! A very good time!

We then continued to the famous Kerry Park for a fantastic view of the city. We then headed over to Alkai Beach for some Bocce Ball before I drove them to the airport! It was a great afternoon to spend with a good friend and a new friend!