Urban assault

My friend kaitlin found this really cool bike ride/race about a month ago. I didn't have my schedule until the week before, so as soon as I knew i could do it, we signed up. There were 4 of us, two teams of 2. It was a like a road rally/bike race. So we kinda' had to know a little bit about Seattle, ok, a lot about it. BUT... no one on our teams was actually from here. In fact no one on our teams had been here for more than a year. Needless to say we had a bit of a disadvantage, which was fine because we were just in it for the fun and the fact that it was sponsored by new belgium brewery. few weeks ago

So the race started at 10 am, but we had to be there at 9 to sign some papers. At the beginning of the week we decided that our teams would be the Pirate Nurses, since, well duh, we were all nurses. Kaitlin had some really cool shirts made up and put our names on them and my teammate Nora bought these fun jolly rogers flags to attach to our bikes. The goal of the assault was to get to 5 check points around the city and either answer puzzles or do some kind of obstacle course.

The first stop was REI where we had to roam the grounds of the mountain bike trail and find letters and then unscramble them to earn proof that we really did finish. We called Tony at work and had him help us out. Once we got outta there, it was a serious uphill climb to the next stop. Anyone who has been here has an idea about the hill situation, anyone who hasn't visited, just know that the ER that i work for it on the 6th floor and it is "ground" level and it is only one street from the 1st floor ( so the hill ascends nearly 60 feet between one block and it sucks to bike up!!!)

We got to the next checkpoint and had no idea about the answer to the question. It was a bunny missing an ear and some seemingly random quote. I called a friend of mine that has lived here his whole life and he had no idea. Somehow we decided it was a coffee or tea shop, so he gave me the phone number to Remedy Teas where the girl that answered the phone couldn't have been nicer. I very charmingly, as my friends said, explained the situation and she asked everyone at the place if they knew what the hell i was talking about. As it turns out the bunny is a mascot for a biking club in the city. So we had to do a little uphill ( don't ask me, but the laws of uphill/downhill don't work here, even though we went uphill to get to the last checkpoint, we still had a lot of uphill on the way back!!!!)

From there we had to get to a lot of other check points, but once we got to them they were not brain busters, but physical activities that were sooooo much fun. In one we had to use mini kegs as stilts and race across this park. In another we had to ride on tiny bikes with our partner on the pegs and she had to joust some rings that were on traffic cones. The last obstacle was "human wheelbarrel". In this one, one of the teammates had to hold onto a wheel while the other held her legs and pushed her around the course. It was really fun! We had two checkpoints left, but after 4 hours of riding, my friends wanted to get to the beer booth before they closed. So we skipped the last two checkpoints and took a break.

Afterwards there was food and beer and live music, no to mention a raffle and the prizes.,

I won a Timbuk2 messenger bag ( i was going to buy one recently but they are like 200 bucks) for knowing a Santogold song!

Afterwards, we biked back to my place and everyone went there separate ways...after all we needed showers and naps!

There is one in Chicago when i get home, sometime in september, i hope that i can convinve tony and some other that we should all do it!!!

eric and maria's visit

A few weeks ago Eric and Maria came up to the PNW for a visit. It has been awhile-this time my excuse is more valid than work. i was waiting for him to email me some photos.

Tony and I had to work a few days that they were here, so they had to entertain themselves for those days, but i am sure that it was not hard to do here. There is so much to do.

I know for sure that they took the underground tour that i mentioned when scott and bridgette came to visit. i also think that they had a day at the space needle and hit up a few bars for some music.

The things that we all got to do together were really fun. I took them to a few bars that we like to go to. Shorty's is one of them, it serves the 'seattle dog" which i didn't even know existed until a month ago. It is a hotdog ( or veggie dog) with fresh tomatoes and cream cheese on it. It sounds a little weird, but it is sooo good. So one day after work I took the kids to get one. I think Eric was a fan. I also took them to Bruce and Brandon Lee's gravesite, the Fremont troll and for delicous Vegan Garden pho!

During the week that they were in town was also Tony's birthday. Usually we go away for his birthday, but there is so much to do here we decided to stick around. Sorta. We drove 2 hours southeast and went to the Northwest trek. It is like a zoo, but the animals are free to roam and the people are in the cages. Well, kinda like cages, the animals have over 400 acres to roam and there is a tram that drives through for viewing. So the animals, all native to the pacific northwest get to live like they would in the wild. It was fascinating. There were a lot of animals that I have seen driving across the country, but it was cool to see them with new babies and some that were about to delivery any minute. we watched an adorable little mountain goat race up the side of a cliff. Turns out those little folks can run after only being alive for 3 days!

After we finished the tram ride, there were also other animals who were still allowed to roam, but they had to stay in their "cages" for obvious reasons. the grizzly bears, wolverines, owls, wolves and coyotes were all in separate areas of the trek. The spaces that they lived was much closer to the wild than any zoo i have ever been to. i guess it was the first zoo to ever keep the animals in their real natural habitat.

Although it was a little freaky to learn that there are grizzlies in washington. I think because they are no longer native to california, i thought that was the same for up here too. guess not. and now i know for sure that Tony and I will go with other people when we hike around here.

On our way out of the trek we saw two baby squirrels!!! They were so loud, it is weird that you don't often see baby squirrels, but you sure can hear them. and they are wicked fast!

Once we left the trek, we drove another 45 minutes up to Mt. Rainer. We didn't get to do too much hiking because, once again there was still alot of snow there.

Much less than when Sarah and Mark were in town. Once we got to paradise lodge around 7000 feet up the mountain, there was still 14 feet of snow on it!

We hung out there a bit, while Eric climbed the top of the snow bank ala King of the mountain style from grade school. Once he realized that he was the only one competing for king, he came down and we headed out of the park before dark.

We stopped and had a little dinner before the long drive home. We got home around 12:30 and had to get right to bed. Eric and Maria had a very early flight (6:45) and I had to work in the afternoon. I think that they had a good time here. It was nice to see Eric get excited about something. he really liked going to Mt. Rainer.. and it takes a lot for him to be, or at least to show that he is amazed!