Dean's 2nd Birthday

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Thanksgiving

34th Birthday in NYC

I always have a fun time in NYC. Walked through Central Park and spent a few hours at the MET. Saw "How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying" starring Daniel Radcliff and the play "Relatively Speaking". I celebrated my 34th birthday with Suzanne, Ryan and Anand at Giorgio's. Now with Suzanne's new upper westside location, I visited my favorite cafe twice, Lalo. I also tried the Shake Shack for the first time; I understand why it is so popular, hamburger and chocolate shake - delicious.

The Kicks

Saw The Kicks at Smith's Olde Bar. The show had finished, and I commented that I was disappointed they hadn't done my favorite song. I was in luck, in the encore they ended with an acoustic version of Starchaser (video complete with evidence I was there - for some reason my head got into the end of this).

Another song of theirs, Hawk Eyes, was used in an epidsode of The Vampire Diaries this season; I thought it fit really well with the scene.

Halloween

I attended a few Halloween parties this year through church, Events & Adventures, and my apartment complex party. I wore a cheerleader costume as a Cheerio from Glee. Dean dressed up as Batman and later over Thanksgiving I dressed up in my Superwoman costume; we flew back and forth down the hallway to the playroom.

GT Homecoming

Ryan was in town for the week, so we met up at GT to walk around campus prior to the 8pm Homecoming game. The Undergraduate Learning Commons building is complete and open; I'm jealous it wasn't there while I was in school. The GT campus has really changed. Here are a few pics from the Commons building.

Labor Day Weekend

Dean decided to try on my sneakers and read a Thesauras.

Happy Birthday Jake!

My second nephew, Jake, is welcomed into the world at 1:32 am at 9 lbs.

Victoria on Vancouver Island

Here is the Parliament building in downtown Victoria and a short walk to the Craigdarroch Castle; I love the wood paneled interior. Then to Butchart Gardens which provided subjects for photography for all ages.

Vancouver

Bloedel Conservatory, Stanley Park, and the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge.

Seattle Library and Art Museum

My hotel happened to be next to the Seattle Central Library. The Evergreen tour guide told me it was unique. I took a walk around and it was by far the coolest modern library I've seen. It opened in 2004. I desperately miss the library system in Denver (it misses me too, I got an email a month ago from them saying they haven't seen me in awhile), so I was happy to see this library with tons of people using it just like in Denver. They had the 'red room' and this escalator in yellow leading to the next level.



Next stop was the Seattle Art Museum which was conveniently across the street from Fran's Chocolates. I don't understand modern art but enjoy viewing it. I found this huge mouse on top of someone sleeping particularly disturbing. Next was this robe made out of dog tags. That was just impressive; I can't imagine how many hours it took to assemble.

Sights around Seattle

I took a tour of Seattle with Evergreen Escapes (they were great). This picture is from Kerry Park in Queen Anne overlooking downtown Seattle.
I took an afternoon gourmet tour with Savor Seattle. I would highly recommend it; the food was delicious. The tour encouraged taking pictures of the food, hence all the cameras out at this one. The pic is from Serious Pie (the chanterelle and crimini mushroom, truffle cheese pizza was amazing). This stop in Pike Market was fun for tasting truffle salt and balsamic vinegar.

Olympic Peninsula

Unfortunately a storm rolled through on my day on the Olympic Peninsula. I did see a beautiful rainbow on Lake Crescent and took a misty hike nearby to a waterfall.

It was pouring in the Hoh Rain Forest, unusual since it hadn't rained the past 60 days.