I haven’t posted for a few days because everything has been really uneventful.

Friday Em & I stopped at Lowe’s to buy a can of “SPIDER KILLER.” This stuff supposedly kills everything we’re having trouble with: namely spiders and silverfish. I came home and sprayed it around the baseboards and it totally worked! Silverfish population diminished! I should specify that I’m only planning to kill the enormous scary spiders…little ones are okay and I’ll leave them alone.

Saturday I slept in! I woke up when the UPS guy dropped off a package and rang the doorbell. SCORE! I decided not to buy any of the bags in the post from wayyyyy back. The first one was too light colored and I didn’t like the shape when I saw it. The second one and third one are too boxy. #4 is fussy in person. #5…well. J. Crew, when did your price point double?! I don’t think that bag is worth $500. I decided to scrap the grey bag for now…and when I saw a cute Orla Kiely bag I jumped on it. 70% OFF! (for future reference, situations where I do not say no: 70% off!) After I admired my bag for a while, I took a walk around the VA grounds and enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was almost hot and just gorgeously sunny.

I drove out to Kirkland and met up with Alex & Alexa at the Lucky 7 Sports Bar to watch the Cal game. Yay! We won!

I really wanted to watch Run, Fat Boy, Run…but Safeway wouldn’t rent me the dvd because I don’t have a Washington state ID. Boo on Safeway. I did get another 20 cent power pump reward though…so today I paid $3.35/gallon! Score!

I spent Sunday with Laimelien. We both focused and I think we got some good work done. She’s taking the LSAT next weekend so send her some good thought waves. Then, ::drumroll:: we cooked! Steak, roasted vegetables, and salad with her homemade dressing. It was all really good. I have a picture somewhere but…I don’t know where my camera is right now.

I’m going to read the #1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. Anyone out there have an opinion on these books? They seem really popular and our local library is a little limited. I guess I’ll continue exploring this mystery genre for a while. I’m also inexplicably hooked on Dancing with the Stars right now. Kim Kardashian and Rocco DiSpirito are both pretty bad…but Cloris Leachman…there are no words. I’m rooting for Lance & Lacey and Warren & Kym.

Roommate/Classmate Weekend Whereabouts:
Madeline – spent the weekend in Sacramento
Fisher – camped in the North Cascades
Campbell – poker night, UDub game

The next few weekends should be a lot more interesting because
10/3 Sunny & Kate are coming!
10/10 Amadeus will be here and we’re going to see WEEEZERRRRRR!!!!!!!!! (future Jeanne trivia – favorite band = Weezer)
10/17 Wenza Bronica, Frackaccino, Bakinbacon, and Garrpaccio are coming!
10/25 I go to the great NORTH.

Stay tuned!

This is the first weekend that the four of us at this rotation didn’t spend some part of together!
For me, Saturday began with another Ten Pachi appointment – this time for a styling consultation. I got to have my hair shampooed again (seriously, salon shampooing is right up there on my AWESOME list) and then Rosie taught me how to blow dry it straight and curl the ends around a metal core brush to get the effect I wanted. I was super excited! This means I can wear my hair straight again and get volume without frizzy flyaways. I sneakily took some pictures in the bathroom before I left because it was drizzling and I wasn’t sure what would happen to my hair. I’ll do a long hair update later, but for now…see the awesome?

My face is blurred out because Em said I looked angry in the picture…I was actually concentrating on taking the picture without the camera covering my hair and before someone came knocking on the bathroom door!

I then proceeded to get spectacularly lost (thank you Google maps!) before finally getting on the 520E towards Redmond. I got to Alex & Alexa’s apartment mid-afternoon and we hung out for a bit waiting for Doug to arrive from Portland. We’re all connected from college, and Alex used to be my neighbor when I lived in north Berkeley. I was really excited to see them because we hadn’t met up since Alex & Alexa’s wedding last year!
After Doug came we decided to go to Pike Place Market since he had never been to Seattle and didn’t have a strong feeling for what he wanted to do. I was excited because there were so many things to try that we’d missed because we were too full last time! We were amazed that there was almost no line at the Piroshky store, and so we jumped into line. We tried a marzipan piroshky, ham egg & cheese, cherry white chocolate, salmon pate, and apple. My least favorite was the apple. All the others were flaky, warm, and delicious! Even when we finished them later that day, they were still good cold.

We wandered the market for a while, admired the flowers again, and Alex bought some flavored almonds and hazelnuts. Alexa got some organic nectarines. I had but one thing on my mind: cheese. Sherry told me that Beecher’s had one of the best grilled cheese sandwiches she’d ever tried, so that was high on my list. Em had heard the macaroni and cheese was delicious, so I knew we had to try that too. Unfortunately, they were out of macaroni and cheese, so we got a sandwich to split. It was good…but really, all grilled cheese is good. One employee told us there would be more macaroni later, so we explored the rest of the market and went back. We tried their Mariachi macaroni and cheese – it has an additional kick from chiles, corn, bell peppers, and onions. It was also tasty but I don’t know if I’d rank it up there as the best in the world (so they claim.



We spent a few minutes debating what to do before deciding to head back to the apartment for football and brownie baking. I persuaded them to let me peek into Nordstrom Rack for a few minutes (I maintain that I stuck with that time limit) but left empty handed because of the huge line. What IS IT with Nordstrom Rack lines? They’re always monstrously long.
I couldn’t shake a pair of Cole Haans from my mind, though, so Alexa & I left the guys beer battering onion rings and watching the Georgia-Arizona State game and we headed for the Bellevue Nordstrom Rack. I didn’t find the Cole Haans but we both found something else and we wandered the Factoria mall for a bit. I take back everything I said about the Tacoma mall, because the Factoria mall is even smaller. We met up with the guys at I Love Sushi in Bellevue for a late dinner. Unfortunately, due to the restaurant popularity, the owners opened a new location a block away (they even share a parking lot!) but it’s confusing to figure out where it is, and so we waited at one while Alex & Doug went to the other. When we were all finally in the same place, we had dinner, and I was thrilled. SUSHI. I haven’t felt brave enough to try any of the places in Lakewood, so that was really my only request for the weekend activities. Lakewood is very suburban and most of the sushi places look a little dusty/neglected. We tried some sockeye salmon sashimi that was really good, and the hamachi kama great too.



After dinner things got a little more interesting. We went to a party at Alex’s co-worker Anastasia’s house. Alexa mentioned that the parties lasted and lasted but I didn’t really comprehend until we got there. It seemed tame enough – we arrived after they finished a steak dinner to find them playing Rock Band and Wii Fit games. I hadn’t reckoned on Anastasia. She announced that there were only three reasons to leave a party at her house: 1) It’s 6 am. 2) The bottle of tequila is finished. 3) You don’t want to be her friend. She’s really funny and nice, so number 3 didn’t apply. I was already a little tired so number 1 seemed impossible. What else could we do? We finished the tequila. Well, Alexa and I did. Most of the tequila consumption was by the girls, so we kept drinking to “girl power!”
When we finally got back to Alex & Alexa’s apartment, we decided to watch Wrestling Days, a movie some of our college friends filmed a few years ago. Alex has a small part and Alexa’s little brother plays a pretty major role so they bought a copy when it became available on Amazon. Doug had never seen it, so we thought he needed to experience it. As soon as the theme music played though, the tequila, driving, and fact that it was about 2:30 hit me and I slept through it all and didn’t wake up until 10 the next morning.
Alexa made a gorgeous brunch of waffles (ATK recipe!) and bacon. She even whipped cream and brought out real maple syrup and strawberry jam. MMM.

I’m so glad that I get to see them while I’m up here. Now that I’ve figured out the way to Redmond, I’ll definitely be spending some more time up there with them, hopefully on Cal game days. Go Bears!

Another guest post from Madeline!

While Jeanne was enjoying a relaxing day in the sun at the campsite, Fish and Camp and I went for a hike along the Hoh River. There was a lot of moss to be sure, and fern lawns covering the ground, but the foliage was not as green as I had imagined Olympic National Park to be for a place that gets 142’’ of rain a year. I guess because it was the end of the summer. Halfway in, we sat and ate our Safeway sandwiches on a fallen tree that hung out over the river. We stopped shortly after at a spot that let us check out the river. The water was ICE cold. I couldn’t stand it for more than 30 seconds. It’s almost as bad as standing in a cooler full of ice and water.

What’s weird about this picture? Hanging moss growing on a maple that’s changing colors, next to a bunch of ferns? And a fern grove at the bank of a rocky, ice cold river?

I was getting a little tired of the scenery, but at mile 3, suddenly we walked into a beautiful area that was much greener than the last 3 miles, and the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. I heard water around the corner and as we rounded the bend, we found this…

You can see the top of the falls at the top of the frame.

We followed the trail that went up to the top of the falls. Fisher and Campbell then started climbing up and through the fallen logs to get even closer. I took this picture, then soon followed. It was awesome, we were practically right under the falls. You could see the water rushing out over the top of the rock cliff. We stood to admire it all and then descended. After walking another half mile in, I got bored of the scenery and we turned back.

Back at camp we chilled in our Greatland chairs and read. I took a nap in the car when it started to get cold, and Fisher went…fishing. At about 8 we started up the fire and roasted weenies. Here’s a picture of Fisher and Campbell getting their weenies nice and hot. We saw a bunch of satellites in the night sky. Fisher pointed out that that’s where Jeanne gets her Tivo. I thanked the Tivo Gods. The fire lasted til midnight. And we all at some point fell asleep near the fire, it was so comfortable. I grooved to my iPod as I drank a can of Rainier beer and enjoyed the fire. It was SO relaxing and perfect; one of those moments where you think “This is the life.” Campfire playlist: Marvin Gaye, Four Tops, Roberta Flack, Bee Gees, Buffalo Springfield, Kansas, John Lennon.

Saturday morning I woke up at bout 7am and as everyone else was sleeping, had nothing to do. I walked over to the river, and then to the visitor’s center to see if they were open. On my way I ran into a lady taking pictures of four deer grazing in the campgrounds! They were so tame and unaffected by our presence. I took tons of pictures and got within 5 feet of them. They didn’t mind a bit. Finally I left them to graze and went to check if the rest were awake. No. I headed back towards the visitor’s center. And saw this! A big male Elk! Grazing on grass in the parking lot! It’s as big as a car!

After they all woke up, we toasted our cheese bagels over Fisher’s Jet Boil which we also used to heat up tea and coffee. It’s a great piece of camping cookware. We packed up the campsite and Jeanne and C headed back to Tacoma. Fisher and I wanted to spend more nature time and took a ¾ mile hike down to Second beach at the Olympic National seashore, just west of a town called Forks. It was GORGEOUS. They call it driftwood, but they are really HUGE tree trunks littering the shore. The big rocks in the ocean are called “stacks.” The weather was perfect, sunny and warm, and we walked at least a half mile down the beach. As we got further and further, new stacks would appear from behind the big stack. The sand was warm under my feet. It was heaven. We found a live crab on the beach, and Fisher threw him back in the ocean. We also found a piece of driftwood that looked like a leg bone, and staged this peg leg pic…

Fisher pointed out the strangeness of the name “Second Beach.” Why give such a beautiful beach such a generic name? There was a First and Third beach, and also a Beach 1-6. Huh? I’m sure the Native Americans have much better names for them. After walking most of the length of the beach we turned back because there was more adventure ahead of us for the day. Hot springs here we come!

We drove back to Port Angeles and turned up Olympic Hot Springs Rd., drove in about 15 minutes to the trailhead and hiked another 2.5 miles up. I almost gagged trying to use the pit toilet. At first the road was paved then it turned into a dirt and rock path. We had to cross a trickling stream, and this scary bridge, then crossed another bridge with the most beautiful falls. Along the way we saw this cute bunny, who was also totally unfazed that we were 2 feet away from it. It just kept eating.

In total there were six pools. They weren’t very deep, two feet at the most and some of them are a bit brackish looking, but it’s still a neat spot. There were lots of people there and we couldn’t find an open pool. We finally found a family that was leaving at the last of the pools that was nestled up higher than the others, and kind of hidden. We almost missed it. It was the perfect temperature and I was SO tempted to get all the way in, but influenced by Fisher’s caution, didn’t want to put all my orifices in danger. Alas, I gave up the idea and settled for submerging up to my thighs. It was still heaven.

Fisher left his mark in one of the logs. Look for “AR” in pool 6.

I am not outdoorsy. You’re all cackling right now because that’s an understatement. I’m pretttty much only outside for the time it takes me to get from one building to another. When the four of us knew we’d be on this rotation together, I immediately imagined scenarios where Em & I were shopping in Seattle, or all of us drove up to Canada to try some poutine. Fisher’s thoughts probably centered around camping trips, hiking trips, fishing trips, etc. etc. If Campbell had anything in mind as a group outing it was a hockey game or football game. I think Madeline wanted to experience it all, and make the most of the time we have here. Well, in the month we’ve been here, we’ve done a little bit of everything. I spent more time outside this month than I have in years, and it was great!
We decided to go camping in Olympic National Park on a whim because we realized there were very few weekends of good weather left in the year. Every patient I had was asking me how I liked it up here and then shaking their hoary heads sagely while muttering “wait until September is over…you won’t like the rain much…”
We turned to Fisher for guidance and he took charge of selecting the campsite and route. Final decision? The Hoh Rainforest on the western side of Olympic National Park. We took two cars because Campbell needed to get back a little earlier on Sunday, and we all set off to Port Angeles on Friday night after work. We stayed in the Port Angeles Red Lion Hotel overnight as a midway point between Tacoma & the rainforest. (Also because I didn’t want to spend two nights in a tent.)
On Saturday I bid farewell to the toilet in the room (Fisher had mentioned something ominous about pit toilets.), we stopped off at Safeway for provisions, and then sped off to the national park. Campbell was really nice to drive. I, as predicted, slept most of the way. We reached the rainforest at about noon, picked a campsite, and set up our things. Maybe I’m a cynical city mouse, but I was surprised that we were leaving the tents, our sleeping gear, and our chairs out for the whole day…what, there’s no crime in national parks? The campsites are located on 3 loops, and I have to say, they were really nice. Since there were the loops, no site was too far from the restrooms. This is when the trip improved about five percent, when we realized that there were real, flushing, toilets. YES!!!!! Most of the sites had nice patches of grass, and each one had a metal fire pit with cooking grate and a sturdy cement table and benches.

The A loop was also located near a river/stream/whatever. The water was a beautiful aquamarine color and the current was pretty fast so the water stayed really clear.


We went on a short hike near the visitor center called the Hall of Mosses. This roundabout trail highlighted a lot of the natural beauty of the rainforest and little placards explained a lot of the unusual findings in the area. After we finished there, the others went off on a trail to the Hoh River, and I went back to the campsite.



I think the single best purchase we made for this trip was our camp chairs. I felt a little ridiculous buying another one because I have seven already just sitting in storage BUT Fisher bought one of these a couple of weeks ago, and this Target chair is extra awesome. It’s big enough to slouch back in and it has a footrest, cup holder, and seekrit storage pouches. The rest of us, imagining an evening around a campfire, were unable to resist. Thankfully, Target still had some in stock.
It was a beautiful afternoon, and I kicked back in my green chair with a diet Coke and I read. Then I stretched a little, and read some more. After a while, I ate my lunch while reading, and then decided that I’d read. I read five books that day, and it was glorious! You can see the grassy clearing where I spent most of my day in the pictures above. Everyone else came back around fiveish, and then they relaxed with their books too. When it got dark, we lit our fire and roasted hot dogs, marshmallows, and I even toasted up chunks of a cheese bagel too. Yum! There’s something about food eaten from a fire…
Eventually we all fell asleep in our chairs close to the grate. It was indescribably relaxing and cozy. We ran out of wood right around midnight, and then we climbed into our sleeping bags to go to sleep. Both of the tents were left uncovered so we could see through the sheer panels and watch the stars. It was a little cold but we were warm in our sleeping bags so I had no trouble falling asleep.
I woke up a few times in the night but not because of noises or anything…I’m really not sure why. I’ve actually been waking up a lot. Each time I stared up at the sky until I fell asleep again. We all got up for the day around 8 and eased into the morning by eating breakfast and breaking down camp slowly.
We had some awesome cookies this weekend from Safeway. I have to mention them for Lillie, since she says a weekend isn’t complete without cookies! I’ve had them before but forgot about them until I saw a display on Saturday. They’re called chocolate chewy cookies (something like that anyway), and are $3.49/dozen. There’s no flour in them so they are extra rich and chocolatey with a nice chewy texture. Serious bargain!
We split up after everything was cleaned up so that Campbell & I could head for home. The other two were going to hike around the seashore. Look for another guest post from Em…coming soon. We started down 101 and took a brief break to walk down to the beach and watch the waves for a little bit. Then, to no one’s surprise, I fell asleep again. In my defense, it’s sleep or be carsick! My stomach is only okay when I’m the driver. We got back around 3 and after doing laundry I feel as if we never went at all. Good thing we took a bunch of pictures! This didn’t turn me into an outdoorswoman but I definitely was reminded about the beauty of God’s creation. Maybe I’ll get some more vitamin D this fall before the skies turn grey and cloudy.