I’ve been putting off posting since I haven’t gotten any of the new photos off my camera, but I thought I’d do a quick checkin post since I’ll be leaving Seattle tomorrow (already!). It feels like I just got here, but I got ridiculously lucky with the weather. It was raining on Wednesday when I got here, but has only gotten nicer from there, and today it had to be in the mid-to-upper 70s. I’ve been staying with my good friend Trevor in the Wallingford neighborhood.
It’s hard to cover everything when you put off posting for so long, but in a nutshell, I’ve done a great variety of things here. We went to see an amazing string ensemble that was organized by Trevor’s bass teacher at UW, called the American String Project. They were so incredible, and played a piece by Bernard Hermann, the famous film composer who did much of the sountrack music for Hitchcock films. They also played a beautiful Mendelssohn quartet and another piece by Tchaikovsky. It was nice to see a string ensemble again, and rekindled my desire to play violin more. One more thing added to the list for when I settle in somewhere: find a great quartet to play with.
We’ve spent a lot of time outside, of course. Yesterday we went to the Arboretum, which is one of the most magical places I’ve ever been to. We played frisbee and walked around looking at all the amazing trees and colors. I definitely want to go back there someday. After that, Trevor had rehearsals and practices, so I wandered around his neighborhood. I got a Trophy cupcake, which apparently has won lots of awards, etc (and they had better if they’re charging $3 per cupcake). It was delish, and afterwards I walked down to Gasworks park and sat and watched the water while I wrote in my journal.
Today we met up with my friend Mike and his girlfriend, as well as a good friend Kevin, and went down to Pike’s Market. As if the market weren’t awesome enough, there was a cheese festival going on! So we got to sample all kinds of amazing cheeses, which was pretty fun. We then went up to the U district and there was a street festival going on, so we wandered around there.
Tomorrow I head to Spokane to couchsurf for one night on my way to Missoula. The woman I’m staying with already sounds awesome – she has recommended a great organic restaurant and a beautiful park to spend some time at when I arrive. I’ve also been sending messages to people in Missoula, hoping that I don’t get too lonely on an isolated farm. But I’m looking foward to the experience, for sure. Hope you are all well.
Link of the day: MarKhed Crafts – this is the jewelry company of the woman I stayed with in Portland. She gave me a beautiful microfiche necklace that is so cool! Check out her other pieces, they’re all great.
