Jon and Meredith were in town and staying with me for the weekend. The big news is…they’re engaged! They are also hoping to move back to the east coast and maybe even the DC area this summer. We did a lot of eating and took a visit to the Maryland side of Great Falls to do a little Billy Goat Trail exploration.
After anticipating a day of painful delays, I’m back in DC right on time. The 5:30 AM, 1.5 mile walk through the snow to the bus stop to get to the Seattle airport was the highlight of course. A short Metro ride and holiday travels are over.
Today we braved the Seattle bus system and headed downtown to take a look at the central library and Pioneer Square area. Only about 1/3 of the usual buses are on the road and many of them are not following their normal routes. Because of this, everyone is confused and they’re all very crowded. The new central library building was completed in 2004 and it’s design is very contemporary and intriguing. Stairs, ramps, and escalators move you from floor to floor. Most areas are very open with lots of seating for reading and computer terminals. After the library, we headed south to the Pioneer Square area which is the oldest neighborhood in downtown Seattle. After a brief coffee shop stop, we headed back home to settle in for the next snow storm. Possibly 6 inches in the next 24 hours. I’m supposed to fly out on Thursday but it’s looking like the chance of an extended visit is getting higher…
Jared and I headed out around 10:30 AM this morning for a day of XC skiing around Seattle. We started from his apartment on top of Capitol Hill and after just a few flat blocks, had to walk down the east side of the hill until it became level enough for us to be able to ski again. A few more city blocks and were into the Washington Park Arboretum which presented us with a couple miles of gently rolling, wooded trails. Mid-way through the park a light snow started again. The park trails lead north to Portage Bay and we then headed west through the University District as a heavier snow that would stay with us the rest of the day rolled in. Next was the north side of Lake Union with a stop at a Greek restaurant in Fremont for lunch at about 2 PM. The final leg of skiing took us the rest of the way around Lake Union and back into the city. Once we reached Denny Way, it was 15 blocks uphill to get back home so it was time to walk again. Lots of people were out sledding and occasionally downhill skiing on the closed hilly streets. We arrived home just before 4 PM. Total distance skiing and walking ended up coming to 11.5 miles. Here’s the GPS track of the route, elevation profile, and a few pics.
Today, Jared and I headed downtown to check out the Pacific Science Center and the Lucy exhibit that they currently have there. He basically lives on the top of a hill about 30 blocks from downtown Seattle. All the sidewalks are almost entirely iced up and most of the bus routes are screwed up because they can’t really get up and down the streets. We were hoping to catch a bus but ended up having to walk the whole way. Once there, we spent some time in the exhibit, saw a boa constrictor, and watched an IMAX movie about a Nile River expedition. Once we left the museum, the next snow storm had already begun. Next we headed to REI and rented some cross country skis for tomorrow. We’re supposed to get up to 8-9 inches of snow and are going to attempt some city XC skiing on some nearby trails. Here are a few pics from today.
After an hour of sitting on the tarmac in Salt Lake City watching them plow the runway every few takeoffs, we finally departed for Seattle. It’s super cold here too and all the streets and sidewalks are icy. This town is not used to snow at all. They are predicting up to another 8 inches or so Saturday night and then more chances of snow through Tuesday. I’m ready for spring…
I’m hanging out at the Salt Lake City airport awaiting my flight to Seattle to visit Jared. It’s been snowing lightly all morning and it’s really picking up now. Hope we make it out of here before it gets too bad.
Today at lunch, we witnessed a porcupine’s assault on a trashcan. Apparently a common occurrence, this has to be the fattest porcupine in Utah.
Today we woke to a fresh new snow storm and headed off for our second day of skiing at Alta. Visibility was pretty poor for the first half of the day but the clouds started to clear and we could actually see what we were skiing on towards the end of the day. The fresh snow made skiing very different compared to yesterday. None of the trails were groomed which made it more challenging but also more fun. It was another great day of skiing.
I met up with my friends Tommy and Meghan and headed to Park City on Monday evening. Yesterday we skied at Solitude in a big snowstorm. Visibility was quite poor and it was difficult to see the terrain most of the time which made things challenging. This was my first day of skiing in the west and skiing on powder was very different and a lot of fun. Many of the runs we did were untracked at the beginning of the day. Today, it was clear and sunny but very cold at 6 degrees. We skied at Alta which is substantially bigger with more vertical than Solitude. They also had a lot more groomed runs but we found a few ungroomed runs to play on that weren’t super difficult. Tomorrow is my last day of skiing before moving on to Seattle on Friday. Sadly, most of the ski areas here don’t have that much snow yet so we’ll need to figure out where else is worth trying. Here are a couple pictures from today.
