Rest of the Trip

Let me fill you in on the rest of our trip. Wednesday morning, we got up early (well, 9:30 is early for a vacation) and went to breakfast with "the girls", Kim, Shayla and Roxanne (Pictured on the left with Sam) in Ballard at the Wild Mountain Cafe. The food was pretty good and the service was great. On the ride back there was some craziness with the blond Marilyn Monroe wig that Roxanne had in her trunk from Halloween. Sam requested I not post the pictures, however, so you're out of luck there. Anyway, we all had a good time as usual and the morning ended up being much too short.

Sam was going to coffee with a friend of his, so I had him drop me off at Discovery Park in Seattle's poorly-named Magnolia neighborhood. I really wanted to get out into nature before going back to the concrete jungle that is my current home. I took a lot of pictures, and I've posted the highlights below

The 534 acre park is rather hilly. This was near the entrance to the park. All of the other "stairs" I encountered were just steps dug out of the dirt and reinforced with boards to prevent erosion.

Some remnants of the parks origins as a military base are still visible. These were the houses of officers and still house the few remaining servicemembers based at Fort Lawton. Though it seems the base will soon be completely closed.

Another remnant of the base is the dingy old chapel near the officers houses. The brush around the chapel is overgrown, but it looks like it might still be used.


When officers lived in those houses they certainly had an incredible view of the Sound and the Olympic Mountains beyond.


Trails crisscross the grassy hill below the officers houses leading to more expansive views of the sound.


A couple of trails wind down through these bluffs. This was my favorite part of the hike. Not only was it downhill, it was also very isolated. For a few minutes I got to feel like I was out in the woods instead of fifteen minutes from downtown Seattle.


South Beach, at the base of the bluffs, was picturesque. Providing stunnging views of Mount Ranier.



At the other end of the beach, stands the West Point Light House. Built in the 1881, it is the oldest light house on the Sound.


Anyhow, the park was very pretty, and I captured a lot of it with my camera. At least enough to get me through the next month in New York.

That night Sam and I grabbed dinner with our friend John (Pic on the left). After dinner, I left Sam and John to go meet up with my friends Courtney and Carmen again, this time at Madison Pub, a gay bar in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. After hanging out there for a while we went over and checked out Purr, a new addition to the bar scene in the neighborhood. When we were finished, I met up with Sam and we headed home.

The next night I got together with my very good friends Tymberly and Tristan (pictured below). They were up from Portland because Tym had an interview at UW's Nursing School today. I'm hoping it went well and that they move to Seattle this summer. It will make me want to move back to Seattle even more.

We went to Blue C Sushi for dinner since Tym had never been. After swinging by the Chapel on Capital Hill for a couple more drinks, we dropped them off at their hotel early and went home and packed. Our flight left at 8:00 this morning so we had to get up at 5:30. Luckily, our friend Billie offered us a ride to the airport or we would have had to get up even earlier to take the shuttle.

We made it back to New York in one piece, though the ride was a little bumpy. Sam still managed to sleep through all but the last thirty minutes of the flight. It's good to be home, though I already miss Seattle.