Christina visits!

The visit with my sister was far too short and yet we managed to have so much fun, I don't think I'll be able to pack in all the fun activities we did into a tiny little blog. I've uploaded a ton of photos (mostly Christina's and not mine) to my Picasa album though - feel free to browse through them all!

She arrived late Monday night, which was good because I am teaching a night class at the community college. So I finished teaching and drove straight to the airport to pick her up!

Each morning Jay would head off to work, and Christina and I would head out on a long walk somewhere around Anacortes. I didn't have to teach until 1pm, so I had the mornings free to play! The first morning we headed straight to my favorite walk around Cranberry Lake, accessed a few feet from our house. The next soggy morning we headed over to Washington Park to walk a loop road in the rain and marvel at all the great wildflowers. And the third morning we headed up Sugarloaf, a little hill that gives you some huffing and puffing and great views! Good thing it was sunny out that day.

Sisters on top of Sugarloaf

Christina and soggy Washington Park

Each evening we also did something fun! Although the tulip farmers had just knocked all the flowers off the tulips (better for the bulb industry), we found a display garden of tulips and had fun there. That night we made an awesome dinner of homemade sweet potato gnocchi with a creamy gorgonzola sauce and had a local WA white wine to pair with the dinner.

Yummy homemade gnocchi dinner

Christina and Jay were excited about their big ol' Dungeness crab dinner. They made sourdough crepes stuffed with apples and brie to pair with the crab.

It seems like I've been obsessed with the idea of grilling something yummy for dinner at Deception Pass State Park. So, on another night, Jay and Christina braved the cold weather (but it was sunny) and dealt with me dragging them to the park for the BBQ. It was gorgeous outside and so fun to have veggie kebabs (brushed with a tasty miso glaze) and a local WA red wine.

Here we are at Deception Pass State Park pre-BBQ

Excited!

I don't teach on Fridays (although my new job starts on a part-time basis tomorrow so my Fridays will now be spent working for the tribe). Jay took Friday off and we headed over to FRIDAY Harbor and San Juan Island. Why not go there on a Friday right? We didn't try to do too much - we decided to just go to Cattle Point and to Lime Kiln State Park and take in the views. Here are the two sistahs at Lime Kiln after a chilly lunch of good cheese and baguettes. The photo below shows Christina watching a common loon right off the beach near Cattle Point. On that walk we came across the stinky carcass of a dead Steller sea lion. Being biologists, we were excited and totally grossed out. You can find those pictures in the Picasa album for fun. Dead animals are tasty to many birds and we got some awesome views of the bald eagles and buzzards that were enjoying their rotten flesh dining before we humans arrived on the scene.

The next day we did something fun too! We "pricelined" a room in Seattle and drove down to the Emerald City with plans to play and spend the night. We planned on going to SAM (the Seattle Art Museum) and Pike's Place (famous market). But the weather fooled us. We planned on rain and we got sun. So, we ditched the museum and headed over to the Skytower. Although the Cascade Mountains were hiding in clouds, we got great views of the city, Puget Sound, and the Olympic Mountains. The Skytower was swaying a bit in the wind which also made things interesting. We hit the market after the Skytower and got some excellent Greek food for lunch before wandering around all the cute little stalls.

The Skytower base and cool sculptures plus the sistahs

We ended our Seattle fun with drinks at the funky bar in our hotel, Hotel Deca and then we headed out to an AMAZING restaurant called Monsoon. We totally scored on this lovely, tiny, fancy, and yummy Vietnamese restaurant in a funky part of Seattle called Capital Hill. Jay and I are already scheming when we can get back there because the food was incredible!

The next morning, Sunday, we got up early and drove Christina to the airport. It stunk to say goodbye to her. We miss our families so much and we had so much fun with her. We just didn't want the visit to end. Now we are home, I'm avoiding work by writing this blog and Jay is making us a fiddlehead and chive risotto for dinner. We got the fiddleheads at the market in Seattle, a serious score. I miss my sister.