A Nature Walk

October 17, 2020

The passion for adventure is always present in me. It especially pulls me to the outdoors after being home for more than a day.

Living in such a state as WA, one has nature at their fingertips and that is a wonderful thing. There are so many places to venture out to, where my mind can be stimulated by just being surrounded by enormous pines, wet ferns, damp moss, and squirrels scurrying about.

There's also the Puget Sound, seagulls, seals and the smell of the ocean (since the Puget Sound is part ocean water and part freshwater). 

Boaters still out enjoying the water and weather in October.

As long as I'm not wearing heels, I am always up for casual walks. The crunching of leaves is such a wonderful sound.

We had stopped at Starbucks prior to arriving at Owens Beach. I decided to give Pumpkin Spice Latte a try for the very first time. I wasn't thrilled about it. I do like pumpkin but definitely not in a hot drink. Jacob likes it though.  

I have the choice about how I'm going to live. No matter how old I get, there are always opportunities, always new things I can learn how to do. If I want to have a fulfilling life I must live my life with intention. Anything worth doing takes hard work. This not only applies in the workforce but in every aspect of life including the choices I make about my health and the food I eat. These two things are intertwined. Walking is a great form of exercise if done consistently. 

I thank God often for creating the heavens and the earth, for the sky, dry land, plant life, and stars. For all good things. It is a privilege to have eyes to see His wonderful works and to enjoy them.

All seasons are beautifully filled with splendid wonders. I feel so blessed to go on nature walks on cloudy days. It is such a joy!

May God grant me many many more years of life to be able to continue to be out in nature, cloudy weather and enjoy the beauty of each season.

Gratitude unleashes the freedom to live content in the 

moment, rather than being anxious about the future or regretting the past.

Exploring and Enjoying Washington State

 June 14, 2020

On this Sunday we walked across the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge that crosses Lake Washington from Seattle's Montlake neighborhood to Evergreen Point in the East side community of Medina (or to be specific this bridge connects Seattle to Bellevue). It was built in April 2016. At 7,708.6 feet long, end to end, this structure is the world's longest floating (the middle part of the bridge is on pontoons) bridge. 

It was somewhat of a warm partially cloudy day.

This is such a nice area. 

It must be so nice having this view from your backyard.

There were some people walking and a few cycling but not overly crowded which was nice. 

 

I got these next two pictures off the internet. 

As we walked across the bridge there was a sign that identified all the sea life in Lake Washington. One of the creatures is the Pacific Sea lamprey which is an anadromous parasitic lamprey. They are very gross looking and are carnivorous. 

Well, the reason I bring it up is because at the time Riley and I watched a Sea Monsters episode where the host Jeremy Wade went in search for this very gross fish and when we were reading the sign of all the living sea life in Lake WA, we noticed the lamprey and I was horrified. These things attach themselves to their prey and begins to feed with its sucker like disc and three cuspid teeth used to cling to other animals. It's just very disgusting to me. Can't help but get chills.

Another fact I learned back in 2020 was that the Pacific lamprey provided an important source of food for the tribes of the Columbia River Basin, who prized them for their rich, fatty meat. The tribes also use(d) lampreys for medicine and ceremonies. 

Pretty gross right!

I loved it when dark grey clouds came rolling in. The water makes it seem like it was sprinkling right? It wasn't. It was the wind causing these pinprick ripples. 

We didn't walk all the way to the other end of the bridge. It was much too long, so we decided to turn back at this point. Once back in the car Jacob calculated that we walked close to three miles.

After our long walk we were all so hungry, so we grabbed some Pagliacci pizza. It was delicious!

June 19, 2020, Friday

Friday's are always fun days. Time to take it easy and enjoy the evening. On this Friday we ate out. We had very delicious carne asada tacos. This taco shop knows how to season their meat well. Afterwards we stopped by the Metropolitan Market in Tacoma to pick up dessert then we hung out on Ruston Way.

The weather felt so nice, 83 degrees and cloudy. Walks along the water are simply wonderful. I always looked forward to them. Walking by a body of water and pretty scenery makes me happy.

Here I am with my husband.

Riley constantly making his dad nervous by standing on the railing. I'm pretty sure Jacob was holding his arm while I took this picture, lol. 

This is a very poor quality picture but I wanted to zoom in to show you the dog. Looks like he's a pro. Totally loving being out on the water.       

June 20, 2020

One of our favorite restaurants to eat breakfast at is The Original Pancake House. There's one in Maple Valley and that was the one we would frequent. Their coffee is so good. We both like it a lot. 

After breakfast we headed over to Snoqualmie. I love when I see low clouds amongst the pine trees. This type of weather is my favorite.

If I remember correctly these were elk (Roosevelt Elk to be exact). There were so many of them.

I love nature. Thank You God for creating it!

Snoqualmie Falls is always a cool place to visit. 

Riley was so small here. Now, he's slightly taller than me and comes up to Jacob's nose. I like the way he's looking up at his dad. His dad is his hero.

If you can, have fun and enjoy your life constantly. 

Having fun loosens the mind. A flexible mind

works differently from a rigid mind.

- Patricia Ryan Madson

Father, thank You for the blessings You have poured out on my family. Remind me to continue to be ever grateful for so many gifts. Thank You for Your provision in our lives. Help me to always have a thankful heart.

Distractions from the Chaos

Saturday, May 30th 2020

I woke up to loud thunder which lasted a good forty minutes. Thunderstorms don't happen often in WA, so it was a cozy surprise. I would like to call this, God's gift to me because I love thunderstorms so much.

We were in the mood to go on a short drive, so we drove over to Silverdale to have lunch at Moctezuma. The restaurants decor is really nice, and they have the tastiest shredded beef nachos and strawberry margaritas. 

Their salsa is so good and very addicting however, it is on the spicy/hot side. 

We really enjoy the food here. When it comes to Mexican restaurant chains, the food isn't good in our opinion. It's rarely authentic Mexican food however at Moctezuma the food is very tasty. We just don't get carne asada tacos here. We go to a taco shop for those where they are out of this world good!

You do get a large portion of the beef nachos though. Can't really finish them. 

After walking off our food at the mall (since it was raining) we decided to board the ferry towards Seattle.

But just as we were about to pay we got a notification on our phones stating the following....

So we got turned around and all ferries were docked. There were riots in Seattle. Such a horrible thing to happen. 

Although it was a bummer because we enjoy riding the ferry we also enjoyed the drive back home. All these evergreens make for a pretty drive.

Driving back across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Kind of weird seeing our side of the bridge empty.

Sunday, May 31st, 2020

It was a bit difficult to go to sleep because of what was happening in our country. Antifa was rioting in Seattle and even though the National Guard was there they were either unarmed or had rubber bullets. I don't believe they were arresting any rioters. How is it ok to allow destruction and violence in our country let alone in police presence. I believe that when a country has a corrupt administration there seems to be no law and order .... at least when it comes to those from the Left. It's definitely a sad time in our country. 

To distract ourselves with wholesome and beautiful things we visited a park close to home. 

It was another beautiful cloudy day. It was a cool day ... a light sweater and shorts kind of day, for the boys. I probably had a dress on. That's usually what I wear except in Winter. 

We like to watch the ducks and geese. They're cute.

The momma and pappa goose are very protective of their little ones. The pappa goose hissed at the boys a couple of times. 

I had never seen so many daffodils as you see here in Washington. They're everywhere. Such a pretty spot, isn't it?

I just realized that right in the center of the sky you can make out a creepy face. You can see a mouth, teeth, a nose and eye sockets. Ew!

Washington has very beautiful parks. And for me, a cloudy day makes it even more beautiful and interesting to photograph. 

Hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.

A Holiday Outing

 The Rialto Theater in downtown Tacoma hosted the play A Christmas Carol. It was a nice occasion to dress up a little and enjoy a December evening out.

It was our first time at the Rialto Theater. I thought it was very nice looking. The seating was a bit cramped. The seats were very narrow and the rows were very close together. As much as I wanted to avoid touching shoulders with the man on my left it was just impossible.

Overall it was a decent play. There was a part in the play where one of the men insinuated sensual advances on a woman and I thought it was inappropriate in a family production even though the audience found it humorous. (it's been too long I can't quite remember which character this was).

Riley appeared to have enjoyed it.

After the play we had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. It was busy. Sometimes I do like the rush of the holidays ... only for like a few hours because once I get home from a busy day or night I like to change into cozy clothes and get cozy on the couch. It makes you appreciate a quiet cozy home that much more. 

A just because fact: There used to be three Spaghetti Factory's near us. One across the street from the Seattle waterfront, another one in Tukwila (south of Seattle) and a third in downtown Tacoma. The one near the waterfront closed. The building was turned either into an office building or lofts. The one in Tacoma serves fried calamari only. One of the times we went to the one in Tukwila I was craving calamari and noticed they didn't offer it at that location. That was irritating. 

The following day after the play we drove back to Tacoma after church and went to Corina Bakery. They have quite a bit of a pastry selection.

I got a lemon flavored cake. I love cake. It was very moist.

I believe Jacob got a cinnamon roll. It was pretty big so he and Riley shared it.

Finding coffee shops that sell delicious sweets has turned almost like a weekend hobby for us. So, after first service each Sunday we have been going to different ones. This one, Corina's is definitely one we'll come back to.