redwissel.com

today, b and i drove about 30 minutes or so to snoqualmie falls. luckily for b, as he put it, he had reneedar with him. upon driving out, b seemed about every required turn he needed to make, and if it wasn’t for me we would still be trying to find our way to the falls. to start out from our place he ended for 5 north instead of 5 south to i-90. after quickly pointing this out we decided to take a slight detour to b’s favorite coffee shop, peet’s, for a morning treat. from there he almost missed the on-ramp to i-5 from peet’s, the exit for snoqualmie falls, paying attention to lane changes and lastly driving completely past the falls park entrance. usually b is a terrific navigator. today, his internal compass was a bit off.

upon arriving at the falls it’s a very short walk to the top viewing deck. the falls are gorgeous. it’s a 268 foot drop. with the rain we had this week, the water flow was moderately heavy. we plan to go back in the spring when the water flow is heavy from all the melting snow. from there we hiked the very steep 1/2 trail down to the base and back up. after the falls we went to the nearby railroad museum, took a train ride and then drove up to north bend for a very late lunch/early dinner at a diner. mount si looked extremely mysterious today with the clouds and fog. overall, it was a great day with a short 20 minute rain shower while we were at the base of the falls.

today was a bad camera day, the batteries unfortunately were not fully charged beforehand, so we only got a few good shots in. b did get a great hdr shot of the falls shown below. we plan on returning soon with our future seattle visitors. we will make sure the batteries our charged and post more then.

one lovely afternoon i spent the day shooting photography at the seattle zoo. while it is smaller, then other zoos - it still is very pretty, peaceful and serene. feel free to take a look at some of my pics on my flickr page.

once again, b and i decided to go exploring in the city. first we walked a very long way to pier 90 to hang with the sailors and get free tours of all the ships. you can see some of b’s pics here.

also we dined at one of our fav sushi places in belltown, wasabi bistro. pretty good sushi at good prices. happy hour prices are fabulous.

my paparazi (b) took some pics of me while we pre-gamed before the DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist Concert (which was off da’ hook). Great Music. Great Mixing. Great Motion Graphics. I mean when you can mix Stairway with the Gilligan’s Island theme song and it sounds awesome, you know these guys are the shit.

most weekends, we have no schedule - no set routine. we go with the flow and let the day form itself. but one thing or two may be for sure. 70% of the time, we will go somewhere to hook b up with some coffee and myself with something a tad more girlie like a mocha or a chai. and 90% of the time we will end up record shopping. seattle is the best city for vinyl. we’ve hit a gold mine. what do we purchase you may ask? well b buys vinyl from the 60’s and 70’s - funk and soul, black panthers of oakland stuff, nina simone, early 70’s west african funk, and some other really ol’school stuff. i on the other hand old jazz and big band like the mills brothers, glen miller, men at work, anything eighties and some original aretha. well here are a few pics from our adventures over the past few weeks. hope you enjoy.

b hopping for tunage

b buying records

b happy about his record purchase

some of b’s pics:

vinyl

hidden treasure

b’s two best bff’s came to visit us over the memorial holiday weekend, chuck and ricardo. we had a blast. it was my first time meeting them and all i can say is that they rock and i would hang with them any time. we spent some time on the islands, toured the city, ate at our favorite mexican restaurant downtown, watch the indiana jones movie, went to a few parks and bars and believe it our not the boys actually wanted to shop at the outlet malls a bit. anyways, it was great to have people around. we luv visitors, so if you want to see seattle, you are welcome to come and hang anytime.

*b and chuck

*ricardo, b and chuck

*sorry, didn’t have a good pic of ricardo

yesterday, after we spent two and half hours at the dmv to get our washington state drivers licenses, b was starving so we walked 6 blocks from our condo to the original, yes i said original red robin. he was in shock by the size of the burgers, bottomless drinks and fries. not knowing any better, b also ordered a chocolate malt, which of course went straight into a to-go cup. overall, the experience was better then the one back home in union center. the service was way faster. our burgers were out in five minutes even though the place was pretty full. though the place being original and all, was clearly dated as far as the interior went. and our waitress thought it was weird that i asked for fries to come out right away. how was i supposed to know that there would not be a long wait like there always is in cincy. although i don’t think she was all the way with it, either. i ordered a chicken sandwich and she asked me how i would like it. and after several weird looks and uh, what’s she finally explained herself. she said “well how do you want it, rare, medium, or well?” i was like “um, i ordered a chicken sandwich”. and after about 30 seconds i saw the light bulb turn on above her head and she smiled and replied, “oh, yeah. that’s right.” i considered it a miracle when my sandwich came out correct.
p.s. i had never had a red robin malt before do to the size of the burgers and fries. but a few hours after we got home and unpacked the office, b and i partook and thought it was a very good malt. so if you ever find you have room, get a chocolate malt. they are yummie!

the other night b and i made a trip to the local target in which i was introduced to yet another part of big city living. first you park in a parking garage, not a lot. and secondly, targets are multiple floors and they have these fabulous escalators made specifically just for your cart. you put it through the slot and then your cart meets you at the top of the escalator. needless to say, i have never seen one of these things before, so b had fun teasing me about it. anyhow, it made the chore of running errands a little more fun that day.

after several hours of driving, unpacking and working and trying to catch up on sleep, i finally had time this weekend to go through all my photos and post some of them. after going through and selecting some - i realized i had saved 97 images just from day two and not including any of quagmire’s pics. so the easiest way to view them all is to visit my flickr photo page via the link below. i have included a couple of my favs below and will start on day three’s pic shortly. please remember, all these photos were taken in the car while brandon was going an average of 85 mph, so many of them tend to be blurry. sorry, but that’s the best this amateur photographer can do in those conditions.

http://flickr.com/photos/redwissel/

***doug this photo is especially for you. ; )

don’t forget you can view the complete collection on my flicker page, http://flickr.com/photos/redwissel/.