May: Beginnings and Endings

May has been something else! Its been sunny and beautiful at times and gray cold at others. We’ve been generally more social and its seeming more and more like the summer. It’s also been a month of beginnings and a month of endings. Let me explain:

Beginnings:

Our first hike of the season was a good one and a good first with baby girl. We headed north to hike along the shore of the Sound for a change. We pit-stopped in Edison, WA at an adorable cafe called Tweet’s Cafe that served delicious food and we got to eat on their cute little patio. After a filling brunch we drove the short 5-10 minute drive from there to the trailhead to Oyster Dome off of the picturesque Chuckanaut Drive that we have driven many times. Twenty minutes in and baby girl was crying in her pack and we were thinking that maybe this hike wasn’t going to happen. Several hours later we made it back to the car after successfully getting to the top with baby girl. It took us about 3.5 hours, with at least 30 minutes of that as a break at the top and Map My Hike tells me it was about 5.5 miles with 1,700 feet of gain but Bryan told me it was more. Reese needs a little breaking into her pack I think before she completely digs the hiking.
Our first time checking out a Seattle Parks n Rec Pool with baby girl this past Saturday and surprise, surprise…she LOVED it! We didn’t really know how it all worked until we got there but for $12 all three of us got to use the pool for an hour. The pool had a lap pool that we didn’t venture into but a tadpole pool, lazy river, water slide, hot tub and sauna for our disposal. There were also life jackets and noodles to use but the life jackets were too big for baby girl so we have her own floatie currently being shipped to us. We had a blast and Reese didn’t stop smiling the whole time. She especially likes to be thrown up into the air. The Rainier Beach pool facility was definitely one going back to, especially on a rainy day. Post swim dinner at Island Soul in Columbia City also ended up being a good decision where we got some delicious fried catfish, black beans, collards, and an amazing snapper and prawn curry, whereas Reese was enjoying her lemon slice?!?
Our first time attending Folk Life Festival at the Seattle Center in years for me and ever for Bryan. We decided to walk around and explore the different venues on Sunday with Reese and it was a winner in Reese’s book. The fact that the entire Seattle Center is open to the public, everything is free, and there is literally music and dance everywhere you look makes this the best festival at the Seattle Center in my opinion. You don’t have to wait in annoying lines, pay for tickets, and can literally just explore. The clientele for this festival is across the board and very interesting but there are a ton of dogs and babies. We ended up spending several hours there walking around and took in a Celtic string band, a Serbian dance group (where Reese made a buddy who was 2 1/2 years old and very interested in Reese), a Mexcian dance group, and little bands scattered across the complex.

Endings:

The only real ending to the month was the finale of Game of Thrones. We hosted the final episode at our house last weekend, marking the end to eight solid seasons, not all of which we hosted but all of which we participated in watching with others. It has definitely been a social occasion for the past several years and has been a good time. Although the finale did not live up to the expectations of pretty much all of its audience, I still enjoyed the final two episodes, enjoyed having people over, enjoyed trying new recipes (a meatball recipe to keep for sure), enjoyed having dinner with friends, and enjoyed seeing Reese play with her friend Rosalie. I am relieved to not have to plan for guests every weekend for the near future but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to continue to host…

We have had a few excellent weekends and it makes me so look forward to what this summer entails in terms of fun the three of us but also makes going back to work on Monday (or Tuesday) that much more difficult. The weeks are also fun with FareStart, going to the parks after work, watching Portlandia, I got my hair highlighted last week and my nails done yesterday, and we have a bunch more social events on the near future calendar. Here’s to the beginning of summer!