Our trip to the Pacific Northwest

Over the 4th of July weekend, Derek and I took a wonderful vacation to Seattle, WA. There was no particular reason for the trip, other than to see a beautiful city that I love and that Derek had never been to before. We went into the trip with very few concrete plans but that ended up working out perfectly!

We were in the city Friday-Tuesday, which was the perfect amount of time for sightseeing, a Mariners game, and a lot of good food and coffee.

Friday night we had reservations at SkyCity, the rotating restaurant at the top of the Space Needle. I had eaten there on a high school choir trip and remember it being the greatest Caesar Salad I had ever had, and it did not disappoint this time around! The salmon was also excellent, as was everything that Derek got. It was amazing to get to see the city from the top of the Needle! The restaurant rotates 360 degrees every 47 minutes, so we got a nice view of the whole city and Puget Sound during our meal!

Our view from the top

We checked off a MLB stadium from our list as well, watching the Mariners soundly beat the Orioles with 5 home runs!!! We really enjoyed seeing a new stadium (Derek has seen many, and I'm almost through all of the west coast stadiums). Eventually we'd like to see every stadium!

A must on my list for our trip was finally getting to see the Seattle Public Library. I've heard wonderful things about it from the librarian community and I can honestly say that it didn't disappoint! It's such a wonderful testament to the library's role in the 21st century, not to mention an architectural wonder. We spent well over an hour wandering around each floor and taking lots of pictures (I'm lucky that the husband also appreciates books and humors my need to see every inch of new libraries).

Seattle Public Library

We also explored Pike Place Market, bought a beautiful flower arrangement for our room, and filled up on delicious fresh produce and fresh cheese (and even brought some cheese curds home to make poutine!) We also made a stop at the original Starbucks store at Pike Place. We had wonderful homemade ice cream at Molly Moon's even got to meet up for coffee with some friends who recently moved to Tacoma from California.

Me and my beautiful bouquet!

Piroshky, Piroshky

The original Starbucks at Pike Place Market

Finally, on the 4th of July we headed to the EMP (Experience Music Project) Museum to take a look at their Star Trek exhibit, as well as a few other exhibits that are currently at the museum. The Star Trek exhibit was so much fun and there was something awesome to look at at every turn. As someone who grew up watching The Next Generation, I loved getting to see the costumes and some of the props, as well as learn a little more about the history of the franchise.

My favorite: Geordie La Forge

A timeline of the Star Trek universe

It was so nice to get away for a few days and explore a new (well for Derek, anyway) city. We'd definitely like to make these little trips a tradition!

Western States 100

I grew up in a small town with great history, and one thing that Auburn, CA holds as of utmost importance is our reputation of being the "Endurance Capitol of the World", a nickname we earned from hosting the finish lines of the Tevis Cup and the Western States 100 Endurance Run. Both of these races involve traversing the mountain trails from Squaw Valley to Auburn, the Tevis Cup by horse and the Western States by foot. Growing up my family occasionally drove out to the canyon overlook to watch the horses come up to their last checkpoint before the finish line, but never did we do the same for runners. This year, after being into running for nearly two years, I finally made it to the finish line of Western States to watch the first (and last) runners cross the finish line.

A little historical background on the Western States 100 and why it's such a big deal. WS is the oldest and most prestigious 100 mile trail run. It was stared in 1974 when Gordy Ainsleigh decided that he was going to run alongside the horses during the Tevis Cup, which he did in less than 24 hours. Since then, lots of people jump at the opportunity to run 100 miles in less than 30 hours, and the race now has a qualification and lottery process for registration. If you finish the race in under 24 hours you get the coveted silver belt buckle. Finish in under 30 but more than 24, bronze belt buckle.

The finish line!

After being involved in the running community more in the past two years, I was ecstatic that I was able to be at home that weekend and I specifically blocked out my late evening and morning to be at the finish line (on my high school track) to watch both the winners and the last runners come in. Using a combination of Twitter updates and the race's live tracker, I was able to keep tabs on the front runners throughout the day (the race starts at 5am). At 6:30pm we headed over to the high school because all afternoon the lead runner, Jim Walmsley had been pushing the course record, and with 15 miles to go was still on track to beat the 14:46 course record by at least 10 minutes. Unfortunately, upon our arrival at the high school track there was an announcement over the speaker that Walmsley had taken a wrong turn, which had set him off course by almost 2 miles. While I was sad that I wouldn't get to see the record broken, we did get to see Andrew Miller become the youngest ever winner of Western States at 20 years old. What an inspiration!

Andrew Miller, finishing strong

Just as inspiring was coming back to the finish line around 10:30am to watch the last half hour of finishers before the 30 hour cutoff. I can't even remote imagine running for 30 hours straight. It was heartbreaking to see people fall short of the 30 hour finish time, but they never gave up!!!

It was such an inspiring weekend, and it has me itching to get more involved with Western States. I still have zero desire to push myself through 100 miles, but I'm intrigued by the idea of pacing a runner or working on their crew, or maybe just volunteering at an aid station!

Had to get a shot of my high school