Being Magellan

The last few weeks have been filled with exploration, which I simply define as experiencing something new. This could be as grand as traversing a new country or as easy as trying a hole-in-the-wall restaurant around the corner. Whatever it is, the discovery just has to be a first.

Having out of town friends visit is always a good reason for exploring. A couple weeks ago my fellow adventure seeking roommate, Chelsey, and her friend Jenny invited me to join their ice cave journey. Turns out, there is a place called Big Four Ice Caves just over an hour outside Seattle. Having been to Alaska and seen the mammothness of glaciers, I'm going to take the liberty of calling these so called "caves", mini glaciers with tunnels. In typical Seattle fashion it rained for 90% of our trip, but the discovery was so worth a few water drops. Here are a few postcards:

Some perspective... I'm standing at the mouth of
the middle cave entry (see picture above)

 

 

Another recent discovery is a new coffee shop in the heart of Pikes Place Market called Storyville Coffee. They've been around for a few years on Bainbride Island focusing on roasting delicious coffee beans, and decided to share the wealth of coffee goodness with the general public by opening a retail location. For anyone fortunate enough to have learned of their coolness in September, Storyville treated to complimentary pastries and coffee as a soft opening, word of mouth marketing strategy. It totally worked on me. Great location, awesome logo, welcoming ambiance, rich coffee, and I'd argue the best cinnamon roll I've ever had (and I've eaten my fair share of cinnamon rolls), I'd recommend visitors and locals alike check out Storyville for your next cup of java.

 

Discovery

Thanks to my roommate Chelsey, last weekend I was introduced to a new favorite spot.  It's called Discovery Park.  I'm going to call it an urban hiking oasis because once in the park you'd never know downtown Seattle is only a quick 10 minutes away.  Seriously, where outside of Santa Cruz can you find an escape with legitimate hiking trails, beautiful ocean views, and scenic greenery all around?  OK fine, this probably exists outside of northern CA and WA, but where ever else that might be I've never been so it doesn't count yet. (Side note: the views of the "ocean" below are actually of the Puget Sound. Pretty much the same :))  Anyway, three of our four roommates went on a mini adventure to explore the trails that lead down to the water.  We cataloged almost every step of the way, including the moment when Katie and I attempted to do a yoga pose on a wet, sandy log which lead to her almost doing a face plant as she fell.  As you'll see below I too almost tumbled off in extreme laughter.  Had she been hurt, it wouldn't be funny.  However, since she wasn't seriously injured I still break out in uncontrollable laughter every time I see the series of pictures.
For numerous reasons I can't wait for summer. Discovery Park is now apart of that excited anticipation.  The park will likely be crazy busy, but I'm thinking/ hoping convenience will out weigh crowds and result in continued discovery.

"Home"

Until I have a home of my own, I will most likely default to calling San Jose home.  However, this post is not about San Jose.  It’s about my home away from home in Washington.  Thanks to one of my incredible roommate’s generous and creative vision, the space we live in is welcoming, comfortable, and homey – for lack of a better all encompassing descriptive word.  So I’ll keep it short and sweet and let the postcards below speak a thousand plus words for me.  

Kitchen...kind of self explanatory

Living room, dinning area, fireplace :)

My room...well, part of it. Not pictured: walk in closet & bathroom