Snow Lake

In summer 2007, I hiked Snow Lake with my best buddy who was moving to Boston in just a few days. We loved the hike and were amazed at the size of Snow Lake, as well as the craggy mountains surrounding it. I have been eager since then to hike it again, and did so last weekend when Washington fall colors were in all their glory.

The Snow Lake trail is about six miles round trip, with a moderate elevation gain. The trailhead begins from Alpental at Snoqualmie Pass. You climb pretty gradually through talus slopes, meadows, and trees before beginning steep switchbacks. After the steep, rocky switchbacks, you crest the mountain ridge and get a spectacular view of Snow Lake, then you descend steeply to the lake. It was cold and windy at the lake - so we ate our lunch quickly, gawked for a moment at the gigantic Snow Lake, then began our way back up to the top of the ridge.

Halfway along the trail, there is a cutoff to the Source Lake overlook. Source Lake is a minuscule lake sitting at the bottom of the valley, feeding into Alpental. We decided an overlook of Source Lake was enough, so began the final trek back to the car.

The Snow Lake hike was fantastic for a brisk, clear October day. The colors, though nothing compared to East Coast falls colors, were spectacular and made the scenery look ablaze and lively. It was a little chilly at the lake itself, but the view was still incredible. This will likely be my last hike for the season. Next up, cross country skiing and trying out snowshoeing!

Me with fall colors, mountains in the background, and my fantastic new hiking pants and boots.

The picturesque view of Snow Lake you get after cresting the mountain ridge.

A view from our lunch spot. It was very chilly at the lake, with a brisk wind and temperatures, we guessed, around 35 degrees. Brrr! We ate lunch quickly...

A panorama of the large Snow Lake.It looks like there are little patches of fire from the autumn colors.

Vine maples trees ablaze.

Another spot where it looks like there are little patches of fire at the bases of trees from the fall colors.

A study in color.

I liked the symmetry of this photo with the waning moon in the center.

Pandora Radio

My favorite new Web tool is Pandora Radio. It's a free, online radio that plays songs you want to hear based on your music preferences. You start by typing in a song or artist and then Pandora picks a song based on similar music types. You rate whether you like the song or not, and Pandora narrows in on what you want to listen to. When you give a song a thumbs down, it immediately skips to a new song. I found the radio is not great for artists you know really well, unless you want to hear only other songs you know really well. But it's perfect if you like a particular group and want to find similar music. You can see below I typed "Third Eye Blind" and got some great music choices from Pandora - all songs that I love. So cool!

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

I have been thinking a lot lately about my favorite places. I have learned that I am the type of person who likes to categorize - favorites, dislikes, pet peeves. When feeling lost in life, I believe those categories can help keep you grounded because they are something in yourself you can define. Especially the favorites, because they are the most fun.

Of course the home that I grew up in and my home now and my friends places are up there with my favorite places. But besides those, there are other places that are no longer simply locations, but memories, personifications, and significant to who I am as a person. Looking at photos of those places makes me happy to be who I am and happy to have lived my life. So I decided to share a few of those places with you Seattle Swift readers. And I want you readers to tell me some of your favorite places!

Santa Clara University in San Jose, California. My alma mater. And one of the most beautiful places in the world. I have fantastic memories of my English classes, amazing friends, stimulating intellectual conversations, the beautiful campus, and glorious California sun. I grew tremendously in my four years at Santa Clara. Below is the SCU Mission Church and the SCU Mission Gardens - a great spot for laying out in the afternoon sun with friends. Santa Clara has taken on the qualities of an oasis for me - a relief, refuge, haven, and delightful change. It looks like an oasis too, with palm trees and green grass and flowers galore.

This photo comes from the Wolf Creek Ridge trail, one of the trails in the Sun Mountain cross country ski system. Nearly every winter of my childhood and adolescence, my parents and I drove to Sun Mountain Lodge, near Winthrop, Washington, for three days of snow and cross country skiing. This place makes me love winter weather and helps me through dismal Seattle winters. I also learned to cross country ski here. Sun Mountain was one of the first places that helped me set measurable goals for myself. I decided each year I would attempt a more difficult trail to ski, until I reached the point I was skiing two hours uphill to come screaming back down the mountain.

And of course, Cannon Beach in Oregon. My family traveled to Cannon Beach nearly every summer of my living memory. For many of those years, my cousin traveled with us. So Cannon Beach means to me that close relationship with my cousin. Cannon Beach also means sand castle building, body surfing for hours in the frigid Pacific Ocean, exploring tide pools, riding fun cycles down the beach, sunsets, shopping in town, and sand between my toes and in my hair for days. I love everything about Cannon Beach and all the memories I have from there. Below is the castle I built with my dad summer of 2007.

Some other favorite places include: Lake Chelan, CYO Camp Gallagher, Seattle, and Mont Saint Michel in France.

So where are some of your favorite places? Where do you love that has shaped who you are?

Melted Chocolate Heaven

Last night I met friends for happy hour at Twist in Belltown. They have some great food specials, but it was hardly memorable after our next stop. After Twist, we migrated to the late night happy hour at The Melting Pot on Mercer in Lower Queen Anne.

This was my first experience with fondue. We shared the cheddar cheese fondue. The cheese was fantastic, warm and garlicky. They brought apples, veggies, and bread to dip in the melty ooey-gooey cheesy goodness (that sounds a little like a Taco Bell commercial, I apologize).

To follow-up the cheese fondue, we shared the pure milk chocolate dessert fondue. I will say, without hesitation, that this was the most amazing dessert I have had in my entire life. They brought out a plateful of pieces of brownie, pound cake, oreo-covered marshmallows, strawberries, bananas, cheesecake, and rice krispie treats. All to dip in the melted milk chocolate. Ahhh-may-zeeng. Whatever hippie thought up fondue must have a very prominent seat in heaven now. All three of us were giddy and giggly over the pleasure of our chocolate fondue.

I definitely want to make it back to the Melting Pot as soon as possible. And we vowed to start hosting our very own fondue parties. I also really enjoyed savoring each piece of food individually, instead of wolfing down a plate of pasta, or whatever I would have for dinner. Thinking about each piece and savoring it seems to be a better approach to eating than simply snarfing down whatever is available.

So if you have some time and love chocolate - try out The Melting Pot. Great for a girls night. And, Galen, we are so going when you are in Seattle!!!! Or making our own.

New Toy for Bloggers

So the past couple of days I've heard quite a bit about word clouds - programs that take your text and pull out the most commonly used words and create... a word cloud! I discovered a fun one at wordle.net and made one for Seattle Swift. If you are a blogger, or just want to try it out for your Web site or block of text, check it out - it's fun!

Welcome to the Neighborhood

So this might be a little inappropriate for my blog. But dang it, it's just too disgusting and hilarious at the same time not to share with those of you who haven't already heard the story.

So I live with a roommate on the top floor of a duplex - an old converted house. There is a great covered porch out front with a set of steps leading up to it. Along the steps are two wide cement railings with a flat base at the bottom.

Our downstairs neighbors had a party last Friday night. No big deal, they left us a note earlier in the week, and it was Friday, so noise is appropriate. We stayed in and didn't really let the loud music and shouts bother us too much. Saturday morning I slept in and left the house around noon for some errands. The midday sun was shining on our front porch. I walked blithely out to my car and returned about two hours later.

As I climbed the steps, I noticed to my shock, horror, and disgust that there was a pile of poop - yes a pile - sitting squarely in the sun on one of the cement railings. Wondering how a dog could have made it up there and why it would have been possessed to do such a thing, I immediately began to wonder if my roommate, myself, or our neighbors had some enemies. I ran upstairs to tell my roommate. We inspected the poop, thought about potential enemies, and decided due to the location it had to be a casualty from our neighbor's party.

We knocked on his door and let him discover the pile. At that point he said, pretty casually, "Oh yeah, one of my friends said someone pooped on the porch last night." Oh yeah! Cause that is something people do pretty often, nothing to be miffed about. So a person SHIT on our front porch. Really?! Really. I mean, really! This definitely goes up there with one of the more disgusting things I have experienced. But now that it's over and I don't have to see or smell it walking into my home, it is also so disgusting it is hilariously funny. Luckily our neighbor cleaned it up right away, and hopefully won't invite that friend over again.

Yikes!

The Seahawks have now lost four games and won only one, against the Rams, one of the worst teams in the NFL. I'm not giving up hope yet, but our prospects for making the playoffs this year look pretty grim. Our team just can't seem to stay healthy and our defense has had a lackluster at best performance so far this year. And the Giants kicking our butt was nearly humiliating, except for the fact that the Giants are one of the best, if not the best, teams in the NFL. I guess this means I might have more free time on Sundays since watching the games is not quite so exciting when your team is losing.

On a side note, I finally loaded photos onto my computer from the Seahawks - 49ers game on September 14th, the Seahawks season opener. It was a warm, sunny Seattle September day, so it was hard to be too depressed even though Seattle lost. Mother Nature perhaps decided to grant Seattle a beautiful September because she knew the Seahawks would bomb this year. So here are a few photos.

Best Buddies

I am posting this photo simply because I have two amazing best friends. We parted ways after graduating from Santa Clara, and I miss them everyday. Love you girls! Life is not much without friends to share the ups and downs.

New Digs

Hello Seattle Swift readers! I apologize for my rather lackluster attempt at blogging lately. I recently moved from Crown Hill to the Eastlake neighborhood in Seattle. I have been a North Seattle resident my entire life - I love North Seattle, especially the nicer streets, better parking, better grocery stores, and parks. But I am very excited now to be moving closer to the heart of things in Seattle. I am within walking distance to some of my favorite restaurants and only a short and mostly flat bike ride to the Burke Gilman. Once upon a time I also rowed for Lake Union Crew in summertime, so perhaps I will see about rowing again in my free time. I can even walk to ride the SLUT if I so desire. Anyway, I will be a little out of touch until I am unpacked entirely, but keep checking for updates - I promise to get back to exploring the Northwest ASAP!

Also, as a follow-up to my Tipping Point post, I will admit my initial enthusiasm wore off quickly, and was completely squelched after Sarah Palin's three "interesting" interviews. For those of you anti-Palinite Facebookers (you like my words there?), you'll enjoy this: Sarah Palin's Facebook Page.

Intro to Drawing

At Santa Clara, I focused most of my intellectual and creative efforts on English and history, since I loved the professors and classes so much. Now that I am out of the undergraduate grind, I've been exploring different creative avenues, like graphic design (though I still have a tremendous amount to learn). Wanting to branch out a bit, use my brain, and get away from the computer - I decided to enroll in an Introduction to Drawing class with North Seattle Community College. When I was younger, my Prismacolor colored pencil set was one of my favorite toys - I spent hours drawing elaborate landscapes and people. So I am very excited to get creative again, though I can't promise sharing any drawings here on my blog!