01 March 12

There was a rainbow the morning we left! Unfortunately that was pretty much the high point of the day; air travel is only ever fun on the way there. Decent pizza at a bistro in JFK, but of the six beers they had on tap, the only one that wasn't lager was Guinness. Arrived in Seattle about 8:30, home by 11:30ish, but with the time change it felt like 3:30am and so by the time I got into bed an hour later I was thoroughly exhausted (though I managed to unpack with the second wind I got after falling asleep in the car).

29 February 12

Morning at the beach, afternoon shopping, evening drinks, and French dinner.

25 February 12

Mom and I spent most of the afternoon on the beach, after spending almost the whole morning sleeping. We both got patchy, awkward sunburns from spots we missed with the sunscreen. In the evening we had dinner at Toro Salao, a tapas place in Old San Juan. Afterwards we walked up to this bar called Pizza e Birra (you guessed it, Pizza & Beer) and had a few drinks on their patio before taking the sketchiest cab ride ever back to the hotel. We went back to the bar almost every night (the host recognized us and kept giving us the same table) because the drinks were cheap and the patio was lovely, and it was a nice mixture of tourists and locals.

30 January 12

It was inventory day at work, so I had to start at the ungodly time of 6:45am. Thankfully, we finished early so by 2pm I was in the Irish Heather, having an Angry Scotch Ale. Met up with Jeff and we walked through Gastown to his work, where he was kind enough to hook me up with another beer and a portobello mushroom & roasted garlic pizza.

20 November 11

Jeff and I stopped at New Brighton Park on our way to the grocery store. It was freezing cold, but beautiful.

03 September 11

I found some good stuff at the thrift store during the day while Jeff was working, and after he got home we wanted to go somewhere for beer & food. We had a 2 for 1 coupon for Howe Sound Brewing, so we decided to just drive to Squamish. The brew pub was nice, the interior of it made me feel like I was on vacation. And of course the beer and food were good too.
On the way home we stopped at a lookout to take some photos in the twilight. I wanted to do night shots, too, but after it was fully dark we missed the next lookout point and it was too troublesome to turn around.

31 July 11

An afternoon spent celebrating Pride with Amanda & Laryssa & Jeff Downer, followed by an evening of psychedelic drugs and wandering Stanley Park for hours, and then biking back to their place and making midnight chili and bannock over a backyard bonfire. Wonderful day.

19 May 11

We went back to Newport in the morning to check out the sea lions. There were probably six or seven of them sleeping or swimming around the dock there... last time Jeff and I were there we saw easily a dozen. After that we drove up the coast to Devil's Punchbowl State Park, a truly amazing erosional landform. We hung around until we got cold, and then continued on to Portland. Jeff and I separated from my family at this point, since we had planned to stay at Sarah and Chase's. While we waited for them to come home, we had a beer at Hall of Records and then watched all the dogs in Laurelhurst Park. After hauling all our crap into the house, we got dinner at the food carts and then met up with my parents and Alice for drinks at Teardrop downtown.
A few more photos here.

18 May 11

We stopped at this danger beach so Jeff could chase waves and I could pick up rocks. We stopped again to play in the water in Crescent City, and spent the night in Newport. Had dinner at a really nice waterfront bistro that was kind enough to put the hockey game on for us.

13 May 11

Jimm's fears of flying have come a long way, since he flew alone on Friday the 13th to Oakland in order to meet us. After picking him up we spent the day wandering around in San Francisco. I tricked everyone into walking up Hyde Street to Russian Hill, but they all agreed that the view from the top of Lombard Street made it worth it. We ate sushi at a restaurant near there, and passed Grace Cathedral as we walked for ages back to the parking garage.
A few more photos here.