Jen Comes to Visit!

My school had a whole week off this week for "mid-winter break."  I have never had a mid-winter break, but I have quite enjoyed it! Yes, having a break in the middle of winter when I don't enjoy winter activities is not the optimal time, but I was lucky enough to start off the break with a visit from my sister Jen!

Saturday, we picked Jen up from the airport and headed straight downtown to Pike's Place Market. We had a great time exploring, sampling, and watching Jen's reaction to trying new things. Jen's opinions: smoked salmon is yucky and the doughnuts were divine. We also grabbed lunch at Ivar's where Jen ate.....chicken. And then fed the seagulls some fries. That was hilarious. Afterwards, we were all soaking wet so we headed home to rest and watch some Olympics before finding a yummy Thai place to eat. We love the Thaiger Room down the street from us!

overlooking the Sound from Pike's Market

Sunday, we headed up to Deception Pass State Park. We had heard that it's pretty neat from quite a few people, and since it wouldn't be covered in snow, we decided to explore there. This state park is actually on two different islands, which is fun, and we didn't have to deal with taking a ferry! We LOVED this state park! It has beautiful views and we LOVED all we saw and did! Definitely planning on going back! We hiked on the beach as well as to Rosario Head and got to see some real tide pools! 

from the bridge looking to Fidalgo Island

my explorer

sitting on Rosario Head overlooking the water and holding tight in 40 mph gusts

On Monday, Ian had to work, so Jen and I played. After searching downtown for 4 hour parking and then learning it was free all day, we parked and hit up Pike's again, grabbing some delicious baked goods and flowers for our ferry ride to Bainbridge. On Bainbridge, we walked around the town, I made a friend ordering hot chocolate with lots of whipped cream, and then we headed back. We went to Alki Beach and enjoyed the most delicious burger and fries. It was so good and perfect for the overcast afternoon. Too bad it wasn't a warm 80 degrees and sunny... Then, we had to battle traffic back home in order to grab Ian and head to Pioneer Square for the Underground Tour. We loved it! It was so neat to hear the history and see the hidden gems underneath the city streets. Ian and I want to find a map that shows where all the underground goes. Afterwards, Jen trusted us again and we grabbed terriyaki from the place next door to end our eventful day. 

Jen bought some beautiful tulips!

Alki Beach. Jen thought the fire rings were cool

Tuesday was Jen's last whole day here, so we jammed it full of everything. The weather did not think our plans sounded fun and tried to make it miserable for us...but we made it a great day! First, we headed out to Snoqualmie Falls. We stayed about 15 minutes and left, but it was very impressive! Then we had to head to my school to check on the salmon and see if they needed to be fed (they didn't). Obviously I thought ahead and brought Jen with me because she knows lots about animals. Then we headed out to the zoo (it was still raining). We had heard rumors that the zoo is half price during a real storm, and apparently that is not true...but we had a coupon from when we rode the ferry. Score. But oh my. The Woodland Park Zoo is SO impressive! It's large and most of the animals have huge enclosures! There were so many animals and different parts of the zoo! I literally loved all of it. Even the puddles and the sun that started shining. The zoo then closed, so we had to leave. We went to the Ballard Locks, which is not exciting at this time of the year. There were no boats and no fish. Jen loved the birds however. On our way home, we stopped by gasworks park for some good views of Seattle. It was however terribly windy and we were both wiped out, so we headed back home and decided to end our adventures with some yummy frozen yogurt.

Snoqualmie Falls.

at the rainforest part! It was so warm in here!

the Ballard locks has these neat swirlies.

views of the houseboats across the bay. 

We loved having Jen visit and I loved having some great things to do with Jen while she was here! It was a great visit, and I'm bummed my week off is practically over.