West Seattle/Snoqualmie Falls

Another weekend, another few days of exploring our new surroundings. I must say, I am thoroughly enjoying this 3 day weekend routine. It really gives you a chance to relax after 4 days of work. So, this weekend, I continued to recover from my

flu/food poisoning/whatever, and still haven’t quite regained full strength yet. Saturday we had to run some errands, so Amy and I ventured into a neighboring town named Federal Way to look for a new camera bag. While in Federal Way, I did a little research and found that they have absolutely nothing in the town except for an Rhododendron botanical garden and Bonsai sculpture garden. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Rhododendron, you should probably look elsewhere for the information, because, in the Brandon dictionary, a Rhododendron is a bush. There are many types of Rhododendron (bushes) apparently, because the garden we walked around was 22 acres of bushes. The actual environment of the garden was beautiful, with separate sub-gardens throughout the park. We asked the lady at the desk how long it usually takes to walk around, and she said that some people take all day to appreciate the Rhododendron. Amy and I were in and out in 40 minutes, only in part because we got lost a couple times. Again, it was beautiful scenery, but we probably don’t appreciate the Rhododendron like the grounds keeper. Right next door, was a Bonsai garden.

Now, I felt it was much more interesting then the other garden. All the Bonsai trees were different species but they were truly works of art. Years are taken to accurately trim and shape these trees to make works of art. It’s incredibly difficult…just ask my Mom who killed the one that I bought for her for Mother’s Day a few years ago….. :) Sorry Mom. The next day we had plans to go to West Seattle, for the West Seattle Summerfest. Now, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the area, West Seattle is different than that of Downtown, because it is lies on the other side of Elliot Bay. It also houses one of the greatest beaches

in the area named Alki beach. We tried to beat traffic and left the house rather early, found adequate parking, and walked around the great little farmers market that they had. The market featured a decent amount of vegan options, and organic produce from local farms. Amy found herself trying a vegan ginger cookie that consisted of soy this, soy that, and non enriched flour, and no sugar/preservatives. It tasted like gritty poo, and ended up giving Amy a stomach ache. We walked around the street festival lined with tents and music stages at both ends. Amy

bought a few knick knacks of memorabilia, and then decided to check out the scenic drive around the West Seattle peninsula. They say that the best views of Seattle, are from West Seattle, and they are right. As soon as we found the route along the water, we drove down the coast, stopping sporadically for photo ops here and there and checking out the sights. We first stopped at the Alki Lighthouse, which houses two very high ranking officers in the US coast guard. Here are pictures of the lighthouse (just for you mom!) My mom has a thing for lighthouses. We drove down for lunch to a place called Salty’s right on Alki beach, but were turned away until dinner service as they were finishing up a brunch buffet (which we plan on trying as it is ranked #1 brunch in the US via MSN). We parked the car nearby and walked down the shore and saw scuba divers emerging from the water. Crazy Seattleites!! The guy, told me I should try it, but with 50 degree water in the summer and 30 feet of visibility, I think I will stick to my dives in the Caribbean waters (but no more throwing up 30 feet underwater, even though it is an interesting way to see a lot more fish). We ended up walking clear down the shore about 2 miles, watched some beach volleyball, and then came back to enjoy the best dinner we have had in Seattle as of yet. The views, service, and food were amazing. As the restaurant sits on the bay, and we sat outside on a gorgeous day, we got to see the Seattle skyline and enjoy a great seafood dinner. At the conclusion of dinner, Amy wanted to try their famous “The Best Chocolate Cake Ever”. After trying it, Amy even said that, “this is the best chocolate cake ever!" It was dark moist chocolate cake, layered with chocolate cream, surrounded by chocolate frosting sitting in a bath of dark and white chocolate sauce, and then covered with warm melting chocolate. We don’t have a picture, but it was quite the sight, and whoever comes out to visit us, will be treated to this dessert. Now, I’m not a big fan of chocolate, so you can imagine that Amy ate the majority of the cake, and soon fell into a food coma at home. Great day exploring West Seattle!

The following day, we had plans to relax and get ready for work the next day, so we decided on a quick

½ day trip out to Snoqualmie Falls which is about 30 miles east of Seattle. Being the most popular waterfall in the area with over 1.5 million visitors per year, and being in the top 5 in Washington for size/intensity, the falls were amazing! We pulled up and saw the falls from the very top and they were gorgeous. We walked around the top of the falls and towards the gazebo that acted as the viewing tower. Then we took a ½ mile hike downward to another viewing stop at the bottom of the falls. The hike down was pretty steep, but not difficult. We got to the end of the other viewing station and it was still relatively far from the falls. So, we stared at the “Stay on the boardwalk sign”…and we jumped off of the boardwalk, hiked down the rocks and walked closer to the falls. The view
from up close was amazing and you can feel the raw
intensity of millions of gallons of water crashing into the rocks, and feel the mist fill up the canyon and roll downstream. Next, we went to a local brewery pub, for lunch, where it was

surprisingly good. Amy, of course, had the taster which consisted of the brewery’s 9 beers. She says that she tends to prefer wine over beer now, but man, she can still put down a good amount of beer. Next weekend, we are invited to attend our current companies annual picnic, so we’ll see what transpires. Until next week everyone.