Lotsa Stuff!

Ah.....another couple weeks have gone by, and we haven't updated, because our weekends have been short and busy! Since our last blog, we had the chance to see Jason Mraz in concert at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle. He played 2 shows, and we were fortunate enough to catch his Acoustic only set last monday. The concert was great! There were too many teeny boppers screaming and cheering, but his performance was fantastic. He's got a great sound and we've been following him for years. I'm sure most have heard his song "I'm Yours" as it is being played ad nauseum across the country on every top 40 station, but he has many great songs and we had a great time. After that we had a short work week and took a 4 day Mckenzie course Thursday through Sunday. The continuing education course was for the low back with some sacroiliac assessment mixed in. Overall, the course was pretty good, our lecturer was great, but we will see how well this "assessment" tool translates into the clinic. After the course one evening, we went to a sushi restaurant called "I love sushi" and I finally got to try Geoduck. Pronounced Gooey duck, it is a clam shaped animal but with a phalic like protuberance that sticks up from the shell. I first saw it from the show "Dirty Jobs" when Mike Rowe was digging for Geoducks in the Puget Sound. It was cooked in this butter sauce, and was quite interesting. Amy thought it tasted just like clams, but i thought the texture was a bit different. On the last day of the course we went to Seattle for lunch at Lowell's in Pike's Market and went to Bruce Lee's grave where he is buried next to his son. We also drove down the infamous broadway street, the mecca of "alternative lifestyles" in seattle, which was filled with little shops and restaurants.

This weekend we had a short weekend since we worked Monday to make up for having off on thursday for thanksgiving. Saturday we were going to go into Yakima valley to do some wine tasting, but the Snoqualmie Pass (where I-90 goes east through the mountains) had hit a bit of snow and they were saying the roads were a bit dangerous. So, we decided to go south to Portland and hit a few wineries there, and then take advantage of some tax free shopping in Oregon. The wineries we tried were good and amy bought a few things here and there for stocking stuffer items at the outlets. This AM we ran errands in anticipation of our Thanksgiving dinner and Amy's Birthday this weekend!! Until next week!

Here's a picture of our humble abode in what may have been the last of the beautiful and sunny autumn days.

Check out all the snow on Mt Rainer as seen from I-5 heading south out of Seattle.

Car show and Transiberian Orchestra

The weeks continue to fly by, and we are counting down the last few weeks before we leave the pacific Northwest. The secretary at work asked me last week, isn't it sad to pack up and leave the friends you've made, the patients you've seen, and life you've become accustomed to. Honestly? Not really. It kind of comes with the territory, and I do believe that Amy and I are quite used to picking up and moving. We have each other, and we try to stay in contact with those friends we have met along the way. Also, I love what we're doing, and even though I dread the day that we have to settle down, on the flip side, it will be nice to not be a nomad, be closer to friends and family and not have to move away. I always get a bit nostalgic every time we near the end of a contract, but our time here has been good. This weekend I have a short weekend, (Amy does not have to work monday) as we are taking a few days off to see a Jason Mraz acoustic concert in seattle, and continuing education McKenzie course the latter part of the week next week. However, I've been a little under the weather, so opted to not go out too much this weekend. The seattle Auto show was on display at Qwest field, so we got to go see many of the 2009 vehicles, some nice exotic cars, and the Nissan GT-R. Amy was quite surprised that of all the cars I wanted to see a Nissan, but if anyone who knows cars, the GT-R is the only nissan that you can buy for $100,000, with twin V-6 engines putting out well over 400HP. It is a thing of beauty. The car is built like my infiniti on steroids. Amy, found her next car that she would like, a nice cherry red Maserati, similar to the one the guys from Entourage drive. After we left, we drove down and parked by seattle center and looked for a quick bite for dinner before we were going to see the Transiberian Orchestra! The transiberian orchestra is not your typical orchestra by any means. It is, a "rock" orchestra, equipped with a small strings section, electric guitars, bass guitars, keyboards, and electric violins, that put a spin on popular christmas songs. As we all know, Amy has a healthy love for all that is Christmas, so I thought it was fitting. After parking, we walked down to the base of queen anne's hill and stumbled upon a restaurant named Asian Breeze. The menu was an eclectic asian fusion with what seemed to be mediterranean influences. We walked in, and the decor was very New York Modern. The food turned out to be very good, everything cooked perfectly. We still had an hour and a half before the show so we walked to the entrance of the Key Arena, and sat by the fountain with the space needle in the foreground. We sat for a while and reminisced. It seemed like only a few weeks ago we had arrived here on the west coast, a little intimidated to be so far from our east coast surroundings, but now this area seems so commonplace for us. We still believe that people up here are different, and not necessarily in the laid back, good way, that is supposedly so typical of west coast attitudes. We have seen and experienced all of Seattle, both the touristy stuff, as well as many of the things that are off the beaten path. We have done things here that most Seattleites have taken for granted and never done. Soon enough, the time went by and we were ushered into the stadium where the concert was great. It amused all of the senses, with pyrotechnics, laser light shows, flashing strobes, and loud guitar rifts and vocals. I swear at least 10 people must have had seizures during the show, as the quick bright flashes of lights were choreographed to the music. The first part of the show was a little odd, but overall a great experience. Long haired guys reminiscent of White Snake members head banging on stage, accentuating every miniscule strum of the guitar with a 80's "hair flip". We even got a great side show, as a young girl in her 20's that sat next to amy rocked out the whole show like we were at a New Kids on the Block concert circa 1990. Amy had even found her pepsi bottle rolling about under our chairs and gave it back to the girl, who opened an exploding pepsi all over herself and the woman in front of her. Guys were a little cheesy, but the music and show were great. Lazy sunday, running errands and such today. I see we are getting relatively avid readers as our counter is up to 100, even though no one comments, we know we have readers, so I continue writing. Also, I just finished reading the book Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, a great read that tells of the inner workings of the kitchen/restaurant industry, and have been inspired to write some things that could expose the humor about the inner workings of the Physical Therapy industry. I will explore the incredible stories of how people hurt themselves to how teaching a patient to do a Codman's Pendulum correctly is like teaching a 3 year old astrophysics. All little things that make a PT's job a little more difficult and frustrating. Anyway, until next time loyal readers!

Tiffy Visits, Seattle, Olympic Peninsula, Wine Tasting

Wow! November already! The weeks seem to be flying by over the last few months, and soon enough we will be out of our quaint little beach house, home for the holidays, and then hopefully in Arizona somewhere for the winter.

Last weekend, our friend Tiffany came to visit us from Philadelphia. She arrived late Thursday night, entertained herself most of the day Friday as Amy and I had to work, and then we started off the weekend with a little party at our house. We had a great time hanging out with our co-workers and other friends that we have met here. We’re lucky to meet so many good people and make good friends along our travels. We were really lucky to have an absolutely beautiful sunny weekend, probably the last one of the season, so the next day, we took Tiffany on what I call the “Brandon and Amy” Tour of seattle, as we have taken our last 4 guests to the same locations, in the same order. We usually start with Dim Sum in Chinatown (Tiffany wanted to see me order food in Chinese, which is probably to the extent of my Chinese anymore), the Fremont Troll, Gas works park/Lake Union, Kerry Park on Queen Anne Hill for a great view of the city, then we park downtown, walk through the shops downtown, walk down to the fish market in Pike Place market and wander around there, venture to pioneer square while walking past SAM(Seattle Art Museum), walk down by the water to the piers and into the space needle and seattle center. We then follow that up with a monorail ride back downtown to the car. We figured that these were our top things to see in Seattle, and have made it efficient enough to see everything in a day. Flyers will be distributed to all downtown hotels for Brandon and Amy’s special Seattle tour in a day. Not much else to elaborate on, as we have been to all those sites, and have accounts of all of them. The next day, we decided to head up to the Olympic peninsula where they have the Hoh rainforest, the only rainforest in the US, along with breathtaking views of the Olympic mountain ranges. The drive was long, as we had to drive south and then all the way up west to the Peninsula. We left early and decided to head to a site called Hurricane Ridge, which is probably one of the most popular sites to visit. It was cloudy/foggy in the AM so we were not sure how scenic our views would be, but by the time we got to the visitors center at the bottom of the mountain, the guide there told us that we would be well above all the clouds and would have beautiful views. She also said that it was a pretty easy hike, a 1.5 mile hike on paved road to the very top of the mountain. We made our drive up to the top of the mountain while stopping a few times on the way up at scenic viewpoints to take pictures, and as we climbed, the views became more spectacular. For the first five miles the road climbed from 400 feet above sea level to just under 2,000 feet at the Heart O The Hills Ranger Station. Over the next twelve miles we climbed up the narrow road and through three different tunnels. As we drove, western red cedar, big leaf maples, grand firs, Pacific yew, and sword ferns gave way to sub-alpine forest and wild flowers. The road passes by a number of scenic overlooks with the Double Parking Overlook, located about two miles past the third tunnel, being the best. We finally arrived at the topmost point for vehicles, packed our snacks and water in our bags, and made our ascent towards the top of the mountain. When the guide had told us 1.5 miles on a paved trail, I was thinking it was going to be a cake walk. Hell, we had done the grouse grind 1 mile vertical hike in Vancouver, and a 12 mile hike in Portland(which I’m still paying for), this should be easy! Even though it wasn’t as difficult as the last 2 hikes, the 1.5 mile hike at a varied 2%-7% grade was a nice moderate hike for all of us. Even Tiffany, who had been running regularly was pretty winded when we got to the top; it was however, over 5757 feet in elevation at the to. The hike was gorgeous, and we also stopped sporadically to take pictures(and to catch our breath). Along the way to the top, we also saw a wild deer walking along the top of the mountain. Finally, we made the last incline upwards and was thrust into a 360 degree view from the mountaintop. Snow capped mountains filled the background to the south and to the west, the trail we had come on roped above and around the mountains to the east, and to the north you could see the coast line of the peninsula, over the straight of Juan de Fuca, and to Vancouver island and Victoria, British Columbia. We were at the same height as the all the other Olympic mountains, with clouds thousands of feet under us. It felt as if we were on top of the world. The view was unparalleled to any hike or view we have ever seen. Amy was still partial to our hike in Hawaii, but this was totally different. We were all in awe of the amazing views, thinking that our pictures weren’t doing justice to the views we bore witness to. It was amazing! Afterwards, the hike down was a breeze, and we soon drove down the mountain, thoroughly content with our trip thus far. I had also planned on doing some quick hikes to a few waterfalls, and to another popular site the Sol Duc hot springs, but I underestimated the time it took to drive/hike to Hurricane Ridge, and the extra time it would take to drive to the other sites. Even though I watch the show Survivor Man, I didn’t want to get stranded on unfamiliar trails, in cold weather, with dusk approaching. The girls were a bit tired anyway, and were interested in hitting a couple of the wineries that we had passed along the way, so we opted for that. We hit 2 wineries on the peninsula, and the girls had a great time tasting and buying multiple bottles. They liked it so much, in fact, that we had planned our entire Monday wine tasting! After wine tasting, we started our drive back home. We drove through Poulsbo, and took the bridge across Bainbridge island to cut our drive down and take the Ferry back to Seattle, and have dinner at the Crab Pot Restaurant on Pier 64. It was cold on the water, but it gave Tiffy a nice chance to see the seattle skyline at night from the water. We departed the ferry, parked, and went to the restaurant. The Crab Pot is famous for its seafood pots, where you choose a variety of different seafood,(mussels, clams, oysters, Dungeness crab, shrimp) they steam the seafood, and then literally dump a heaping portion of above mentioned seafood onto your table. They leave you with a mallet, crab fork, and bib, and you basically go to town on the food. The idea is more novelty and attracts more of a tourist base because of the way the food is served, not necessarily because the food is the freshest, or prepared well. Overall, it was a fun experience. The next day we (the girls) wanted to go wine tasting. Yakima valley was a little too far, so we decided to go back to Woodinville, where we took Amy’s friend Jen, when she visited. I planned things out the night before, and Amy and Tiffy ended up tasting at about 6-7 wineries (I was the DD). I think Tiffy left Washington with her weight in Wine. Afterwards we hit 2 breweries, had dinner, and watched the Phillies game 5 get rained out. Tiffy was totally plastered by the end of the night, passing out on my chair in the living room. Overall, it was a very busy weekend, but great to see Tiffy again. This weekend, we are cleaning up, running errands, and Amy is going shopping while I watch some football tomorrow. We only have 6 weeks left, and then I’ll be visiting Amy and her family, my sister, and friends in Pennsylvania for a bit, then going home for Xmas in Florida. Hope all are doing well! The blog updates may get more sporadic as I feel we have enjoyed the best season Washington has to offer, we have no more visitors coming, and we have exhausted things to do here. So, until the next time we do something interesting……