washington recap

so i have this thing about trees.

i realized recently that i did when one of my friends announced that she didn't like them. "how could you not like trees?!? they're awesome!".... and then i realized i might have a love for trees. i don't know why.

in florida, i admired the huge, swaying palm trees. looooove them! and then when i landed back home, i realized that palm trees were splendid but boy oh boy do i adore the fall foliage all around me. reds and golds and browns and all that jazz. such prettiness.

so the point of this confession is to explain that one of the reasons that i was excited about visiting the pacific northwest was to see the evergreen trees.

it was like Christmas everywhere!! we landed in portland, oregon and it was every bit as cloudy and gorgeous as i expected.

evergreens and rivers and mountains, oh my!
oh and moss was Everywhere. the cool, moist climate is a friend to moss.

so besides sleeping in and making tea with my siblings every morning (miss that!!) and attending niece/nephew basketball games (4 total!), we went to Portland's Japenese Gardens one day....

and went to Wahkeena and Multnomah Falls....

the smudges are actually water droplets! cold and intense water!

then towards the end of the week, we all drove north to Seattle (yayyyyy!)

skyline view from Kerry Park

space needle again! that blob is a museum and the weird blobby shape + colors totally fascinated me

itttt's Pike's Place!

irresponsibly taking pics as i cross the street

this is one of the places where they expertly fling fish at each other and tourists (like moi) grin dumbly and snap pics. i felt sorry for those guys after a few minutes.

veggies galore

my sister was obsessed with buying a washington apple. me: "they sell them in florida grocery stores too!" but she bought some pacific rose apples and i must confess, it was delish!

any starbucks aficionados? this here's the 1st one ever. i decided to wait for my group outside as the line was a tad outrageous. the girl on the guitar was pretty awesome though!

outside of the Pike's Place starbucks

view from the top... of the Seattle space needle

lovely.....

cold and windy but awesome view!

group pic with a fake backdrop!