summer of love – Adventurings

hi friends, thank you for your comments and wishes regarding the wedding and recent photo posts! i’ve been hanging out in my hometown for over a month now on a mini-adventure before heading eventually eastward again.

my northwest summer, in a word, has been spectacular. i came here to get married, have a big party, reconnect with friends, eat and drink allthethings, and reconnect with the northwest; i feel like i’ve really done it… perhaps even a little too much on the food and drink– our waistbands are feeling slightly tighter than before, and as we are now headed to michigan, the end is not near. not only all these good things, but the june temperatures we’ve experienced has been warmer and sunnier than ever before– out of the thirty-eight days spent here, it rained only twice. for june, a typically cool and sixty degree kind of month, that is incredible.

the biggest observations about being home were how i feel like all things are available and possible here. how i can always get in my car and just drive (all the way to portland, for example!) how i’m never too far from the sea or a lake. another fourth of july-centric observation: all of the rhetoric about america being “the best country in the world” that we like to tell ourselves made us both cringe a little bit. i’m not sure i would have cringed so hard had i not spent almost three years abroad, but obviously, i feel it’s been great for us to step back from this sort of american sentiment (dare i use the word propaganda) that we all learn as children and really think about the words that are said and what we feel to be actually true. funny note: i did the “pledge of allegiance” (which actually made me teary eyed) holding a hot dog (that i was in the process of eating) over my heart. it felt very right. crying about america over a hot dog.

but i digress. we are now headed to michigan-land for a little while. time to pack up my backpack, decide what to leave or take, and make sure i’ve got everything.

it will be a little hard to pull myself away from my beautiful home. very bittersweet to realize that i have no idea when my next visit will be, but comforted to know that we will return one of these years “for good” and set up our home here. when this chapter is over… but it ain’t over yet!
some favorite moments from the last month or so (besides the whole getting married thing)…

01. watched whales
02. foraged for clams & mussels
03. marveled at the sea birds and watching them crack open clams

04. one of the best karaoke nights of my life, with dick’s deluxe trophy
05. all day party for seattle’s solstice festival
06. doing my thing (can you guess what song it was?)
07. revisiting favorite spots, like la conner brewery
08. fireworks watching spot on a beautiful american fourth of july day
09. oh, the brunch humanity (serious toast at ballard’s skillet)
10. food (& dress?) truck culture in portland, or. (how and why would anyone 11. cook at home here?)
12. girls in a lake
13. fidalgo views