37 hrs til take-off

two weeks of classroom orientation and a few hours in the transplant clinic down...time for another week off i guess.  leaving for puerto vallarta sunday morning and am super excited!  promise i will be a total work-horse again as soon as i get back.

back from the northwest...

I am back from Seattle and had a great time! I will post some of my pics soon but for now here is a little list of some of the things I did in the Northwest (not necessarily in order) and pics I stole from google images:

• drank a latte at Starbucks on Lake Washington
• walked up and down many "hills"
• watched recent episodes of the Colbert Report
• saw the space needle, sci-fi museum and music experiment (but did not go in any of them)
• walked on the boardwalk
• visited Volunteer Park and Conservatory
• looked at many mountains (Oympic and Cascade ranges, Mt. Baker & Mt. Rainier)
• took a ferry to Bainbridge Island

• wandered around Pike Place Market
• had a couple lattes at Amy's favorite cafes
• wore a lot of jeans and fleece with no make-up
• met Mary, Julie and Jason for a pitcher of microbrew at the Elysian
• baked cookies and lemon bars
• ate Phu soup in the college district (skipped bubble tea-too full)
• had a cranberry-apple piroshky for breakfast

• went to the aquarium- very cool fish, otters and octopus
• made ravioli bake for dinner
• drove to Bellingham with Amy and Cecilia
• ate ice cream at a sweet homemade ice cream shoppe
• attempted several crossword puzzles
• had a Midwest nostalgia dinner night- complete with iceburg lettuce salad (with crouons and ranch dressing), beer cheese soup, tater tot hotdish "totdish," lemon bars and miller high life (the champagne of beers of course)
• ran along Lake Washington in the rain
• hiked around Seward Park

• had cocktails at 22 Doors
• re-learned to crochet hats
• visited Snowqualmie Falls and Mt. Si (weather too bad to hike to summit)
• drove down to Olympia
• looked at starfish, mussels and lots of boats in the bay
• shared yummy seafood and had a glass of cabernet at Anthony's
• bought salmon steaks at Pike Place Fish to bring home
• had a Plymouth Hefeweizen and turkey sandwich while waiting for my flight at Sea-Tac
• arrived an hour late on a flight that left 15 mins early