Matt's Visit

Okay it's been a while since we've updated the blog here. I guess we haven't been doing a whole lot lately, just playing a lot of tennis, and it's kind of hard to take pictures while that's going on. This last weekend though, my good friend Matt came out to visit. It was a short trip, just Saturday and Sunday, but it was a lot of fun. On Saturday we picked Matt up from the airport and went straight down town. We had some lunch at an awesome little pasta bar, appropriately named, "Pasta Bar," and then went to the market. We picked up some fresh fruit and some halibut for dinner that night. Afterward, we made our way to Woodinville, which is where the Red Hook brewery is located. We took the "tour" which was really more of a visual tour, as we stood in one room and looked through the windows as the tour guide explained the processes. It was probably one of the better tours I've been on, as their main point was to give us beer as often as they could. Katie was there too, we just didn't take too many pictures.

The halibut that night was awesome, Matt was pretty impressed. Katie is quite the cook! On Sunday, Katie had to work, so Matt and I went on a tour of the Boeing factory where I work. They don't let me take people into the factory myself, so we had to go on the public tour. It was still fun, and I think Matt enjoyed it. The rest of the day was spent playing tennis, followed by a relaxing dinner at Arnie's on the Puget Sound (for the record Matt liked Katie's halibut better than Arnie's salmon). We had a great weekend and were really happy Matt could make it out to visit! We're hoping for more visitors soon!

Independence Day

Well I'm finally getting around to putting up this post after the long weekend. Katie and I had a really fun 4th, and it was a full day. We started the day at noon, driving down to North Seattle for a "Street Scramble." Basically, we were given a list of items to go look for around the city, a map and three hours to go find everything. We were invited along by a few of my co-workers at Boeing. It was a lot of fun, relaxing yet tiring and a good way to get to know the city a little better. The forcast was for rain, so we were all prepared, but were pleasantly surprised by the partly sunny day...not a drop!

After we finished the scramble, we found a great spot right next to Lake Union to watch the fireworks. We had about a 5 hour wait until the big show, so we settled in, enjoyed the view, had some food and made a trip or two to the beer garden (the guy laying next to us is Nate, one of my co-workers).

We were about as close as you got to the fireworks, and also had a great view of the sunset with the city as a backdrop. By the time the show was about to start, nobody had any wiggle room, the whole park was full!

Katie and I both agreed that this was the best fireworks show we have ever been to. It started off with somebody singing the National Anthem (which strangely neither Katie nor I recall ever hearing before on the 4th of July) followed by the Army Reserves flying a Chinook helicopter around the lake to the tune of America the Beautiful with a giant American flag hanging from it, all while being followed with a spotlight. At this point, the fireworks started, which were also put to music. It was pretty impressive how they managed to get the fireworks to explode at just the right time so it would follow the tune! I wish we could show you good pictures of the fireworks, but they never look very good in pictures. Overall it was a really fun day. The wait for the fireworks (and the 2 hour drive home) was definately worth it!