Seattle spring

 Flowers at Pike Place Market

 The Seattle aquarium in Puget Sound

 

 Colors at the Olympic Sculpture Park

 

 The Experience Music Project museum

 Views from a run to the top of the city

A secret garden in the hillside neighborhoods

I spent last week in Seattle as part of a national geography conference. The city was everything I imagined: amazing food, even more amazing coffee, cloudy skies, Pacific mist, and an amazingly casual urban vibe. Love the city, don't love the climate. I'll say I liked the weather though; it's very refreshing and much better than the dense overcast/pouring rain/ice/snowstorms of central Pennsylvania. It was a fun week and a great chance to catch up with friends and undergrad professors after the thesis maelstrom of the past couple months, and I can't wait to go back someday to explore a little more and make trips over to the rainforest and mountains. 

Now that I'm back at school, but with the purpose of my life (thesis) complete, I am at a strange limbo-esque stage and trying to juggle the new more relaxed schedule of my life back into a semblance of balance. I am not as excited and proud of myself for finishing my thesis as I probably should be. The stress and worry of finding a job is kind of overwhelming for now. 

However, (despite random lingering 40* days) spring is here, my birthday is next week, I am a diploma away from being a Master, and the future will work itself out.

winter at the farm

My grandma lives on a small farm in eastern Iowa, which has been surrounded over the years by neighborhoods and development but still provides an overgrown pine grove and fields and pastures where my sister and I spent our childhoods playing make-believe.  This Christmas while we were there we were blasted with a fluffy snowstorm, which turned the place into a magical wonderland.  The beauty of snow maybe makes up for horrendous winter driving.

wandern.

Yesterday Ellie and I went to Forest Park Nature Center to hike around and break in my new boots.

We grew up in a forest sort of like this but with older trees, and spent our childhood summers exploring the woods and creating all sorts of imaginary worlds and quests.

I love trees.