day sixteen: august 7, 2009.

let me introduce you to the best cupcake i have ever tasted, the lavender cupcake from "cupcake royale" (which is quite possibly the most magical cupcake bakery on earth - eff magnolia and billy's. yeah, i said it! eff 'em!) in ballard.

their cupcakes have the moistest, tastiest cake and fanciest frosting flavors! lavender you ask? oh, yes.... so subtle and tasty and DELICIOUS. and i love cupcakes so you know i am telling the truth. now! go visit their website. :)

clickies! xo. mmmmmmm.........

day fifteen: august 6, 2009.

mmmm... a ginger cosmo! called a serpent's tongue and made with ginger-infused vodka. sooooo magical and delicious. i had one tonight at shiku, this amazing sushi restaurant in ballard. loved the cocktail, loved the sushi! will definitely be back.

now to find me some of that ginger vodka........ xo.

day fourteen: august 5, 2009.

today was probably the first day it has been consistently cloudy (and cool to match) since we got here. it was a nice change, as i got to break out my warm boots and fancy scarf!

anyways, this is documentation of mickey's very first expedition into lake washington!! yay!! hehe. i have been taking him to this amazing dog park that (like many parks, trails, etc. out here) ends at the shores of the lake, but he had yet to venture into the clear, cool waters. until today! he didn't stay in long, just enough to trot around a bit before emerging and moving on to sniff blackberry bushes and pee on things. but hooray! maybe next time he'll go further in and play with the other waterbabies. xo.

day thirteen: august 4, 2009.

that's lake washington. it's where the little trail i walked down yesterday maaaaaybe a block from our house dead ends. so fancy!

and much warmer than puget sound, too. xo.

p.s. the start of the trail is at this massive all girls catholic school that has an apple orchard and fig trees and all sorts of magical things you can pick and/or explore, and that's open to the public. so, fancy. squared!

day twelve: august 3, 2009.

mmmm... blackberries! it's just about time for them to show up everywhere here. i snapped this pic on a walk i took this morning with my uncle, the pony, mia (their black lab and mickey's new girlfriend) and benny (a neighbor's dog) on a winding, woodsy trail just a block from our house that ends at the shores of lake washington. blackberries were everywhere!

i can't wait for them to be ripe so i can pluck them off their bushes and gobble them up. free, organic, delicious! xo.

day eleven: august 2, 2009.

this evening we had a lovely picnic at the seattle arboretum with michael and his friend. i forgot to snap a photo until we were getting ready to leave, hence the dwindling daylight and lack of fancy subject matter.

the trees were so enormous and gorgeous there. it's a massive park - we only touched on one tiny edge. i can't wait to go back and see the rest, and spend some time in the japanese gardens (where you can have a proper tea ceremony and view carp/koi in little ponds). so magical!

i bet it's especially beautiful in winter when the trees and black and bare and the sky is grey. mhm.

another great night, weather and company wise. xo.

day ten: august 1, 2009.

i really wanted to see some tide pools today, so the plan was to go out to alki (al-kie, like "pie") beach but when we looked up the local tide info we found that the next (good) low tide would be tomorrow morning so we needed a new plan.

we ended up going to discovery park in the nearby magnolia neighborhood to explore the beaches of puget sound, which turns out are reached via a multi-mile hike up a wooded bluff and then all the way down winding trails to the water (and fancy lighthouse) on very uneven, rocky terrain. and i was in my bathing suit and flip flops. haha. a few blisters later, i got to cool my tootsies in icy puget sound (the temp is usually around 50 degrees) and sit on some driftwood with trevor and watch the surf and a watercolor-esque vision of mt. rainier in the distance before hiking all the way back up and over again to our car. i took many more photos than this, which i need to post somewhere soon; the setting is so amazing - you go from dense woods to open fields of wildflowers and tall grasses to rocky cliffs - it's hard to believe you are in the middle of a big city.

the scenery was just magical with the sun and the salty sea breeze and the pebbled beach, and i hope to go again soon, sans flip flops. anyways, i now need a new pair! xo.