We've already had many adventures in Seattle. The biggest trial was finding an apartment--a short but tortuous process. The front page headline of the Post Intelligencer today was "Rental housing turns in landlords' favor." This we learned after a stressful 4 days of searching.

We did get an amazing apartment. It is in a beautiful 1930s building, with a movie star view of the Sound, downtown Seattle and the surrounding neighborhoods in the hills. It has a private yard/garden that is imaculate, with every piece of super green grass cut the same length. You can still bbq though.

We've also been exploring the neighborhood near our new apartment and that of our awesome host Brennon. The Capital Hill/Broadway area of Seattle is super cool. The people watching alone is priceless, with hippsters, punk rockers, and total weirdos streaming by mingled with all kinds of people at all times. There are tons of quirky shops, lots of esspresso, and tons of amazing restaurants. The night we came in we ate at the Elysian Brewing Company. They make excellent beers, and have really good food . We also tried a local thai food place that was excellent. We bought a Seattle map at the local bookstore which is easy to spend hours in.

Earlier in the week I got a hair cut at the punk rock barber down on Pine St. where there are lots of cool clubs, bars and more boutique-type shops. After that Alicia and I visited an interesting park on the way home with a giant fountain that covers an old, tiny resevoir on Capital Hill. It was a big 10' hill of cascading water that ran into a wide rippling river. It was made of terraced dark, finished concrete, and little kids (and adults) can wade in the smooth-bottomed, ankle-deep water.

Of course we also took an evening (when the sun always comes out) trip to Volunteer Park where we climbed the water tower which over looks Seattle in 360 degrees. Volunteer is a beautiful old park designed by the Olmstead Brothers who also did Central Park. Bruce Lee is also buried here.

The neighborhoods here are really amazing. They are all small, comfortable, walkable with every service you need, and tons to look at. Apartment hunting we also visited Fremont. Fremont is an old working class neighborhood west of UW that became an artist community and has recently gentrified into a more yuppie, boutique area. There are a bunch of popular music venues here. We also saw two famous Seattle icons, the statue of Lenin with flames and guns around him, and the giant bridge troll sculpture in the act of crushing a real VW bug, under a real bridge. We also saw hops growing wild in this neighborhood.

Those are the highlights for now. It is fun to basically still be on vacation.