Planned Gambling

Las Vegas Club
Originally uploaded by Lost America

The American Planning Association is having their annual conference in Las Vegas this year. Guess who's going and who's tagging along?!

Anyone want to come out to Vegas and meet us? Anyone want to go to Red Rocks and climb? Brian will be in meetings for most of the days but I'll be free! And he'll be free at night.

Climbing, sunshine, slot machines, warm weather, the desert, buffets, swimming.....anyone?

We're flying in on Sat April 26 and leaving Sat May 3.

More snowshoeing fun! This last weekend we went to the Mountaineer's Steven's Pass lodge for two nights. It is an amazingly cozy place with a fireplace, coco, games, books and magazines. It is a very communal family style place and they serve two huge meals of breakfast and dinner. Our chore was to do Sat. night dishes and vacuum before leaving. They also had ping pong, which I loved! The only down side was the couples dorm was in the eves of the roof and the temp was in the 30s, so we nearly froze to death Fri, and Sat. was only a little better. Like winter camping.

The snowshoeing was gorgeous! The best yet I think. The snow was soft and fluffy. Our Sat. hike was through light snow all day. We hiked a steep hill to a lake through the forest. Our friend from Brazil had never seen snow before Friday night--pretty amazing first snow experience. We bounded down the hills through the powder all the way back.

Sun. we hiked from the lodge along a road up into more open mountains. We saw about 6 back country snowboarders dropping down a 1,000 foot wall of snow, some landing after 30-60 foot free falls off rock cliffs. It was pretty amazing to watch. We then hiked up the hill ourselves for a beautiful view of surrounding mountains. All in all it makes me want to go out every weekend.

While doing thesis research, Brian found out the list of the top 20 steepest hills in Seattle. The steepest one is 21 percent!The one behind our house (Roy from Bellevue to Melrose) is on the list. It's an 18% grade. We've gotten pretty good at parallel parking on that street. It's a one lane road (but cars go both ways) and you park facing uphill.

We did have a heart pounding moment last week though. The hill is often wet from something draining from the forested area near it. You can often hear tires spinning out on the wet road. The pavement under the parking spaces stays dry though.

We were leaving to go snowshoeing and the road had frozen over. There were cars in front of us and behind us. Brian tried to pull out of the spot but as soon as the tires hit the iced over road, the tires just spun. He realized we couldn't make it up the hill so he tried to make a few turns to get us pointed down hill. It's a one lane road and on the other side of the road is a fire hydrant. As soon as we were perpendicular to the parked cars, the front tires let go and we started to slowly slide towards the parked car below us and the fire hydrant on the other side of the road. Somehow, we stopped, inches from the other car's headlight. We panicked for a moment and realized there was nothing we could do. We could leave the car there but if we got out, would the car start sliding? So Brian counted to three and let go of the breaks. Somehow we skidded around the car and then got traction and made it to the bottom of the hill.

Horray!

A few days later, I saw a pickup truck stuck in the same position a little lower on the hill. It was just inches from the car below it. They left their emergency flashers on and took the bus to work that day.

New Year's Fireworks!

Yes, I know it's almost February.

It's still a great picture..


Happy New Year!!

Snowshoeing 08 is well underway. Yesterday Alicia and I went to Snoqualmie with some of our friends to celebrate Martin Luther King Day. It was gorgeous and sunny, but very cold. The sunny weather made for amazing views. Hiking in the snow is wonderfully peaceful and quiet. It makes everything seem more remote and tranquil. I also went snowshoeing last weekend, this time a little further down I-90. These last two weeks have made me realize I must invest in snow pants. I have about 3 hours before I begin to soak through, which is ok except when playing in the snow and sliding/falling down steep hills. The snow is always very deep, usually a few feet of powder. So tomorrow I will shop for drier pants because we are off to Steven's Pass this weekend for more snowshoeing. Yeah!

PHO

PHO
Originally uploaded by aaronwtong

Mmmm. Why did it take me so long to try pho (Vietnamese noodle soup, pronounced "fuh")? In Seattle there are pho places everywhere! Brian doesn't like brothy soup. I had the day off today (worked all weekend) and got some veggie pho for lunch. The broth is less salty than you would think and slightly sweet. It comes with a plate of bean sprouts, lime, cilantro and basil.

Christmas 2007 was awesome. It was really great to get back to Massachusetts and see family and friends. We visited Worcester, Conn., and Western Mass. It was wonderful to see Mom and Paul, open presents under the tree and take some walks around their neighborhood in Worcester. This slightly blurry photo shows Mom and Jon when we went bowling together, which was super fun. We also visited the Berkshire Brewing Company and had some delicious tastes in the tap room. I loved seeing all the snow on the ground, and enjoyed some cold weather.

Now it's back to work at UW and Metro. Alicia is also busy with TSNW's annual retreat next weekend and beginning to plan the golf tournament fundraiser, plus working at Stone Gardens. Happy New Year!