Getting to know the neighborhood

We've officially been Seattle residents for 2 whole months now, and it's beginning to feel like home.  Matt and I have been exploring our new neighborhood and taking lots of walks around Green Lake trail, which is just a few miles from our house.  We also caught the tail end of the neighborhood farmers markets in September, and have been slowly expanding our little circle of friends here.  So far we are loving our new city!

Phinney Ridge Farmers Market

Lots of fresh produce!

There are lots of Free Little Libraries in our neck of the woods

Only in Seattle...

Lots of veggie gardens in our neighborhood, too

A little neighborhood charm

Take One Leave One is VERY popular around here

More to come soon!!  We have lots of new mountains, trails, festivals, parks, and beaches to explore!

First hike in Seattle

For the past month, we've been busy setting up our new lives here in Seattle: going to the DMV, buying furniture, unpacking boxes, and making multiple trips to Ikea and Home Depot. This weekend, we finally felt like we could relax a little and start to explore our new surroundings. Matt picked a 4 mile hike on Cougar Mountain, one of the local county parks just outside the city. After hard rains for the past couple of days, the trail was muddy and mossy.  It reminded us of the redwood forests in California before the drought hit. We trekked through fields of ferns, over mossy logs, and dodged big slugs on the trail.

Seattle! ...And a few reflections from the road

We made it!! After two days of driving from Banff, we landed in Seattle. By now, most of our readers know that we've been settling in for a few weeks, and so far we are enjoying our new home and getting to know our new neighborhood.

Downtown Seattle from Kerry Park

Banff and the Canadian Rockies, Part 2

After our hike near Lake Louise, the following day was slated to be rainy and grey. We decided to spend the day driving the famous Icefields Parkway, a scenic highway through the Rockies that connects Banff and Jasper National Parks. We first stopped in the Lake Louise tourist center for a handy map and got a few suggestions for which pull-offs to see. The first part of our drive was pretty wet, so we didn't stop, but by the time we reached Peyto Lake, the weather was starting to clear.

We decided to hike up to see the Peyto Lake overlook. The path here was less a trail and more a maze through mossy forest  -- the trail frequently split two or three ways, only to split again just a few steps ahead. In the more open areas of the forest, you could see paths criss-crossing each other every few feet. Everywhere you looked there were baby evergreen trees, lush patches of moss, lichens, and wildflowers. We meandered along several paths and eventually we made it to the overlook for stunning views of the lake.

Peyto Lake trail 

Banff and the Canadian Rockies, Part 1

Our final stop on the road was Banff in Alberta, Canada.  We camped for 5 days at Two Jack Lakeside, a beautiful little campground on Two Jack Lake with free showers and, to Matt's delight, free unlimited firewood.  We got one of the best walk-in campsites (#32), right on the water and with good site separation from the other campsites.  From this vantage point, we could keep an eye on the pair of loons that were nesting nearby.

Site #32 at Two Jack Lakeside

Yellowstone

Yellowstone is a huge park (over 3,400 sq. miles), so we planned to camp there for about 4 days to get to see as much as possible.  The main park road is actually two loops, connected in a figure 8 (handy map here). The southern loop contains most of the park's popular volcanic features like Old Faithful, whereas the northern loop has more open prairie, forests, and wildlife viewing opportunities (at least in the summer). For the first half of the week we stayed in Grant Village, which is on the southern loop, and explored the sights in that region. For the second half of the week, we camped in Canyon, which is on the northern loop, and explored northward into the Yellowstone Grand Canyon and the Mammoth Hot Springs. 

The volcanic areas were on the top of our list to see, so as soon as we'd set up camp on our first day, we headed out to the Upper Geyser Basin. This basin is the most famous for Old Faithful, one of the more frequently erupting larger geysers, but there is also an extensive network of boardwalk trails that meander through the prairie and visit countless smaller geysers and colorful pools. At first we aimed to just scope out the landscape and identify hikes or features that we wanted to come back and see later, but we quickly got sucked in to walking almost the entire thing. We ended up spending several hours visiting all the different features, taking photos, and enjoying the sunset. 

Family portrait in the geyser pools

The Grand Tetons

After Custer, we met up with Matt's parents to explore the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone together. They rented a camper van and met us at the Signal Mountain Campground in the Tetons. I'd never been to either park before this, so I was looking forward to seeing the iconic landscape that I'd heard so much about.

Grand Teton National Park wowed us from beginning to end, and we packed as much in as we could. We enjoyed many picnics (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), scenic drives through the park's prairies and forests, strolls along the Snake River, a day hike up into the mountains, and numerous wildlife sightings. Matt's dad and I catalyzed each other into a frenzy of photo-ops that was unparalleled previously in the trip, going to great lengths for that perfect shot. Matt and his mom were good sports throughout the entire trip; they endured terribly long waits at scenic pull-offs, woke up at the crack of dawn for sunrise shots, and one evening at the Jackson Lake Lodge sat patiently staring at delicious, uneaten desserts as we abandoned them for sunset photos on the balcony. Thank you for being such good sports!

Jenny Lake Campground