its about damn time, my first hike

so finally i got to go on my first couple hikes since i've been out here which is a relief. the weather has been amazing the entire time i've been here and this past weekend i decided to say fuck it cause i couldn't resist any longer. i've done a lot of other things since i've been here to keep me away from it but sitting on my couch on saturday morning with another day of awesome weather i figured it was time, plus it wasn't like my physical therapist was there to tell me not too so im good to go right?

so everyday i drive to work, i pass a trailhead to couger mountain which is literally 2 minutes down the road from my house so i thought i'd go check that out. to make even cooler besides the fact that its basically my backyard, is that its pretty damn sweet. its a large area with over 36 miles of trails and some pretty cool stuff in it. it use to be a big area for coal mining. i spent a little over 4 hours exploring it, probably about 8 to 10 miles which happened because i really didn't want to stop, and i got to see some sweet stuff, a couple waterfalls, a huge clay pit, an old grated off coal mine entrance, some meadows, and two separate lookout points with amazing views. overall, all i have to say is its gotta be the best backyard i've ever had.

pictures from the weekend with the bro and friends

the fremont troll

puget sound

seals chillin with a view

the brother visits

so this past weekend my brother, sarah (his gf), and their friend lindsey came to visit. needless to say. we had a fuckin great time. yes ricky, not just a great time but a fuckin great time. haha. my bro came in on thursday night while i was still real stressed out so we just chilled in and i went to bed. on friday ricky and sarah went skiing while i worked, yea thats fair. but it did rain on them so the skiing wasn't that great for them unfortunately. they picked me up from work, we checked out the microsoft store and visitor center, stopped home and then we headed out to dinner to the tap house grill. this place has 160 beers on tap. pretty sweet. we had dinner with lindsey's bro colin and their friend from home, another kyle, who now lives in seattle too so i'll prob be chillin with him again. we ended up all going to a bar called buckleys where we had a "few" drinks after which we headed to a place called dick's drive in. a great burger joint for drunk people, we grew furious once we waited in line, ordered, and then found out they didn't take cash. we assured them that we would never come back. after which we walked to the closest atm, got cash, and waited in line a mere 5 minutes later. colin probably had the comment of the night while we were eating, "gotta love having dick's in your mouth." haha thanks colin.  

saturday we went to see the famous fremont troll, then hit up pike place market, i introduced everyone to the amazing mac and cheese that is beecher's cheese, ricky and sarah bought a bunch of seafood to take home, we had lunch, and also picked up the paintings from dan. they came out real good, i was real happy with them. after that we went on a boat tour in the sound and got some sick views of the city and skyline. then we went on the adult version of the underground tour which is really just more talk about the sex, drugs, and corruption of early seattle but once again was pretty cool. then we went to check out the space needle and get some dinner and drinks. after a great time at the five point cafe we headed home.

the next day was pretty much just chillin and taking people to the airport. we did also check out snoqualmie falls which was nice to see again. and yea thats about it. pics coming next. peace.

work is work?

this past week has been the most stressful week of work ever and the days have gone from 8 am to 630 pm and later every day of the week. not that cool. its been real hard but it looks like it should settle down in another week or two. i think its only like this now because we are in the middle of a release.

underground tour pics

pioneer square

smith tower

the first ever toilet

the weekend of the jan 31st.

friday night i went out to a bar in Issaquah with my roommate and some of his friends. it was a good time, met some good new people and chilled there for a while. on the way home i had jack n the box for the first time ever. pretty standard terrible for you food but i won't lie, it was pretty good. saturday was a great day. met about 8 of the other interns down at pioneer square and went on an underground tour of seattle. if you don't know i'll explain the quick version of the story. 

seattle was built on tide flats so during twice a day during high tide the city would flood. in 1889 there was the great seattle fire which burned down the whole city. city decides they're going to regrade the hills around the city and use the dirt to raise the tide flats. businesses don't want to wait so they build their buildings right away. city starts bringing in the dirt and raises the roads anywhere from 12 to 30 feet in some spots so all of a sudden first floors of buildings became basements. once the city had enough money to finish off the roads and bring the sidewalks to the walls of the buildings, under the new sidewalks stayed hollow so there is now still the hollow sidewalks between the roads and buildings creating an underground. yea so there. thats about it. look it up if you want more info. it is pretty cool. also got to learn how badass seattle was back in the day. started really because of the gold rush, prostitution drugs and corruption was everywhere. seattle's first major was so badass he was open up a lawsuit as a citizen and then settle with himself the next day as the major for loads of money. what a great guy.  

after that we went to chinatown a dim sum lunch. it was interesting to say the least but a couple of the interns were asian which was very helpful. they just took care of everything for us and thankfully didn't try to get us anything too crazy and they stayed honest with us about what things were. it was chinese new year so the festival was going on while we were there. pretty cool to see some of the stuff but we were real hungry so basically just went to eat.

after lunch we went to pike place market for a while where i found the most amazing mac and cheese in the world. no joke dude. it is at a cheese factory place called beecher's cheese. i don't know what else to tell you other than you need to try it and pretty much everything they sell there is amazing. also while at pike place i ended up buying two paintings from a spray paint artist named Dan. real chill dude who is wicked talented. i talked to him for a while and i might even get a chance for him to teach me some things on how to do it. one painting was for me and one was a birthday present for my bro. ill put pics of them up later.

that was pretty much the day. that night i went to that shim show. im telling you...... check them out. sunday was the super bowl. we had some people over to our house and cooked a ton of food. i got hammered and woke up in the living room at like midnight. the next day at work SUCKED.

shim

so i think its about time i get back to updating this thing. last saturday, as in the 31st of january, i got to check out another awesome band at a bar called the tractor tavern. awesome rock band, presence on stage and the lead singer actually reminded me a lot of aerosmith. but yea they were real real good. can't wait to see them again in a few weeks hopefully. seattle is loaded with great bands and well..... i love it. check them out online, SHIM.