Be a tourist! I dare ya!

So, here's why I love when people come to visit me in Seattle. I get to do the touristy stuff that I'm supposedly too cool and "too native" (as someone SERIOUSLY said to me) to do. So, my pals Mark and Alex came to visit me last weekend and I got to do just that. Touristy stuff.

And you know the only thing better than doing touristy stuff with friends in town? Doing touristy stuff with a designer/art director with a super friggin' AWESOME camera. Behold!


Mark and Alex at Kerry Park, my favorite view of Seattle. Again.






<— See? I've taken this same photo at least a hundred times, but none of them ever came out this cool.




He was in a jam/He's in a giant clam! (Or, uh, oyster in this case.)










Them's some serious lobster tails!





















Yes, they do really throw the fish.




Hooray Pike Brewery Beer!












A collection of gum on a wall in Post Alley. Crazy/disgusting/cool.


So, it's great having people here to show off the town. But it also made me realize, I don't have to have friends here to go out and see stuff I've never seen. I barely did any of the cool stuff Minneapolis had to offer and I lived there my whole life. So, my suggestion to you? Go out and see something new. Take a bus instead of your car. Or, better yet, a bus with a guide. Be a tourist in your own town. You're not THAT cool.

Stuff happens when you don't post for two months

Yeah. So, I've been sort of busy. Let me see if I can run down what I've been doing this summer. I'll keep it short and use lots of pictures. Perfect for our Pre-K/A.D.D. crowd out there.

Adam is Adamazing. We've luckily been able to see each other a lot, kind of keeping to our every two weeks thing. He's currently looking for a job up here in Seattle and with the number of great places around here, I'm sure he'll have no trouble. It will be nice to have him in the same city and do stuff like, hmmmm, go on actual DATES? I'm really looking forward to that.

Here he is one rainy Saturday, at Kerry Park, which comes equipped with one of my favorite views of Seattle. My pal Jenny Morgan's friend Deb showed me where this park is.



Work has been Cuh-RAY-zee. But none of you read this to hear about that. Tons of T-Mobile stuff, more than we can shake a cell phone at, and Citibank and pitches galore. Suffice it to say the great big ad machine is a'turning all so we can make the rich white guys richer and whiter.

My friend Tammy came to visit in June, over her birthday weekend! I got to check a few more tourist items off my list (hooray!) including the Space Needle. Here are a couple shots of us, including one from a night at Buckley's, which is becoming my own special Seattle spot for all tourists visiting me.




Got to see almost all of the Claussens earlier in July up in Bellingham at Ellie's house. It was really great to see them all, so much so I didn't take a single photo while I was up there! How lame! Oh, wait. Yes I did. On my phone. Still lame.

Also went to the Oregon Coast for the first time with Adam's family. He's told me many stories about visiting there as a kid and it's one of his favorite, if not most favorite, places on the planet. And it's not hard to see why. We had a great time and I got to meet most of his Mom's siblings and his Grandma Carmella. Got to talk beer with his Uncle Don and baseball with his Uncle Mike. Plus, we stayed in these all-new, totally cute cabins. They were kind of small and the bed was kind of uncomfortable, but come on! How often do you get to stay in a room with bunk beds when you're over the age of 14? Oh, and we went to the Rogue brewery and got a tour. Hooray, Beer!







Excited about my friend Mark and his wife Alex's visit this weekend, too! Not sure what we're going to do yet, but I'm sure we'll find some trouble to get into.

And, what a crazy, crazy day TODAY was. I learned while at work about the 35W bridge and I still can't believe my eyes. So weird to see that bridge I've travelled over thousands of times crumpled in the water like that. It's really hard to be here and not know how people are or if there was anyone I know on there. My family all reported in to my parents, dutifully, so that was a huge sigh of relief. But the next few days will really be hard for a bunch of people back home.

I love my hometown so very much. I hope y'all and all of y'all's loved ones are safe.