Fish, Baseball, and Mountains

These last few days in Seattle have felt a lot like our life in Boston. Not only are there a few more LGOs in Seattle right now for internships, but there are also several of the Sloan students here for their summer internships. This means there are a lot more people making plans and meeting up. This is what Chuck and I have been missing about Boston, so it's been nice to reunite with some of our Boston friends!

Last Thursday, Amazon held a free night at the Seattle Aquarium for all of the MBA interns. 

The night included free admission to the aquarium, free food and drinks (one thing we REALLY miss about MIT- all the free food and drinks at events!) and a chance to meet and network with all of the interns currently in Seattle from schools all over the country. We didn't see much of the aquarium but I have to say from what we did see, it wasn't that impressive. I guess this huge tank was pretty cool though.

The best thing about the Seattle Aquarium was the location. It's right on Puget Sound. Awesome view.

After the aquarium we went out to a bar in our neighborhood for a little while with some of the LGOs and Sloanies. We had to take this picture of Chuck and two of his classmates, ZZ and Hector, because the 3 of them were on the same "core team" in the Fall. It's crazy that 3 of the 7 Puffins (their team name) all ended up in the same place for their internships!

Friday night, Chuckie and I ventured downtown to Safeco Field for the Mariners vs. Cubs baseball game. He had been to the stadium before with some of our friends on a night I had to work, but this was my first time at the field. It was beautiful!

The game wasn't sold out by any means so we just picked some seats in left field, and in the shade, and enjoyed the game.

For a reason I can't remember, my dad has always been a Cubs fan, therefore my family has always cheered for the Cubs. My dad also coached my little sister's softball team for a lot of years, and they were always the Cubs. So this was the perfect game for us to go to! I felt a little bad, cheering for the Cubs instead of Seattle, but no one seemed to mind and there were actually A LOT of Cubs fans in attendance! Sadly, the Cubs lost.

But I did hear they beat Seattle on Saturday and Sunday. So yay!

Saturday we woke up early and met up with some LGOs and Sloanies to drive 2 hours to Mt. Rainier National Park for some hiking. Chuck and I had been to the park before with my parents, but now that it's summertime, the snow is melted and the park looked a lot different!

We started with a hike on the Rampart Ridge Trail. The trail was a loop and the whole thing, round trip, was about 5 miles. I think. At least, that's what the sign said.

The hike up to the viewpoint was not easy but not TOO intense. We did sweat a lot though. But when we finally made it to the top, the views were incredible. The weather was perfect that day as well which made it even better.

Hello, Mt. Rainier!

The way back down was a little intense because for a small stretch of the trail we were completely ambushed by mosquitos. Once we got away from them though it was a nice walk down the hill.

Because of the timing, Chuckie and I had to leave after that hike so I could get back to Seattle in time to work an event at the arts center, but the rest of the group continued up into the park to do another hike. I wish we could have stayed because it was such a nice day for hiking! Maybe next time, I won't have to work on the same day.

Sunday I had to work at Nike all day but Sunday night we met up with some friends to see the new Star Trek movie. We saw it partly because we wanted to hang out and partly because no one has air conditioning in their apartments and it was really hot on Sunday and seeing a movie was an excuse to get out of our houses and hang out somewhere with air conditioning.

So as you can see: networking events, bars, group outings, baseball games... Yes, Seattle felt a lot like Boston this week.

Up next for us is another trip to Louisville. Originally we didn't plan to visit home in July but Amazon wants Chuck to visit several fulfillment centers around Kentucky to shadow some people and see if he'd be interested in working in one of the fulfillment centers after LGO. Exciting stuff! I'm just going along for fun. We leave for Louisville on July 4th and we'll be there for 2 weeks! Chuck has to work the whole time we're home but I don't, so it's kind of like a summer vacation for me. Chuckie will work on his internship and I will work on my tan! (Don't worry- he gets to have a little fun too!)

Sleepless in Seattle

 

In the last two weeks we had two visitors- Chuck's dad and then Chuck's mom.

 

The weather was gorgeous (most the time) for both of their visits and we tried to cram in as much stuff as we could so they could both see as much of the Pacific Northwest as possible while they were here. Their trips can be told pretty well by pictures. We took a LOT of pictures. (Please note- these pictures are in no particular order.)

 



 

The San Juan Islands. 

We visited Orcas Island and just as a piece of advice to anyone who plans to visit the San Juan Islands- make sure you plan to spend at least 2 days here. We tried to do the trip in one day and spent most of our day just traveling. Driving from Seattle to the Ferry, waiting for the ferry for 2+ hours, riding the ferry... We saw some gorgeous sights and had fun, but think it would have been time better spent if we had allowed a whole weekend for it.

Of course we showed off Pike Place Market.

 Fresh donuts. Yum.

 

The gum wall. Ew.

 

 

We took a Duck Boat tour because, while they are extremely cheesy, they are a great way to see a city and who wouldn't have fun riding in a vehicle that can drive on land and water!?

 



 

 

 

My favorite part of the tour was when we floated past the Sleepless in Seattle house. Too bad Tom Hanks doesn't actually live there. 

 

Watching airplanes land and take off from the lake was a highlight as well. 

 



We went back to the Ballard Locks, the same place Chuckie and I visited a month or so ago. It's so pretty on a nice day and watching the boat elevator (I don't think that's really what it's called but that's what I call it) is pretty entertaining. We also got to go underneath to the fish observation room and watch some salmon pass by which was pretty cool!

 

 

The weekend his mom was here we took a trip to Vancouver and Whistler. I took about 100 pictures that day so I will save that adventure for its own post.

All in all I think they both got to see not only a good portion of Seattle, but a good portion of the Pacific Northwest! We love having visitors because it makes us go out and do and see things that we may not go do and see on our own. With only 8 weeks left in Seattle I'm not sure how many more visitors we will have but with all of the LGOs, Sloanies and other MBAs from Amazon, we will hopefully stay busy and make the most of the remainder of our time here!

 

 

Mt. Rainier

When my parents were in town a few weeks ago, they wanted to go see Mt. Rainier up close and personal. So one of the days I had off work and a day that Chuck could leave work a little early, we got in the car and headed south towards the mountain. It was mid afternoon when we headed down there, so our plan was to just drive around a bit, maybe take a short hike to a lookout point, and mostly just see the sights and snap some cool pictures.

We discovered on the long drive, you can't accidentally go to Mt. Rainier.  There's really only one or two ways to get there and they're not obvious. You have to mean to go there. It was a scenic drive though and when we finally reached the entrance to the park we were really excited! 

Our first stop was just inside the park at the visitor center Longmire. We got some great pictures from this stop and bought some Mt. Rainier souvenirs in the gift shop. 

In the gift shop while my parents and I shopped, Chuckie learned all about bears, just in case we happened upon any while we were sight-seeing.

When we finished shopping and taking pictures, we got back in the car and headed further up the mountain towards the next visitor center and lodge, Paradise. We stopped a lot along the way to get pictures!

When we finally reached Paradise, we felt like we had driven up the entire mountain. Mt. Rainier looked HUGE from this spot and we were sure we had driven as close to the top as possible! My dad googled though and found that Paradise is only located at 5,400 ft. Mt. Rainier is 14,410 ft. We weren't even halfway!

We couldn't do too much exploring either because of all the snow. We walked on some 10 foot snow walls and looked around a little, but there wasn't much else we could do. Dad and Chuckie were braver than me and mom and went up higher on the snow piles. Of course they wanted us to take their picture representing the Cards at Mt. Rainier.

After the long drive back down, we were starving and my dad had his heart set on eating at the Elbe Bar & Grille, a place we passed on our way to the park earlier in the day. My dad has this thing about eating at local restaurants when he's on vacation. His famous line is "We're in a different city, I'm not eating at an APPLEBEE'S," which is funny because I'm pretty sure my parents never eat at Applebee's at home... Anyway, He refuses to eat at any chain restaurant when traveling. I understand his rule and even like it, except for when he chooses questionable places like the Elbe Bar & Grille or anything with a name like "Chat n Chew" as he's done before.  We all gave in though and after getting some pictures of the town of Elbe, we pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant.

 

We saw a couple of "characters" in the parking lot and almost turned around and left, but dad was determined so we went with it. And in the end, it turned out not so bad after all! It was a small joint, full of locals, country music and Wheel of Fortune on the big screen TV. We had some drinks and pizza and enjoyed some people watching. And since we enjoyed ourselves, now dad thinks he can talk us into any restaurant on vacations. Given our experience in Elbe, I may be more open to the idea but I'm pretty sure I will still never eat at a place called the "Chat n Chew." Sorry, dad!