my_ophelia bought this lovely piece and I wanted it in the mail as soon as possible. I used Etsy's postal option and printed my postage at home, but you can't schedule a same-day pickup after 2am, and the box was too big for our mailbox. Funnily enough, I also mailed wring a single plant, but with postage I generated from the USPS site, since it wasn't a current Etsy order. When you print USPS postage at home, you also have to print a second sheet that they scan and you get to keep. Thankfully you can leave that in your mailbox with the package, and they'll leave it behind, because I didn't want to stand in line at the post office for a scan. I was able to leave the bigger package in the dropoff bin and leave immediately.Since I needed to do that anyway, I suggested we go out for breakfast as well, so we ended up at Kate's Greek and American. I've had my eye on this place for a while, and I'm glad we went! I had the gyro scramble, and Garrett took advantage of the "smaller portion" option with the taco scramble, and added a pancake on the side.
I'm getting more and more into spicy foods as I get older and was happy to discover they make their own habanero sauce. It was very tasty.
On our way to breakfast, we happened to drive by a nice event we didn't know was happening, the Artists' Garage Sale, and went back when we were done eating. Two whole blocks of lots of neat stuff, but we showed great restraint and didn't buy anything. One guy had cool lawn stakes and if he'd had any small seahorses, I would have gotten one.
On the way back to the car, we passed through an antique store, and a print caught our eye. We don't have space for it, but it was priced very reasonably, so I went back today to get it for an acquaintance in Portland who has a very awesome art business, Unusual Cards. You'll see if you check out her shop why I thought of her immediately. We're going to Portland in August so I'll deliver it then.
Changed up the air plant situation in the kitchen a bit. Clear marbles instead of rocks in the one on the left, several new plants in the one on the right.
Later in the evening, I thought I saw a strange dark cloud, which was weird because it was such a sunny day. When I went out to take this photo, I could hear sirens.
Turns out there was a very large fire at the North end of town. Here's a photo our friend Barbara took from her house.
It's in an industrial area at a recycling center and as far as I know, it's still burning as I type this, almost a day later. I originally thought this morning that it might make for an interesting sunrise at my regular Sunday walking spot, which is nearby. But the surprisingly-orderly river of smoke heading away from it was pretty intimidating, so I turned away. Made for a pretty cool video, at least.
So I turned around and drove to the top of the gulch.
The extra driving wasn't a total waste, either, thanks to the dashcam I didn't realize there are cool lights on the new Broadway Bridge, and I got a shot of a neon sign I like as well. For comparison's sake, I'm including screenshots from the computer as well as Instagram screenshots from my phone to help me decide if it's even worth it to use the computer.
Took a break from the trekking poles today because my shoulder has been sore from a bad night of sleep and they just didn't sound fun. The view of Tahoma (Mt. Rainier) was pretty nice.
Pretty dull sunrise, though.
It's dry enough that I was able to go places I've recently complained were too muddy. This is the spot and the end of the service road which was too muddy to use.
To further take advantage of the dryness, I crossed again where I did on Friday and went up the "Booty scoot" trail for the first time. It earned that name because it's so steep that the only time I ever went down, I had to sit and scoot, and until today, I'd never been up it. I had to crawl up in two spots, and probably won't bother going up more than once a year, but it was fun to finally do it.
It was a little disappointing to see how much garbage is there, though.
I'm comfortable assuming it's neighborhood teenagers who leave it there, partially because there are no beer cans there, but also because you can find videos online of teenagers swinging around on this, which is right above there.
I can't convey in photos just how crazy that swing is, but the hillside is very steep and it's not like it's above a body of water like so many other swings you see. Thankfully I keep a very different schedule from the average teenager.
The walk today was pretty messy because I chose several paths which are quite overgrown. I even saw several of the weird plants that shoot out a bunch of pollen like a smoke machine. Thank goodness I don't have any allergies. It was a "strip naked in the garage and throw everything in the washer immediately" sort of hike.
I got another selfie for the contest at the Mukilteo Community Garden. Oh yeah, and two more at the artists' garage sale yesterday.
3.82 miles in 1:46, 10,244 steps, 286ft gain
Back near the car, there was a slight view of the smoke from the fire, which as I mentioned, is contained very well to a single stream through the sky. No real dispersal at all.
And finally, I had an excellent steak salad at our neighborhood bar for lunch. Pretty swell weekend.
