Spring Break

Phew! I'm back in Pullman after my trip with Adrian to Seattle and the coast.  Honestly, despite everything (2 car accidents; done talking about that), we had the greatest time.  In my experience, usually when you travel with someone else & don't have much of a plan, things can get pretty stressful, and your travel partner starts to really grate on you.
Not in the least.
Adrian & I spent the entire 5-day trip by the seat of our pants, always ending up sleeping someplace other than where we had originally intended, meeting all kinds of amazing people, as well as some good old friends each of us had in the city.
I felt like I had a really good experience with Seattle in December when I went with the Danes.  This totally trumped that.  We were all over the University District, Capitol Hill, Pike's Place, and the downtown shopping district.  FINALLY I got to go to H&M and get some new pants.  I have been rocking the same two pairs of pants for the past few months because they're the only ones I like wearing.  Obviously I could use some variety & they were sort of cheap, so wearing out quickly.  Hence the need to visit H&M to solve all of my problems, as usual.  You're getting good quality and style without paying out the ***.  I feel like most expensive jeans I find actually aren't that great of quality anyway, nor are the usually my style.  They have the premade shreds in them or too much junk on them.  Simple, dark, nice slim fit is all I want, just as long as it doesn't make my butt look like a deflated whoopie cushion.

Anyway, in addition to meeting up with great friends, checking out UW's Lambda Chi house, clubbing, shopping, and drinking amazing coffee & bubble tea, we made a little detour up to Bellingham.  Here is the absurdly serendipitous part.
Adrian & I are in my car driving to get onto the highway to head north to Bellingham.  I hand him my phone to text Ann to get her address.  As I do, Ann texts my phone saying that she and her sister are in the University District, literally 2 blocks away from where we were.  What?! So we take the Jeep back to the Lambda Chi house to park it, then walk to meet Ann & April for extraordinary Thai food and more shopping (haha!) Sooo funny, and a really good time.  Then we just followed the two of them all the way back to their house in Bellingham anyway.  Could not have been more perfect.

Adrian, me, April, and Ann at Thai Tom's on the Ave

Once we were in Bellingham, Ann took it upon herself to give us a real experience of the city.  It's definitely a unique place, and very quintessential Pacific Northwest.  LOTS of hipsters; perhaps a little bit grungier than the Seattle hipsters.  

The Bellingham cold reminded me of living in Gig Harbor, where the air itself is icy cold from all the moisture, and it can even be hard to warm up inside.  Then when you go to use the faucet, the water is so frigid, it's like glacial runoff.  This wasn't the case so much in Ann's darling house, but when I went to another friend's house there, it definitely brought back those memories, haha.

This was all Adrian's first time seeing the ocean.  Granted, Bellingham resides inside a bay with large islands protecting the entrance, but it's most assuredly still the ocean.  For him it was pretty momentous, and I wanted to do anything but belittle the situation.  I can't wait to show him the real coast or even San Diego at some point.

Here he is absolutely elated to be at a beach and having made a few crab friends

Now that I've returned to Pullman, it's back to the old grind.  I'm in the midst of working at the pool during our annual weeklong shutdown we do for maintenance and general upkeep.  Everything has been very productive so far.  I kind of like being able to get a bunch of hours without having to deal with anyone's questions or problems for a while.