Jade and Ben in Seattle: Day 2

On day two of Jade and Ben's trip we went hiking and exploring in Kirkland. Our morning began by picking up coffee and bagels at a local coffee drive-in next to my house. We then drove to Poo Poo Point for a great, uphill hike. At the top of the point we were welcomed by a large field that looked out on the incredible scenic view. I thought about the coming times I will find myself there, relaxing with a picnic.

Second, we drove about 20 minutes to Snoqualmie Falls. The view of the waterfall was amazing but we wanted to get closer, so we hiked down to the river. The boardwalk ended, but we hopped the fence and were able to reach the water to get some great pictures and pick up some souvenirs to take home to decorate my apartment. The cold mist from the water was so refreshing.

Exhausted from all the hiking, we went back to downtown Kirkland to see the view of Seattle across the lake. While there, we walked around downtown, just enjoying the sunny weather. For dinner, we met some friends at a local Indian restaurant in Seattle. The family-style dinner and conversation was such a great way to end the day. That was, until Ben ate some traditional Indian breath mints, and fought to spit it all out. 

Day three blog post will be coming soon!

Jade and Ben in Seattle: Day 1

Jade and Ben came to visit me. It was so wonderful to spend some time with familiar friends around one of my new favorite cities. Thursday was spent exploring downtown Seattle.

We first headed to Pike Place Market for some food and coffee. We ate tons of samples from all different kinds of vendors. Some of our favorites included Ellenos Greek Yogurt, smoked salmon samples, fresh peaches, homemade vinegars, chocolate pasta and Rachel's Ginger Beer..

We then walked to the Space Needle to take some pictures. It was so fun to walk around the city together, talking and exploring the area. While in the city, we tried many of the local coffee shops as well as a famous sandwich shop that Ben had heard about- Salumi.

After exploring the heart of downtown, we drove to Gasworks Park and ate our sandwiches on top of the hill that overlooks downtown Seattle. My meatball sub was so fresh and tasty and it complimented the view perfectly! This was followed by a quick visit to the troll under the bridge and an excellent view at Kerry Park.

Exhaustion consumed us in the evening, so we headed to my house to eat a salad and finish the day drinking  a mixed drink of guava ginger beer and gin while discussing our plans for rest of the weekend.

Those posts will be coming soon!

Choices

In the last few months I have seen my everyday life change from something familiar, loving and ordinary to something unfamiliar, sad and unsure. This is normal of people who move 3000 miles away to a brand new city, knowing no one. In my case, heartache and loss also found its way into my luggage as I moved to Seattle. But, after two months of living here, I can finally say that I see a turning point and life is becoming happy again.

Jade and Ben visited from Florida this past weekend. I was so ecstatic to have some familiar faces around and to show them all of my new adventure spots (blog posts of these advenutures are coming soon!). During their stay we hiked up a really nice mountian trail. As we were hiking I thought to myself about life and choices. I realized that life is just a bunch of choices that we make. Some are big, and some are small, but each one effects you and how you live. 

For example, if I choose to have a donut each day for breakfast, it will give me delight each morning as I look forward to the donut, but over time I will have added extra sugar to my body, which could potentially add extra weight and hurt my health. Now, this is not a post about dieting. I am sure most poeple don't eat donuts every day, and sometimes utility from looking forward to a donut some mornings outweighs the health risks. 

But, here is my point- every day, hour, minute, second is just another opportunity to choose to do something in your life. We are the deciders of how we spend that time. Yes, people have obligations to spouses, children, family and friends that take away from your own personal choices, but we can choose to live life how we want to. AND, if you do have obligations to others, you should still take moments for yourself, or make better choices for your family.

I realized that I have so many opportunities for choices in my life. I am financially independent, I don't have a spouse and I don't have children. I have the opportunity to make choices every day to live the life that I have dreamed of. I made a choice about a month ago to stop eating unnecesary meals when I was sad or nervous. I wasn't sure if I would be able to stop myself from this habit, but I have gone this far without any falls and I have a sense of more self control in my life. I feel pride in myself for not giving up on my passion of healthy eating. 

This accomplishment made me realize that I have enough self control to make other choices in my life that will benefit me. I am now taking a look at all of my finances, lifestyle and routine to begin living the life that I've always admired other people living.

This all came together last night as I had some friends over to play cards. I looked around my house and could see an aura of my personality in the room. I saw happy, laughing people enjoying conversation and friendships. Something inside of me shivered and I realized that this is the life I want to live, and I'm continuing to make these decisions to bring myself closer to these moments. I still feel heartache and sadness, but I have more faith and happiness in myself, which makes me feel like I can get past the bad moments. 

My next choice is to use my three-day-weekends to travel and explore the area I'm in. At first I thought, why would I travel without someone else? It was like I wanted a signifigant other to go with me, but I remembered my time in Italy and the weekend trips I would go on alone. I remembered having so much fun exploring by myself, so there is no reason why I can't do that now. Plus, I have to give both my readers something to look forward to. ;-)