The Pacific Northwest

This past weekend, I went to Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon with Chrissy & Christine. My primary purpose was to check out the University of Washington's doctoral program in higher education. Chrissy also wanted to check out the nursing program at UW, and Christine just needed to get out of Corpus after being stuck there for over 6 months! So off we went and it was fantastic. Here's a bit of a re-cap:


We accidentally located the original Starbucks on the Waterfront in Seattle first time out. It looked nothing like any other Starbucks, which made it really fun!


Famous entrance to Pike's Place Public Market


City Fish is a famous spot...when the fish come in, the guys throw them around. We're talking about huge fish here--the one in this picture is one of the smaller ones!


Chrissy's shopping...I think this is one of the biggest and oldest farmers markets in the country. At any rate, it was the biggest one I've been to--everything you can imagine was sold here!


In a scene in Sleepless in Seattle (one of my favorites), Tom Hanks (another favorite) ate at this cafe...had to take a picture with Tom!


Seattle skyline, as seen from the ferry to Bainbridge Island. Bainbridge is this tiny island about 30 minutes by ferry from Seattle. Loads of people (and I mean loads, this ferry was bigger than Titanic) commute to Seattle everyday. The island was very quaint, with small shops and really classy neighborhoods.


Dinner at Ghandi Indian restaurant on Bainbridge Island. (Honestly, it was the only restaurant open besides a shady looking diner--it seemed the town went to sleep around 6 p.m.) We took advantage of the cultural diversity by eating at various ethnic restaurants. Friday we had Russian and Indian, followed by French and Chinese on Saturday. In Portland, we went to a Cuban restaurant. We soothed our tummies with good ol' Subway. :)


Christine having coffee at Zeitgeist Art & Coffee, one of Seattle's million coffee shops.


Visit to the University of Washington, a beautiful, world-renowned institution. It was amazing!


King Street train station in Seattle, where we caught a train (that's right, a train--so fun) to Portland, OR to visit Chrissy's college friends


Imago Dei (Latin for "Image of God") is the home church of one of my favorite authors, Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz, Searching for God Knows What, and Through Painted Deserts), located in Portland, OR so we went on Sunday


Lunch at Pambiche Cuban Restaurant clockwise- me, Christine, Shawna, Amanda, Sarah, Chrissy

Bubble Girl

After running 100+ tests at the allergist, I found out I'm RED PRINT (aka very severely) allergic to the following:

Cats
House dust
Dust-mites
Molds
Trees
Grasses
Weeds
Shrimp
Crab
Oyster
Garlic

I should not have indoor pets with fur or feathers and should avoid whenever possible:
Feather pillows
Tobacco and tobacco smoke (darn, I'll have to quit that 3 pack a day habit)
Insecticides with pyrethum (huh?)
Chemical fumes (no household cleaning products, goody!)
Exposure to scented perfumes and colognes (I'll be au natural from now on)
Aerosol products (no more Rave hairspray, good thing it's not the 80s anymore)
Regular cosmetics (I have to spend the big bucks on Clinique now)

Just call me Bubble Girl. I will never go out again.
I'm just happy I'm NOT allergic to:
1. My grandma.
2. Friends re-runs.
3. Dessert.
4. Muffins.
5. My friends (this is in no particular order by the way)
6. Foreign countries.
7. Babies.
8. Hot guys (although history might indicate otherwise)
9. Email.
10. Love.