Summer in Seattle

I’ve been in Seattle for a little over three weeks, and things have been going pretty well. The weather has been just the way I like it – mostly sunny and breezy with a few rainy days thrown in. Actually come to think of it, a bit more rain would be nice.

Each summer at Microsoft (this is my third) is better than the last. I’m really excited about my project and my role as a Program Manager on the Internet Explorer team. The particular project I’m working on is confidential (as are all the projects, I guess), so I can’t describe it for you.

The first two weekends were a bit dull – filled with shopping, errands, and work. Last weekend was pretty fun though…

Friday – Pool at The Parlor with Josh, Adam, Mr. Smith, Kevin, Paul, and a few others. Around midnight we left and Kevin and I went to an intern party which was alright, but not too exciting.

Saturday – Rob Songer and I took a trip up to the Alderwood Mall to explore the shops. We found this really great tea store and I had some thai coconut bubble tea. Rob bought some green tea mints and I also acquired a tea thermos (there’s a strainer built in so you can brew loose leaf tea with it), as well as two new flavors of green tea – Nigerian Peach and Kyoto Cherry Blossom. Both of these flavors have proven to be delicious! I’d highly recommend the shop, which is called the Black Pearl Teahouse.

Next, we found a Japanese store which sold a variety of items, ranging from Japanese toys to tea sets to slippers. I found three statues, each depicting one of the three wise monkeys. This “pictorial maxim” has always been a favorite of mine, and the three monkeys are now living on my desk at work. I also picked up a nice little tea cup for only $1.50. Oh, and the monkeys were also quite inexpensive at $2 each.

After visiting a few more stores and eating lunch at the Japan Cafe (we were excited and expecting a real ethnic restaurant, but it turned out to be a mall food court fast food joint), we headed back to Redmond.

Later in the evening, we went to a party at Kevin’s neighbors’ apartment. Thanks Michelle and Emily for being such great hosts! It was a good night, made even better with a 3am dip in the pool. The 5am Indian style breakfast was another highlight of the evening. Hopefully someone will send me photos of the festivities – I know quite a few photos were taken but I have yet to see any.

Sunday – Woke up late, poked around the apartment for a while. In the afternoon Michelle, Kevin, and I drove to Seattle and met up with Rob who had been exploring the Seattle International District. We hopped on a ferry to Bainbridge island, and by 5:30 pm we were out on the water enjoying a little ocean (sound?) breeze.

Bainbridge was a lot of fun. This was actually my second trip to the island (went once last summer). We walked around and grabbed some ice cream a nice little shop and then went to the Pegasus Cafe, where I ordered some green tea and we listened to a bit of live music. Unfortunately, I think I was the only fan of the music (it was kind of folk-like, best described as a cross between Jack Johnson and maybe Iron & Wine).

Once we returned to Seattle, we headed up to the International district to find some sushi. We never did find a sushi restaurant though (despite my best efforts of searching live maps from my phone), and we settled on a Chinese establishment instead. Sweet and sour chicken, lemon chicken, and some kind of beef were ordered and family style dining goodness ensued.

The waitress seemed to get a kick out of me butchering the phrase “Good night” (wan an?) in Chinese. At least I can make some people laugh

In conclusion… it was a pretty good weekend. I definitely want to take another ferry boat ride next weekend. Maybe I’ll make the Sunday night music at Pegasus a weekly activity – who wants to join me?

P.S.- more pictures from the Bainbridge trip are available on flickr.