i know, i know...

i don't post anything for months, and then twice in one day!

i went on a bird walk today with the audobon society and saw my first owl, ever. i know they aren't rare, or anything, but i was beside myself. i made sean go back with me later so we could check in on them.

here are two baby barred owls. their parents are somewhere close by. i saw one of the adults earlier today but couldn't find it when we went back.

a visit from mom

it has once again been awhile since i've blogged. it was a very busy winter and spring. i'm happy to say that my schedule gets more and more manageable by the month. july is going to be rough, but then it appears to be smooth sailing for the rest of residency.

i recently had vacation and my mom came to visit. it was her first time ever to seattle and our first visit since i graduated from med school. since we stuhldreher descendants are "nervous" travelers, my mom took the train here, enjoying the 3 days of scenery from her sleeper car.

i was somewhat anxious about the agenda as my mom has particular tastes. the only 2 things she wanted to do were go to pike place market and go on the seattle underground tour. given that her visit lasted 7 days, that left approximately 6 days and 22 hours of time to fill.

all in all, we had a good time. we did some touristy things. i've lived here for 2 years and just managed to go on my first duck tour. Sean and mom toured the seattle underground. we ate out a lot. we took a 2 day trip to the peninsula, reminding me just how much i love port angeles and olympic national park. i saw several harbor seals from our waterfront hotel. i played blackjack for the first time ever and lost 20 bucks in the process. we went to forks and rialto beach, seeing lake crescent along the way.

here are some pictures from the trip, in no particular order.

hurricane ridge, one of my most favorite places.




lunch at the red door in fremont. do you see us in the mirror?




jenga and asti spumanti, a perfect combination.


in the elwah valley.


sean enjoying the ediz hook with port angeles and the olympics in the background.




a monkfish at the market.



we all suck at golf, it turns out.


mom and the troll.


feeling nervous about the amphibious nature of the ducks.



bye, bye.

winter in seattle

the snow, which has been well documented by now, was quite crazy. of course, it was no worse then the average winter day in, say Minnesota, but we got pretty excited. our road made a pretty good sled hill, it turns out.

here's the neighborhood pup, roxie. she was so cute, chasing everyone down the hill.



here's sean (the red blur) snowboarding. too bad the light wasn't better. the white blur is roxie chasing after him.



christmas came and went. i had the day off, which was great, but i was on call that weekend. we spent christmas evening with sean's aunt and her family eating calzone made from scratch.

here's sean trying out his new tripod on xmas morning.



sean got me a karaoke game for the wii. here he is, singing away...



sean got me jenga for christmas. i know, i'm like 10 years late, but it is quite fun. we had a quiet new years with rachel at our place. we played jenga and then scrabble. sean was in bed by 10. i fell asleep on the couch at 1130.



i hope everyone has a happy and peaceful 2009!

it has been awhile

since i've posted. i've been back in seattle for 2 months- one where i was crazy busy and one where i worked nights so my sleep schedule was wacko (and still is, hence why i'm blogging now instead of sleeping...).

part of my blogging problem is that sean pretty much details everything we do on his blog within minutes of its happening (especially now with his "work" phone). so when i am inspired to blog, he's usually beat me to it.

anyway, last tuesday was sean's birthday. i only saw him for 1 hour before i had to go to work. thankfully, we both had this weekend off, which was great. yesterday we went to check out the salmon spawning on the cedar river in renton. here is sean wearing the special polarized glasses for better viewing. the salmon in cedar river are at the end of their run, so there were very few left.



today was my birthday and we spent most of the day with rachel. we went to eat and then had tasty cupcakes and ice cream.


we went looking for salmon today at piper's creek in carkeek park, but apparently they don't arrive until next weekend.

we had a fun trip to walla walla earlier this month. we drove through some of the remaining parts of washington we haven't already visited, like potholes and palouse falls. sean already posted a bunch of pictures from the trip, but here are some of my favorites.

here are some cows we encountered on the trail. they kind of freaked me out (big surprise). the big one in the front mooed at us. sean wanted me to pose with them, but its one of the few times that i actually rode faster than him on a mountain bike trail.


here's one of the lakes in potholes near othello. i saw sandhill cranes not terribly far from here.



this is downriver from palouse falls. so pretty. it would be awesome to canoe here.


the palouse from inside the car.


well, i'd better try to get some sleep. work awaits in a few short hours. its raining cats and dogs right now which will probably cause me to wuss out of riding to clinic tomorrow. we'll see...

don't forget to vote!! its almost over!

home for the weekend

i had a 3 day weekend so i went home. i took the ferry at sunset, which was quite pretty.

saturday we rode our bikes to the zoo. i haven't been to a zoo on purpose since i was in college (and forced to go for an anthropology course). my feelings about zoos have changed somewhat since my militant vegan days. i used to think that they all should be closed, no discussion. now i realize there is almost no black and white. about anything.

i used to think animals were better off in their own habitat, regardless of the fact that many zoo animals' lives are arguably healthier than they would be in the real world.

now i think that reputable zoos have animals' best interests in mind, which is good, since no one else does. it would seem that the way things are going, zoos will become the only places we'll see polar bears, african cats, frogs, etc... this makes me very sad.

this is coming from someone who can't watch nature shows. i can't handle poachers killing lions. i can't handle lions killing gazelles. i can't handle lions starving to death because there are no gazelles. i can't handle that there are no gazelles because there is no water. i can't handle that there is no water because the climate is changing because of us. and on and on.

anyway- here's a funny picture of me, sean, a tapir, and some family.

sunday i drove back to port angeles. i didn't have to wait at all for the ferry, which was great. sean would have had a super long wait had he come here instead.

across the hood canal yet again

have a good week!

i saw a bear yesterday

and i was very excited.

i went to hurricane ridge after work. the road is quite scary, especially now that it is under construction and covered in loose gravel. i hiked as much of the short, paved hurricane hill trail as i could before it got dark. i spent a lot of time looking in the meadows with binoculars and finally saw a black bear wandering around. very cool. i also saw lots of deer and a flock of flickers.

here's a bunch of pictures from the evening. it is so beautiful here!

halfway done

today is the halfway point of my time on the peninsula. because of housing issues, i've ended up going home the past 2 weekends, and haven't had as much exploratory time as i'd expected.

taking the 6 am ferry back to sequim on monday morning. who would've thought you'd get decent coffee on public transportation?




sean is coming to visit for the weekend. not sure what we'll do but potential items on the itinerary before i'm done include:

1. ferry to victoria
2. rafting the elwah
3. camping at the hoh
4. backpacking into the lowlands of olympic (i doubt i'll convince him to do this...)
5. renting kayaks and going into the strait (i doubt i'll convince myself to do this...)


we've had some fun adventures so far. we went to lake ozette, a place sean has wistfully spoken of multiple times. we went hiking in the elwah. we went hiking/biking at the middle fork of the snoqualmie river.

we went to one of the local wineries and enjoyed their view.


i got to be in a sailboat race- my first time ever on a sailboat. sean was quick to point out that the boat wasn't that big and that we didn't actually go that fast. nevertheless, i was still afraid and excited. it was very cool. you see, i have very little boat experience. i've been in a canoe, on a few ferries, in 1 whitewater raft, and on a dinner cruise into beautiful lake erie (that made me sicker than a dog!). sean and his family have lots of boat experience. oh well. you have to start somewhere.

i like the spinnaker part. my only "job" during the race was to frantically pull it in to avoid getting it wet. i took this job very seriously.



my feet! again!! perhaps pictures of my feet will be my trademark. like the pictures sean always takes of himself riding.

my trademark. clever.


his trademark. nerd!!





pretty.




i've gone on a few bike rides. here's the cool train bridge.




it is lovely here. going back and forth to seattle has really helped me experience and enjoy the contrasts. while home last weekend, we went to the boring- oops, i meant boeing plane museum and to the art museum and enjoyed the hustle and bustle of downtown. we went to the seafood festival in ballard where i saw more people on 1 square block then i encounter in one week here. both are good things. i'm lucky to have this experience.

sean at SAM



nobody in sequim