Orcas Island Weekend Getaway

As some of you may have read, this past weekend Dave and I went on a little island weekend getaway to the Orcas. Because when you live in Seattle you’ve got to take advantage of the beautiful places surrounding it. Coming from the Midwest we have a real appreciation of the mountains, water and the hikes that the Pacific Northwest has to offer and we’ve really made an effort to get out and explore as much as we can.

We rented a cabin through VRBO and it was amazing. They converted a barn into this awesome space. It was really inspiring and something we would love to do. I hadn’t really thought about it before. But I’ve always loved barns and I love barn weddings. The property had a yurt, a pond, a fire pit, and a guest house with a hot tub. And the flowers were in bloom and it was so pretty.

This is the garage that is connected to the house. 

This was the guest house.

There’s the yurt in the background.

We stopped into their cute little town for some breakfast at the Island Skillet. It was the best breakfast we’ve had in a long time. I got a breakfast sandwich and Dave got a skillet of hash browns and charizo.

The weather said it was supposed to rain all weekend but Saturday it was so sunny and warm out. We really lucked out.

How cute is this little town?

After breakfast we headed to Mount Constitution and did a little hike, but since this post is already long, I’ll save those pictures for tomorrow.

Happy Monday friends! 

Linking up today with:

Friday Favorites!

I made it through the whole week of blogging, woo hoo! (Shout out to Lauren who is so sweet and always so encouraging with her comments!)  Here are a few of my favorite things from this week:

Fuller House

It was announced on Wednesday that Fuller House is coming back for season 2! I’m so happy to hear that. I watched all the episodes of Fuller House and thought it was really cute. I loved seeing the whole cast back together (minus the Olsen twins.) I felt like they did a good job with the old jokes that everyone loves the show for. They also had a lot of current jokes which was fun to see too.

I did think that sometimes it was a little Disney-channel-corny but the original show is corny too. I’m so impressed that basically everyone came back. It’s obvious they all really love each other in real life too.

Leonardo DiCaprio finally winning his Oscar this past week was awesome!  He’s been acting for 22 years and been nominated 5 or 6 times previously and lost every time. The internet has some funny memes. Have you guys seen this video clip of him talking about engraving the award? He said, “You guys do this every year? Huh. I wouldn’t know.” 🙂

The Bachelor is so good this year! I think it’s pretty obvious that he picks Lauren B. They look at each other with googly eyes and he cried when talking about her to her sister. I really like Jojo though and hope she is the next Bachelorette. She’s gorgeous and knows what she wants. I was lucky enough to see Ben in person at the Men Tell All this past summer, and he really is tall, dark and handsome, so I don’t blame those girls for all falling for him.

I was surprised that he said I love you to both of them. The finale is going to be brutal. But I feel like he was just doing what he felt in the moment and you can’t blame him for putting it all out there.

This week I saw a story on People.com about a 90 Year Old Woman Skips Cancer Treatments and Hits the Road Instead. What an inspiration she is. With my love of travel and road trips, I would probably do the same thing too. In fact that is what her doctor said too, how cool is that? 🙂

This weekend Dave and I are going to the Orcas Island to explore and celebrate our 10 anniversary of dating! We took a road trip back in 2012 and visited Moran State Park on this island and we are excited to go back there this year, now that we live here! It will be such a fun little getaway. We rented a cabin for the weekend and can’t wait to explore. I’ll try to find this spot again and take another pic 4 years later 🙂

Have a great weekend everyone! I’ll try to keep up my blogging into next week. Happy Friday!

Linking up today with Andrea and Erika:

Hiking Mount Si, Washington

A few Saturday mornings ago, we went hiking on with our friend Hayes and his dog Boda. And on the way Boda was leaning on Dave’s shoulder while he was driving, it was so sweet.

We have heard about Mount Si and have wanted to hike it for a little while. There are a few trails you can take and we started on the Little Si Trail.

Dave and Hayes have a lot in common and share similar interests. They even unknowingly bought the same backpack. 🙂

We did an 8 mile hike. The longest hike I’ve ever done. We hiked Saturday and I was still sore on Monday. It took us 4 1/2 hours from start to finish. We started at 10:30am and finished at 3pm. It rained on and off and snowed a little too.

The way up was pretty steep at parts. It was a great leg workout. I’ve been a FitBit user since Thanksgiving and this day was the most steps I’ve gotten in a day, 23,842! And since I work in an office, most days I struggle just to get 10,000 steps in, to put things in perspective. I’m sure lots of you get more than 10,000 steps a day but me, not so much. I’m happy when I meet that goal. 

It was a little foggy closer to the top but still so pretty.

Right when we go to the top, it started snowing, it was a little chilly but so fun. I actually miss the snow a little being a Seattle-ite now vs a Chicagoan.

On the way down, we started chatting with this guy. We ended up taking the wrong route back down the mountain so that guy offered us a ride back to the other parking lot where our car was. It was so nice of him. And it is the first time I’ve ‘hitchhiked’ or gotten a ride from someone I barely know. Good thing it turned out a-ok. 🙂

 

It was a really nice, semi-challenging hike. It’s definitely a good one to train on. We had a great time and are going to try and hike most Saturday mornings/weekends. After our hike we also got crepes at the Euro Cafe in North Bend. I think I’ve talked about it before, and it was delicious!

There is truly so much to do and see in and around Seattle and we are so excited to hike and explore more. I’d love your suggestions for PNW hikes and places not to miss.

Happy Thursday friends!

Linking up today with Natalie and Annie:  

Bookworm Wednesday Link Up!

Linking up today with my Molly, and my blog and real life bestie Katie for their Bookworm Wednesday.

After watching Aziz’s new Netflix show, Masters of None, I wanted to read his book too. He did a lot of research all over the world with a professor of sociology about the many ways that dating has changed from a few decades ago. With the advancement of technology it opens a lot of new ways to meet people that didn’t previously exist. It also increase the dating pool which can be overwhelming. It’s a very current book with lots of funny observations and examples. And one of my favorite things about this book is you can hear his voice in his writing.

I also read Khloe Kardashian’s Strong Looks Better Naked. On the cover she is lying naked covered by a bed sheet, which was a little embarrassing to read on the bus haha! But it was a love letter to working out. She talked about how during her divorce from Lamar she chose to work out her aggression and got addicted once she saw results. I’ll admit that I work out in waves and am currently trying to get back on the wagon. This book was motivating to just work out and not make excuses. She shared some fun pictures of her family and friends throughout and pictures of her transformation. I can’t image being in the public eye and having to deal with all the scrutiny but good for her for rising above it all and just focusing on herself.

Clean Slate is a cookbook about detoxing your body. I bookmarked a few recipes I want to try and went grocery shopping yesterday. So if I find any recipes I love I’ll try to share them. The pictures in the book are beautifully shot and make me want to eat healthier. I would say I am already a mostly healthy eater, but I could also be healthier. I can’t resist certain sweets. But everything in moderation right? 🙂

Lastly I’m in the middle of reading “A Common Struggle,” by Patrick Kenendy, who is Ted Kennedy’s son. You may know how much I love the Kennedy family and reading about them. This book just came out last year so it’s very current. Patrick shared a lot of family stories and pictures. He talks about his struggles with medical illness and addiction. He also talks about what it was like to grow up as a Kennedy and the scrutiny and pressures that came with that. His father’s generation was much more secretive about the family secrets so it’s nice to hear some honesty from him and not just official press releases.

Tell Us About It: Fave Winter Activities

I am so behind on blogging but I’m trying to keep up with our linkup schedule, so today Katie, Mattie, and I are talking about our favorite winter activities and memories. (I can’t believe it’s already March!)

One of my favorite things about living in Seattle is that the winters are so mild. It’s just cloudy and rainy. It barely snows here and coming from Chicago it’s pretty refreshing. I love that it snows in the mountains. It’s so pretty to look at and feels like being in a real life snow globe. I also love that we can choose to play in the snow for the day and drive to it and not have to live in it.

In January, Dave and I went snowshoeing for the first time. We went to Artisan’s Point in Mount Baker on New Year’s Day. What a great way to start the new year! It was gorgeous and sunny out. It was an amazing experience. We brought snacks and a lunch and sat in the snow. That was the only time we were a little chilly, when we weren’t moving. 

I sent this pic to my dad and he said he wanted to frame it. How cute is that? 

We rented our snowshoes from REI. A lot of people don’t know that you can rent gear, but you should take advantage of it! Living in Seattle people are so active so you have to reserve equipment early!

I have so many more pictures from this snowshoe adventure at Mount Baker, and if I can ever get my stuff together I will blog about it.

The first two weekends in January we snowshoed and I wrote about this snowshoe trip here. This one was a little steep, but such a fun adventure. It was my friend Gretchen’s first time.

This was the week after Christmas, but it reminded me of a Christmas card because it’s so cute! Dave and Denny grew up together down the block together and went to school together from kindergarten through high school. Adorable much?

So even though snowshoeing is a new activity for us, it’s a new favorite for sure! It’s is just hiking in the snow but I love that the snowshoes allow us to still hike in the winter, versus waiting for spring to get out again.

Can’t wait to read what your favorite winter activities and memories are.

Link up with us below! If you missed today you can still link up for the rest of the week. Miss you blog friends.

Another Weekend Recap

This past weekend we had more visitors staying with us.

When we lived in LA, our friends Erin and Richard lived on the East Side of LA. We hung out all the time on hikes, camping, dinner parties, etc. We also lived down the block from them when we lived in Washington DC. So it was so much fun to have them staying with us in Seattle. It was Richard’s first time in Seattle, and Erin hasn’t been in a few years. It was so fun to do touristy things together.

Friday

We went to the Pike’s Place market downtown and went on an eating tour. We ate pastries at Pirosky Pirosky, biscuits, bacon donuts (yes you read that right!) and mac and cheese from Beecher’s. It was glorious and mostly delicious. My favorite was the bacon donut.

I love this map showing where people come from to see the infamous Pike’s Place. I work in walking distance from the market and I love walking around and realizing I live in such a cool city.

Richard really enjoyed the gum wall. I love going back periodically to see the progress of the wall. It’s definitely being built back up but it is still bare in other sections.

We stopped by Gas Works Park to catch a view of Seattle.

We visited the Fremont Troll and Dave didn’t give me the “we are doing our jump pic” memo 🙂 Since moving here I haven’t visited the Troll.

That night we had a cheese plate and fruit and played Cranium, trivia, and shuffleboard at a local bar. 

Saturday

We went for scrumptious burritos from TNT Taqueria that we love so much. Fuel for our Rattlesnake Ledge hike (yes I did the hike and Snoqualmie Falls two weekends in the row. #Seattleproblems) and followed up our adventures with ice cream at the Bluebird Cafe which was really good! That night we went to dinner and drinks in Capitol Hill.

Sunday

We had brunch and met one of Richard’s friends that used to live in LA. Then we walked about the farmer’s market, and walked through a park because it was so nice out.

After our friends took off we headed to Gig Harbor to watch the Super Bowl with our other friends. They just moved into their place so we had a fun picnic on the floor, because they’re still in the process of moving and unpacking.

I also loved this pic I found on the internet because guacamole 😉

It was another great weekend with friends and it’s so fun to show off our new city.
Linking Up today with:

Weekend Recap

I’m a little behind on my blogging (do I sound like a broken record yet?) as I started strong last week, blogging Monday-Wednesday then failing towards the end of the week. But for my memory’s sake, I want to blog about last weekend, but it was a very memorable one.

Our friends came in from Austin to find an apartment, because they’re moving up here this month! Kristina, Dave and I all went to high school together so it’s going to be really fun to all be together again in a new city! Who would have thought all these years later, even after living apart in different states, that we’d end up in the same city again? 🙂

Friday

I worked a half day from home and was able to pick up my friends from the airport. We stopped at the house to drop off their luggage, then went to lunch in West Seattle. Then we drove around a few Seattle neighborhoods to give them an idea of where they want to live. We took a mini break at home and had some girl time and watched Knotting Hill. I haven’t seen that movie in so long. Then we got pizza, went to a bar and played trivial pursuit. We learned a lot of new fun facts. It was a great first night catching up.

Saturday 

In the morning we got a small breakfast and walked around a nearby park. Then they were off to meet their realtor and I met up with two girlfriends. We went to breakfast in Belltown, then went to REI to look at a few things. Melissa brought us to South Lake Union and we walked around. It was sunny out but a little chilly.

These seaplanes are so cool. I would like to go one at some point.

That night we went to sushi downtown at Wasabi and it was delicious. Even though we were at a sushi restaurant, I had ramen and it was great! I’ve been wanting to look for a good ramen place since we moved to Seattle. I’d love any suggestions from any of you Seattle-ites!

Luckily Melissa has lived here for 12 years so she is a great tour guide! 🙂 We went to a karaoke bar called Hula Hula and it was really entertaining. I was so impressed with how gutsy people are. So many people got up there really singing and dancing, and owning those 3 minutes. I love to sing in my car, in the shower, in the kitchen, but you will not find me up on stage in front of a crowd. So I can totally respect their courage! One guy came out of nowhere with this amazing rendition of Unchained Melody. It was stuck in my head for days. I’ve been listening to it on repeat on Spotify.

Sunday

We woke up at 8am to go for a morning hike at Rattlesnake Ledge in North Bend. It’s a perfect hike to take tourist, and this was my 4th time doing it. My second time doing it with Gretchen. With Seattle being sunny somedays and cloudy others, you never know how different it will look up at the top. It’s a 4 mile hike back and forth and take about 45 minutes to an hour one way. I highly recommend this hike. 🙂

Gretchen and I 🙂

Ever since we moved to Seattle I’ve been hearing people talk about Snoqualmie Falls. It’s very close to Rattlesnake Ledge so this time on the way home we stopped by. It’s right off the road, and you just have to cross the street from the parking lot to get here. It’s a perfect tourist spot, especially for parents or older people who don’t like to hike, but it’s such an impressive site.

The waterfall was raging! So much water and so much spray coming up.

The colors were so pretty. 

After our hike, Kristina and Patrick met up with some friends. Then we met back up to grab dinner. We had some Thai food that was pretty good but not the best I’ve ever had. I took them to the airport that night and I came home for some more girl time with Gretchen and Melissa to watch Mindy and paint our nails.

It was a really wonderful weekend with great friends. I’ve always known we made the right move to Seattle, and being surrounded by friends is such an awesome feeling in a new city. Feeling very grateful and happy!

 

Four Facts Survey

Thanks Lauren for nominating me for the Four Fact Survey. It’s a fun little way to get to know other bloggers.

Four names that people call me other than my real name:

1. Jules
2. BF (Melissa, one of my best friends and I call each other BF)
3. woman (Vi, my other best friend and I call each other woman for some reason and it stuck)
4. Ju-Ju

Four jobs I’ve had:

1. Nanny
2. Vietnamese Translator
3. Registration Coordinator
4. Retail at Wet Seal and Aeropostale (my first jobs!)

Four movies I’ve watched more than once:

1. Miss Congeniality
2. Home Alone
3. Mean Girls
4. My Best Friend’s Wedding

Four books I’d recommend: 

1. The Lost Girls
2. Wild
3. What Remains
4. Is Everybody Hanging Out Without Me?

Four places I’ve lived:

1. Chicago
2. Washington DC
3. Santa Monica
4. Seattle

Four places I’ve visited:

1. Togo, Africa
2. Denali National Park, Alaska
3. Maroon Bells, Colorado
4. Vietnam

Four places I’d rather be right now:

1. At home in Chicago/Atlanta/California with our nearest and dearest
2. in the mountains hiking and camping
3. on the plane traveling to somewhere cool
4. reading in a cozy nook, drinking some tea

Four things I prefer not to eat:

1. sardines
2. anchovies
3. mayonnaise
4. tuna

Four of my favorite foods:

1. mangoes
2. berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries)
3. biscuits
4. Mediterranean food

Four TV shows I watch:

1. The Mindy Project
2. The Bachelor
3. 2 Broke Girls
4. Master of None

Four things I’m looking forward to this year:

1. Spring/Summer in Seattle (hiking, camping, stand up paddle boarding, kayaking, island hopping etc)
2. Family and friends coming to visit us here
3. Wedding Festivities for my bestie Vi
4. Our friend’s wedding in Bend, Oregon

Four things I’m always saying:

1. That’s hilarious!
2. Where are you from?
3. Chicago (I get made fun of for my Chicagoan accent all.day.long)
4. I love you.

Four people I tag to answer these questions:

1. Katie
2. Mattie
3. Molly
4. Alexandra

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Tell Us About It: Fave Rom Coms

So this is our first link up of 2016, a month late 🙂 But here we are! We will have this link up open for the week, so feel free to join us later if you forgot today.

Girls Nights are so much fun and so needed. Last Saturday two girlfriends came over and we cooked and watched our favorite episodes of Friends and it was fantastic. It was the first girls night I hosted in our rental house since we moved here.

I watch documentaries, action movies, serious movies, etc but I love me a good rom com. They’re fun and lighthearted and a great escape.

I’m a big Reese Witherspoon fan. She’s just so sweet, Southern, and I want to hang out with her and be her friend.

I love watching Sweet home Alabama. It’s one of my absolute favorites. She is just so charming. I have a a serious girl crush on her. It’s such a relateable story of moving away to be successful and figuring out how you fit back home in your old life. And Josh Lucas is great.

I also love Reese in Legally Blonde. It’s such a fun girlfriend movie, with such a positive message of not needing a guy.

The Notebook is a classic. Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams have such great chemistry and they really make you believe in life long love. Or I guess Nicholas Sparks does. It’s such a beautiful love story of utter devotion.

The Wedding Planner because Matthew McConaughy is so adorable. For awhile in college I thought I wanted to be a wedding planner so it was fun to see that world. And J Lo really is triple threat, because girl can sing, dance, and act.

Letters to Juliet made me want to go to Italy immediately. Such beautiful scenery and I loved the grandma in this movie. She was so sweet and I want her to be my grandma lol.

So since I don’t drink and have never had a cocktail, I thought I’d include fun dessert options instead.

21 Desserts You Can Make in a Muffin Pin

22 Desserts You Can Make in Five Minutes
Link Up with us below!

Friday Favorites: Our New Link Up Topics!

I’m continuing my blogging streak this week and finishing with Friday Favorites.

I know it’s already the end of January but we have finally gotten our stuff together and come up with some monthly topics! Katie is going to be joining Mattie and I with the link up this year.

She made these amazing graphics and I’m in love with them! So grab our button and join us this coming Monday February 1st and tell us about your favorite girls’ night chick flicks/rom coms and cocktail recipes!

 

 

Last weekend my friend Gretchen and I went for a little walk at Gas Works Park and it was a crisp Seattle “winter” afternoon. Winter here is so mild, it’s just cloudy and rainy and in the mid 50s. Seattle winters have got nothing on the brutal Chicago winters.

It’s so nice to take a walk in the park and be out in nature but still see the skyline close by.

I found two new Seattle based blogs this week: Seattle Bloggers Unite and Lindsay Living on Mil’s blog. I’m excited to find other Seattle bloggers and go to some meet ups! I love finding blogs in areas I’m familiar with or where I’m currently living.

I’ve mentioned it before how Katie and I were blog friends first, met up and then became real life friends and now coworkers! So I know the power of social media and blogging! If you’re a Seattle blogger, please leave a comment or send me an email. I’d love to chat and check out your blog too!

I’m really excited to see Shay’s cookbooks that are coming out this month. She’s one of my favorite bloggers and I’m happy to support her.

 

Have you guys SEEN the little 3 year old girl singing Part of Your World from the Little Mermaid?! She is too cute. I’m so impressed with her knowing all the words. Love her little princess dress.

Have a great weekend everyone! My friends from Texas are coming in this weekend and staying with me while they house hunt. SO excited to have more friends here in Seattle 🙂