Back to Reality After The Holidays

I'm sitting here looking out our bedroom window with a view of the city skyline and the snow covered tops of the Olympic Mountains. How can a girl not feel a sense of serenity with this kind of landscape in view? I'm savoring these last few hours of calmness before I head back to work as my January schedule is already packed. I'm doing something in 2009 that I've wanted to do for a while now. I've signed up for an 8 week painting class at the community college. I miss having a creative outlet and hope that this helps me get through the dreary months of January and February.
Joe and I rang in the new year in Portland. It's about a 3 hour drive south and we got a hotel room for the night and spent New Year's Eve wandering the streets of the Pearl District and visiting the Classical Chinese Garden. This is the largest garden outside of China that was built over a cement parking lot. The architecture is amazing and there is such a sense of tranquilty as you walk around. We hope to go back in the spring when the lotus flowers are in bloom as it's supposed to be quite a sight.
I've learned after spending 4 years with Joe and going on a number of trips not to plan every minute (although my type A personality longs for a map and knowing where to go and what to do). I tried to hold back and looked up two things to do and left the rest up to chance. That's a big step for me! We figured out a lot of downtown without a map and strolled the number of one way streets. We stumbled upon this great cupcake shop with gigantic cupcakes with a tower of icing that Joe couldn't wait to sink his teeth into. Also in the Pearl District is a book store that is the largest independent bookstore in the country. After spending the afternoon and making many observations of the people around me, I came to the conclusion that maybe Portland is more laid back than Seattle is. It just had a different feel to me. Joe and I would like to go back and spend some more time there. We definitely had many thoughts of Aunt JoAnn and Uncle Michael while we were there.
That night we were in the eastern part of the city at this place called the Kennedy School. There are two brothers out here called the McMenamin brothers that went around Oregon and restored old buildings and turned them into pub restaurants. We actually have 3 in Seattle as well. Well this Kennedy School closed down in the 70's and at some point the brothers decided to turn it into a hotel with a restaurant, movie theater, and "mini bars" that represent detention, the boiler room, and the honors room. Each room is decorated to make it unique and the school is filled with different mosaic creations on the wall and some of the original work from the school. I found out after mentioning the school to Aunt JoAnn that she taught at this school for a short time in the 70's. Joe and I rang in east coast New Year's in the detention room where the bartender was filling us in with things to do around the city. It was a pretty neat place to see.
Last night we celebrated Jim's birthday at this cozy Greek restaurant in the area of the city known as Queen Ann. It was such a clear night and the restaurant was located so close to the space needle if felt as though we were almost underneath. My eyes still get excited to take in such views.