Seattle/Vancouver

Last year we had to postpone our "big" anniversary trip. We had been planning on going to Kauai all along, but Josh surprised me in January with the idea of instead going to Seattle and Vancouver, specifically because of the Olympics. Of course, I said yes. We flew into Seattle on Saturday, 2/13. It was our first time to the Pacific NW. It was such an amazing part of the country surrounded by mountains and water. We were able to go on a hike on Mt. Rainier in the snow, tour the Boeing manufacturing facility (the largest building by volume in the world), visit Pike Place Market, go to the first Starbucks, etc. The highlight of the trip though was driving to Vancouver on Wednesday and seeing the men's 1000M speed skating medal round. Even better, we got to see Shani Davis win the gold. We cannot even describe how neat it was to be at an Olympic event with people from all over the world...something we'll never forget. Here are some pictures from our trip. (Note: our twin jackets were borrowed from our neighbors.)

The Original Starbucks.













Pike Place Market.













Koolhaas Library.













Mt. Rainier.













Snow shoes on "Paradise" - the part of the mountain we hiked on. We were standing on 20' of snow.













My cute husband loves waterfalls. This was on our way down from the hike.

















A very old tree.

















Loved the sun coming through the trees.













Boeing factory.













Space Needle.













Olympic torch.













Inside the Richmond Olympic Oval just after the event.













Shani's victory lap.













Flower ceremony. Chad Hedrick won the bronze.













Richmond Olympic Oval.













Saved the best for last. This was taken while we were in line to see the Olympic Torch. It is of downtown Vancouver using a color filter on our camera.