The Pacific Northwest has turned out to be a good place to hunker down for the winter months given the fact that most of the rest of the country has struggled with cold, snow, ice, mudslides, more snow, more cold, etc. All in all the weather here has been moderate, a bit gray and rainy but nothing extreme, and we have learned new meteorological terms specific to this area such as 'sun-breaks' and 'sucker-holes' and 'frozen fog'. And our apartment complex is home to year-round moss, frogs and slugs. Who knew?!
The most attractive feature of this area has to be the breweries, brew pubs and ale houses - oh, oops...I mean the mountains and the Puget Sound (which certainly could explain why this blog has not been updated since our arrival here and the discovery of 'Sledgehammer IPA' at the brew pub across the street). Then we found the Red Hook Brewery at mile marker 4 on our jogging trail... We might have tried a few others as well such as 
the Hilltop Ale House, the downtown Tap Room, McMenamins Pub, Hales Ales Brewery, Pike Brewing Company, George & Dragon Pub, Toby's Tavern, the Dubliner, Fremont Brewery... ahhhh - such good memories (oh wait, I don't really remember all that much!).Of course we ventured into downtown Seattle a number of times and visited some of the popular sites including Pike Place Market, the Seattle waterfront, Pioneer Square and the original Starbucks! We spent several hours wandering through the flagship REI store (it was amazing), and stumbled into the most fantastic bookstore, the Elliott Bay Book Co. We wandered around the quirky Fremont District, the inspirational Queen Anne District and discovered Top Pot Donuts in the University District (and ate an entire dozen!). At the Fisherman's Terminal we bought the best smoked salmon I have ever had. We gorged ourselves on fresh clam chowder and smoked salmon chowder at Pike Place Chowder, then sampled the selections at Beechers Handmade Cheese. And we can't forget that we stopped at every bakery within a 30 mile radius to try assorted breads, giant cinnamon rolls, Russian pastries, French pastries, cupcakes, donuts and, of course, great coffee! This is the birthplace of the coffee culture, after all.
(*After reading the above, it should be obvious why we also spend several days a week jogging miles and miles and miles on the beautiful Samamish River Trail. It has nothing to do with getting outdoors, enjoying the view, training for a marathon...it is likely due to the fact that we do nothing else but eat and drink on the other days of the week! And the beer here is awesome!)
We were amazed at the engineering of the Chittenden Locks, originally built in the early 1900's and still operating much the same. And eventually our wanderings landed us at the Center for Wooden Boats on Lake Union. Paul took some sailing lessons there and had many, many hours of fantastic instruction and sailing out on the lake with cooperating weather.
We ventured north into British Columbia and discovered Brackendale and Squamish, an area between Vancouver and Whislter. 
During the winter months this area has the largest concentration of bald eagles in North America as they follow the salmon along the waterways. We were hoping to see a handful of eagles that day, and we were not disappointed. We spotted a few at first, but the more we looked and watched and wandered and waited we spotted well over a hundred eagles in a few hours. It was breathtaking and fascinating to watch them and to be watched by them!
We also took a ferry out of Mukilteo over to Whidbey Island and spent the day poking around the towns, shops, farms, beaches, and parks. During the occasional 'sun-breaks' we could see the brilliant San Juan Islands and the rugged snowy peaks of their mountains. We watched for (but never saw) orca's as this area is a common path for them to travel through the Puget Sound. Not feeling brave enough to try the Penn Cove mussels, we settled on some great chowder, hand-crafted beer and homemade pie!
A beautiful clear day and dry weather allowed us to take a drive up to Steven's Pass ski area and across the Cascade Mountains. The views were nothing short of spectacular. While most of the hiking trails are closed in the upper elevations, we did find a moderate hiking trail that took us to Wallace Falls, a beautiful three-part waterfall. 
We did not see any evidence of Bigfoot even though it is widely believed that this is where he lives...I can personally attest to the fact that Bigfoot does NOT live in Cascades...he most defnitely lives in the apartment directly above us. Guaranteed. (I hear him. All the time.)
With just a couple more weeks left to explore the Seattle area we might get down to Mt. Ranier, we might hop on a seaplane, we might take a ferry up to Vancouver Island, and I'm sure there are a few brew pubs we haven't tried yet! And if we don't get it done this time, there is always a next time! Happy Trails.
