Gasworks Picnic

Good company? Check.
Picnic fixins? Check.
Kites filling the sky? Check. 
Funny faces? Check.
Beautiful views? Check and check.

Perfect Saturday afternoon, if you ask me.

I'm Erika, the Beautiful!

Oops, I mean America, the Beautiful. (That one is for you, Maddie)

It's pretty well-known that the 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. You get to spend time with family and friends, eat good food, watch the amazing (read: cheesy) Samish Island parade, compete by trying to hit a golf ball in a boat out in the water, watch phenomenal fireworks (courtesy of Norm Nelson), bring home Maddie (she can't get enough of the pirate floats or maybe just the man who walks his goat with a beer in hand in the parade) and that's just the tip of the iceberg! I'm sure I'll report the details next week, but I just can't stop thinking about it now.

One thing I know for sure, never go to Gas Works Park for the fireworks. I mean, the show is pretty cool, but doesn't compensate for the treacherous crowds. It's so not even worth it. Some Seattle hippy was trying to have the show canceled due to "enviromental" reasons, but he lost that battle. Apparently, this is interesting enough for Colbert to report on - check it out. (It wouldn't let me embed it... or I'm just out of it.)

Seattle is cool.

As you may recall, my friend, Danielle is in town and staying with me for a couple nights (unfortunately I've been coming home late from work, but she understands) and she has wanted to do some of the more Seattle-like activities that I totally take for granted. For instance, yesterday she biked to Gasworks just to take a picture of the beautiful skyline because she misses it. What is crazy is that I look at Gasworks outside my office window on a daily basis and forget how lucky I am to always take in the beautiful scenery!

Today she is going to Pike Place Market and that got me thinking - why the heck don't I go to the market more often? I could use some honey, fresh flower and amazing mini-donuts more often. She also is going to go walk around downtown for fun. I couldn't even tell you the last time I did that!

This past weekend we went to Golden Gardens for a BBQ picnic (where we had awesome food including homemade potato salad, brats, watermelon and cucumber salad, caprese, root beer floats, yummy cupcakes, rice crispy treat and more!). I live like 5 minutes away from Golden Gardens, but I haven't been since Kimber's birthday last June! We also walked around Greenlake which I sort of forgot how much I liked - since all I do is run these days, I forget how pleasant the lake is for a leisurely stroll.

So I've set a new goal: I'm going to enjoy more of the typical Seattle locales and activities. It's pretty much the best city ever, so might as well enjoy it!