Snowmagedon 2012!!!!!

We had a little snow storm this week. That and a mini ice storm. Then the winds hit. Suffice it to say the place went nuts! Here are a few of my favorite pics.

Winter in Seattle -- rainy and gray, sunny and cold, Herbie

It's always very rainy in the winter here with the Sound reflecting the gray sky and the towering glass office buildings reflecting the gray water -- gray, gray, gray, Unless the sun shines, then the sky is blue, the water is blue, the mountains come out and it is truly one of the prettiest cities anywhere. In the first two weeks of the new year we had all of the above -- gray clouds, rain, fog, sun, snow, wind. Now we are bracing for the "greatest snow storm" in the past two decades. These predictions are often wrong, especially for relatively balmy Seattle, but still I did a Costco run today just in case.
 

On the first day of 2012, the weather was balmy and people were out enjoying the winter respite in Myrtle Edwards Park. We chatted up this gentlemen who caught our attention with an interesting bike made of WWII parts, a vintage Swiss emergency sled and his homemade hibatchi.

Another day in January, the skies were stormy and I caught a shot of a seagull perched on a rock tower.

The very next day was blue and sunny so we hopped on our bikes over to Elliott Bay Marina.

The Oram family headed to Mazama for the long MLK holiday while Tom and I chilled out with their dog Herbie. He loves it at our house because we give him long walks and he gets all of our attention. Luckily the weather held out and we had a great walk through Discovery Park.

We were surprised to wake up the next day to big flakes of snow.

Nicola comes to town

We (and Peter) are so fortunate to have a wonderful friend in Nicola, a wonderful Roman who arrived almost 20 years ago to Philadelphia and embraced the University of Pennsylvania and his many friends including my son. He was in town on a dreary long weekend for a conference and we tried to show him a little of Seattle in the small time we had. We started in the Pike Place Market, ate on the Waterfront at Anthony's, then headed to Cherise's home north of Ballard, or as they say North Ballard, where Sylvia and Andy gravitated to Nicola like moths to a flame (as their mother noted). From there we had a great dinner at Picolino's before bringing him back to his Queen Anne B&B and an early flight in the morning. 

Minutes into his visit to the Oram's home, Andy and Sylvia have pulled books from their collection for Nicola to read.

Andy and Sylvia share Nicola at dinner at Picolino's in Ballard.

Capo di Anno 2011

Unfortunately or fortunately, we finished off the year with a virus that sent us to bed to read, sleep and watch movies on my new iPad. All-in-all not really a bad finish to a terrifically fun year that had us working (Tom) and playing (me) for almost three months on Maui, bear watching in Southeast Alaska, recreating with the grand kids in Winthrop, honeymooning at Roche Harbor, exploring boats with the grand kids at the boathouse at Cama Beach, celebrating a benchmark birthday for daughter Cherise and capping it off to a week-long visit to Philly and NYC to see Pete's Nutcracker and Pete's Open Studio respectively. Yes, all-in-all, a great year. Following are a few of my favorite photos/memories from 2011.