Pride?

The day after the Seattle race, Steve and I woke up to hear the theme from Baywatch playing outside our hotel window. Over and over and over again. There are tons of things I want to hear the morning after a race. Things like "Breakfast is served" or "The massage therapist will be here in 5 minutes". A solid half hour of the Baywatch theme on endless repeat isn't really my cup of tea.

We looked out the window to see the Gaywatch. Interesting. A quick call to the front desk told us that the Seattle Gay Pride parade would be passing right by our hotel.

Cool, I like a parade. We went outside to watch and it was the oddest gay pride parade I could imagine. About a quarter of the groups were from churches and social service agencies, another quarter were from corporations and small businesses, then there were the political candidates. That left a few spots open for actual gay people.

There was also a very tiny crowd of spectators. Steve and I were right at the start of the route and I hope there were more spectators downtown. It seems a little bit of overkill to have an entire gay pride parade just for a straight couple like us.

There were certainly a few very amusing floats. But my favorite part of the parade might have been this guy. Follow your own weird.

Pacific Northwest Postcard

Steve and I are in Seattle. I'd never visited before and it's a lovely city, very green with lots of beautiful sunshine. We spent our first two days here as tourists: visiting the Seattle Art Museum, riding the ferry (where I snapped the photo below), shopping at Pike's Place Market to get fresh steamed crab, picnicking overlooking the Puget Sound.

Today I got up at 3:30 A.M. to run in the inaugural Rock and Roll Seattle Marathon & Half Marathon. I had two happy surprises during the race. First, I spotted a bald eagle during the run. Actually, I spotted a bunch of people taking pictures of something in a tree. Those people pointed out the eagle. If you've never seen one in its natural habitat, the bald eagle is a beatiful, majestic bird.

The second happy surprise was having my first decent run in months. I was slow, but I wasn't in pain. I've been running with injuries to both feet since last December. It's crazy, but I've run 8 half marathons on aching heals. Today, it took me a long time to start running well. I was into mile 2 before I felt limber, but once I got going I got stronger every mile. I finished 13.1 miles feeling better than I had at mile 2. As I neared the finish line I realized I wasn't running in pain. Honestly, I started to cry because I was so thankful.

After the race, we met up with Steve's parents who spent the day showing us Seattle. Steve's stepmom grew up here and she drove us to all the good spots: a locals only restaurant for lunch, then out to Leschi Park on the shore of Lake Washington, up the hills in the Queen Anne neighborhood for a fantastic view of the city. Tomorrow we're hoping to visit the aquairum and some other spots before we hop our flight home.

As much fun as the tourist stuff has been, I'll always remember Seattle as the place a was reminded of what it's like to fun joyfully. I'll be sorry to leave tomorrow.