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.