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The Seaboard Building


Skating


The Bus


The other day, one of our neighbors, a girl of around eight or so, came by to play with the kids. In a gesture that must’ve seemed awkward to begin with, I tossed them a Ken doll we’d had perched in the library, sort of keeping an eye on the place, for the past several weeks, just to give them something do. Within minutes, through some manner of kid-silliness and who knows what else, she and the boys had managed to disrobe him entirely, discard his clothing (I still haven’t found it) and cast him aside onto the hardwood floor, hunched over and twisted and robbed of his dignity — yet somehow, through it all, and true to form, still smiling. I felt for him. So I gave him my chair.


This is his happy place.


A little vertical-panoramic snapshot from a recent Sunday-morning outing — one of our favorite weekend walks, along the ship canal down in [Fremont](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fremont,+Seattle,+WA/@47.6570239,-122.3636676,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x549015ac65a569d5:0xa2c5a5c295534d98!8m2!3d47.6541773!4d-122.3500004).

Such a great city.


A Walk on Lake Union


Last year, I decided to learn to sail. I’d sailed a bit as a kid, but it’d been a long time (and I never really knew what I was doing then, anyway), so I figured it’d be good to learn for real, in order to start exploring the amazing waterways we have up here in the Puget Sound area.

So I signed up for the [ASA 101](https://asa.com/certifications/asa-101-basic-keelboat-sailing/) course at [Puget Sound Sailing Institute](http://www.pugetsoundsailing.com/), took it over a weekend (after studying for a good two weeks), passed (with a perfect score, woo!) and then joined the Open Boating program at [Sail Sand Point](http://www.sailsandpoint.org/) here on Lake Washington, where I spent the remainder of the summer and early fall practicing on [Lasers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_\(dinghy\)), [FJs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Junior) and [Hobie Waves](https://www.hobie.com/sail/wave/), the latter of which has become a favorite for Sunday afternoons with the wife and kiddos.

This year, it’s more about getting out on the bigger keelboats for me; it’s one thing to zip around on the lake in a dinghy, where the only real risk is the occasional capsize, but it’s another thing entirely to navigate safely under sail around all the ferries and container ships moving about on [Elliott Bay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Bay). So every couple of weeks or so, I’ve been getting out on a great little [Catalina 22](https://www.catalinayachts.com/sport-series/22-sport/) with a few of my fellow Chefs — making mistakes, learning a ton, and gaining the confidence I’ll need to get around here on my own someday, hopefully soon.

Here’s a shot from a recent outing.
