Photos from Seattle

I went on a bike ride today around Lake Union. The lake is about 200 yards from our apartment and is surrounded by houseboats, yacht moorings, and industrial/commercial facilities. There is a ton of activity on the lake all the time including sailboats, kayaks, yachats (power and sailing), float plane taxis, fishing boats, barges, and other vessels. It's amazing that people don't more collisions! Here are some photos from that ride. The photos are taken with my iPhone so the quality isn't great but it provides the scene.

First a quick map to provide some orientation:
Click for Map

First set is taken from Lakeview Avenue on the south east side of the lake.

Looking north north west.

Looking west north west. Queen Anne hill in the background

Looking West. Queen Anne Hill in background.

Looking west south west.

Looking south west. Space Needle and Seattle Center in Background.

Looking South. Downtown in background.

And the second set is take from Gas Works Park on the north side of the lake.

This first shot is an attempt to find out apartment. Probably hidden behind a tree from this angle, but we would be somewhere in that shot.

Looking west. Queen Anne hill in background.

Looking south west. Queen Anne hill and Seattle Fire Department fire boat.

Looking South. Fireboat, Space Needle and Downtown.

Looking Southeast. Downtown and the edge of Capitol Hill.

Looking East Southeast. Capitol Hill.

Looking East. Capitol Hill and East Lake.

Looking East NorthEast. East Lake (the shot of our apartment is pointing a little further to the north than this shot.)

Gratitude-A-Day September 8, 2008

Today, I'm grateful for the internet. I'm sitting here in our hotel room this morning on our trip west and able to connect with the world, catch up on work, do some work and find weather and road reports all so easily. It's really pretty amazing and easy!

Gratitude-A-Day September 7, 2008

Today, I'm grateful for expansive views! The drive through South Dakota today was surprisingly beautiful. We saw some incredible colors in the Badlands (pictures to be posted soon!) and the fields of wheat and grass were beautiful in their color.

Gratitude-A-Day September 6, 2008

Today, I'm grateful for freedom. Yesterday, I wrote about my feelings of sadness in moving further away from family in Minneapolis and said I would write today about the reasons for moving. This post is going to be a simplified version of these feelings but I hope to be able to dive into this topic in greater detail in the future.

• I've lived in Minneapolis (SouthWest Minneapolis specifically) my whole life - except for 8 semesters in college (Beloit, WI). I want to experience living in a different setting. Different in terms of attitude, natural landscape, history, culture. Moving to Des Moines, Chicago, Kansas City, Madison, or St Cloud would feel very much like Minneapolis. Different to me would be west coast, east coast or another country. The deep south would be different but isn't appealing to me. Seattle is different.
  
• When I went to college I was amazed what it was like to suddenly be in a place where all of the people around me were new. No one had preconcieved notions of who I was. This created an opportunity to define myself anew and shed habits and social conditioning I carried from earlier in my life. I see moving to a new city (although some people already know me in Seattle) as another opportunity to define myself with a relatively clean slate. I figure that I'll have 2-4 of these opportunities in life and I want to make the most of this one.
  
• I want to find out what it takes to create "home" in a new location. I'm excited to figure out all of the simple things - where is the grocery store/post office/corner store; what are the local radio and TV stations, what do people talk about at the bus stop. I'm also excited to learn the vibe of a new community - how does the city wake up in the morning; what are the pressures the community feels; what vision does the city share for the future. And, what does it take for me to feel at home in a new place?
  
• I've always lived close to my immediate family. This is the flip side to my post yesterday - I want to experience how it feels to be removed from my family and loved ones. What does it feel like to be a long way away when they are sick/hurting and celebrating/joyous. This might sound crazy but it's something I'm interested in experiencing.
  
• In addition to moving to a new place I'm also starting a new chapter in my career. By founding Gottschalk Technologies, Inc I'm going to be learning and growing as a business person and professional in ways I can't begin to imagine. I feel that by combining this new buisness venture with living in a new community will provide the right kind of stimulus and freedom to break new ground and learn as quickly as possible. I feel kind of stale in Minneapolis in terms of my professional growth. When I'm in Seattle I feel fresh and new.
  
• I've gotten to know Minnesota and the surrounding communities VERY well in the time I've lived here. For the last few years I've found myself yearning to have a new home base to explore from. Living in Seattle will provide a fantastic opportunity to explore and see and experince new places and things on a daily/weekly basis. This includes neighborhoods, restaurants, theaters, clubs, museums, day trips, bike routes, races, weekend trips, backpacking, the ocean, the parks and a whole bunch of other things.

I'm also VERY interested to hear from the rest of you about your experiences moving to a new location or how it feels to anticipate an upcoming move. Please share your thoughts, feelings and experiences in comments!

Gratitude-A-Day September 5, 2008

Today, I'm grateful for family. On the eve of the next step in our move to Seattle I'm very aware of my feelings of sadness about being further away from my now larger family in Minneapolis. We made our decision to move several months ago (tomorrow I'll write more about my reasons for that decision) and, at that time, I knew there would be a day that such feelings would be present and strong. But, like feelings surrounding all transitions in life, I've come to learn that given a bit of time I'll adjust to the new situation and feel strong, connected and happy. I'm looking forward to the next chance to give everyone a big hug and catch up in person. I know we'll stay in touch before then and the quality of time together will be that much more valuable, special and memorable.

Gratitude-A-Day September 4, 2008

Today, I'm grateful for friends. I had breakfast with a good friend this morning and the conversation we had was invigorating and refreshing. We are both going through a lot of change in our lives right now and were able to listen to and hear each other in a way that was uniquely valuable.

Gratitude-A-Day September 3, 2008

Today, I'm grateful for great sleeping weather. Yesterday the weather dried out and cooled off. We got out our blankets for the first time since May and it was nice to snuggle in a warm bed on the first cool evening of late summer.

Gratitude-A-Day September 2, 2008

Today, I'm grateful for rain. It's gotten really muggy here in Minneapolis on the first two days of September and the air quality has gotten pretty bad as well. See the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Air Quality website for the current air quality readings which this morning were sitting about about 90. A pressure front is supposed to come through town later this morning and bring rain with it lowering the dew point and cleaning up the air. It'll be a nice change tomorrow!