Yesterday we went swimming! I know to normal people living in normal places that doesn't sound like much of an accomplishment, but to me it is an incredibly thrilling and unusual event. It's just too cold (for me) to swim in Seattle most of the time, but we went to this amazing heated saltwater pool--it's actually filtered water from Puget Sound--that looks out over Elliot Bay to the Olympic Mountains. It was so posh, yet it cost only $3.25 a head ($1 extra if you want to go down the bendy slide, which trust me, you do). Afterwards all of us had that happily exhausted feeling that you get after swimming, even if you have just been splashing around like dorks.
I usually have a lot of anxiety about summers in Seattle. I'm constantly wondering: Am I getting outside enough? Having enough fun? Storing up enough vitamin D?! I'm always terrified that it will suddenly be November and I'll have nothing to show for it. I've had nightmares about it, actually. But this year I feel like I'm doing okay, even though winter lasted until mid-June. I've done a lot of stuff.
So far I have:
1. Swum. (Okay, probably not a word. It should be though.)
2. Barbequed & entertained in the backyard.
3. Barbequed & been entertained in other people's backyards.
4. Played numerous games of cornhole. If you've never played, you're missing out.
5. "Camped." There were about 20 of us camped out behind our friends' cabin near Mt. Rainier. Not exactly wilderness, but there were tents involved.
6. Hiked.
7. Biked. I've biked to work a few times actually, and it's pretty fun.
8. Rented canoes and paddled around the arboretum.
9. Lazed around in the shade chit-chatting while kids splashed in the lake.
10. Lazed around on my own and other people's porches.
So that is a pretty good list. And I still have a backpacking trip in the Hoh Rainforest, a trip to my friend's cabin, and a trip to Mt. Rainier upcoming. And the cornhole grand tournament! Life is sweet.
2 comments:
That is indeed a pretty good list. Saltwater pools rock - I had my first encounter with one in LA last October and loved it. It's so nice not to smell like chemicals after a swim. Austin has lots of natural swimming holes but the water in them tends to hover around the 65-degree mark...which when you're jumping in from 105-degree air is nearly heart-attack inducing.
you've almost got me convinced to go for a swim. vancouver has a salt water pool that my friend keeps asking me to, but i'm swim-shy and always decline. dammit, maybe it's time to crawl and splash my way into summer finally!
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