Another Business Trip - Destin, FL

At the end of January, I had a conference in Florida.  It was very nice to get away from the Syracuse winter.  The conference lasted all day so I didn't have much time for sightseeing, but the resort that the conference was at was really nice.

View from my hotel room

The hotel was on the bay side

Beautiful sunset view

One of the nights I had oysters for the first time.  They were delicious!  I was so amazed at how much I enjoyed them.

One night I went over and checked out the beach

It looks like a nice beach, but I didn't get to spend more than 15 minutes there.

But in those 15 minutes, I did get to see a lovely sunset.

The next morning I went for a quick run.  Out on one of the piers there were a bunch of pelicans and other sea birds sitting out on all of the pylons.  It was pretty cool.

Kristin's Trip to Seattle

I had a business trip out to Seattle (well, across the Sound from Seattle) and although most of the time was spent in meetings, I had a little time for sightseeing.

The view from my hotel - when tide is out, the small bay is even more empty than in this picture.  When tide is in, it is almost as high as the road.

Silverdale marina.  In the summer there are tons of boats... in January, not so much.

Another beautiful Silverdale view

Blurry, but one of my favorite meals that I always have to have when I'm out there: pho from Chung's.  Yum!!

After a bunch of meetings in Silverdale/Bangor, it was time to head back over to Seattle to fly home.  Any time I have a chance to, I always take the ferry back over to Seattle.  It is a beautiful ride (almost) every time!

This isn't a great pano, but it is taken from one of my favorite spots on the ferry, up on the second deck with the wind in my face.

Speaking of windy!

This was a lucky ferry ride, we had an amazing Rainier view the entire time.  So, so beautiful!

Seattle city view

Looking back towards Bainbridge Island

I love the ferry at sunset

Or pretty much any time.  I just love the ferry.

The Sound is a shipping lane so there are always tons of huge ships to see.

More Seattle

And another view of Rainier

I had a few hours to explore in Seattle before my flight so I went to Pike's Place market and wandered around.  I took these pictures for the kids, some cool veggies that they hadn't seen before.  They wished that I had actually bought the vegetables instead of just taking pictures of them!

Another great trip, I love Seattle!

Trail Camera Pictures

Tim borrowed a trail camera from one of his friends.  It triggers on movement.  We put it out in the backyard to see who visits us when we aren't out there looking.

Bunny - wonder if this guy ate our garden over the summer too?

Squirrel

Doe

Fox

Another doe

More of the doe

Turkeys - during broad daylight!

So many deer in our yard

I think this guy is a skunk

Looks like bucks visit us too

I think this guy is a coyote

Yet another doe

And of course, I can't resist being a goof for the camera too!

Kristin's Trip to Seattle

In July I went to Seattle for a week for work.  Most days were spent working from early morning until dinner time, but we did have one day off to have some fun.  My co-worker and I decided to drive to Mount Rainer to check it out.  Lucky for us, the day was clear and the view of the mountain was beautiful!

Part of the range

Mount Rainer!

The view in the other direction

Me and the mountain

Glacier waterfall - the mist spray coming off it was FREEZING!

The top of the waterfall

One of the nights we went to dinner in Bremerton, where there is a submarine museum.  Here is Trevor and I in front of the sail of the USS Parche, one of the most decorated subs in US Navy history.

Kristin's trip to Seattle

Back in September, I was in Seattle for work.  It was my very first trip to Washington state, which was one of the few states that I still have not visited.  I was very excited to check it off my list of states.  On the last day, we got out of work early enough to do some sightseeing.  Here are some pictures.

We took the ferry from Bainbridge Island over to Seattle.  It was an awesome ride with beautiful scenery.  Here is Mt Rainer in the distance

Looking back towards Bainbridge Island

More Mt Rainer - awesome!

 Seattle in the distance

View from the ferry

Seattle skyline

More of Seattle - I think that might be a shipping yard in front with all of the cranes

Two stadiums - one for football, one for baseball?  I can't remember but thought it was funny that they are right next to each other.

Space Needle and part of Pike Place Market

Our first stop as tourists was the Space Needle (what else??)

There were great views from the top

The most downtowny looking part of Seattle

More of the lovely mountain

Looking towards the Puget Sound

Proof that I was actually there!

I think the closer one is the ferry that we took

After the Space Needle we went and grabbed some dinner.  We at at Ivar's, which is apparently a famous seafood place.  It was all lost on me because I don't eat seafood, although my chicken dish was AWESOME.  My travel companions all very much enjoyed their seafood, including coho salmon and dungeness crab, both of which were in season. After dinner we went on a tour of the Seattle underground, which was very cool.  I didn't take any pictures, but it was a fantastic tour. 

Both Washington state and Seattle were amazing and I cannot wait to go back!  Next time I will have to add a day in for more sightseeing so I don't have to compress it all into one night.