welcome to seattle!

I'm trying to figure out where the best place to start with my adventures through Seattle...the beginning would probably be best. Or maybe even a little context. 

So I took a trip to Seattle for a little vacay, visit with family, and to study dance! I was there for a three week dance intensive at the Velocity Center on Capital Hill in downtown Seattle. I felt like a kid with divorced parents, alternating stays with cousin and her husband and with my aunt. I was dancing from 9:30-5:30 on the weekdays and did work study from 8-9:30 in the mornings for the program. 

The moment I landed in Tacoma, I hit the ground running. No, not literally. My cousin, Jessica picked me up from the airport and we stopped by a little (not so little) farmers market in Redmond for some fun fruits and veggies to snack on for the following couple of days. These delicious foods were just the beginning to the incredible meals I shared with Jessica and her husband Sean. Oh. My. Goodness. Soo many divine meals. When we got back to the house, I was greeted by the big canine kids, Travis and Zoe, whom I adore. We caught up and enjoyed the beyond gorgeous weather--for the record, it was sunny the ENTIRE three weeks I was in town..no rain whatsoever (I'm sure you'll hear me saying that a lot through my posts about this trip, seriously though this weather was perfect). 

On Sunday morning, I went to brunch with Jessica, Sean, and a few of their way cool friends then walked around downtown Kirkland for a tad. Then, later in the afternoon, I had my audition and orientation for the upcoming three weeks of pure dancing! It's hilarious how small the dance world is, really. I ran into a girl from the intensive I did at Juilliard in New York earlier this summer who was doing the same intensive in Seattle, where neither of us are from anywhere near either location. And I also met another friend who shares a few mutual friends with me that I also met in New York. Small world, I tell you. These people, plus many more, ended up becoming great friends of mine over the course of the three weeks we spent together. 

The previous three photos are obviously of the beautiful space I was dancing in for my stay.

a month away series

Oy! It sure has been awhile since I've last posted. Spending a month away from "home" (where ever that may be; I don't know anymore) has certainly kept me busy, there's no doubt about that. I thought that bringing my computer with me would keep me aware that I should post some tidbits about my trip however, with dancing by day and then wanting to view the city and what it has to offer by night and visiting with family I was staying with, there was absolutely no computer time--which was surprisingly easy to forget about and nice to truly get away from the cyber world for a month.

Anyways, I plan to have a few different posts from my four weeks away (photos were mostly from the weekends when I had a tad more free time).

So that being said...enjoy the following series of posts about my travels, adventures, and stories!

catching up...kansas city

Whew! It sure has been a crazy and incredible past month--all away from home and traveling all around at that, which makes it that much more phenomenal. I finally am having a bit of down time to begin the catch up process from my recent travels. 

The first of my little month about the U.S. (sort of-ish) was to Kansas City, Missouri to meet up my 93 year old grandmother with her 90 year old sister from Seneca, Kansas. But of course the family decided to make a small few days of the trip while we were at it. Surprisingly I had never really explored Kansas City the couple of times I had been there, mostly because the only times I had been there were for band competitions in Worlds of Fun, the amusement park there..ha..or most recently for a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert last fall, to which I was there for the concert only and it was nighttime. It was a gorgeous little city that really has a lot to offer if you stay there long enough or if you are taking a small vacation such as what we did. 

Our first evening in town, we went out on the town--ish--mostly meaning we all went out to eat and caught up over a plethora of random (barbecue chicken, BLT, meat lovers, spinach artichoke) flavored pizza.

We were only in town for a total of three days (an evening, a full day, and a morning). On our full day my family wandered downtown KC and the plaza, where all of their beautiful (and crazy expensive) shops all are. Some more family from my mom's side, that I really didn't know too much about or how we're all related came to visit with my grandma and her sister because they live fairly close and thought to stop by and catch up. We spent a lot of the afternoon, reminiscing and listening to the stories of the sisters' childhood. It was truly amazing to hear the stories from the early and mid 20th century in Kansas from their point of view and how their family lived through all those times. It was such a blessing to get the two sisters together again and how happy they were to be in each other's company.