We managed to take some pictures of the apartment since many people have been waiting anxiously to see it. They can be viewed on my flickr account.
We also did a video tour to help give a little bit more sense of size and layout. Enjoy!
We are now officially enrolled at UW after having scheduled all of our courses for the Autumn quarter and being billed for tuition ... which the university will be picking up once classes start. :-)
We also biked to campus and back in order to estimate our travel times. The ride to campus is smooth, being entirely downhill. It only took 10 minutes, with very little pedaling. The ride back was a bit more strenuous, being mostly uphill, but still only took about 15 to 20 min. It seems as though we will be relying on our bikes a lot while the weather is nice. Our "commute" will be shorter than most of our "on-foot" travels at PSU going to and from our apartments. It makes us wish we had used our bikes at PSU.
Tyler also took the time to check out his new office on campus. He is sharing a good sized room with 5 people. They each have their own individual desks and Tyler chose the only one that is sectioned off on two sides by cubicle walls in order to have a more private space to himself. The room has large windows and high ceilings so it doesn't feel cramped at all, but we'll see how it goes once he's working there regularly and has to deal with his neighbors. Otherwise, he's hoping the room gets cleaned before they officially "move in". As of right now it is very dusty and there are cobwebs lingering in various nooks and crannies.
Tyler's student services coordinator, Sam, is also very helpful and nice. She basically does everything; she's like the "go-to" person whenever one of the grad students has a question. We ran into her when dropping off a few books at Tyler's office, and she immediately recognized him after only meeting once or wice. When Tyler introduced me as "his girlfriend" she remembered that my name was Amanda and I was in Chemistry even though the last time any of this information was mentioned was when we were scheduling our visitations back in March so that we could share hotel accommodations. In other words, she seems to be very on top of things.
While on campus, we took care of obtaining our Husky ID cards:
As you can see, Tyler's picture-taking abilities have improved ... somewhat. :-P Luckily when we returned home that same day, our enrollment and uPass stickers were in the mail. Apparently we receive stickers for each quarter to put on our ID's to prove that we are enrolled. This is shown as the brown sticker on the front that says "Au 08", meaning Autumn 2008. The uPass sticker is our bus pass for all metro buses in Seattle. This sticker gets placed on the back of our ID. These are also handed out per quarter. I'm assuming we have to peel off the old ones when we receive our new stickers.
Now that we received our uPass stickers, we can ride the bus! So we decided to try it out on Thursday by taking a trip to the gym. The buses are similar to the CATA buses at PSU (bringing back many memories) but a lot nicer. The bus trip went smoothly, and we soon found ourselves walking on areas of campus we had yet to discover. Campus is VERY beautiful, and I plan to take some pictures before I get too busy. There are so many trees! And, the layout is not a grid, like PSU. Unfortunately, this may be more aesthetically pleasing, but it also means you loose your sense of direction very quickly.
Finally, we made it to the gym (after looping around the "scenic" route). I have to admit, I was a little skeptical about what their facilities would be like after coming from PSU who offers 3 gyms and a separate Natatorium (indoor swimming) to all students. Here at UW they only offer one large complex; however, I had no need to be concerned. Their facilities are leagues better than Penn State's; even better than the new Rec Hall gym. It will be interesting to see how crowded they get during the semester. Where to start:
P.S. Coming Soon .... pictures of the apartment. ;-)
As of a few days ago, we have finally gotten completely settled into our apartment. There are no more boxes left to unpack, no more piles of trash (mostly cardboard boxes) in the hallway, there is food in our pantry and refrigerator, and ALL, yes ALL!!! of the electronics are set-up. Actually, scratch that. The digital picture frame has yet to find a home on the wall ... but ALL the "necessary" electronics are set-up. ;-) We even found some time to decorate with our posters and diplomas.
Now we're down to getting things ready for school. Tyler already obtained his Washington State License because his Connecticut driver's license was going to expire in a few days. Waiting at the DMV was lovely. Of course, Tyler took one of his best pictures. He looks like he's about to kill someone:
I've put it up in all it's glory, with the exception of the important info which has been properly blocked out for added security. :-)
We have also ordered a web camera so that we can talk "face-to-face" with some of you folks back home! We'll let you know when it gets here, should be within a few days.
Finally, here's a picture of our first official dinner in the new apartment. It's taken from the viewpoint of someone standing in the kitchen. We made Tyler's shrimp scampi recipe and complimented it with some of our favorite Riesling, Chateau Ste. Michelle. Keep in mind that at the time, there was a mess of random things directly behind us on the floor and into the hallway. This was taken last friday night (Aug 29th). 
Please take a minute to answer the poll below ... and thank you for reading!!!!!!! I hope you had fun, we did!
We ate breakfast at the KOA on Sunday morning. Not quite as good as the pancakes at the Mt. Rushmore KOA, but a little more variety: Eggs, bacon, sausage, breakfast hash, juice, and pancakes. Our next stop before Seattle was to see a friend of my family from our horse-back riding days at Chapparell Farms in Denver, PA. Sam moved out to Montana about eight years ago after helping us train one of our horses. Him and his wife Kim were kind enough to treat us to dinner at their house and give us a warm bed for the night. As always, it was great to catch up with old friends and get some travel tips for their beautiful region of the US. I hope to see them again soon while we're living so close out here in Seattle.
The drive out of Montana was very scenic, but paled slightly in comparison to Beartooth. Unfortunately, we were in a rush now to get to our apartment, so we didn't stop much for pictures. The excitement of coming "home" for the first time was beginning to gnaw at our patience, not to mention the large amount of work ahead of us with unpacking/organizing.
However, we were still pretty excited to drive through the Cascade Mountain Range. The peaks were much more jagged and harsh looking than the mountains we had seen so far. They were also very fertile, densely covered in trees and plants. It was very humid to drive through. It rained, on and off throughout the drive and clouds and fog were nestled in between the peaks giving an eerie floating effect. It was very cool to drive through.
Finally, we made it to Seattle and hit traffic on I-5. As if we could wait any longer! We did arrive at rush hour, so it was no surprise that it ended up taking a half hour to travel the 10 miles up the highway to our place. Fortunately, our apartment is VERY easy to get to from the exit ramp for the highway. Close enough to be convenient, and far enough that the sound is just a dull roar in the background noise. It was nice to finally walk into our apartment and inspect everything thoroughly, since the last time we were here the tenant was showing us around, and we didn't want to feel like we were invading her privacy by poking around. Everything was 100x cleaner and nicer than the apartments in State College. And so far, the service has been leagues better. They actually make you feel like they care about your comfort and opinion. I guess that's what it SHOULD feel like to live in an apartment. So far, living here has made us feel that much more bitter about the way the landlords treated us and everyone else in State College.
On Saturday morning, Tyler woke at 6:00 AM to start a fire for breakfast. He is hardcore into getting the most out of our cast iron frying pan purchase, and what better way to season the pan than a campfire. Eggs, bacon, and toast were on the menu for breakfast. We showered and headed for Yellowstone, stopping to pick up a pair of binoculars on the way out of the cute town of West Yellowstone.
The best way to go animal hunting during peak hours is to look where all the parked cars are stopped. Almost immediately after entering the park we saw a huge pack of parked cars. People were stumbling down a embankment to take pictures of a bull elk standing on the opposite side of a stream who seemed to care less that he had an audience for breakfast. After getting out of the car to get a little closer, we realized that there were a dozen elk cows and calves on the opposite side of the road, much closer to us. Most of them were safely relaxing in the shade of the trees watching the tourists gogle over the bull across the stream. I don't think most people realized there were so many elk directly behind them until they turned to go back to their cars.
We continued on to Lower Geyser Basin and decided to stop at Fountain Paint Pot, a seemingly interesting name for a hot springs area. The most fascinating thing about this particular area of hot springs was the diversity of each hotspot. There were clear blue bubbling pools, alien looking sediment deposits, gurgling mudpits, screaming heat vents, and small geysers, all with steam rising from them. The whole area smelled particularly foul.
Upon leaving Fountain Paint Pot, we saw a bison huffing and puffing walking uphill on the shoulder of the road, coming our direction. A van was keeping pace directly alongside of him. The kids in the car could have reached out the window and pet the bison's back, if they wanted to. Other than for the harumphing sound issuing from the bison, he didn't seem to care.
Down at the Upper Geyser Basin, we pulled in with 45 minutes to spare before Old Faithful was "scheduled" to erupt. We picked up a few trinkets at the gift shop, and were sucked into buying a jar of huckleberry jam for our PB&J sandwiches (they had huckleberry everything!). We made ourselves some sandwiches, grabbed some snackes, poured out glasses of milk, and waited for the eruption. It was cool but probably not the highlight of our trip to Yellowstone as most people seeem to think it should be. I guess we were hoping for something a little more grandiose considering the amount of people who were gathered for the spectacle.
At this point we were getting tired of hot springs and geysers, so we headed on around the Grand Loop to Yellowstone Lake. We stopped at one point to get out of the car and touch the water to see how cold it was. The crystalline clear water was stunning. As were the pretty colors of blue you could see across the lake. The water was freezing, and the air was cool and breezy. But, there were people in boats, suffering against the chill. In the distance we saw plumes of smoke, and wondered if they signaled a forest fire.
As we left the lake we entered Hayden Valley, a prime place for animal watching. It wasn't long before we saw more cars pulled alongside the road. Naturally, we pulled off too. A huge herd of bison were grazing/standing/stomping/meandering just off the road. People were snapping pictures outside of their vehicles, within 10 ft of the bison. The bison seemed to completely ignore the large mass of people. Every time the bison would make a slight movement towards the people or make any loud snorting noises, the people would all begin to take giant steps backwards. This was probably due to the large signs posted EVERYWHERE stating that tourists have been severly injured and killed by seemingly harmless bison. In fact, it is illegal at Yellowstone to get within 25 yards of bison, or 100 yards of a bear.
The rest of our day was spent stopping at various vistas and waterfalls, which you can look at in my pictures. Hopefully some of them will give justice to just how breathtaking the landscape was. Reaching the northern end of Yellowstone, we came across a neighborhood, that we took to be the place where the rangers families live. Within this neighborhood was a large lodge. And in the shade of the building 10 elk cows were getting a break from the heat of the sun. While this was quite comical, considering the amount of fearless elk and bison we had all ready seen, we were ready to see some other four-legged animals.
It was early evening and we were getting tired, but we still decided to stop at Mammoth Hot Springs. If you ever go to Yellowstone, do NOT stop at Mammoth Hot Springs. If you are still intrigued, only look at the lowest level of salt formations. You won't see anything else more interesting by climbing hundreds of steep wooden stairs. All you'll get, is out of breath from the exertion/elevation. The lowest level, is very pretty. Everything else, looks exactly the same. Except for the bunnies who seem to be the only animals that can live in this sulfur laden environment.
As we exited the park, we saw many more elk and bison, but we didn't do much more than slow down to check if they were Moose or being stalked by bear or wolves, before passing them by. We made it to our KOA by dinner time, cooked up some tomato soup, grilled cheese, hot dogs, the last of the bacon, and S'mores and headed to bed, exhausted from our 1-day, self-guided, tour of the 2,219,789-acre park.
