Washington: Mukilteo Lighthouse Park

Mukilteo, a hard (for us) to pronounce but lovely community North of Seattle, is home to a gorgeous beachfront park and a busy ferry route. During one of our free afternoons of exploration, we decided to head up North and see what all the fuss was about! We're glad we went for it, as we had an absolutely lovely time strolling through the park and taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of the area. Well, more smells for Antho than there were for me, given that my sniffer is pretty weak and bordering on full-on anosmia, but I digress. As the sun began to slowly lower itself in the sky, we were able to enjoy the brisk air and beautiful light for a good while. The weather being as it is up here, meaning a strong tending towards grey, drizzly days for an extensive portion of the year, we were not alone in our appreciation of a somewhat rare nice day. I'm not complaining about the company, though, as we were able to see a few super cute pooches and proto-humans galavanting about, which always makes our hearts warm. There were couples having a romantic picnic, families lounging on blankets or gathering around a particularly comfortable piece of driftwood, and the casual neighbors out walking their pups. While part of the park was closed on the day of our visit due to a wedding, we couldn't even be grumpy about that because there were still so many other things to enjoy! From the open, expansive grassy fields where people and their pups were happily playing, to the beachfront views offering unhindered sunset scenes and ferry-viewing, to the paved walkways leading to the nearby piers. Antho and I both thoroughly enjoyed our visit, and I look forward to the next trip so we can check out the lighthouse close-up! Unless, of course, there's another wedding, in which case we'll wander elsewhere!

These days, we're both gainfully employed and don't find as much free time available to go out and explore. Even so, it's awesome having so many options available to us here! Not only does Seattle proper have an outstanding number of parks, but each neighborhood, each suburb, has its own public spaces worth exploring. I'm so excited for the upcoming spring and summer months! There's always going to be an adjustment period where money and time feel tight when you move to a new place, but we both have secured jobs with room to grow and advance along with benefits and decent pay. In time, we should be able to breathe a little easier and make more time for exploration again. 

Seattle: Japanese Garden

It probably goes without saying, but just in case you need to be reminded, I'm absolutely and utterly enamored with the country of Japan, from the beautiful scenery of the natural landscapes to the dense urban sprawl of Tokyo to the kind-hearted and incredibly generous people I met along the way, there's something just so magical about the place. Given this state of affairs, it should come as no surprise that when I learned of Seattle's Japanese garden, conveniently located within the gorgeous and expansive Washing University Arboteum, there was no doubt that we had to go. The 3 and a half acre park was constructed under the guidance of Juki Iida, a renowned designer of Japanese gardens, during the 1960s and has remained a fixture of the Seattle gardens scene ever since. The Emerald City itself is home to roughly 6,000 acres of parks, so even if you're not much of a Japanophile the city will have something green and gorgeous to appeal to you. This is a city that takes it public greenery seriously, and for that, among other reasons, I'm all the more in love with it. 

There's a reasonable fee for admission, but as I said, it's reasonable. You can park for free at the Arboretum nearby, which is a rare gift to find in Seattle. The grounds are meticulously maintained, and while it was a rainy day during our visit there were still plenty of people walking about taking in the beauty of the place. It was still the midst of fall during our stroll, so shades of red, orange and yellow burst through the green to add a spark of vivacity to the surroundings. It was an absolutely lovely stroll, even in the drizzling rain, and I look forward to seeing the garden again under the light of another season! It definitely gave me some hard nostalgic pangs for my time living in Japan, and for that, I have to applaud the designer. They knew exactly what they were doing since they were a professional designer of these gardens in Japan! 

There are plenty more photos to come, but if you ever get the chance to visit the gardens in person I seriously encourage you to do so! There's only so much I can capture in a photo, after all...