A Glorious Weekend.

The weather in Seattle this weekend was PERFECT. High 50s, low 60s, clear, sunny, crisp. Basically, what the weather is like all summer, but way early. The mountains were gorgeous, and the air was clean and dry. I’d forgotten just how wonderful the air is after 25 years in the miasmic sewers of the Midwest and East Coast. There is simply no weather in the world as nice as the Pacific Northwest.

Soon, it will be light from 5am until 10pm, and for the most part won’t get above 80 degrees. The average high in July and August is 76 degF. Whereas in Philly it’s 87, and in St. Louis it’s 90. Additionally, there’s no humidity in Seattle during the summer. And in the spring and fall, the temperature is low enough that even when it’s humid, it’s not soupy. That’s why I’m fond of saying Seattle has a “dry dampness”.

But this weekend was beyond fabulous. So BB and I went hiking. We climbed up to Kamikaze Falls on Mt. Teneriffe. We couldn’t quite summit, because there ended up being melting snow pack that was very slippery, and we didn’t have any micro spikes. Something to buy. But the views were unbelievable.

We hiked about 6 miles with 1400′ of elevation gain. Next weekend we’re going to search out actual trail running instead of hiking.

Sunday, we went on a 15.4 mile bike ride. The first time I’ve taken the X wing out since my half-Ironman. We rode from home to BB’s work, then over to my work, and back home. We somehow managed to find a place almost perfectly halfway between our workplaces as measured by length of bike commute on protected paths, despite that not really being the criterion we tried to optimize.

Add in a good hard trip to the gym on Sunday morning, and it was a good weekend, fitness-wise. I’m excited about being here. I’m happy.