It seems like once a year Seattle gets a big snow storm that shuts down the city - this year it happened in mid-January. Since it so rarely snows here and the city is so hilly, Seattle is ill-equipped to deal with any amount of snow. The few plows that we have tackle the main roads, but residents still can't get to the main roads from their side-streets. For example:
A view of Ballard from my balcony - notice the sidewalk and street
Being from Southern California, I refuse to drive in the snow. But so do most Seattleites. I think there's an unspoken, city-wide rule that states: "If even a hint of snow is in the forecast, everyone must act as though they might die if they try to drive so that we can all work from home for a few days." I like this rule and everyone seems to abide by it.
As you can see from the tiny snowman on my balcony, it snowed a lot but not too terribly much. However, it was enough for me (and the rest of my office) to work from home for three days, which I consider a win.
My snowman leaves a little to be desired, I think.
For Cory's birthday this year we rounded up a group of friends and went to Smash Putt - a drinking/mini golf extravaganza. Basically some enterprising dudes got together, rented out a giant warehouse, set up a bar in the corner, and created 15 wacky miniature golf holes for adults to enjoy.
There's no rhyme or reason to the course. The holes are all numbered, but you just walk around with a beer and find whatever hole is available. Some holes don't even involve golf clubs. For instance, here we are shooting golf balls at giant metal targets. The point is to make as much noise as possible.
I don't like to brag, but I have to say I'm a pretty good shot
There's also a hole where you try to catapult your ball into a castle, a scratch-and-sniff hole, and one where your ball gets a hole drilled into it.
If you're having a hard time imaging what I mean, check out this succinct video of the experience. It'll be almost like you were there!
Tim's favorite hole was the 70s-style living room where you could stop and play Atari video games. It's hard to tell, but there's a putting green between the table and the couches the boys are sitting on.
Nerds!
Unfortunately for Curtis, who flew in from San Francisco that night, he missed Smash Putt. Well, he at least missed the "putt" part...
Oh Yeah, and Curtis was in town for the weekend too
We went to Spokane for Cory's Mom's 70th birthday dinner at Clinkerdagger, which overlooks the Spokane River. Since it was evening (read: dark) we didn't have the best view of the river, but it was still very nice. The whole family turned out, including Cory's Mom's sister and brother-in-law (Viv and Virgil).
From left to right we have: Virgil, Brian, Viv, Kayla, Arlene, Cliff, me, Cory, Randy, Lori, and Andrew in front.
Cory and I went to Denver the weekend before Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We were hoping to get a weekend of skiing in, but Colorado has gotten very little snow this season. We did end up skiing at Copper Mountain on Friday afternoon for a few hours.
It was a little icy, but at least the sun was out
The highlight of the day was sipping on a warm Baileys and coffe in the lodge and realizing that Copper was indeed celebrating MLK Jr. Day - with a giant picture of MLK Jr. beneath a disco ball.
There were a few of these decorations around the bar - here's to MLK Jr.!
Since skiing was a bust, we decided to drive to Boulder and check out the Avery Brewing Company. We sampled a variety of concoctions.
Don't worry, we had Beaker (my friend from college) with us too - these aren't all ours
Watching beer settle can be very zen
We wandered around the streets of downtown Boulder and enjoyed the warm weather, then headed back to Denver for the Broncos playoff game. Denver was out in force to root for Tim Tebow (who you'll know I'm not very fond of if you read my last post). Unfortunately for the city, the Broncos crumbled fairly quickly and the Patriots ran away with the game.
Broncos fans in Denver getting ready for the playoff game to start
It was a sad night for Denver, but still fun to be in town for the big event.
