A Fun Morning

Well now, this morning ended up being pretty fun.

I hadn't planned on doing much.  The Seattle Maritime Festival was today but last year's was so much fun for me that I didn't feel up for trying to outdo it.  Figured I'd just do some laundry, maybe run a few local errands, but my time walking around today ended up feeling like something special. It was the kind of day when even the songs on my iPod seemed to be playing along. The kind of the day that feels the way "Here Comes the Sun" sounds.

One of the highlights was my visit to the local U-District Farmers Market. I like that I've got a year-round farmer's market two blocks from my place.  Turns out that my whole area is highly walkable.  In fact, my place is considered a "Walker's Paradise" by the website Walk Score (updated link), which rated it 98 out of 100. (To give you some perspective, my last place out on Alki was 49 out of 100 whereas my parents' house in Florida only scores a 14.  Ouch.)

At the Farmers Market, I browsed the stands and had a really good burger (produced entirely from local businesses) for lunch. Even with the clouds, everybody seemed glad to be out enjoying the not-particularly-cold weather. Plus, there was the added bonus of it being early enough that most of the college kids were still home in bed recovering from a typical Friday night.

The whole thing felt like a community too. The girl making the crepes was godmother to the kid of the guy making the burger. After nearly 4 years of real community in Japan, I've been missing that feeling.

I found a nice place to sit and enjoy the atmosphere. A guy in glasses played some Bob Dylan on a guitar while I sat there and listened to all the people try to pronounce arugula. (Which was almost as fun as the time I sat outside a movie theater ticketbooth one weekday afternoon a few months ago so I could listen to senior citizens try to pronounce "Ratatouille".)

I'll be damned. I might actually end up liking living out here.