To sum it up, 2009 was a year of starting out in one city, and ending up in another. Of lots of traveling, but never stepping foot on an airplane. Meeting lots of new people, and reconnecting with old friends and family. For the details, read below.

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I started out 2009 living in Seattle. It was cold. It snowed a few times. But it was fun. I did a lot of bundling up and walking around.

In January, one weekend, Josh and I took a little drive down to Olympia to see the Capitol building and then onto Tacoma to visit the Museum of Glass. Also, if you have seen 10 Things I Hate About You, the high school they go to is located in Tacoma. So of course, we drove by that building.

In February, we enjoyed more cold weather but went out on one of the warmer days to go to the Woodland Park Zoo for the first time! It was fun. Lions, tigers and bears. And elephants. And monkeys. And giraffes. I was very sad because the giraffes were soo far away. I wanted to see one up close, and get a good photo. I’m kinda smitten with giraffes. I had to settle for seeing elephants up close. And look at their skin!

We started out March with our friends Chris and Kathy coming to visit one weekend from Austin. We showed them around, went to the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum, Pike Place Market, Downtown Library, road the monorail, went to the Seattle Center, and wound up in the University District drinking Bubble Tea while it was snowing outside. Also, the 5 Spot (a restaurant in our neighborhood in Seattle) had as their theme at the time “Keep Austin Weird.” So of course, we had to go to see if it was authentic Austin food.

One warmer April weekend, Josh and I decided to visit Bainbridge Island so we took the ferry over and had a nice afternoon walking around the town of Winslow. We also saw signs of spring popping up around Seattle with the cherry blossoms on the UW campus and flowers blooming around our neighborhood.

At the end of April, Josh and I headed off on our 9 day road trip down to California. We started in Seattle, spent an afternoon in Portland, and then next day drove through the Redwoods. They were amazing. So tall and beautiful.

And then we continued on to one of my favorite cities, San Francisco! We spent two nights in San Francisco at an AMAZING hotel (the Huntington on the top of Nob Hill). While there, we went to the Academy of Sciences, Ocean Beach, the Cliff House, the Ferry Building, Ghiradelli Square, the Ferry Building, and had a lovely dinner at a wine bar and then a windy but nice walk back to our hotel.

The next day we drove down the East Bay and then to Monterey and Carmel-by-the-Sea, where we had the best mid-day lunch at this restaurant called Casanova. Then we drove down highway 1 all the way to Morro Bay/Los Osos.

We spent a few days in the San Luis Obispo/Avila Beach/Paso Robles/Pismo Beach area enjoying the weather, wine tasting, and hanging out with some of Josh’s family and friends.

After we had our fill of beautiful beaches, wine tasting, and relaxing (um.. or maybe because our schedule made us leave), we headed up to the Jackson/Sutter Creek area of California for the weekend. And then back to Seattle!

The rest of May, we stuck around Seattle and enjoyed going out for things like the Folklife Festival at the Seattle Center and heading to the Washington Park Arboretum (designed by the Olmsted Brothers).