Seattle and Whidbey Island Marathon

We spent a week or so in the Seattle area, running a marathon and visiting our friends Brian and Alicia.

First up: whale watching off of Whidbey Island. We watched a pair of gray whales for almost an hour--lots of surfacing and tailflipping. This is Alicia and Ben on the way out.

Me and Alicia.
It was "welcome the whales day" in Langley, WA, where there was a celebration of the return of the island's resident gray whales. They stop by each year to eat ghost shrimp on their way up to Alaska.

The next day we ran the Whidbey Island Marathon. It fulfilled all of our dreams of pain and glory with its many tough hills, beautiful scenery, and surfeit of organic, high-fiber granolas (being sponsored by Nature's Path).




After the race, we pounded seafood at the Mad Crab in Coupeville.





The marathon course took us over this bridge at Deception Pass, and we decided to visit it again the next day. Here's another view.

I spotted this big, fat bald eagle chilling on a tree under the Deception Pass bridge. Ben tells me that a bald eagle was also swooping around the marathon finish line when I came through the chute, but I guess my mind was on other things because I didn't notice it at all.


Next: the eating. We stayed with Brian and Alicia in Seattle, and got to check out the awesome Top Pot coffeehouse/donut emporium near their apartment.

The Pike Place market has everything from giant fresh halibut to jewelry to cheese.

Of course we had to go up the Space Needle.





We all met up with Ben's high school friend Dave and his friend Catherine for good food and beer at Brouwer's. Go there. It's good.