My birthday was two weeks ago and to celebrate Boris and I decided to get out of town and visit Seattle. We are lucky to have friends there we can stay with, one of whom was celebrating her birthday on the same day.

I really love Seattle. It’s an interesting city with plenty of the things I enjoy – art galleries, shopping, culture, delicious food, and good people. Our recent visit was the first one in awhile where we had no agenda and could just make things up as we went along. I loved it.

Bosco and me. He’s a tiny lap dog in a large leggy body.

We visited the Woodland Park Zoo on our first day in town. I normally dislike zoos because they can be depressing places filled with unhappy animals but I was inspired by a Radiolab podcast segment mentioning the Woodland Park Zoo. This zoo was one of the first to create more realistic and stimulating environments for the animals.

It was an inspiring experience. I got to watch keepers fly four different types of raptors, penguins swimming at eye-level, a huge Komodo Dragon, lions having sex, hippos in a pool, and feed a cheeky little bird on a stick.

The antique carousel at the Woodland Park Zoo.

I was enjoying being a tourist while we were in Seattle. It was a chance to visit places I hadn’t been before but also revisit a few spots I hadn’t been to for years, like the Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park.

Also the Olympic Sculpture Park where I came across the spectacular mural by Sandra Cinto, which I mentioned previously.

These wildflowers were everywhere in the sculpture park.

On our last full day in Seattle we mostly relaxed with our friends instead of going exploring. We did a walk through Seward Park and sat on a bit of grass overlooking Lake Washington and enjoyed this lovely view.

Not pictured here, all the delicious food we ate, both at our friend’s place and in restaurants. I like to eat but I don’t care to photograph it.