Beautiful Spring Day

Saturday was quite possibly the most beautiful day in the history of Seattle. Just two weeks after we had snow, we had 75 degrees and sunny. It was so glorious that everyone wants to share what they did.

Not wanting to miss the fun, here's what I did...

I slept in late and then headed over the Magnuson Park for the semi-annual library book sale. They fill a massive warehouse with hundreds of thousands of books, almost all priced at $1. I spent a few hours there and walked away with books by Philip Roth, Roddy Doyle, Saul Bellow, Sherman Alexi, Thomas Pynchon, Rick Steves, and more. I love book sales.

After the sale, Jana and I headed to the grocery store to buy supplies for our dinner party. The store was almost empty. Who would go shopping inside on such a beautiful day? It wasn't all bad, though. To get to the grocery store we drive over the hills on 65th, and the views of the mountains to the east and the west are stunning on a sunny day.

Back at home we opened up all the windows for the first time in months, cleaned the place, and did prep work for dinner. I really wanted to get outside, though.

Fortunately, I had about an hour for a run. I put on my shorts and tank top. (Goodbye to running in hat, gloves, and a jacket!) and headed for the Burke-Gilman Trail. The trail was absolutely packed: bikers, walkers, runners, more bikers, recumbent bikes, dogs, strollers, hand-crank bikes, oh, and more bikers. Everyone was smiling and happy to be out on the trail.

I was so excited that I ran the first two miles at about a 5:40 pace. That's fast for me, so I decided to change my plans for a steady 7-miler to a 2 mile sprint followed by 3.5 miles of easy (6:30) cruising, followed by another 2 mile sprint. In between runs, I took breaks to stretch and to talk with people on the trail.

While I was getting ready for my last sprint, a biker who I'd passed on the easy cruise stopped to say Hi. She was amazed by how fast I was running. I played humble, but I enjoyed hearing that -- and knowing that I was about to run quite a bit faster. I stretched a while, let her get ahead, and then took off. Nothing like passing an impressed biker at an even faster pace.

After the run, I cleaned up and we got ready for dinner. We had ten guests from Jana's grad school program in our little apartment. It was a good time. Jana made Thai Iced Teas with Baileys and we had peanut, mint, and cilantro pesto over pasta, broccoli, red peppers, and tofu. Plus fresh pineapple and cherry cobbler for dessert. After dinner we had a big game of Apples to Apples. It was a great end to a great day. Hooray for Spring!