Wednesday, August 27, 2008

A Dozen Reasons To Love My New City

If you have been reading my blog in the past few weeks, you know that I recently relocated to Seattle. Since arriving here a little less than a month ago, I have been methodically keeping track of all of the reasons I love my new city (you know me, I love lists).

Many of the programs here in Seattle, which is known as the Emerald City because it is surrounded by such lush greenery (thanks rain), are examples of ways to live lightly on the land while still enjoying all of the benefits of city life. You will notice that many of my reasons center around food. What can I say? I like food - good, seasonal, local, real food - but of course, there are other reasons to love Seattle too...

Seattle is the original cool city - The U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement was started in 2005 by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels. Since then, over 800 mayors have signed the agreement that follows many of the actions set forth in the Kyoto Protocol, which seeks to reduce global warming pollution.

The Wine - As my quest to eat locally has increased in intensity, I have often felt a real sense of guilt when it comes to the wine I am drinking. In New York, my wine would come from as far afield as California, Spain, and Argentina. But now, I am surrounded by wine country, and there are several local wineries that are beginning to use organic and biodynamic growing techniques.

The Restaurants - A large portion of the restaurants here are committed to serving local, organic, and seasonal food whenever possible. So far, I have had the good fortune of dining at restaurants that adhere to some permutation of this philosophy, including The Stumbling Goat, Ray's Boathouse, and Wild Mountain Cafe. Some other standouts on this scene include Flying Fish, Tilth, Taste Restaurant at the Seattle Art Museum, and The Harvest Vine.


The bounty of the markets, though wild blackberries will be here soon!

The Farmers Markets - There is one almost every day and two of the markets are open year- round. My favorites are the Saturday morning University District market and the Sunday morning market in Ballard. At both places you can find everything from organic raw milk and artisan cheeses to several colorful varieties of green beans (5 as of this writing). And of course, both of these markets sell Estrella's artisan cheeses; a creamery whose cheese is so varied and delicious that my new proximity to it could almost be its own reason. But enough about food for now. Let's talk books....

The Seattle Library System is comprised of the central library, 26 branch libraries, and mobile services. Each one that I have visited thus far is efficient, clean, quiet, and offers superior access to books, periodicals, journals, and research documents, many of which I can request to have delivered to my local branch. Yes, I am a admittedly a nerd, but a good public library system is one of the backbones of a well-educated population. What's more, the downtown public library is such an architectural feat (the top floor is entirely glass, and there are additional energy-saving designs throughout the building), that it is one of the top tourist destinations in Seattle. Guess I am not the only nerd in town.


Sort of like a Winnebago and a Spaceship

Coffee shops that serve organic, fair trade coffee, beer, and wine. (Does this one count as a food reason too?) One recent evening, I was working in one of the myriad coffee shops that allow you to transition easily from day to night with a bevy of beverage options, when a group of musicians arrived to start setting up for the evening's performance. One of the recording guys even brought his daughter, who was so into the music (and my camera), that she offered her live dance performance as a bonus. The best part was that the music was so good I was able to keep working and enjoy the show (and my beer).


Play some Skynard, man!

The Greatest Goodwill Ever and many other worthwhile thrift stores. As any of you who have read my blogs about our move know, I am both a fan of consuming as little as possible, and throwing away even less. However, our move necessitated the creative gifting and selling of many of our possessions. What better way to restock the new home with necessities than at your local Goodwill? And the Goodwill near my new neighborhood in Ballard is especially fabulous. As my friend Alexis, who shops for a living for film/tv costumes, AND has the best style of just about anyone I know says, "It is the cleanest, most organized (by category and size) Goodwill I have ever seen!" And it's within walking distance of my new house - lucky me.

The Public Transportation System - While I have the luxury of working from home most days, and I live somewhere that is within walking distance of restaurants, the library, stores, and the post office, when I do need to go further afield, I can also take a $3 round-trip bus ride to anywhere in the city. The bus system is easy to negotiate, thanks to the King County online trip planner, and buses generally run on time. There are also local commuter and Amtrak trains that run out of a central location downtown. Last week, I was easily able to take a bus, train, and then another bus to see Radiohead in Auburn (a city about 35 miles away from Seattle). Total cost of the one-way journey - $5.25.

The Parks - Seattle has made a serious commitment to preserving open air spaces, and the in-city park system is extensive. So far, I have visited Discovery, Golden Gardens, and Carkeek. All three of these urban oases offer walks to the beach, hikes, and sunsets like this...


Like being in a fancy wine commercial, only better.

And of course, there are lots of benefits to all of this rain - they include:

Drying Clothes Outside - Having lived in a suburb of NYC for six years with nowhere to hang my clothes, I had no choice but to use the energy-guzzling dryer (although I did use a drying rack as much as possible, and you can too city dwellers). Now, in between rainstorms, of course, I can hang all of my clothes outside.


Note to self: Line dried towels hurt! A few minutes in the dryer goes a long way.

The Growing Season - It is year round, and almost everyone I have met so far here has their own garden. My friends Lesley and Joe's garden is particularly bountiful and impressive.

Exclamations of "Gad-zukes!!" abound. Look at that thing!

Rainbows that Make the News - On my third weekend in Seattle, I was out in the aforementioned friends' garden helping to plant the second crop of the summer season. It had been raining off and on all day (it's Seattle after all), and we were seizing the break in the weather to get the new seedlings planted. We looked up to see not just one rainbow, but two. Apparently we were not the only ones that noticed it either; there was also mention of it on the local evening newscast. Who wouldn't want to live in a city where awesome rainbows make the news?

My kingdom for a wide angle lens!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Step Into the Earth Lab

As a person who is always looking for ways to be more efficient, the idea of finding out my exact carbon footprint and ways to reduce it is very appealing. There are carbon footprint calculators galore on the Internet, and in an effort to find more ways to reduce my emissions, I have been perusing many of them recently. A tip from my friend Marah over at The Blue Ocean Institute led me to Earthlab.

Here's why Earthlab is worth a visit:

  1. Requires Very Little Patience - As they say on their website, it really does take only 3 minutes to calculate your carbon usage.
  2. Covers All the Bases - The calculator evaluates 6 basic facets of how we live - home, energy, commute, travel, work, lifestyle.
  3. Score Means Something - Once you are done (let's say during minute 4), you get a score from 150-900 (150 means you are a carbon-saving rock star), and you also are able to compare your score to other people in your city, state, and country.
  4. Tangible Ways to Reduce - No matter what your score, there are specific pledges you can take to reduce your carbon emissions further. For example, in the energy section, you can pledge to air dry your dishes, start composting, or turn off lights whenever you leave a room.
  5. You Can Track Your Progress (think of it as an alternative to Facebook when looking for a way to procrastinate at work) - You can visit your account at Earthlab regularly to report your progress, update your score, and make new pledges.
Earthlab offers tangible actions that you can start taking today. So stop reading this blog and go save some energy!

Monday, August 11, 2008

Wildlife Wimp...Meet the Glacier Grizzlies

One of the best ways to become a conservationist is to see firsthand why forests, oceans, and open spaces are worth preserving. One glance up at the mountains from Yosemite's valley, and you will understand why Ansel Adams devoted his life to photographing and protecting wild places. From atop a vista in Glacier National Park, you will understand why it is so important to protect not only the glaciers that give this breathtaking park in northwestern Montana its name, but also the grizzly bears that roam freely throughout, existing in quiet splendor at the top of this magnificent ecological paradise. I have enjoyed every moment spent in Yosemite, Glacier, and several other National Parks, and I am committed to doing whatever I can to protect and preserve them.

And by the way, I am a total wildlife wimp. While I grew up in rural Vermont surrounded by black bear, moose, skunks, squirrels, and even the occasional coyote, I still get nervous on every camping, hiking, and walking trip that holds even the slightest possibility of an encounter with any kind of mountain lion, bear, or Loch Ness monsters (Yes, I do know that I don't actually need to worry about that last one). However, I live in the Pacific Northwest, and I love to hike, so I find myself on a lot of these "I wish I didn't have such an active imagination, but otherwise this is incredible" excursions. Did I mention Sasquatch?

Glacier National Park was no exception as such an outing. From the moment we entered the park a few weeks ago, we heard stories about a grizzly and cub that were frequenting the Iceberg Lake trail. (Please note, these bears will hereafter be referred to as Momma Bear and Baby Bear because that makes this story seem much less scary).

We were very excited for our few days in Glacier, as neither my husband nor I had ever visited. We splurged on the night of our anniversary and stayed at the storied and highly recommended Many Glacier Lodge. The lodge is situated on the east side of the park, only a few miles north of the Going to the Sun Road, which is the main road that runs through the park. Many Glacier Lodge was built in 1915, and it is situated overlooking one of the many lakes scattered throughout the park.

On our first full day in the park, we took a leisurely hike around several glacial lakes. We were excited the next morning for something a little more rigorous, so we set out on The Iceberg Lake trail. There were signs at the head of the trail with warnings about increased grizzly activity. There are also signs and pamphlets all over the park about what to do to avoid a bad bear encounter - make noise so as not to surprise the bear, stay calm and quiet in case of an encounter so the bear does not perceive you as a threat or prey etc. And it probably goes without saying that these are not the signs you want to see if you are a wildlife wimp. The prevalence of bear mace at the gift shop and on people's belts did not help either.

Taking it all in
Yet the stunning natural beauty of Glacier was enough to make me overcome my fear, and so up the mountain we trudged. It was a perfect July morning, the fog from the night before had all but burned off, and as we wound our way up alpine meadows and past streams, we were treated to view after view of valleys, mountains, and lakes. At the 2.5 mile mark (the hike is about 10 miles round trip), we began to hear stories about Momma and Baby Bear up ahead on the trail. No one seemed particularly concerned, and we were on our way to the well-traveled Iceberg Lake; really, what were the chances of us actually running into the bears!?
Icebergs in July!
We pressed on and after giddily stumbling upon a late season snow field, we reached our destination. After an hour of lunch and amazement at where we were and what we were seeing, we started to head back down the trail. As we got to a bend about a quarter mile down, we heard many voices shouting, "Hey, Bear!" and clapping and whistling. Irritated, I looked at Steve and said, "With those people ahead making all of that noise, we are never going to see the bear." Yes, indeed, that was the wildlife wimp talking. Something about the sheer and surreal beauty of the scene must have been getting to my head.

We joined up with the noisy and slow moving troop and continued our tromp down the trail. We rounded a particularly breathtaking bend and stopped to take in the mountain swooping up to our left and then crossing the trail, where it was transformed into a gently rolling hill, which continued its progression all the way down into the valley. We were snapped out of our reverie by, well, a snap. Bears that size, they move fast, and suddenly we heard branches cracking less than twenty feet to our right.



What we observed*

What it looked like to me

Just like that, there she was, Momma Bear, and there he was, Baby Bear. As for Momma, I swear she was looking right at me. The more experienced hikers (they all had a few decades on Steve and me, and most had encountered a bear before), rapidly and quietly made their way down the trail. I couldn't move; I just stood there, transfixed by this close encounter with a fellow top-of-the-food-chainer. And instead of being terrified, I was completely calm - Momma, she really didn't have any interest in me. She lumbered away down the slope following her baby (he was really more of an adolescent) towards Iceberg Lake. We heard from others further up the trail that the grizzlies had gone to the lake and wrestled, frolicked, played. National Parks are some of the last bastions of safety for this threatened species, and these bears seemed to know it.

By the time we got to the bottom of the trail, it had been closed due to "increased grizzly activity."

We can all take a lesson from this closing - At Glacier, it's as simple as this - the bears are respected here. The ecosystem in the park and beyond depends on the survival of such magnificent creatures, and the park cherishes and protects the grizzly as an integral part of this system.

Sadly, the grizzlies are not the only thing that needs protection in Glacier National Park. If the current rate of warming continues, all of the glaciers in the park will be gone by 2070. For more information on protecting the parks, visit the National Parks Conservation Association, and of course, I also recommend visiting some national parks. I don't guarantee that you will see a grizzly, but I can promise you that you will see something magnificent and worth protecting.

*Grizzly Family photo by DanDee Shots

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Buses, Feet, and Fewer Automobiles

Thanks to the combination of my recent relocation and addiction to knowing where I am at all times (I blame my horrendous sense of direction for the latter - if I suggest turning left, turn right...seriously), I just discovered a helpful feature on Google Maps for anyone who does not consider driving to be the only mode of transportation. With gas around $4.00 a gallon that is a fast-growing club.

Now, in addition to getting driving directions on Google Maps, you can also get bus or pedestrian directions. Huzzah! You could easily do this anyway with the Seattle Public Bus System (or any metropolitan transit system website), but Google Maps is one stop shopping for finding my way on any type of transit in my new hometown. Another bonus of finding directions online is that I can send these directions to my phone and avoid printing anything. Less paper, less gas, Google maps...OK, not great - I promise not to try to get a job writing slogans anytime soon!

Our First Hike at Discovery Park in Seattle - On Feet!

The scenery obscured by the glare and my husband's huge melon.