Reverse culture shock is a strange thing. I spent the summer adjusting to the (reverse) weather that I was once accustomed to living here four years ago. I wore red, white and blue and ran into my work colleague on the bus all decked out. HAHA!
me <===== nerd
We spent a happy fourth of July celebrating in Capitol Hill with C & P and Sarah.
We ate vege burgers at Blue Moon and watched the fireworks at Lake Union.
Vintage dress from Etsy | RWB belt, thrifted | cardigan, F21 | flats - Gap
I love the models behind me!
Waiting for the magic to happen!
babe! Sarah, fed me some frittata's that night too. :)
I am obsessive compulsive; I post photos in chronological order. In a way, it keeps me in check. If I were skipping around all over the place, none of my old blog entries for the last ten years would have ever been posted. :)
Life got so crazy hectic before I left New Zealand. I never had a chance to write about it or post any photos of what I was up to.
January - April 2012
During my last four months in New Zealand:
We showed Jonah around Auckland! Jonah, Chris, Jeff and Nancy. I miss these faces!
We visited Wellington and had the most amazing day with Phil and Jonah.
This photo describes it all...
I wished we were young forever.
We went to Laneway music festival, and I met prominent NZ news journalist John Campbell. We both love the Pains of Being Pure at Heart!
;)
I met this New Zealand top model. Does she look familiar? :)
Mt. Eden in Auckland at dusk
We hung out at Bastion Point. Photo by Jonah.
Chris and I ate the most delicious white sauce pizza in Auckland on Valentine's Day. Toto's!
We visited the Waitomo Caves in King County. The descendant of the cave's owner gave us the tour and demonstrated his love for astrology. The caves are two million years old! We saw stalagmites and stalactites. No photos because it wasn't allowed!
Partied and farewell'd NZ with my friends at work...
I hosted a swap party/ladies night and had such a gooood time!
And then...
there was our farewell party.
with my lovely lady Hayley.
I discovered my new favourite music festival, and it was a painless walk just down the street from us. Bumbershoot Festival is hosted at the Seattle Center on Labor Day weekend every year. It's a variety of music, theater, comedy, improv, food, crafts and vendors. The weather was absolutely perfect too. I don't think I can handle Coachella or Big Day Out again.
I couldn't resist this photo opp! I love Zooey and New Girl! This peter pan collar was meant for it.
The Seattle Center is a mixed use entertainment center with theatres, a city park and several venues. It's the perfect place to hold a music festival, and there are plenty of bathroom facilities, so you don't have to step inside a porta-loo :)
me = happy
So happy to see these bands again...
Best Coast! I do live on the best coast.
A few hours later, I met Bethany of Best Coast.
She is so stunning, pretty, cool and can pull off such an adorable dress.
M83 being amazing as usual. Tense times ensued when at least 100 people in the crowd tried to fight their way down the steps onto the ground level. Dozens of bouncers couldn't control it.
And then I saw my favorite band!
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart! I have to admit that the crowd was so much more subdued compared to the other two times I have seen them. It did lessen the experience even though they played amazingly! Kip, called them out, thanking the folks in the crowd who WEREN'T too cool to dance. YEP! The truth.
And then I MET them :)
We talked about prominent news journo John Campbell in New Zealand and how he had their band photo as his Twitter background for years :) Oh, I also joined the band!
The only other downside to this festival is that some of the venues reach max capacity, and you have to queue up to see some of the acts. I missed The Wombats because of this, and I preferred to see The Pains anyway! Luckily, most of the bands I wanted to see were in open spaces or gigantic venues.
Later in the night we saw The Vaselines. Nirvana covered a few of their songs back in the day.
Mind blowing moment of the night: when Krist Novoselic accompanied them on stage with the accordion. I was 13 when Nirvana played "Jesus Doesn't Want Me..." unplugged on MTV. My life in Seattle got super serious at this moment.
The night ended with Passion Pit drawing in most of the festival. They were good, but I couldn't get into most of it. I wandered around a bit more, ate an ice cream sandwich and watched a soul/funk band from New Orleans. I didn't want to go home.
The next day I walked past the stage where I saw The Pains...and felt really sad that crews were taking everything down. I didn't want Bumbershoot to end because there goes my beautiful North American summer. It's the first summer I've had since 2008! What a glorious summer it was.
Hi, I'm Jen. I'm a blogger based in Seattle, who spent most of her formative years in Las Vegas. I like to write about music, interior design, style, fashion, pop culture, art, travel, my adventures, and creative inspiration. Thanks for stopping by!
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