Currently: Cherry Blossoms at the University of Washington | April 2022
Last weekend, Korri and I traveled to Seattle, Washington, for the NCAA gymnastics tournament (known as regionals). The top 36 teams are spread out at 4 regional sites, and there are 4 meets over the course of 4 days to determine the round of 32, the sweet 16, and finally, the elite 8 (the top two teams out of each regional final advance to nationals). It’s a very high energy few days but SO MUCH fun! I’m sad that I’ve seen my last in-person meet and that the season is almost over.
Cherry Blossoms at the University of Washington
Regionals were hosted by the University of Washington in Seattle this year—and regionals weekend just so happened to coincide with cherry blossom season! I LOVE CHERRY BLOSSOMS and was so psyched to learn that they were blooming. It was, as it turns out, also the first annual U District Cherry Blossom Festival, which runs over two weeks from the end of March to just about mid April (March 25 to April 10). In addition to checking out the beautiful cherry blossoms on campus, there are a bunch of nearby restaurants and retailers offering cherry-themed specials during the festival.
Fun fact: The cherry blossom trees on the University of Washington campus were a gift from Japan!
Korri and I stayed in a hotel near campus, and every time we walked to a meet, we walked by the cherry blossom trees (and a bunch of other lovely flowering trees and bushes, like daphne!). Campus smelled sooo good! The flowers perfectly complemented the absolutely STUNNING architecture. Seriously, it felt like I was dropped in Narnia or Hogwarts or something, lol. Almost every building was beautiful (except for the atmospheric sciences building, naturally). I wish all college campuses looked like UW!
There were lots of people out marveling at the blossoms when we took the camera out to get these shots. I couldn’t blame them, it was a gorgeous Saturday! The Quad was bustling (the photo to the right above), so most of these photos are of the trees around the corner. I couldn’t resist jumping in for some photos of me. They’re just so pretty! (Peep my new Allbirds sneakers. I love ‘em so far!)
If you do venture to see the cherry blossoms at UW during the festival and don’t have a camera, look for the booth on the Quad—you can get photos of yourself/your friends/your family with the cherry blossoms shot by UW photography students for only $10!
I joined Anne’s currently link up this month to share what else I’m up to right now!
Currently | April 2022
getting: excited for NCAA gymnastics nationals, of course. I’m so happy I’ll be working from home, so it’ll be easy to stop working during the meet times next week and then get right back to it once the meets wrap up. Someday I hope to be at nationals in person!
going: absolutely nowhere for a while. My local public library is doing a book sale this weekend, so I’m hoping to have time to go check that out! (I recently purchased two physical books and forgot how much fun that is.) I also really want to go to brunch even though we just ate out a bunch last weekend in Seattle. There are a few brunch places I want to check out and perhaps add to my list of top brunch spots in Boise! I just need to get out in my city more often in general. It’s been hard to want to do that these past two years with the pandemic.
planning: my blog posts out for this month! Now that I’m down to publishing only 10 new posts a month, I can spread them out, and posting less often gives me more time for other things. I wish I was planning my next trip, but I have no idea when that will be sadly. Normally I have an idea of my next vacation as soon as I get home from one, but the only thing on the books now is a trip to LA over my birthday weekend in a few months (and that could still change)! I’m sure something will come up between now and then—at least, that’s my hope.
posting: consistently on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, and not so consistently on Instagram. I’m super proud of myself for getting on a schedule for recirculating old content on every platform, but I’ve been slacking on the whole “create native content” thing, especially on Instagram. I’ve been dabbling in more reels, because unfortunately, IG is not showing photo posts to very many people and my engagement is way down. It’s dumb but it is what it is. I’m trying to have some fun with them, and hopefully y’all don’t hate ‘em too much lol (and hopefully I’m not sharing too often, another balance that can be tough to strike—I feel like I’m muting lots of people lately for oversharing).
thinking: too much about everything. I feel like my mind is never just…chill. On a related note, I really need to go to my PCP and get a referral to test for ADD/ADHD, because I definitely feel like I have some version of that. Yesterday, I was super restless and could barely focus at work; don’t know if that’s related but GAH! It’s annoying.
What are you currently up to?