Now that I’ve finished telling you everything I can about Tanzania and the summer is coming to an end, it seems like a good time to share the rest of my summer adventures. It’s been a busy few months and I can’t believe it’s almost fall already. To be honest, I’m really glad. It’s been the hottest summer on record here in Seattle (I may have mentioned this a time or two) and as a born and bred pacific northwest girl, I don’t handle the heat very well. I’m looking forward to cooler weather, rain, fires in the fireplace and football on my TV.  But it was still a great summer!

To kick it off, some friends from England, Tom and Matt, came to visit for a week, and my friend Sarah came up from Oregon at the same time. We spent a lot of time BBQing with friends and floating in Lake Washington.

We watched the Women’s World Cup, which was being held in Canada. Since we live so close to Vancouver, we made a few trips up to catch some matches, including the final that the USA won!

My softball team, Buckner, won the Seattle Co-Rec championship! I’ve been on this team for about 6 years now, and we haven’t won it all since my first year. I didn’t get to play in the final game because I was in Africa, but I played the full regular season. Well done Bucky!

This is the second year I’ve grown vegetables in my backyard. The heat ruined most of my crop, but I had a decent raspberry haul. They were so good, I ate them in one sitting.

After I got home from Tanzania, my friend Lara offered me a ticket to the Taylor Swift concert. Who am I to say no? We maaaaaay have had a bit too much wine…

Two of my uncles jointly own a condo up in Ferndale and invited my parents and I up to spend a day there. This might be one of my favorite places on earth. They even took us out on their boat and let me drive!

This is Mt Baker, one of five volcanoes in Washington and one of the snowiest places on earth. It doesn’t look it today, does it? Stupid hot summer.

My uncle took over to maneuver the boat back into its slip.

Finally, I managed to make it to a few Sounders games. I have season tickets, but with training and saving for my trip, I decided to sell most of them. Now that I’m home and not so restricted by a hiking schedule, I have time to get to a few matches. My friend Emma even made it up from Oregon for a Champions League match!

My friend Jenny is sometimes able to get tickets in a suite and invited me to join for a match. It was so nice to watch the game here, especially because we had a major rainstorm that night.

Its been a busy summer, but so incredibly fun. I have a couple more posts from the summer to share this week, then it’s back to finishing up my 2012 travel stories, with Boston and India coming soon. Can’t wait to share them all with you!