Botanical Gardens and Golden Garden Park

This morning I drove up to Ballard to the Locks to get out of the house and see the Botanical Gardens. I wasn't expecting to see much really. I just figured it would do me good to get out of the house since I've been home bound due to the crazy Seattle weather. It has been snowing on and off with occasional sun breaks for the last 2 to 3 days.

But I did get to see flowers and even though it was grey out and SNOWING, I did get a couple of good pictures:

I don't know what type of flower this is but it looks like an upside down tulip to me.

After freezing my ass off walking around the gardens and the locks I ate some lunch at a place across the road called Totem House. The seafood chowder was awful but sounded like a good idea at the time. I did have a piece of fried cod and fries that were good though.

I then drove up the road to Golden Garden Park where the sun was SHINING and walked along the beach. It was low tide and I got my shoes all wet. As I was walking back to my car I heard a woman tell some people she was with that it is a Seattle tradition to ruin your shoes at low tide. I'm not so sure I like that tradition! Now I need some shoes that don't smell like seaweed!

I headed over to the Fiber Gallery as I hadn't been to that yarn store yet in my quest to hit all 52+ yarn stores in the Seattle area. It is a nice store over in Phinney Ridge. They have a lot of basic yarns like malabrigo, manos, cascade 220, lambs pride, and debbie bliss among others. I was looking for more exotic/special yarns as I'm in swap on Ravelry and wanted to get something for my swap partner. They did have HandMadien Sea Silk but I didn't end up buying it. I'll be in Portland later this week for some classes with Annie Modesitt at Abundant Yarn & Dyeworks and Knit Purl. So I figure between those two yarns stores and Yarnia, I'll be able to pick up something good.

I did buy the Leaf Lace Shawl pattern by Evelyn Clark. Charity, Ialiuxh and I are going to start a Shawl KAL. However, neither have finished their sweater from our Sweater KAL, so I'm not holding my breath! :) Ialiuxh has already started the shawl though. I don't know what yarn to use for mine. But I'll be on the look out for that too when I'm in Portland if I don't find something in my stash.