sleepless in seattle, autumn in new york

i'm at south street seaport right now, and it's about 4:30 pm, dawn on the other side of the world. i'm sitting in a lounge chair with a view of the brooklyn bridge, and the river, tug boats and water taxis sailing along as the sun sinks lower behind the buildings.

it's an indian summer now, they call it, a sudden warm week in the middle of fall. the sun is following me even though i keep moving away.

just got back from the salmon river in upstate new york. every year, the salmon fight the current in the river, going upstream to lay their eggs in the place they themselves were hatched. it was incredible seeing these big fish, and also quite sad. will be posting a video later to explain.

stayed in a cabin at the shore of lake ontario (yup, across canada!). on the way home, dropped by albany, the state capital (something like boston and DC), an orchard in clinton for wine-tasting, a lake in the woods serendipitously discovered, and the vanderbilt mansion overlooking the hudson river in hyde park. it was about a 12-hour drive in all, but we got to see places in new york even new yorkers don't get to see.

the other weekend, my mother and i flew to seattle in washington state. the west coast is three hours behind new york, so just a week after i arrived in a time zone 12 hours behind home, i was transported to another time zone 15 hours behind.

went to visit the marine studies program of the university of washington, walked through the lobby of the science fiction museum and went 605 ft up the space needle. went to see the grotto in portland, oregon. beautiful river with a view of snow-capped mt. rainier. tasted the puget sound--not as salty as the seas in the philippines, and colder than the waterfalls in sagada.

oh, and also got a proposal in the church we went to from a filipino father who was trying to sell off his son to me (magandang lalaki, may trabaho, may bahay na...that's his mom there, call her "nanay"). fortunately, his son wasn't there to hear all that.

fall is beautiful. i know i don't need to say that. weve all seen it in pictures, if not in real life. but honestly, i was a bit disappointed to see the leaves still green when i got here. i was afraid i would completely miss fall while i'm here (after all, the last time i came here to see snow, there was a blizzard before and after i was here, but the whole three weeks of my stay, it only snowed ONCE, for half a day, the morning after i arrived, and never again).

BUT God truly is wise and lovely. he brought me here now so i can see the fall-ing -- dark green trees with edges burning red, orange, and yellow against skies so blue, the weather not hot, but not too cold to go out walking, either. i still hold my breath whenever i see that in-between shade of red and green, or red and yellow.

just squeezing this into my, um, busy schedule. more updates before i leave, hopefully. (and thre's a maya bird on the railing now looking at me. did it follow me here too?)