Biscuit and Gravy pick their future neighborhood..... Ballard!

Chad came out to Seattle last weekend for a couple days of shopping, eating and neighborhood hunting. Although we still aren't living in the same city, or even on the same side of the country, we are making plans for the day when we stop single-handedly holding up the airline industry.

Chad and I spent a day exploring the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle last October. By some miracle, it was sunny that day, and we spent the afternoon browsing the Ballard Farmer's Market and eating hummus (Biscuit) and drinking Guiness (Gravy) in some of the restaurants and bars in the neighborhood.

Once Chad realized that Ballard had a movie theater and grocery store within walking distance, he was sold on the neighborhood. I wanted to make sure he didn't commit too quickly though, and this last weekend we spent several hours driving around Seattle, neighborhood shopping. We checked out Eastlake, Lake Union, Fremont, Wallingford, and Capitol Hill. I think Capital Hill was a real contender, until we spent 20 minutes looking for a parking spot on a Sunday night. Yikes.

Turns out, Chad's first instinct was right. After extensive research and consultation, Biscuit and Gravy decided that Ballard is the place we'll move when we finally get to live in the same city!

Snorkeling in Xpu-Ha Mexico

When we went to Xpu-Ha Mexico, the only thing we knew we wanted to do was snorkel. During our first trip together to Hawaii in 2008, we had tried to snorkel Hanauma Bay. However, due to overuse, we saw very few fish. Recently, Chad had snorkeled in Hawaii and Honduras, and Kelly in Belize and Hawaii, but were wanting to share the experience.

On our second full day, we agreed to take an organized snorkeling trip to three locations: "Turtle Bay", Yal Ku, and a centote (Mayan sinkhole). Chad didn't hold a lot of faith that he would see anything of worth. But that was soon dispelled.

At Turtle Bay, we quickly saw 5-6 large "green and white" turtles. Most of these were close to a meter long. The largest one we saw was easily over a meter long and even though we tried to stay far away, it followed us and was only 1.5 meters away. Kelly swam with turtles before in Hawaii, but Chad had only seen one turtle once (from afar) in Honduras.

Yal Ku was like snorkeling in an aquarium. A mixture of fresh and salt water, the aquarium features needle fish, parrotfish and others. Where the water mixed, it looked greasy but if you dove down to the salt water, it was clear again. A little crowded at times, Yal Ku was a one of a kind natural experience, especially compared to the "Disney" snorkeling experiences near.

We didn't snorkel the Mayan cenote but we did cliff jump. The water was deep and fresh and didn't have as many fish as the other locations.

It was a great way to start a relaxing vacation together. Our next goal is to buy Chad a snorkel and to visit more sites on our next vacations.

Welcome to Biscuit & Gravys

Welcome to the home of all things Kelly and Chad also known as Biscuit and Gravy! We'll be updating you on our travels and goings on. Hopefully you'll enjoy sharing our memories as much as we enjoy making them.