One thing that I forgot to post while Sally was here was an update on the alien/chipmunk outbreak we had here in Washington a while back. The awful symptoms reappeared just briefly with some pretty scary results:
Chipmunk Returns!
School Days
This week is an open week at Spiritridge School so parents and children can view the new building. It is a very posh school, Harry and Toby are very lucky boys. Everything about the school is new and lovely although with a few hundred children charging around it in a couple of weeks time I don’t imagine it will stay that way for long!
The Prize
Harry had been promised a prize if he won the Bainbridge Island Cup. As soon as presents are on offer Harry seems to find super human powers! The Monday after the tournament Tracy took the boys to Toys R Us to buy some scissors for Toby to practice his cutting with (apparently this could form part of his test to get into school early). Harry managed to hijack the visit though and claim his prize. Not sure what to say really!
Bainbridge Island
Harry and his soccer. It’s proving an expensive combination. First there were the coaching fees for the year – it’s not like playing for Harrold – fifty quid and you’re sorted! Follow that up with the kit purchases (which do look very nice to be fair) but Nike doesn’t come cheap. Once the new pair of boots were sorted we thought we could sit back and enjoy and watch our investment perform without any further raids of the piggy bank. Silly us!
This weekend was Harry’s first tournament with the Issaquah Gunners. They were taking part in the Bainbridge Island Cup which is a 30 minute ferry ride from Seattle. We hadn’t been there before so it seemed like it would be fun. Then the fixtures were published. A minimum of three games – two on Saturday and one on Sunday. Saturday kicked off at 10am and Sunday 9:30am. Working backwards from the kick-off time, to the ferry time, to the ferry wait time, the leave home time and the time to get up we concluded that we would need to set the alarm both mornings for about 6am at the latest. Bainbridge Island had lost some of its appeal. Frantic emails and calls to hotels and B&B’s across the island left us fearing the worst and cursing soccer! Everywhere was fully booked.
Eventually, despite their website saying otherwise, a call to Best Western found us a room. The last in the hotel! So on a beautiful sunny, Friday afternoon we set off to Seattle to catch the ferry. For those of you wondering, I was working from home, the car, the ferry and a nice little restaurant in Winslow!
We were hoping to catch the 2:10 ferry but as luck would have it we managed to squeeze onto the 1:10 with a few cars to spare. This was just the start of a lucky weekend! As we pulled away from the Pier the views of Seattle were beautiful. Then as we walked along the length of the ferry to see what Bainbridge Island looked like we had our second stroke of luck. A sighting of Orcas! A pod of twenty had been reported on the local news that morning and although we only saw a couple it was pretty blooming exciting nontheless! I managed to get a couple of pictures but an amazing whale photo has now jumped to #1 on my must do list!
Our hotel was in Winslow, which is the town right by the ferry dock. As usual we were all absolutely starving so we went straight to a lovely little restaurant and had beautiful sandwiches, wine, fries and beer! The island of Bainbridge was starting to go up in our estimations! After checking out a few shops we then went to the hotel and checked in. Next stop was the beach. We were on an island so they couldn’t be that hard to find, or so we thought. After completing a tour of most of the Island we did finally manage to find a beach for the boys to play on. They managed to amuse themselves for some time with a lump of driftwood and some seaweed. You’ll also see how well they did with the instruction of “don’t get your shorts wet”:
httpv://youtu.be/4-OarSFibGs
httpv://youtu.be/BH1kmpABaM4
httpv://youtu.be/8RcVUPUc2b8
After drying them off as best we could we went back to the hotel and threw them in the bath. By now we were of course starving and it was time for some dinner. It was actually far too late for dinner considering Harry had an important football match early the next morning. Anyway stomachs ruled and we went for a short walk and a bite to eat down near the harbor. We then retired to bed and fell fast asleep in readiness for the day ahead.
Despite the late night, Harry was awake at 6:30am and in his usual quiet way, woke the rest of us up. After breakfast in the hotel we took the very short drive up the road to Bainbridge High School where the games were taking place today.
First up was a game at 10am against Cascades FC. I think it came as a bit of a shock to Harry but unlike with Harrold & Carlton Tigers he wasn’t starting the match. He was going to have to make an impression from the substitutes bench. He got his chance half way through the first half but was playing left side of defence which is far from ideal for our goal scoring super hero. Plus it meant running around a lot rather than just standing about letting everyone else do the work!
In the second half he came on as sub again but on the right side of midfield and then we saw an improvement. Despite this improvement the ball was not going to go in for the Gunners. They could have played all day and not scored. Fortunately they only had to play for 50 minutes without scoring. Unfortunately Cascades FC scored 4. One game, one defeat. The next match wasn’t until 4:15pm so it was off for a team lunch at the local Mexican restaurant.
Gatherings like these make you realize how well behaved Harry and Toby are. The rest were monsters! Well, some of them – not all! With lunch out the way and a couple of hours to go until the game, Harry and Toby got the pleasure of some more shopping in Winslow – which is a bit like Langley on Whidbey Island.
We went back to the fields for the second game and positioned our Tommy Bahama chairs on the halfway line. Tracy had found two pennies in the car park which we hoped meant we’d get luck for the rest of the day. It was a must win game against Crush FC. Their name sounded impressive however it turned out they were no match for the Gunners and the lucky penny. After hitting the crossbar a couple of times Harry finally managed to score his first goal for the club and they ran out 12 – 1 winners. Toby spent the afternoon with his new friend, Jake. They played football, on the DS, chase, and occasionally watched their brothers play football.
After a refreshing shower – it had been a very, very hot day – we went to the Island Grill and had a unusual set of meals, ranging from Singapore noodles, to nachos, to cheese sticks, pepperoni pizza and pot stickers. All fed, it was back to the hotel for another good sleep ahead of what we hoped would be three more games on Sunday.
After breakfast in the hotel we were back to the pitches for a 9:30 kick-off against the Crush FC A team (yesterday had been against the B team). A win was required to be sure of a place in the semi-finals and a win was duly delivered! The final score was 7-1 and Harry Stickman scored a lovely goal to help the team on his way.
After returning to the hotel to check out and to Safeway to get a light bite to eat ahead of next game we returned to the field and found another penny in the car park! These weren’t planted by superstitious parents just in case you’re wondering! Because of the penny, we had high hopes for the game against Harbor Barracudas – another scary sounding team. I was confident ahead of the game that the Gunners would win however as the team had shot after shot after shot I was starting to get a little bit worried! However, as we neared the mid point of the second half Harry scored a belter of a shot to give the Gunners the lead (with his left foot – just for the record). Controversy soon followed with an equalizer for the Barracudas and the prospect of penalties loomed large. Never fear though – the Stickman had been promised a present if they won the cup and he wasn’t going to let any team get in his way! With time running out, he conjured up another great strike and the Gunners were heading to the final with a 2-1 victory.
And so the team of exhausted boys went to Battle Point Park which was at the north of the island. We drove their with Harry’s sweaty socks flapping out the car window as we tried to dry them! It wasn’t pleasant but it worked – they were dry by the time we got there.
While the team sat in the shade waiting for the final to kick-off Toby played football with the coaches. He kept the crowd entertained by saving the coaches shots and tackling them. The final was against Cascades FC – the team that had beaten them 4-0 the day before. I wasn’t overly confident but the Gunners were superb! Harry scored another two goals (as his coach had apparently asked him too) and they won the cup 5-2. As nice as it was to win the cup for all the obvious reasons, it was extra special because the Cascade supporters had been very confident, very vocally before the game about winning. So in the words of Toby when he saw some Cascade players later in the queue for the ferry, “take that suckers!”. Such a classy 4 year old!
After collecting his medal and having team pictures with the trophy Harry announced he felt sick. Despite being told to keep out the sun, wear his hat and drink lots he clearly hadn’t, and so he celebrated his first ever tournament win by being sick in the car park and in a plastic bag as we drove to the ferry. Two classy boys!
By the time we reached the ferry, Harry felt better and started to enjoy his success with his brother:
httpv://youtu.be/ceo3XEzB5vg
On the ferry the boys sat together and spent the 30 minute journey eating popcorn, cookies, crisps and gummy bears! I don’t know where they got all their energy from. The parents had been exhausted just watching their efforts all weekend, never mind running around in the sun for hours!
And so that was our weekend on Bainbridge. It’s a lovely island, the weather was amazing, the football was a bit stressful (particularly for Tracy) but overall our luck held. We saw orcas, won the cup and caught our ferries on time. A last minute hashed together plan came together perfectly! Let’s hope his season gets a bit cheaper though!
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Orcinus Orca
So. Bald Eagles were where it was at. Then the Hummingbird came along and became the new Eagle. The Hummingbird is tricky though and may take some time. But the Hummingbird better be careful though because the Orca is already becoming the new Hummingbird!
The opportunity to snap a whale in Vancouver just didn’t quite happen, however, the first sightings have now been made. We had heard on the local news that a pod of 20 Orcas had been seen in Elliot Bay (just off Alki Beach) and as luck would have it we were going across to Bainbridge Island on the ferry that very same day.
As we parked the car on the ferry and went up on deck, I grabbed the Canon camera and zoom lens just in case. Good job I did. They may be small but they are the first steps on my whale hunt (purely photographic hunt I hasten to add). Next stop, the San Juans – I’m going to take a fab picture!!
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What Shall We Do?
The challenge of writing up three weeks with Sally in town is not an easy one! Parts of it are captured in other posts about Vancouver, Grouse Mountain and Hawaii but the rest of the time would take some explaining. So rather than try and write about everything I’m going to go with a list and pictures approach.
First off is a list of places we visted, things we did and restaurants we ate at (I’ve probably missed a few):
1. Space Needle
2. Macy’s
3. Bellevue Mall
4. Red Robin
5. Macy’s
6. Lola’s
7. Vasa Park
8. Bellevue Mall
9. Whidbey Island
10. Columbia Winery
11. Vancouver
12. Roots
13. Hawaii
14. Macy’s @ Hawaii
15. Snoqualmie Falls
16. Bellevue Mall
17. The Crab Pot
18. Kirkland
19. Zeeks Pizza
20. Duck Tours
21. PF Changs
22. Macy’s
23. Pike Place Market
24. Seattle Underground Tour
25. Bellevue Mall
26. Chittenden Locks
27. Ray’s Boathouse
28. Kerry Park
29. Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse
30. Seatac International Airport
And secondly, if a picture speaks a thousand words then how about 126 of them!? Enjoy, we did!
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Spiritridge School
Harry’s couple of weeks at school at the end of the summer term were in the temporary school that Bellevue use while the actually Spiritridge school was flattened and rebuilt. They do this to one school every year. This means that in a couple of weeks when Harry starts back at school and Toby goes to pre-school they will be moving into a brand spanking new school.
I drive past it everyday on the way hone from work and over the last few days they workmen have vacated the site and it is pretty much finished, And pretty darn smart it looks too:
Hopefully they will both enjoy themselves there – they certainly should, not everyone gets to start in a brand new school building!
Hotel Bellevue
As Sally took a few photo’s of the house and we pinched a copy of all them I thought I would post them on the site so that everyone can see the hotel that you will be staying in should you decide to pay us a visit. Not only is it on the verge of 5 Star luxury, it also come with a couple of funny faced boys thrown in for free!
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Hawaii
Tracy and Sally were in charge of this post. It was meant to describe their few days of fun in the sun and give all of us an insight into what it is like.
Apart from all the photo’s below all they want to say is:
“Hot, hot, hot” and “socks is worse”. Glad to see that a trip to exotic climes are not wasted on them.
On a positive note, this rubbish effort (not sure it even qualifies as an effort), at least means that I will have to go to Hawaii in order complete a proper update on it all.
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San Diego
San Diego – where the sun always shines. Apart from the 3 days I was there! But then that is ok, because I was there for work not a holiday (don’t be fooled by the fact that I am filing this post under Vacations, that is only because I don’t have a work one!). I arrived at the Dana Hotel on Wednesday evening after the short flight down from Seattle (about 2 hours 15 minutes) and although this was a work trip I managed to see and do quite a bit across the next few days! I think a list may be in order, so without further a-do, while I was in San Diego I:
1. Went to the Seattle Seahawks v San Diego Chargers pre-season game – my first ever NFL game – it was fun!
2. Went to old town San Diego – which was a bit like a wild west town
3. Hired a boat round Mission Bay for a couple of hours
4. Ate a fab mexican meal
5. Went to Coronado Island
6. Drove all around the suburbs and saw some huge houses – there is a lot of money in San Diego!
7. Visited a bunch of different beaches – mostly north of downtown in places like La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya) (which is where leopard sharks and stingray will swim in the shallow water with people)
8. Crossed Coronado bridge onto the Island
9. Took a quick look round the famous Hotel del Coronado (which is like the Grand Floridian at Disney)
10. Saw Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery – quite an amazing site
11. Saw lots of pelicans – I like pelicans – and seals
12. Did some work! Honest!
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A Seahawks touchdown is in here somewhere – I think!
httpv://youtu.be/bruTvQQGfxg
I’m not really sure what I think of San Diego. It’s nice when you are near the coast but it is a very expensive place and I’m not sure that it deserves the hype it gets. Although I did see the place when it was mostly overcast – I would imagine when the sun is out and the sky is blue then it is a very different place. Maybe a short vacation is required and then I can double check whether or not I like it!
Possibly one of the most impressive things on the trip was on the flight back when we were flying over Washington. First, without a cloud around it, we flew past Mount St. Helens. It was glowing orange with the light of the setting sun on the snow and it looked amazing. In fact it would have been one of the best mountain views I have seen however a few moments later we flew past Mount Rainier which looked even more impressive (and probably twice the size) as it stood up through the clouds.
So there we go. San Diego is raved about however the most impressive part of the few days was in Washington! Maybe I just feel more at home here!
Grouse Mountain
Just to the north of Vancouver, over the Burrard Inlet is Grouse Mountain. Across the winter months this is a ski resort for the people of Vancouver but in the summer there are grizzlies, eagles, wolves and views, and so after leaving the hotel this is where we went. We parked at the bottom of the mountain and went to the top via a cable car.
On arrival at the top we went to see the two grizzlies. They are both orphans who were found and have been living on the Mountain for a while. One was enjoying himself throwing lumps of wood in the water and the other spent most of his time digging in the snow that remained in their enclosure. The bit Harry and Toby liked most about the bears was when one walked over to the the watching people, turned around and did a big poo right in front of them! I had been getting jealous that they were going to get some good photo’s but the bear clearly had other ideas!
Next up was a short display of owls and eagles, much to Sally’s bird fearing delight! They were bought out and flew around the crowd from post to post. We had watched them bring the birds of prey out in preparation for the display and I had been hoping to see a bald eagle but that hadn’t bought one out. Much to my pleasure though, they had clearly done this before and had kept the bald eagle out of sight until the very end. Although it is a bit of a cheat, I am rather pleased with the eagle photo’s – they will probably be the best I can get during our time here – unless I treat myself to that Canon lens that is in the Bellevue shopping mall …
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Vancouver
“I-spy with my little eye something begin with P”. “Pavement?”, ” No”, “Pine cones?”, “No”, “Clouds?”, “Yes! Daddy wins!”.
And so began our long weekend in Vancouver, playing i-spy up the I-5, making the miles pass with much hilarity. You can’t beat a game of i-spy with Toby. Whatever he spys has no relation to the letter he suggests and daddy always wins! Brilliant!
The journey up to Vancouver was pretty good, including the border crossing, and we arrived around 2pm in the afternoon. Fortunately our satnav worked in Canada as well as I have no idea how we would have found the hotel – what did people do before satnavs!? After checking into our rooms we had some lunch in the hotel as we were all starving – this is a common feeling in both the US and Canada which is surprising given how much we manage to eat!
After lunch (3pm) we set out to explore the city. Having been overcast most of the day the sun was starting to burn through the clouds and it got quite warm. Much to the delight of the children the initial part of exploring involved shopping on Robson Street – which is the main shopping drag in Vancouver (funny how we ended up staying in a hotel there!). Our wanderings took us down towards the water (the Burrard Inlet/Vancouver Harbor). We watched the sea planes landing (there were lots of them), looked at the cruise ship that was docked and then set off up the hill, back to the shops and hotel. The following picture credits belong to Harry – this is us down by the Harbor:
The evening involved (quite a large) bite to eat and off to bed for a not very early night but early enough so we were bright-eyed and bushy tailed in the morning.
On Saturday we booked our tickets for the Big Bus tour. It seemed a good way to hop on and off around the city and help us get our bearings. First stop (that we got off at) was the Gastown district because 1) we hadn’t been shopping for hours, and 2) we were all starving! Gastown sorted both of these needs. We took photo’s of Gassy Jack (an old Vancouver whiskey drinker whom Gastown is named after) and then went into the shop behind his statue – O.K. Boot Corral – because Sally needed some cowgirl boots (and a hat as well as it turns out). It was interesting to see/feel some cowboy boots that were made out of stingray skin – apparently that is the best/longest lasting material to make cowboy boots out of. The other leathers, etc. only last 20 years – stingray lasts much longer. There were also a few pairs made out of sealion skin but they are few and far between as they are not allowed to hunt them anymore.
Although I’m sure the boys weren’t overly enthused about being in another shop it turned out that they did enjoy themselves as the disappeared up the back of the shop and were trying on cowboy hats, striking poses and taking photo’s of each other! Toby took the one on the left, Harry the one of the stingray boots on the right:
After making the necessary purchases we went for brunch at Smart Mouth Cafe which was just down the road. The coffee, ham stuffed croissants and fruit were very, very nice – to the point that we spent most of the weekend talking about it! After this it was time to hop on the bus again and head for Granville Island, which is where the local market is held. On the way we saw a steam clock – one of only two in the world (the other is in Japan) – and we timed it to perfection because it was just in the process of steaming something o’clock. At Granville Island we had to first allow Harry to discreetly take a wee in a car park as he was bursting – even though it was only 15 minutes since his previous one! Then we walked down into the market and park area. There were some lovely shops with strange shaped wood carvings that would have looked lovely in our house however the price was somewhat prohibitive, even though I’m sure he was just making prices up off the top of his head. After a splash around in the water park area we then jumped on the bus again. Next step was the hotel and a quick drop off of the earlier purchases and then it was back out on the bus and Stanley Park.
During our time on the bus we went near, in or around Stanley Park around 3 or 4 times, so I should be able to give you a brief run down of the park but I can’t actually remember so for more info check this out. We got on a separate bus that took us on a 50 minute tour of the park, stopping a couple of times to allow us to check out the totem poles, bridges and the views of North Vancouver. By the time we’d finished this is was time to go back to the hotel and have a well earned drink. Being the adventurous types we are, we asked the waiter for recommendations for where to eat and the feedback was to try some Japanese or Korean places just down from the hotel. Now this would definitely have not been our first choice but we decided to give it a go and as it turned out it was pretty darn good! Possibly even more impressive was 1) the amount of food Harry and Toby ate, and 2) Harry and his chopstick skills:
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During dinner we had watched a steady stream of people walking down towards English Bay in readiness for the firework display that was happening later. We hadn’t originally intended to go and watch them however as we finished dinner we decided we would walk in the general direction and see what all the fuss was about. On the way we, 1) realized that every other person in Vancouver walks around smelling of weed, 2) saw a skunk running down the street and in peoples front yards, 3) saw a really nice fire station! Eventually we reached the bay and decided that even though is was another 45 minutes before the display would begin we should stay and see what all the fuss was about. As it turns out, the fuss was clearly worth it. The Celebration of Light display lasted 25 minutes and was pretty darn impressive! Check out the fireworks here.
The following morning we checked out from the hotel and set off for Grouse Mountain. We spent a fun day there watching the grizzlies, eagles and wolves before deciding it was time to set off back for Bellevue. As we were naturally starving, we stopped just before the US border in a place called White Rock. It was a lovely “seaside” town and with that in mind we parked up and went for fish ‘n’ chips (washed down with a lovely drink which was pink cream soda mixed with vanilla ice-cream – good job I wasn’t sick on the way home!). With our stomachs full, we arrived at the border. Having sat in the car waiting for our turn to reach the border guard, we had discussed that we should tell the guard that we had just been visiting Vancouver and not mention the shopping. However, this didn’t take in to account the guilt that border guards create in me – even when I’ve done nothing wrong – so as soon as I was asked what we had been up to I just said we’d been visiting Vancouver, doing shopping! Still never mind, he let us through without wishing to go through the contents of the trunk and without much waiting we were back in the US of A.
The journey home was fairly uneventful other than more i-spy and we arrived home at about 8:30pm. It had been a lovely weekend. I think the boys had enjoyed themselves too although when they were asked what they enjoyed most they responded with “playing on the DS in the hotel”.
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