Finally. Pretty darn good I’m sure you will agree!
Check out the updated eagle gallery out here.
Lovely Eagles!
Celebration of Light
Another post for the firework lovers – assuming there are some out there other than me! The Celebration of Light is a two week annual event in Vancouver over English Bay and it was by pure co-incidence that we happened to be in town for the grand finale. Over the previous two weeks China and Spain had delivered their display, this Saturday was the turn of Canada.
We hadn’t planned on going to the display, it was only the fact that it was a lovely warm evening (although Sally will disagree with this!) and so many people were streaming down the hill to the Bay that we decided we would go take a look. We placed our bums on the grassy bank at about quarter past nine and waited for it all to kick-off at 10pm.
Unfortunately, or fortunately (depending on your view of fireworks) I couldn’t record the entire show due to the fact that the memory card in the camera kept filling up! With some frantic deleting of old photo’s I managed to capture about half of the display – it lasted 25 minutes. I didn’t however get to record the grand finale which was quite probably the most impressive end to a fireworks display ever – it kicked the butt of July 4th anyway! So the following couple of videos are my efforts:
httpv://youtu.be/qkEzfDQC89U
httpv://youtu.be/p_32Invf8-I
For a slightly more professional version of the fireworks check these two videos out. If you’re in a hurry just jump to 9 mins 30 secs of the second video to see the grand finale. I must thank Frank and Jen for these videos – whoever they are – and apologize for the soundtrack that has been put over the top of the display:
httpv://youtu.be/ZUdkw-F4K_U
httpv://youtu.be/Pe58bEFZPUs
Surfing USA
The sun was up and the sky was blue, which can only mean it was time to go to Whidbey Island. Spare shorts, towels and cameras were packed and off we went at just before 9:30am. A good trip up the freeway meant we were in the ferry queue (next to a bus load of noisey oiks aka summer camp children) at just after 10am and floating on the water at 10:30am. The ferry trip felt a bit chilly today – although the sun was out there was a touch more wind (outside the car, not in) so we didn’t stay on deck for long.
On arrival in Whidbey, we set off for Langley and its beaches, restaurants and shops. Within minutes of arriving at the first beach and getting out the car Toby had completed his usual trick – running into the water and getting his shorts wet! When his shorts were removed so that he could go into the water and play he wasn’t interested! Typical!
Harry and Toby did a spot of crab fishing – and they caught a beauty – although the shell had clearly been vacated some time ago, it was a good catch nonetheless:
httpv://youtu.be/OK_nailh8cI
After a few artistic photo’s – replicating the poses that a professional photographer was taking of some family – Tracy took the boys surfing:
[flickr-gallery mode=”photoset” photoset=”72157627235388259″]
httpv://youtu.be/t9pMOejz5ZQ
Once I’d uploaded this to YouTube, the tag suggestion tool popped up with “comedy” – not sure what it thought was funny, the singing, surfing or both?
After leaving this beach behind we went up into the town of Langley and checked out some of the shops before our tums started calling us! We went to the bistro which we had eaten at on our last visit to Langley and sat out on the roof terrace again. The food was lovely, the drinks not bad and the weather was fab. It was just like being on holiday.
After the leisurely lunch, some more shopping and a stroll along the beach front we went back to catch the ferry. Although the boys were starting to get a bit bored with shops and sitting in a car, we decided to prolong their agony (and the time it would be before they could play on their DS) by doing a spot of wine tasting at the Columbia Winery. After sampling four white wines, we bought a couple of bottles and a couple of glasses and sat outside in the sunshine. While Tracy and Sally had a drink the boys decided to indulge in some full on fighting and wrestling! Just before they completely battered each other we left (with Toby in tears) and went home.
With access to DS’s, Wii’s and the xbox restored, so was order and a relaxing evening was had by all, so we were all fully recharged ahead of Vancouver! Wow, it’s all go, go, go!
Hummingbird
No really. It is. You just need to look really, really closely. It’s definitely there.
Patience is the key – it will captured!
Jet Lag Watch
If he had been in the US then Bill Oddie would have presented this – Aunty Arnold Jet Lag Watch. This post will record progress and form a scientific research study which will enable all future visitors to understand, 1) how long they need to stay to enjoy some Washington Life in normal mode, and 2) create a benchmark for future visitors to understand how good, bad, indifferent the jet lag is and the best approaches to overcoming it. So without further a-do let the science begin…
Night one – arrival from the UK. Stayed awake until 10pm, slept until 2:30am, knocked a couple of sleeping pills back, slept until 5:30 ish and then went back to sleep for another hour. Good effort!
Night two – stayed awake until about 10:15pm, woke up at 4:30am and stayed awake. That’s okay – the second night is not normally as good as the first.
Night three – a bit lame, went to bed at 9:10pm, before the children, oh dear, even they managed to stay awake until 10:20pm (although, just to be clear, they weren’t meant too)! However… there was definite progress, she slept until 3am and then went back to sleep until 5am when the call of the cookie finally became too much! No pills were required aka she forget to take any.
Side note to night 3 is that Sally pointed out she couldn’t sleep properly if the dish washer hadn’t been packed with the evenings dishes. Tonight they were and we can see the immediate impact this had on sleep performance! Who ever would have thought that a packed dishwasher could aid the recovery from jet lag?
Night four – excellent progress. She stayed up until 10pm, then went to bed with no pills and made it through until 6am. Of course to make this truly scientific we should start factoring in the number of empty wine bottles on the kitchen side each morning to see if there is any direct correlation! I’m sure there isn’t.
Night five – another lame performance! Only stayed awake until 9:30pm (plus an alleged 30 minutes of reading) which led to one of the worst nights so far. Tossing and turning until waking at 5:30am. It maybe because it was hot last night although it could also be the drink at lunch time, wine tasting and a glass or two more once home. Scientific research is not as easy as you’d first think.
While the results are far from conclusive – even when the study had been running for a couple more days – I feel that is more a reflection on Sally and her freaky sleeping behavior rather than the methodology behind the research. If she was normal, then I think jet-lag would have been over come after 5, maybe 6 nights, which goes to show that if you are considering coming out to Washington (and everyone is welcome) then you need to stay at least 10 days, probably 14, to really enjoy yourself and have some “normal” time here in the right timezone. Fact.
Bug Protection
Living close to a lake it is good knowing that all the windows and the patio doors at the back have some mosquito netting across them which stops the bugs coming in as night approaches. The windows have the netting across them permanently so they can be left open all night – which is super useful on these hot summer nights. The patio doors have slide open doors that you close across when the patio door is open – air in, bugs out.
Up until last night everything was working perfectly, although the door sliding version was a little stiff at times. After getting home from a late afternoon and evening in Seattle (including a trip up the Space Needle and a lovely dinner at Lola’s) we sat out in the garden and relaxed. As it got late Harry and Toby went off to clean their teeth although it came to an abrupt end as Harry walked splat into the mosquito net door! After a moment or two of confusion, much laughter and talk of GanGan walking into the patio door, Harry and Toby continued up to clean their teeth.
An hour or so later (and a couple of glasses of wine later) I was sitting in the lounge and heard the door netting claim its second victim of the night. Not content with capturing Harry, the door tricked Aunty Arnold and she walked slap into it!
I’m not sure what the moral of the story is, just that it was funny!