A diary of our two years in Seattle/Bellevue/Kirkland
I’m not sure if it is because she worked in a marketing and logistics department for about 15 years or because the contents of our house went into one but Tracy has developed a somewhat irrational love of containers. So probably the highlight of the trip to Victoria on Vancouver Island was the site of a ship loaded high with containers. As the clipper pulled alongside the ship I was sent outside to take a photo ensuring the moment was captured.
So, here for Tracy, are the pictures:
Despite the cold winds and rain there is a little hint of spring in the air. The green shoots are poking through the flower beds at home (and not just weeds!), and at Chittenden locks the crocus, daffodils and something else (!) were starting to bloom. A splash of color and some sunshine made up for the lack of boats, trains and salmon!
Now as Tracy points out, they probably should be called the Toronto Maple Leaves rather than Leafs, but that’s not the area of discussion for this post. While in Toronto I took advantage of a free evening to go and watch my first ever ice hockey game. From what people in the office said it sounded a bit like the Leafs were similar to Seattle teams – well supported but not really very good!
As I tried to enter the stadium, security confiscated my camera lense! Apparently if contravened some sort of NHL governing body rules – I guess they didn’t want me selling high quality images of the game to the local newspapers. It was disappointing as the zoom would have allowed me to take some fab pictures – I’ll have to try and smuggle it in next time – if there is a next time.
After quickly scoffing a couple of pizza slices I settled down to watch the game. Unlike American football and baseball there is nothing too complicated about the rules of hockey, so I could just sit and enjoy. The highlight of the first part of the game was a fight between two players. For some reason, in hockey, they don’t bother trying to stop the fight, the referees just stand next to them watching until one of the players ends up on the ice. At that point two of the refs leap on the players, keep them on the ground and then send them both off for 5 minutes!
With about 40 seconds left in the game the Maple Leafs trailed the New Jersey Devils 3-2 but then with just a few seconds left the Maple Leafs equalized to take the game to overtime. Maybe luck was on their side and the Leafs weren’t as bad as the Sounders, Seahawks and Mariners afterall?
One minute, eight seconds into overtime and I realized that they were. The Leafs went up one end and spanked a shot against the post and then the Devils went up the other end and some how the goal tender managed to take a shot that was going wide and direct it into the opposite corner of the goal.
Final score, 4-3 to the Devils. And lucky devils they were too.
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Whenever you go somewhere new you should always go up the tallest building and go on a boat ride (I’m pretty sure that is an unwritten rule/law).
Having ploughed my way through the longest airport security line in the whole history of airports and security, jumped in a taxi to the hotel and checked in, I thought I had better go up one of the tallest buildings in the world before it went dark. I set off on the short walk to CN tower and found myself at the back of another very long queue. Why these people weren’t at work I don’t know.
After probably 45 minutes or so of waiting I had my ticket and caught the elevator to the highest point I’ve ever been inside a building. The elevator goes at 15mph and takes 58 seconds to get to the observation deck at 1,136 ft. It made my legs go funny. There was another observation pod even higher (1,465 ft) but fortunately there was another long queue so I didn’t bother with that! But it doesn’t stop there, the actual tower itself stretches all the way up to 1,815 ft which I think is pretty much 3 times the height of the Space Needle. But size isn’t everything. The views from the Space Needle are so much more super awesome – on a clear day anyway. I’m not saying that Toronto isn’t nice but it’s quite flat all around the outskirts of the city – which I suppose is to be expected considering half of it borders Lake Ontario!
The other benefit the Space Needle has is that you can take proper photo’s. Up the CN Tower you’re either blocked behind glass windows or lots of netting type stuff. Which I suppose makes sense when you’re that high up but it doesn’t help me take fabulous photo’s which is somewhat selfish of the architects.
Some additional interesting facts about the tower … it opened to the public in June 1976 and was the tallest tower in the world for over three decades. On a clear day you can see over 100 miles (including as far as Niagara Falls). Lightening strikes the tower an average of 75 times a year.
Any finally, it was the highest the little boy in front of me in the queue to come back down in the elevator had ever wee’d at! Fact.
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Well. What can I say? We left the aquarium and Sally was ravenous. Obviously. We set off back towards the car and then decided to walk up towards the market place and get something to eat there. We set off and then spotted Post Alley which leads you directly to the market place. It also has a part which is a well known … err … well it’s a well known spot. Having been there, I’m not sure what you would call it. Tourist attraction? Art? Disgusting mess?
Anyway, it is an area in Post Alley called the “gum wall”. And it looked a little like this:
It made Sally feel sick. It was pretty grim!
While it is very nice to have Nanny and Aunty A visiting us here in Bellevue, there was a certain level of concern about Russell not eating for 2 weeks. We soon realized that there was no need to panic – he would eat, and the restaurants and takeaways of Sandy would probably never have it so good! But oh no! How wrong were we? As it turns out Russell has turned into some sort of Gordon Ramsey masterchef! Each day we get a photographic treat of the food he has been preparing. And he’s not just cooking basic meals here, he’s show boating! Making cakes and all sorts!
Check this out. First up lots of chips as security just in case the rest didn’t go too well:
Then giant potatoes:
Clearly the confidence was flowing now as this next one is looking almost restaurant standard:
And now he’s just showing off:
So there we go. Who’d have thought Russell had been hiding all these culinary skills from us all for so long? We’re all very impressed and looking forward to coming round for tea!
UPDATE:
Here is the latest offering from the Moggerhanger Chef:
Tomatoes for eyes, bacon ears, fried egg nose and a beard full of chips! Nice!
And the next one …
The beer looks nice!
It’s time for another series of jet lag watch. The summer series saw Aunty Arnold put in what we thought was a reasonable effort at overcoming jet lag. Then Grandad rocked up in the autumn series and put his daughter to shame! Now the winter watch series has begun and Aunty Arnold and Nanny are trying to put in a good shift against the power of jet lag.
They arrived on Tuesday – and powered through homeland security in no time at all – arriving at Hotel 17012 SE 40th Ct at about 6pm. The advantage of taking forever to get through security is that you have to stay awake. By arriving so quickly the first retirement to bed happened at 8:30pm! School girl error from Nanny – that was never going to work. So, at 8:30pm on Tuesday night Nanny went to bed. At 11:30pm on Tuesday night Nanny was awake! But before we laugh to much at that, let’s consider the performance of Aunty A. Now Aunty A is a seasoned traveler and has beaten pacific coast jet lag before. Aunty Arnold stayed up a little longer than Nanny but she finally gave in and went to bed at about 9:30pm on Tuesday night. At 10:30pm on Tuesday night she was awake. Hahaha! That really is rubbish! After some sleeping and waking, both gave in and woke up for the final time at about 3:30am – not the best of starts.
On Wednesday night they both managed to stay up a little later. I had been in LA for the day and had challenged them to stay up until I got back – at about 10:20pm. They both failed. Still with the benefit of some drugs and pills, the amount of sleep did improve slightly – and I think both managed to actually make it past midnight before waking up for the first time!
Thursday night. The worst night so far for Sally. Not really sure why – maybe just attention seeking!! Only joking! At least it was good for Nanny though – there was one wake up in the night but then she slept through until 6:30am. Which strengthens the thought that Sally was putting it on! Or maybe that the slightly older generation can handle jet lag better! But then again, Sally is a rubbish sleeper anyway so the jet lag probably has nothing to do with it.
If it’s any consolation, Tracy, Harry, Toby and I have been sleeping like absolute logs!
Inbetween the hours of house tidying that was going on we thought we’d better get the children away from the Wii, xBox, laptop, PSP, DS and other such electronic contraptions. With rain forecast for later we got the bikes into the boot of my car and went over to Robinswood Park.
With crash (ski) helmets on we set off round the park. Harry looked a bit big on his bike (and his jeans a bit small) and it took a few moments for his bike riding skills to come back. Fortunately riding a bike is just like riding a bike and he was disappearing into the distance before we knew it.
Toby set off with me trying to keep him upright with the support pole. He did pretty well, but would have probably done better if he focused more on cycling than ringing the bell.
After a brief stop to play in the playground we set off on the bikes again. Toby was obviously a bit more confident as I was having to run to keep up with him.
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httpv://youtu.be/c_AHVDOKYoY
httpv://youtu.be/ctM-hwu7boE
With the bikes back in the trunk, we went to Issaquah and got Harry a bargain new bike – we’re picking it up tomorrow – and because we were ravenous we got a yummy Subway for lunch. Once we’d eaten our $5 foot long subs it was back to the cleaning. And what a lovely clean house it is too. I particularly like swiffers!
We had got Toby all the ski gear at the same time we’d got Harry’s but unfortunately pre-school doesn’t off ski lessons so we had sort something else out. This week we finally did it and Toby took hi first ski lesson with his own private instructor! How the other half live!
Now apparently he is a natural but I’m not sure who’s opinion this is – Toby’s, Tracy’s or his instructor – but that was definitely the opinion offered! Still, who I am to judge, you can see for yourself:
httpv://youtu.be/KE4JoNIpwfs
httpv://youtu.be/1h1PIPABuXQ
httpv://youtu.be/UuDoshxrPAY
httpv://youtu.be/H84p0PqP3SU
Plus a very short clip of Harry finishing off bombing down the hill:
httpv://youtu.be/YtfgfGyuCOI
It’s been a beautiful few days in Bellevue and just before the rain returns later this week we had a lovely pink sunset glow on the mountains with a full moon shining above. It was a very beautiful sight, which hopefully the following picture captures…
Wow! Tubing is fun! We were booked in for an 11:15am start, so we were up, fed and ready to leave by half nine. The sun was out, the sky was blue and the road up to Snoqualmie was good – no need for snow chains, which is good because we still don’t know how to put them on!
After putting all our snow gear on so we didn’t get cold (the temp had dropped to 36 degrees which is about freezing) we got our tickets and waited patiently for the clock to tick round to tubing time. Unfortunately with the children full of excitement the clock took its time getting there but eventually it did.
We went and selected our tubes, picked the lane we wanted to go down and the tubing began! Head first, legs first, bottom first, we tried it all. These videos probably don’t give the best feel of how fast it felt, and it probably wasn’t actually that fast, but it felt it as we whooshed down the slope.
httpv://youtu.be/gIeGCegfelw
httpv://youtu.be/A3kfB98nUwM
httpv://youtu.be/iQoubsnImQ4
The only downside to whooshing down the slope is the walk back up! We used the pulley a couple of times by mostly walked up – it sure was good exercise!
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And after 2 hours that was that! Can’t wait to go again!
Although not technically a video clip of slalom ski activity it is nonetheless mightily impressive. It is also not something I thought I would see when Tracy and Harry got back from the slopes after receiving a text message earlier this afternoon saying something along the lines of “Harry nearly fell off the ski lift, they had to stop it!”. Not being the most confident boy I was worried that he may decide to give up with ski-ing however I needn’t have worried as the video shows him zooming down the slope. Well, ok, he may not be zooming but I’ impressed!
Harry on the ski lift going up the slope (not the one mentioned above):
httpv://youtu.be/l7XJpVl_PsA
Then zooming back down – if only I knew how to dub some Ski Sunday music into the clip:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeqbNav1Mvo