Month: April 2012

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Upsetting Grandad

After a few weeks of adventures, this weekend was designated a relax at home weekend but we could actually call it, upset Grandad weekend. We’d started upsetting him earlier in the week by getting an American flag to put up in the house. Then today started with the Norwich, Liverpool soccer rematch. When they met earlier in the season it had been a very stressful time in the house with Grandad upsetting a couple of children! Fortunately we all went out and had champagne and everything calmed down!

This time Grandad wasn’t here, luckily for him, because the Canaries were snuffed out and lost 3-0. After this we went to get ourselves some retail therapy – we hadn’t been shopping since Wednesday!! First stop was Sports Authority where Harry got an American football and Toby got a Messi soccer ball. Their Christmas money from Grandad is still going strong and they are making some wise purchases – not tat anyway!

After Sports Authority we went to the Issaquah farmers market. It closed down over the winter but started again last week. It’s been almost a year since we had proper English bacon so we went straight to the “Proper English Bacon” stand and stocked up. We went for 4lbs of bacon, some sausages and a couple of pork pies. It all came to $54 so it better be good! Harry also bought a tomato plant which he planted later this afternoon.

Before heading home we stopped at Lowes to get some picture hanging wire so that I could hang the flag in the hallway. After getting home and putting the picture up it we were all ravenous so we went to Red Robins and spent our vouchers on burgers, root beer floats, wine and cheese sticks! Yum! As we hadn’t been shopping for at least a couple of hours we decided to go again! This time it was to the Home Depot where we bought something else to REALLY upset Granded – another American flag and flag pole to put on the garage! We also got some bark chippings ahead of a spot of gardening.

The flag went up:

And very good it looks too. There is an upside for Grandad though, within 5 minutes of the flag going up a bird had crapped on it! So it will have to come down for a wash! Despite this set back, the front yard looks a bit tidier. The lawn was cut – the third time since I’ve been here – the bark chippings went down – we need a lot more – and Harry and Toby collected the remains of the laurel bush clippings.

Progress has been made but more needs to happen tomorrow after more chippings have been collected from the Home Depot.

So there we go, two American flags and Norwich got thrashed – that should upset him!!

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Whidbey Island

The day after Tracy’s birthday last year the container turned up, was loaded with boxes and set off on its journey to America. The day after Tracy’s birthday this year, we all jumped in the car at 9:15am and set off in the sunshine for a day on Whidbey Island. What a difference a year makes.

After a brief stop off in Mukilteo to get me a birthday present (a bit early but that’s ok!), we boarded the ferry to Clinton. Unfortunately there were no leaping orcas or swooping eagle but it was a lovely journey in the sunshine nonetheless.

After arriving on Whidbey we went across to our usual beach just outside Langley. Being early in the year it was nice and quiet there, so we spent some time on the beach, finding crabs, sand bugs and enjoying the stunning view. At this point Grampy hadn’t been in a shop for a while so we went into Langley and visited the shops. A few modest purchases followed including a shiny rock from Madagascar, a top, a blanket, some sunglasses and a few other things that I’ve no doubt I’ve forgotten which obviously made us all very hungry. Ravenous in fact in the case of Harry who always seems to have his trips to Whidbey ruined by the fact that he is permanently starving!

We went to our usual restaurant – Prima Bistro – and between us enjoyed, tomato and clove soup, crispy pigs ears, croque monsieur and madame, risotto, noodles with parmesan, cheese burgers and a rueben. After that little lot we weren’t starving any more!

After lunch we had a short stroll along the beach and then it was time to head back to the ferry with another lovely Whidbey trip complete. Let’s hope the weather stays like this all summer – happy days!

And all the photos are here.

 

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Happy Birthday!

In the build up to her birthday, Tracy had been getting grumpy! She was not happy that there appeared to be a distinct lack of presents which wasn’t helped by me telling her I hadn’t got her anything – which to be fair I hadn’t! Anyway, a quick trip to Walmart and the purchase of a lovely red frying pan soon rectified that! How lucky can one girl be!?

After a day of relaxing the birthday culminated in the ultimate birthday present – a Mariners baseball game! And if that wasn’t enough, it was also the Ichiro bobble head night! Yet another fabulous birthday present!! So with a slap birthday meal of fish and chips, washed down with a couple of pints, the only thing left was her Fanboard Fanagram message! What a day!

How on earth are we going to top this birthday!? At least we have just under a year to plan it!!

The slideshow with more pics is here.

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Skagit Valley

This afternoon was a working from home afternoon. So after getting home just after 1pm we set off to Skagit Valley to check out the tulips. Having read the field report yesterday, weather aside, now was the best time to see the tulips. The first bloomers were out in full blast (or whatever the technical term is), the middle bloomers were on show too and the late bloomers were just starting to bloom. It was bloomtastic!

The weather was overcast but when we got there – after taking route advice from the lady in the tourist office – but we managed to see a few fields with the mountains for a back drop. Soon after however  the rain began to fall and then it hoofed it down. But never mind. The fields were beautiful and a return trip next year with the sun shining is definitely remaining on the to do list.

For lots more tulips check the slideshow.

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Sand Dollars

On our first afternoon we found some interesting “things” on the beach but we had no idea what they were. The next day in the Cannon Beach visitor center the very helpful lady told us exactly what they were. Now I can’t remember exactly what she said but I think it went something like this:

The term sand dollar (or sea cookie or snapper biscuit in New Zealand, or pansy shell in South Africa) refers to species of extremely flattened, burrowing echinoids belonging to the order Clypeasteroida. Some species within the order, not quite as flat, are known as sea biscuits. Related animals include the sea urchins, sea cucumbers and starfish.

I may not have got that exactly right but it was definitely something along those lines.

On our way home we stopped at a little place by the sea called Seaside. One of the things that Seaside is known for is a large population of sand dollars and so after doing some shopping (to keep Grampy happy) we went on the beach to search for some perfect sand dollars.

As luck would have it, we found quite a few:

Which was lucky because there were a lot of people out on the beach looking for them:

So now we have our collection of (what turned out to be quite smelly) sand dollars the only thing to decide is what on earth to do with them!

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Sunset Beach

So the title is not strictly accurate. It is a beach but it wasn’t sunset. We missed sunset by a few minutes and for that I blame the bullfrogs. If I hadn’t spent so long looking into the reeds trying to spot one of those noisy things then we would have seen the sunset but I did, so we didn’t.

But never mind. Despite missing it by a few minutes it still looked fabulous. It was a perfect temperature, the color of the sky was beautiful, the waves were crashing and the sea was just right for running in to (if you were a little boy!).

Check out the full sunset slideshow here.

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Cannon Beach

Cannon Beach is one of the most photographed spots on the Oregon coast and that was before I’d even started! I think the ratio of the amount of photos taken in the space of time spent there probably puts the beach and the Haystack up there near Yosemite. And I took an awful lot of photos at Yosemite!

We couldn’t go straight to the beach in the morning because Grampy was showing signs of shopping deprivation symptoms. So after a quick trip to the visitor center and some shops we then went and checked out the Haystack.

I won’t prattle on too much about the beach as I will let the pictures do the talking. If a picture speaks a thousand words then this slide show should equate to the works of Shakespeare!

The photo above was Toby’s best moment of the few days in Oregon, and I quote, “Harry getting his butt soaked by the sea”. He has also lived in his sun glasses since  buying them!

 

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Frog Chorus

At the rear of the house in Manzanita was a lovely marshy area full of ponds, ferns, skunk cabbages and red winged blackbirds. I had a lot of time for the blackbirds, they had a lovely call and their red wing flashes made them much more impressive than a typical blackbird:

httpv://youtu.be/-ERNEi42_B0

The most impressive creature living in the marshland however, were the bullfrogs. What a noise they made. All night long!

httpv://youtu.be/DM8SjwVT4Ww

On the second evening I decided to try and get a photo of a bullfrog. There were clearly hundreds of them so how hard could it be? Very as it turned out because every time I went anywhere near the water they stopped and the frogs at the other end of the marsh land decided to croak instead. Never mind, at least I got the croaking to share with you all:

httpv://youtu.be/H24MOHN8TH8

Elk also frequent the area behind the house but unfortunately we didn’t get to see those – may be next time.

For all the Manzanita pictures check out the flickr set.

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Vancouver

Our second trip to Vancouver and we were just as lucky with the weather. The first day was spent getting there, checking out Gastown (and the old spaghetti factory) and walking round the waterfront with its local eagle.

The day ended with some alcoholic coffees and cable car cocktails in the hotel bar, followed swiftly by falling asleep in our rooms!

Day two started with sunshine and so, after a lovely breakfast, we set off up Grouse Mountain. Despite it being a weekday it was very busy with skiers and incredibly bright with the sun reflecting off the snow. I clearly wasn’t prepared as I didn’t have any sun glasses and spent the morning shielding my thin eyelids from the bright snow!

As the bears were still asleep for the winter – lazy bears – we took the cable car back down and went to see the wolves instead. After a brief stop off at the dam we then took a tour round Stanley Park. The buses weren’t running all that frequently so we took the car round and it was much easier – although it helped that it wasn’t so busy.

After the Park we retired to the hotel bar for a few more alcoholic coffees followed by dinner at the Cactus Cafe, where Tracy had the best fish taco’s ever. As we left there Tracy and Toby went to the loo and came back very excited. They had been to, what they both claimed, were the best toilets ever. What an evening this was turning into! Could it get any better? Well, the answer was yes because a few minutes later we were down on the waterfront again when Tracy saw the nicest looking car park she had ever seen! At this point things reached their pinnacle – there was nothing left to top the car park! It was too much excitement for everyone to take so it was back to the hotel for some sleep!

The next day was more yummy breakfast – the corn beef hash was scrummy – and then it was into the car and back across the border (after a brief stop at the duty free shopping where we stocked up with some Cadbury’s chocolate).

We took a brief detour on the journey back to enjoy Chuckanut Drive, which is a purpose built scenic drive along the coast with views across the San Juans. Unfortunately the views were a little hazy so we didn’t have the greatest photo opportunities – lucky for Tracy who didn’t enjoy Chuckanut at all – it had far too many steep cliff drops from the side of the road.

On the journey home the children watched DVDs until we were about 40 minutes from home. We decided they should look out the window instead of starting to watch anything else. What a mistake! They turned into monsters. Right, proper monsters! The only good thing is that they did have the odd interesting conversation. For example:

Harry … are we where I think we are?

Toby … where do you think we are?

Harry … none of your business

But that was the odd highlight, the rest of the time it was first class monsters! Thank goodness for TVs in cars!

So that was Vancouver for the second time. Each time the weather was fabulous, as was the food. A very nice city but who knows if we’ll go there again! All the photo’s are here…

 

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Smash, Bang

When we got back from Vancouver Tracy had an email waiting in her inbox from the letting agency asking for us to call. She began to panic about what it could be but fortunately just before bed she decided that it was probably because our gas safety certificate was about to expire. Having decided that this was what it was about she could sleep well that night and not worry about the fact that our building insurance had expired 2 days earlier.

After waking in the morning, Tracy made the call. The facial expressions clearly indicated this wasn’t about the gas safety certificate. The look of almost tears suggested something quite different. It was serious enough that I decided I should get out of bed! Yes folks, it was that serious.

As it turns out, apparently the girl next door was learning to drive and it had gone a bit wrong. The good news was that no-one was hurt and the car only had a scratch on it. The bad news was …

So there we go. The structural engineer has been out and there are four weeks work and £25k to put it right. At least we feel like we’re getting some value for money from our letting agency fee now!

 

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Bald Eagle

So the best place to see an American bald eagle is clearly Canada. We’d seen tens of them as we’d driven up the freeway from the border crossing to Vancouver and I thought that would be it for the trip but I was wrong. After a taking a stroll round Gastown we went round Canada Place on the waterfront. Their were no cruise ships this time but at the end of the pier/place/whatever it’s called was an eagle. It sat there quite happily posing for photo’s and I happily took them.

Typically I didn’t have the ideal camera lens with me, it was back in the hotel room, but never mind the results were pretty good even though I do say so myself:

The eagle refused to fly, even when attacked by a couple of crows:

And just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, how about this…

An eagle, a tanker, a mountain, a seagull and a helicopter. All that was missing was an orca leaping out the water and a bear scooping a salmon out of the water. Maybe next time?

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Running the Fountains

After the Space Needle we ended up at the fountain and as usual there was the temptation of trying to get to the middle. Although both seemed keen on it, there is no doubt this wasn’t something to rush into, it needed some thought:

But it soon became apparent that there was a little too much thinking going on and not enough action. Tracy decided to take charge of the situation and Harry was “guided” to touching the fountain before making a sharp exit:

Harry was now feeling bold and made a few more trips to the middle and managed to avoid getting wet. Toby spent a lot of time running. Left, right, forwards, backwards. There was a lot of running but never to the middle:

In the end, with the threat of it being their last attempt before we went back to the car they both made it:

And amazingly everyone stayed dry! Wonders will never cease!

All the pictures are here.