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:
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
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
Harry had loved his first ski lesson and been suitably unimpressed when his second lesson was cancelled last week due to the winter storms. This Wednesday he was off again, hitting the slopes. This week Tracy went along as well as a supervisor. They clearly hadn’t seen Tracy’s ability on the snow before asking – she spends most of the time on her bum (a skill inherited from her sister). Anyway, they went for an afternoon up at Snoqualmie Pass and had a fun afternoon in the snow – lucky devils!
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httpv://youtu.be/Y8R_ldMrBjI
Editors Note: the day references relate to when it was written not published. The lack of broadband delayed publishing.
Well what a week that was! The snow started last weekend with quite a lot of hype but no real action. We saw a little flurry in Bellevue on Saturday but Sunday was when it was really meant to start. We woke up and found some but not as much we hoped for but fast forward 24 hours and then we really saw the fun begin.
Monday was Martin Luther King Day so the children weren’t at school anyway so that wasn’t a problem but the snow on the hill from our house was enough to make me think I’d work from home. Admittedly I don’t need much encouragement but Seattle-ites are renowned for being particularly bad at driving in the snow so I figured it was safer!
The snow continued to fall all day although being the brave Brits we are we did manage to make a brief excursion to the Triple X Diner in Issaquah for lunch with its world famous root beer. It was a stereo-typical American diner and the food was good and burgers and cheese steaks were duly demolished!
As the snow continued to settle news came through from the Bellevue School District that school would start 2 hours late on Tuesday – Harry was pleased! On Tuesday morning I decided to venture out to work as the snow had pretty much gone over night – it was proving to be a fickle thing. At around 11am I was sat sitting looking out the window from the office and Seattle disappeared under a snow storm. As I watched (strategizing in my head not just being lazy), the snow storm could be seen coming across the lake at quite some speed. It then reached Bellevue and within a matter of minutes the city turned white with a layer of snow – it was quite impressive to watch.
This covering of Bellevue in snow caused widespread panic through the office and everyone got sent home! The strange thing was that once I had slipped and slid my way about 2 miles south of Bellevue there was no snow at all and everything was fine! Never mind – off home I went!
The snow did reach us eventually though and started to fall hard again. I wouldn’t normally have minded but I had a flight to catch in the morning and the volume of snow was clearly going to cause problems. On top of that I was starting to get a sore throat so I didn’t really want to go anywhere other than bed!
With the snow still falling we all went to bed at 8 o’clock which at the time felt like a good idea but it did mean I missed the fact that the flight was cancelled in the morning. I found that out when I woke in the morning and saw all the missed calls and text messages on my phone and the general chaos that seemed to have fallen across Western Washington. I think the people of Washington have a similar approach to snow as the UK – not very good! Although to be fair I think the amount of snow and ice that arrived across the week would probably have bought the UK to a grinding halt for about a month!
With my flight cancelled, I had been scheduled onto a later flight at 7:55pm so I spent the day in bed feeling rough and watching the havoc unfold on local news. When there are winter storms here the local news just continues all day with updates around everything that is happening! People where ski-ing down the streets of Seattle, skidding off the freeway into ditches and generally it was complete and utter chaos!
At about 3:30pm I decided to leave for the airport as I figured it was best to get there as soon as possible! The road down to West Sammamish Parkway wasn’t too bad but the i-90 was! As I arrived on the freeway the first thing I saw was a car pointing towards me. They’d clearly just finished spinning before turning around and heading off in the right direction again. As I slowly chugged along – never going more than 38 miles per hour – the giant american trucks just carried on hammering along the roads like there was nothing wrong at all! I kept well out of their way!
An hour later I arrived at the airport and I saw there was a slightly earlier flight to San Diego – 6:45pm rather than 7:55pm. I checked to see if there were any free seats and there were so I would be in San Diego by 9:20pm rather than 10:20pm which was good. Or it would have been if it happened!
At 7:00pm I was starting to worry that the 7:55pm flight was going to leave before the earlier one I had changed onto but then some good news came through – the 7:55pm flight was cancelled! At 7:30pm we started to board the plane and then we had to sit there and wait for it to be de-iced. Finally, at 9:20pm we took off. So a 10:20 arrival in San Diego had improved to a 9:20 arrival but then ended up being an 11:40pm arrival. I got a cab to the hotel to find out that my reservation had been cancelled but after telling me that they said it wasn’t a problem because they had a room for me! So at midnight I crashed into bed.
The next day was obviously non-stop work for me with regular check-ins to see how Tracy, the boys and Washington were coping. There had been the odd power outage but unlike large parts of Western Washington it came back on and stayed on. The phone and internet went though and we only got that back a week later. The power was going everywhere because the weight of the snow on the trees made them all fall over and they collapsed on the power lines. Fortunately we have someone in our close who works for Puget Sound Energy so even if we do lose power I think we get priority in getting it switched back on!
The other new phenomenon in Washington was ice rain. Tracy and I had laughed the day before as we found the whole concept of ice rain slightly ridiculous but not any more. The ice rain just fell from the sky and covered everything with an instant layer of ice. Tracy decided to move the car into the garage as this fell but despite leaving the car running for almost an hour the ice rain kept falling and the car windscreen refused to de-frost! In the end she drove blind into the garage and fortunately didn’t crash – I guess that’s what you can do when you get 98% in your driving test.
On Friday, Tracy ventured out to get some bread and then struggled to get the car back up the hill. The neighbors didn’t manage at all and had to get the snow chains out to get back up. Harry and Toby – still having snow days at home from school – went sledding down the road. Harry mastered the skill of falling of the sled before he reached the road at the bottom but Toby didn’t quite – Tracy had to dive on him to stop him – not that there was any traffic about.
In San Diego I was busy working in the sunshine. Poor me! Working and eating, watching dolphins leaping out the sea, humpback whales blowing water into the air through their spouts, watching sea lions and feeling very ill and quite sorry for myself! My flight for Seattle was delayed a touch coming home but we still left at 7:15 – the first and only flight of the day to Seattle – the rest had been cancelled.
I landed back in Seattle at about 9:45pm and set off of the final leg of the journey back home. The freeways had cleared quite well with the rain that had been falling but as I came off the freeways and tried to head on up SE 40th Street the snow and ice was still all over the road. I managed to make my way up as far as the basketball court before sliding back down. I thought I’d give it another go but despite the run up the batman car couldn’t make it and slid back down into some snow by the side of the road and got stuck! After rocking and skidding about for a while I managed to spin the car round and slide back down the hill where I left it for the night.
I trudged back up the hill and arrived to the sweet snores of home. Back in your own bed – you can’t beat it!
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We’d bought the snow chains back in December, the snow had been falling in the mountains, we’d bought two new sleds and the boys had their salapettes – clearly it was time to hit the snow!
On Saturday I’d conducted a test run of fitting snow chains to the tyres. It went badly. At no point did the chain ever get fixed to the tyre – even though it should only take five minutes! I thought about persevering with the test but then decided that it was bound to be okay and we wouldn’t need them! A quick search on Google confirmed that the road was dry and clear – so the snow chains could wait until another day!
On Sunday morning we were up and at them! The car was loaded with sleds, coats, hats, scarves, blankets, food and water (the last three items for if we got stuck in the mountain pass because we couldn’t fit snow chains!) and off we went. The destination was Hyak Snow Park. Hyak is not a ski resort and doesn’t have tubing – it is just an area with trails and sledding areas so we thought this was a good place to start and get a feel for it all.
As we drove up the mountain side towards the snow Toby saw two bears by the river – one of which was just oiking a fish out the river – and if that was not enough, just a few miles further on he also saw some penguins playing by the river!
Forty minutes after leaving the house we parked up in the snow and the fun began! We put on our thermals, layers and winter coats on and started playing. Minutes later we were all sweating and wishing we hadn’t put so many layers on – lesson learnt for next time! The boys spent ages going up and down slopes, Tracy kept disappearing up to her waist in snow with squeals and giggles and I managed to floop about quite a lot too! In fact the only one who didn’t suffer from sinking in the snow was Toby – he’s obviously a very lightweight little boy!
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There are a lot of videos but don’t worry they are only short!
httpv://youtu.be/0zSaBf8F0OU
httpv://youtu.be/hH07nRa-2mU
httpv://youtu.be/Er1ojqTIPXg
httpv://youtu.be/JqBjBmsSYjM
httpv://youtu.be/XA3M0zlFm_k
httpv://youtu.be/4nnIVvz2i7g
httpv://youtu.be/WbzRLuDron4
httpv://youtu.be/kZfTKVlNpnc
httpv://youtu.be/PKjQExwPsA0
httpv://youtu.be/0mgSva3eMfU
httpv://youtu.be/PJoLuuG0E_U
httpv://youtu.be/IfNwtNhfroE
After a couple of hours of fun in the snow we thought we’d check out the tubing area but it was chaos so, as we were all ravenous, we decided it was time for hot chocolates and brunch! After stuffing ourselves with pancakes, omelettes, hash browns and eggs benedict, it was back off down the mountain.
And forty minutes later we were back home on a mild, slightly overcast January day with no sign of snow at all.
Despite all the forecasts of snow there was none. It was definitely a chilly morning but no snow. This wasn’t going to stop us from completing the number 1 priority of the day which was getting snow chains for the car. Apparently when (if) it does snow round here then it is difficult to get up the hill to our house which means I will be working from home unless I have some chains. So we quickly discounted the idea of getting any for my car but we did need some for the VW though so that we can, after Christmas, put our chains on and head up to Snoqualmie to go ski-ing.
With the local news channels forecasting snow there had been panic buying of snow chains across the week with people waiting up to 3 hours to get theirs. We however went to Sears – a department store with its own garage – and got our chains within 10 minutes. Over the next few weeks we need to practice putting them on which I’m sure won’t be easy – certainly not as easy as it looks when they give demonstrations on the local news!
After leaving Sears we went over to Kirkland for a mooch round the shops – much to the boys disappointment. First of all though I was in desperate need of a haircut so I went into Bombay Clippers while Tracy and the boys went down to the waterfront. This was my first “professional” haircut in the US since I had my hair cut in the Excalibur hotel in Las Vegas on our honeymoon. After that hair cut we had bought a box of Krispy Kreme donuts and eaten them as we drove from Vegas to Death Valley. This time we walked around kitchen and Christmas shops. By this point we were all obviously starving, so we booked a table at the Barking Frog in Woodinville. We drove over there, into the boonies, and had a fab meal. Well Tracy and I did – the boys left the Barking Frog with two little boxes of food and the words that they would be having it reheated for their tea ringing in their ears! I had roasted chicken breast with pumpkin ravioli. I would have loved to have walked out with a box full of that for my tea but I’d scoffed it all and there was none left!
From the Barking Frog we went across to Chateau St Michelle to get a couple of bottles of the dessert wine we like. We had planned on doing some wine tasting too but it was far too busy – they clearly like their Saturday afternoon wine tasting round here. The boys were mightily relieved that they weren’t going to be subjected to wine tasting but instead they got dragged to the mall to do a spot of shopping! They weren’t happy! After a quick trip to Macys home store – to get some champagne flutes – we did go to Build a Bear to ease their suffering. Toby got a polar bear called Fluffy and Harry got a winter bear called Tubby (named after his Dad).
Much to their relief we went home after this. We’d only told them we were popping out in the morning to the shops and 6 hours later they finally arrived home again and were able to play balloon football. Poor children – what an awful day they had. They have been promised a quiet day at home tomorrow although we do need to pop out for a Thanksgiving turkey and then who knows where we’ll go after that!
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After cleaning up the wee and having a San Juan continental breakfast we packed the car and set off on our Island tour. As there was hardly any traffic on the island we decided we would meander our way round the island at UK Sunday driver speed. After heading south from Friday Harbor on the scenic tour our first stop was Jackson Bay. It was a brief stop here to admire the driftwood and check the bay to see if any Orcas wanted to co-operate on the photo front. They didn’t.
Back in the car and off we went to American Camp. There is an American Camp and an English Camp on the island – at opposite ends. Both these camps/parks celebrate how individuals and nations can resolve disputes without resorting to violence (someone else’s words!). For it was here in the mid 1800s that Great Britain and the United States settled ownership of the island through peaceful arbitration of the “Pig War” crisis. It was known as the Pig War because both the Brits and Americans were on the island when an American shot an British pig. Clearly that sort of behavior is completely unacceptable and as a result the 12 year Pig War occurred.
The British Royal Marines remained on the island making formal gardens, building a library and a school and having horse races for about 12 years until Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany decided the sovereignty of the dispute and awarded the islands to the U.S. in 1872. Blooming Germans!
Before leaving the American Camp Grandad nearly started what would have been known as the Cricket War. We were walking along when Harry stopped, point at the ground and said “look there’s a cricket … oh”. The “oh” came out just as Grandads shoe landed on the cricket. Poor cricket. Still we left before any Americans spotted the incident and continued on our journey with the Cricket War avoided.
Next stop, at the bottom of the island was South Beach. Another beautiful beach and bay which was covered with driftwood. Harry and Toby gave Tracy hysterics as they scared themselves silly when they were in a driftwood construction which they thought was about to fall on them. Silly boys! Once again I was busy staring at the ocean waiting for the Orcas to appear but they didn’t. Grrr!
After Sunset Beach we hit Lime Kiln Point State Park. The drive up along the coast was stunning. It really is a beautiful island and was fast becoming my favorite over Whidbey. Lime Kiln Park was the place I had been looking forward to the most. As no-one wanted to go on a whale watching trip with me (poor me) I was hopeful that this would bring me the elusive photo as this is the only park in the world dedicated to shore-based orca whale watching. And as such they refer to it (like so many other things) as the “best in the world”. Unfortunately the closest we got to seeing an Orca was a seals butt! Good but not really what I was looking for! When I spotted the seal I pointed and called to everyone else to look – this noise and pointing got the nearby Japanese tourists very excited and they rushed over to see. They were a little disappointed when all there was was a seal. Later on as we walked back up through the woods to the car I decided to take an artistic photo looking up to the top of a tree from the base of the trunk. As I leant against it, with the camera clicking the same Japanese tourist came running over asking “what’s up there? what is it?”. They seemed a touch confused and slightly disappointed when I said “nothing, I’m just taking artistic pictures”. When I left they were still standing at the bottom taking pictures up the tree! There really was nothing there!
By now we were completely ravenous so we drove to the top of the island to a small place (aka historic seaside village) called Roche Harbor. Our research the night before had revealed that Roche Harbor was the 3rd best place for a summer visit in 2011 (according to the National Geographic Traveler) and the #2 place to visit in the world (that’s right, the WORLD!) 2011 and this was according to the New York Times. As you can imagine we’d built this up in our heads to be something pretty spectacular! And to be fair it wasn’t half bad! Another truly beautiful location with what is without doubt the most spectacular harbor full of boats I’ve ever seen. You normally get a couple of really nice boats in each harbor round here but at Roche Harbor 98% of the boats were incredible. Fortunately for me no-one came along and forced me to choose which boat I wanted because I just wouldn’t have been able to pick one! Tracy managed to select one in the end but Grandad wasn’t getting into the spirit of it – he decided he’d just want the money and buy a nice car instead!
After lunch at Roche Harbor we went to the English Camp. It was way better than the American Camp. Clearly the Brits knew how to select a nice camp and they also knew how to construct a proper building. There was barely anything left at the American Camp but there were four buildings remaining at the English Camp along with their formal gardens. It must have been a very nice posting for the Marines – nothing to do but relax in a gorgeous setting and do a spot of gardening.
Our final destination that afternoon was the San Juan Winery. While Tracy and her dad worked their way through eight different wines, I sat on the deck in the sunshine while the boys charged around the garden rolling about and fighting each other. When the two drinkers emerged with a selection of bottles (of award winning wine) we slowly made our way back to Friday Harbor for the final drama of the day. The bin on the corner of the street by our hotel had clearly been on fire. Fortunately the fire station was located over the road but rather than just bring a bucket of water over and throw it in they sent the fire engine over. It was all a bit over the top, however we took a couple of pictures of their lovely fire engine – all clean and chromey!!
And with that we retired to our rooms to get ready for dinner. All that fresh air had made us ravenous!
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When we decided to go to the San Juan Islands for a long weekend I hadn’t realized just how stressful it would be. Of all the hundreds of islands that make up the San Juans, we selected San Juan Island as our destination of preference and booked a nice hotel in Friday Harbor. It sounded like a good base for the weekend and as it turned out it was. The hotel was only a couple of blocks away from where the ferry docked and surrounded by restaurants. It was the ferry that caused me the stress though. There are only about 6 ferries a day that go from Anacortes to Friday Harbor and you can’t book them, it’s a first come first served system. And there are no alternatives to getting on the island if you miss the ferry. The first come first served model was fine apart from they recommend you turn up a couple of hours early on a Friday and warn that you may have to wait for the following ferry as it is the equivalent of the ferry rush hour. So, the hotel was booked but would we manage to get there?
The morning started with Toby going to pre-school for an hour or so and Harry being struck down, very conveniently, by a temperature. He was fine really, we just needed him to throw a sickie and he was happy to oblige! We collected Toby at 11 with Harry hiding on the floor of the car so that no-one saw him. I was clearly feeling the stress as we pulled out of the school car park. For some reason I forgot we were in America and set-off down the wrong side of the road! Fortunately the sight of a bus coming towards us and Tracy telling me I was on the wrong side of the road bought me to my senses and I swerved across into the correct position! Not sure what that was all about but I recovered quickly and only made the same mistake once more across the remainder of the weekend! Oops!
The journey up to Anacortes passed with lots of excitement. Grandad pointed out every RV we went past. And 5th wheeler. And caravan. And just when we thought he couldn’t get any more excited the freeway went through an area that had lots of roadside sites selling RVs, caravans and boats! In the space of 10 miles I think he probably spent close to $1 million in his head! We also had our usual game of i-spy with Toby and I once again on the same finely tuned wavelength! No matter what he spied – I guessed it! Great teamwork!
We arrived at Anacortes ferry terminal about 2.5 hours before the ferry was due to set sail and to my considerable relief the queue was pretty small – probably because no-one else was stupid enough to turn up so early! Still, although we had two hours of sitting in the car waiting ahead, I felt much better about everything because at least we would make it to the island! For the next couple of hours we ate some very expensive, limp sandwiches, got shouted at by a woman trying to load a ferry (I think she thought we were foot passengers about to miss a ferry), taking photos of Mount Baker, sitting in the car passing comment and judgement on anyone and everyone who happened to walk past (and there were some sights) and listening to two boys playing on their DS’s.
Surprisingly enough the time passed quite quickly and before we knew it we were being loaded onto the ferry. Once on we strolled around the deck taking photos and admiring the beautiful islands and some quite stunning views. I was also hoping to see a pod of orcas swim by, leap out the water and allow me to take photos but unfortunately this didn’t materialize. On the plus side though, Mount Baker was out and looked quite amazing.
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It takes about 50 minutes to get Friday Harbor and once we disembarked we went straight to the hotel. After making sure we had a better room than Grandad we unpacked and set off to explore and find somewhere to eat – we were ravenous afterall! After a little stroll round the picturesque town we settled on Downriggers as the lucky recipients of our custom. The boys were particularly excited about this restaurant as the table cloth was paper and they were allowed to draw all over it! I think the excitement may have been a little too much for Toby who, without taking a bite out of his burger, declared that he felt sick. Time was spent sitting outside with him taking deep breaths of fresh air followed by leaning over a toilet thinking he was about to be sick! As it turned out Tracy took him back to the hotel and he was absolutely fine within 10 minutes of leaving the restaurant! Despite the fun and games, my meal was probably the best I have had since moving to the US – it was yumtastic! Tracy and I shared Angels on Horseback to start while Grandad worked his way through the largest set of onion rings I have ever seen. The menu said they were world famous and I think I can see why! The corn crusted aslaskan halibut which followed was brilliant – even if a little cool after spending time outside with Toby!
After a nice sleep, the Saturday morning tradition of drama continued although it was more despair this week rather than drama. Toby, with a perfect sense of timing decided it would be a great idea to wet the (sofa) bed. Brilliant! Time for bed stripping and hoping that the sofa dried out across the day! Maybe next week we will have a normal Saturday morning. After cleaning up and then having breakfast we set off on our tour of the island. It’s not a huge island by any stretch of the imagination but we took all day enjoying the sights and the fresh air before returning to Friday Harbor to have a lie down and then go out for something to eat (we were ravenous!). Toby also spent the day telling us his new favorite joke:
Why did Grandad cross the road?
To get to Macy’s.
On Saturday night we went to the Friday Harbor Pub – the Cask & Schooner. What Tracy had initially thought was the local drunk actually turned out to be the owner of the pub and like everyone else in America they too had been to the UK. Considering hardly any Americans have passports they all seem to have been to England! As it turned out this chap actually had – he used to work at Elstree Studios on the Harry Potter movies but now he had returned to the San Juans to run his own pub and to create his own version of mushy peas! He was very pleased with his peas and bought us out a sample. I’m not a great lover of mushy peas but these were very good, as was the sticky toffee pudding which he bought out for us at the end. We also had some of their pumpkin ice-cream which was very good. So, despite only going out for a small bite to eat we returned to our beds completed stuffed! The joys of America!
On Sunday morning we packed up and parked the car in the ferry car park. We were in the queue and saved myself from getting more ferry related stress! After popping back to the hotel to have breakfast we then hit the shops again! After stocking up on a couple more items we got back into the car and waited to board. While we waited Tracy nosed her way into one of the locals leaving do! He was leaving the San Juans for good and going to live in Hawaii. We wanted to get more info but she wouldn’t go over and ask more questions!
On the ferry we stood at the back enjoying the views while the boys entertained themselves by smacking Grandads butt! He punished them by trying to kiss them at which point they ran away and went over the other side of the boat. They hate kisses!
Once back on land we drove back across onto Whidbey Island via Deception Pass. We stopped to take a few photos of the Pass and an eagle that happened to just be waiting for us in the trees.
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Then we drove down to Langley with the children spending the hour or so that it took moaning about how hungry they were! By the time we made it to Langley they were three times ravenous. Evil parents! We went straight up to our usual bistro and tucked into a variety of lovely pork belly, burgers, croque monsieurs, chocolate truffles, chocolate cake and ice-cream.
After lunch, and a bit more shopping, we went to the ferry and made our way back to mainland USA. A short drive followed and then we were back home in time for Strictly Come Dancing. And that, with a bottle of San Juan wine was the end of a lovely weekend. Very stressful but lovely! We will be going back and I will get that Orca photo!
Grandad: “Do you think there is an eagle up there?”
We turned round.
Both of us: “Blimey there is! Look at that”
We grabbed our camera and snapped away. We then burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of it. What exactly are the chances of saying “do you think there is an eagle up there”, looking up and seeing a blooming great bald eagle sitting there at the top of a tree waiting patiently for you to take a picture? Whatever the odds, that is exactly what happened. And the results are as follows:
All it needed was the tree to be 20ft shorter and the sky to be blue! Still you can’t have everything. One day…
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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