Category: yarrow point

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The Elusive Eagle

One of my first aims of our Washington adventure is to capture an amazing close up photo of the eagles that are flying all around Yarrow Point. This page will chart the progress until that incredible photo is captured!

[flickr-gallery mode=”photoset” photoset=”72157626629557519″]

I will accept that the first picture is a bit of an effort! And not a great one. But I can also confirm that that was the cameras fault – it chose the wrong time to adjust the focus. The exact wrong time. Having been fine for the previous 10 minutes that I had stood there with the eagle in full focus (behind a branch), it then decided to refocus just as the eagle took flight. Nevermind, my time will come.

UPDATE!

June 5th 2011 – the best effort so far – and my first bald eagle. The is the one I want the most. The quality goes a little on when I zoom and crop the photo but it’s still pretty good/ Check the 10th photo above or take a look on Flickr.

 

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Weekend #1

So we should probably have done something amazing on our first non-travelling weekend in the US, but we’re saving that for another day. Both days started with football (soccer). It was the FA cup final on Saturday and Liverpool on the Sunday. It’s quite good having soccer first thing as we can get that out the way over breakfast and then we’re free to carry on the day.

On Saturday we had a drive around Bridal Trails, across to Redmond and then down the east side of Lake Sammamish to Issaquah. We drove up Cougar Mountain, much to the concern of Harry and Toby! No sign of cougars though although there were news reports later that one had taken a labrador that had been out for a walk. Issaquah has the look and feel of an old US mining town. It’s not our first choice location but it has potential. After the mountain climb (in a car) we had to stop in Newcastle, at McDonalds, as the boys were starving. There is obviously something about Washington/US air as they have been starving everyday since arrival.

The afternoon was spent playing some tennis (my legs still ache) and then the heavens opened! And stayed open until Sunday afternoon!

Sunday morning saw a return to Seatac airport – a little sooner than we thought but at least the car insurance has been resolved and the £3.7k insurance payment is no longer pending against the credit card. Phew! On the way to the airport I pressed the red button on the rearview mirror. Note to self, don’t press red buttons. The car was immediately dialled through to some emergency service call centre who wanted to know what our situation was. After apologising for the behaviour of my interfering fingers they wished us a good day and on we went. There is a blue button next to the red button. I’m tempted with pressing it but I don’t think I will. And Tracy has told me that I won’t!

The only other things of note from the weekend were…

1. I like Williams Sonoma a lot! Specifically waffle makers, roasting pans for bbqs (picture above) and coffee machines
2. We spend a lot of time (and money) in supermarkets
3. The ribs from QFC or Trader Joes are very good. Melt in the mouth good. Yum!
4. We still don’t know where the post gets delivered!

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Week #1

Today was the first working from home day. Tracy and the boys went to watch Rio in 3D and stuff their faces with popcorn. They arrived back with tennis rackets for Tracy and I so we all can play now. We all had a play down on the courts, I’d forgotten how much fun tennis was. I’m still rubbish but it’s fun. It was also pretty cool playing tennis and watching the eagles swooping overhead – they are huge! One was definitely an American bald eagle but I think there may be another variety – the bird watching skills of Gan Gan are required.

In the evening we headed over to Kirkland for something to eat. We went Mexican. If you can call chicken nuggets and fries Mexican! But that was only Toby, Harry went for a beef taco and Tracy had a giant something or other! Harry followed up the taco with some deep fried ice-cream!

We then headed on down to the lake and saw the final few minutes of the sunset. Truly beautiful setting which made Kirkland as a potential place to live rather more appealing.

It was then all off home to bed (at about 9:30pm) as the FA Cup final kicks off at 7am in the morning!

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Settling in

It all got off to a good start as the captain announced a journey time of 8 hours and 50 minutes – about an hour shorter than usual. the flight was pretty uneventful. Toby did his usual trick of falling asleep about an hour before the journey end and then woke up all tearful and in a pickle.

Border control was reasonably straightforward and for the first time, not completely intimidating – the guard was actually nice and made conversation – there’s a first time for everything! The luggage came through quickly and all was under control until customs suspected us of smuggling food. Our luggage was screened and their suspicions confirmed by x-ray machines – we were sausage smugglers! After going through the guilty suitcase, and Tracy’s underwear, the sausages were identified as bottles of toiletries so we were let off.

Next stop collecting the cars. Once again Egencia managed to mess up the booking with no insurance. All was sorted with a credit card but it will all end in yet another expenses claim.

With Harry reading the directions the journey to the Villaggio was quite straightforward. The apartment is spacious and comfy. It’s a little sparse on towels and kitchen equipment but all in all it should make for a nice base for the next few weeks (if Harry and Toby can learn to understand that they can’t shout at 4am and run and jump round the flat!).

Straight after unloading the cars we hit the shops, well a supermarket anyway. QFC was the first supermarket, swiftly followed on Sunday by Trader Joes. Then QFC again. And again. Trader Joes is small but has some nice looking (organic) good and probably most importantly some red wine at $2.49 a bottle. We bought some assuming it would taste like vinegar. It doesn’t! It’s good! More bottles to follow and we’ll give the white a try out too.

The only other thing of note so far (apart from the constantly naughty children) are the frogs that sing us to sleep. It’s just like being on holiday.

Update: Here’s a floor plan for future reference because we’re bound to forget what it was like!