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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.

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Seattle Views

It was a beautiful day. Blue sky and sunshine all the way and what a busy day we had lined up.

By my reckoning there are five great views of Seattle and across the course of the day we saw three of them. The first one we went to check was up at Newcastle golf course. A recent find, it is close enough that we can just pop up there if the weather is good and today it was. We went there after Toby had a swimming lesson and while Harry was at Evan’s undertaking a mightily impressive Easter egg hunt. Although it was windy up at Newcastle the view was pretty impressive:

After leaving Newcastle and collecting Harry, we went to Chittenden locks to look at the boats and the salmon. There weren’t many of either but it wasn’t too much of an issue as we couldn’t stay there long as we had an appointment at Ray’s. The view from there was also very impressive. The Olympics stood tall and made the perfect backdrop for a lovely lunch.

From Ray’s we took the usual short trip up to Kerry Park. Seattle-ites were obviously enjoying the day as there were plenty up there checking out the view. And who can blame them, it’s not bad:

Next stop was the Space Needle. We’d spent plenty of time admiring the Space Needle so now it was time to go up it. Although the clouds were starting to form, the view was still pretty impressive – particularly Mount Rainier:

The other two views of the Seattle come from Salty’s and on the ferry to Bainbridge but they will have to wait for another time – today was busy enough!

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Thin Eyelids

As some of you may be aware I suffer from a dreadful medical condition known as thin eyeliditis. It probably has a suitably impressive latin name had it been officially recognized however it hasn’t made it’s way to Wikipedia yet so it remains known only as thin eyelids.

I have suffered with it for many years as the mountains of alarm clocks in storage in the UK, the skips full of alarm clocks thrown away when we moved and the handful of alarm clocks in drawers around the house in Bellevue will testify. The trouble is the light they give off is sooooo bright! It stops me getting to sleep and sometimes they even wake me up because they are deliberately target me!

I had hoped that the current version would be ok – it had 3 different brightness settings on the clock – but even on the lowest setting it focuses the light right into my eyes.

These last couple of nights in the middle room seem to have made the condition even worse! The wireless router, although probably 9 ft away woke we up the other night shining brightly into my eyes. I wouldn’t have minded but I’d put a book in front of it to stop it before I went to bed but at some point in the night the light managed to move the book and then direct it’s full glare straight at me. I had to spend the rest of the night asleep under the duvet shielding my eyes.

That very same night the lights from next doors house was upsetting me. It was either that or a star somewhere. Trouble was that the blinds were pulled but the slats were slanting into the room and pointing downwards and this let sooooo much star light in.

It has now evolved into quite a complex night time routine. I have to make sure the blind slats point upwards, make sure the alarm clock light is set to low, make sure there is no bottle of water in front of the alarm clock as some how this refracts the light and burns it straight at me, make sure the wireless router lights are hidden behind a book or piece of paper and make sure that an object of some sort is positioned in front of the cable modem.

I haven’t worked out how to block out the light from the bathroom where the light has to be on all night to keep the boys happy. Who would have thought sleeping could be so stressful? I’m starting to sympathize with Aunty A and her sleeping issues!

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Zzzzzzz!

This was meant to be the latest edition of jet lag watch but the jet lag myth has been busted! Even the Aunty Arnold theory that only women suffer has been destroyed! Which, on a side note, makes Aunty A’s suffering look even more pathetic!!

On Monday morning, Tracy and I were clearly worried that the latest visitors weren’t going to make it through customs and onto the plane as we were both awake before 4am wondering how they were getting on! We needn’t have worried because a little over 12 hours later we were at the airport and Nanny and Grampy were coming up the escalators. And with their usual luck, the rain had stayed away, Mount Rainier was out to welcome them, as were the other mountain ranges. The devil clearly looks after his own!

The highlights of Nanny’s first ever flight were, firstly not even noticing that they had taken off, and secondly being so upset from watching War Horse that she had to spend some quality time watching In the Night Garden! Not even the grand children watch that any more! But they were new episodes and she enjoyed herself!

Anyway, having arrived and delivered a chocolate mountain into the house the time soon was upon us to decide how much sleep they would get on their first night. They went upstairs at 9:45pm with my guess being they would be awake by 1:30am and Tracy guessing 2:30am. How wrong we were. When I left for work the following morning all was still quiet. Something was clearly wrong! As it turns out, Grampy slept to about 4am and Nanny until 7am! What’s that all about!?

Still, not to worry – the second night is always the worst! The jet lag was sure to strike then. But oh no. Bed by 10pm and sleeping through until 4am for Grampy and 5am for Nanny. It’s a very impressive performance. I’m sure if we reviewed Aunty A’s performance we would see that they have slept more in the first two nights than Sally slept in the first two weeks! Which just goes to show, when I told Sally to “pull yourself together” I was right!

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Brunch

Americans are quite in to their brunch but we’ve only been once since we’ve been here. It was probably the shock of the bill which has stopped us going again! This morning though, we thought we’d sample it again but this time we went somewhere new, we went to the Calcutta Grill at Newcastle golf club. We’d read a few reviews and everyone said how amazing the view was. And it was! Possibly the best view of Seattle, the Olympic mountains, Bellevue and Lake Washington that we’ve found and it’s only 10 minutes from our house!

After admiring the view, we stuffed ourselves silly with omelettes, wagyu rib-eye, chocolate drop pancakes and champagne!

And if the food and stunning view wasn’t enough we missed a stray golf ball on the drive out by a couple of inches!

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Black Diamond

What a busy day – they should sleep well tonight!

The morning started with the internet connection playing up again so first things first we called Comcast and got an engineer scheduled to come out and fix it. The good thing with Comcast, unlike BT, is that we called them at 8:30am and the engineer was logged to come and fix things between 10am and noon.

Although this was clearly very good service it did mean that I had to stay at home while Tracy and the boys went swimming. They soon returned, just as Comcast arrived, and the morning was spent having the internet fixed – apparently it has never actually been working correctly since we’ve been here – and the boys having a quick play on the xbox before we set off up the mountain.

We packed the car and left just after 12:30pm. It was a nice day and the temperature was hovering around 50 degrees. We all took a guess of what the temperature would be up at the ski slopes and we all failed miserably! We all went for ~38 degrees but as it turned out, the highest temperature we actually recorded was 76! The sun was very warm up there and by the end of the ski lesson we may actually have had two boys who had caught the sun.

We got them both kitted up and waited for their instructors. Toby’s arrived first and took him off to get used to the skis again and took a little tour round the magic carpet. After a couple of goes round there, and with Harry still waiting for his instructor, Toby set off towards his first go in the chair lift and the up the slope called Holiday.

Harry eventually found his instructor, an older chap called Anchor. At least I think that’s what he was called! Anchor tried to engage Harry with some conversation. Silly Anchor. Harry turned into a mute and Tracy and I were somewhat concerned as the two of them set of to the Holiday slope as well. Would Harry answer any of Anchor’s questions across the next two hours or would he just shrug his shoulders!?

As it turned out we needn’t have worried as by the time we collected Harry two hours later they were chatting and they even gave each other a hug as we left!

We had seen both Harry and Toby going up the Holiday slope on the chair lift and we’d seen Harry come down once and Toby a few times – including a few bounces on his bottom! But it has to be said, for a first time on the actual slope Toby came on in leaps and bounds.

httpv://youtu.be/b5D6Iiwv4FY

While his parents were suitably impressed, the instructor did inform us that he needed to improve a few areas of his technique. Apparently the bottom half of his body is good but the top half has a tendency to lean and he keeps his arms behind his back. But he’s only had about 4 hours of lessons so the fact that he was coming down a slope by himself was pretty awesome!

We didn’t see much of Harry on the Holiday slope but this is because he and Anchor had clearly gone exploring all over the place! He’d been down Holiday, Gallery, Silver Nugget, Silver Fir, Black Diamond plus a little cross country between the different slopes. He’d also completed some ski-ing backwards, 360 degree spins and little jumps – all intentionally as well. Anchor informed us that Harry had worked incredibly hard and was a really good skier. So despite the lesson not starting on the best of terms, they parted with a big hug and Harry declaring that Anchor was the best instructor he’d had and wanted to have more lessons with him.

Amazing what happens when you start talking to someone!

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Pluck the Lark

Target have a commercial out at the moment that has the song alouette playing in the background:

httpv://youtu.be/KcgwgkyU4sY

I have a vague recollection of singing this at school, very many years ago but it was not until the other night that I searched for it and found out what it actually means. As it turns out, what seems on the outside to be a happy, fun song is actual not. It’s all about plucking the feathers from a lark!

Alouette, gentille Alouette

Lark, nice lark

Alouette, je te plumerai

Lark, I shall pluck you

Je te plumerai la tête

I shall pluck your head

(Je te plumerai la tête)

(I shall pluck your head)

Et la tête

And your head

(Et la tête)

(And your head)

Alouette

Lark

(Alouette)

(Lark)

O-o-o-oh

I think the advert should be produced again with them singing the translated version – it would make for a much funnier advert!

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American Dream

It’s quite good fun working in American – particularly of late. A couple of weeks back I had a promotion, pay rise, bonus and shares and now it’s happened all over again! My boss left a week ago and now I have his job, more money and another bonus!

Hopefully it will all happen again in another couple of weeks! At this rate I will be the President of Expedia by summer. Or maybe not!