Lunar Tide

2012 Goals Are Coming Along

2012-01-27T12:22:00.000-08:00

So far of my 2012 goals I am learning hip hop dance, learning digital art journaling and paper art journaling. I am having fun in my hip hop class it is a lot of work. I have been doing the class for 3 weeks. The first week I was really sore. The class is getting a little easier. The teacher warms us up with isolation's, stomach crunches, push ups and leg exercises. After the first class my legs and ribs were so sore the second day but sore in a good way. I feel good after class. I am taking an online Digital Art Journal class that is fun. I am learning lots of cool techniques. There are techniques and journal prompts. I bought an art journal so I could journal in the book. The next thing on my list is to get some paints for my art journal. I've done a little bit in my journal but I really want to try painting in it. I have been doing some other creative things making homemade cards, digital scrapbook pages. My creative is slowly starting to come back. I think next I will pull out my ukulele and learn to play it.

Milestone Birthday Weekend!

2012-01-16T16:52:00.000-08:00

My birthday was over the weekend on the 14th. It is a milestone birthday so hubby and I went away for the weekend to Los Gatos. Our friend offered to watch our son so he spent the day and slept over their house. After dropping him off at his friend's house, we left around 11:00am. It took us about an hour to drive down to Los Gatos. The weather is sunny and mild. A nice day for a drive. We got their around 1:00pm. We walked around downtown because check in time is 3:00pm. There are a lot of cute shops along Main Street. Los Gatos is a very quaint tourist town. There were quite a few people walking around and lots of people jogging, riding bikes and walking their dogs along the street. We stopped for lunch at the Purple Onion. This place is popular so it gets really busy during lunchtime but around 1:30 it is not so busy. We are going to have a nice dinner later so Hubby and I shared a turkey sandwich on a baguette. It was really good. We continued walking around. When 3:00pm came around we checked into our hotel. The room was really nice with a fireplace and soaking tub. It was an end unit with 6 windows and 2 french doors with balconies. One balcony face the courtyard with the pool and the other faced the main building. After we were settled we went to Sierra-Azul Open Space for a walk. It was late so we went for an half hour walk. We didn't want to be walking in the dark. It is a very nice area for walking with nice views. We heard some domestic geese honking. We saw them from the trail in some one's backyard.

We went to Testarossa Winery which is near the hotel for some wine tasting. Our friend suggested we go there because she said it was a good place to wine taste. They have a nice tasting room. It was crowded so they suggested we go outside to the wine bar out on their patio. It was very nice out there with the gas lamps and lots of tables.
After the walk we went back to the hotel to relax before heading out for dinner. We made reservations for iGatti for dinner but they didn't have anything until 8:30 so we hung out in hotel until it was time to go to dinner. The restaurant was within walking distance so we walked to the restaurant. This time there was hardly anybody out on the street like earlier. It was really busy at the restaurant and even though we had a reservation, we still had to wait for a table. I guess they had several large groups come in before us. We started off the meal with the Pear Carpaccio salad which was so good then the entrees of Lamb Shank with portobello/shitake mushrooms, risotto and spinach and spaghetti and meatballs. For dessert I had the molten chocolate bundt cake with vanilla gelato and hubby had the caramel basket with vanilla gelato and fruit. The whole meal was so good. We really loved the Pear Carpaccio salad now we want to make it at home.

We walked back to the hotel after dinner and relaxed with the fireplace before going to bed. We were tired so we went to bed around 11:00pm we heard the people in the next room being intimate. That is the first time in all of the years staying at hotels that we have heard anyone doing the wild thing. Umm interesting to hear it through the walls.

The next morning they were at it again. We walked to breakfast. I had a ham and cheese egg scramble that came with hash browns and hubby and eggs with ham and hash browns. After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and drove to Saratoga to look around. There weren't as many people walking around there as in Los Gatos. There were also a lot of empty store fronts so I guess they aren't doing as well. They are also a tourist town but you wouldn't know it. We went to Hakone Gardens which is a lovely Japanese garden. We had been there about 13 years ago when we were looking for a place to get married. Then we headed back home to go catch the second half of our son's basketball game. Unfortunately they lost the game. The team they played is the number one team in the league so they played really and our boys gave it their best shot but..

I had a very nice birthday. Hubby and I had so much fun. We don't get to do that too often. It was an awesome birthday and weekend. Here's to a great year!

Adult Hip Hop Class

2012-01-12T20:44:00.000-08:00

I had my first adult hip hop class tonight. It is taught by my son's teacher. He has taken 2 classes with her and she is his teacher for the dance company he is in. I actually talked to her about it then I talked to the director of the school and they added the class this semester. There were 6 of us in the class. The teacher was excited about teaching because she has been wanting to teach an adult class. It was fun but I think I am going to be sore tomorrow. I haven't done any sort of group exercise class in years. My sister-in-law is taking the class with me.

52 lbs in 52 Weeks

2012-01-08T10:09:00.000-08:00

I have a few things I am working on for 2012 and one of them is to lose 52 lbs in 52 weeks. I am off to a good start. I am down 2.2 lbs this week. I tracked everything I ate last week. I do better if I track and weigh everything I eat. I was hungry though. I just couldn't seem to get to the point where I wasn't feeling ravenous. I went past my daily totals a few of the days and I still managed to lose weight. I guess after not tracking during the holidays my body went into starvation mode. Luckily I didn't gain that much weight during the holidays. I only gained 2 lbs. My body has been in a maintenance pattern for a while. I can't seem to get past 10 lbs weight lost. I lose the 10 then I go up a little and into maintenance. My body thinks it wants to be at this weight but I don't think so. I need to show it who is boss.

Resolutions

2012-01-05T20:31:00.000-08:00

I usually don’t make New Years resolutions but this year I am going to work on some things.

So some of things I want to work on are:

Eat more fruits and vegetables
I need to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into my diet. I feel better when I am eating more fruits and vegetables along with watching my portion sizes.

Exercise more
The last few months I have stopped exercising all together so I need to get back into moving more. I want to get healthy and feel better. I want to be able to enjoy doing things with my son that involved physical activity.

Start digital scrapbooking again
I haven’t done any digital scrapbooking in a few years. I need to get my creativity back. First I have to find a way to retrieve my pictures and kits from my computer that died and another that the usb connection broke on.
I have lost my creative Mojo and I need to get it back. I haven’t done things I enjoy like digital scrapbooking, knitting, quilting.

Learn to play the Ukulele
I bought an Ukulele because I want to learn how to play it. I only tried a couple of times and got frustrated so I am going to make an effort to try and stick it out until I learn how to play it.

Relearn to play my flute
I played the flute in elementary and high school. I want to start playing again. My son is learning how to play the trumpet and he wants me to play with him.

Start knitting again
I haven’t knitted in a few years. I need to get back to it. I am part of SNB but I haven’t been to the knitting meeting in a very long time. Another thing to get my creativity back.

Declutter my house
I have a bedroom and garage that I want to declutter. I sort of have the rest of the house under control.

Get more sleep
I am not getting enough sleep so I am constantly tired. It makes it hard when my son wants to play ball or basketball with me.

A New Year!

2012-01-01T12:40:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

Let this coming year be better than all the others. Vow to do some of the things you've always wanted to do but couldn't find the time. Call up a forgotten friend. Drop an old grudge, and replace it with some pleasant memories. Vow not to make a promise you don't think you can keep. Walk tall, and smile more. You'll look ten years younger. Don't be afraid to say, 'I love you'. Say it again. They are the sweetest words in the world.
Ann Landers

Goodbye 2011 hello 2012! I hope this year is a good year filled with luck and prosperity. We spent a lazy day yesterday. We walked to Taco Bell for lunch and then to the store to get groceries for New Years Eve and day. I made homemade french onion dip. When it got closer to midnight we had pigs in a blanket, toasted mochi and onion dip. The dip was yummy. We toasted the New Year with some Martinelli's.

Today we are having Good Luck soup and Hoppin' John to bring us a prosperous year filled with luck. It is a beautiful and the ocean is gorgeous today. We are going for a walk later. It is a bit windy but you can see for miles.

Have a great year everyone!

Dicken's Fair

2011-12-13T19:22:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend we went to the Dickens Fair. This is the first time we have been to the Dickens Fair. My sister-in-law went with us.
It is an adventure into 19th Century Victorian London. There are lots of costumed players in the music halls, pubs, dance parties and Christmas shops. There are Dickens characters roaming the streets like Ebenezer Scrooge, Ghost of Marley, Father Christmas, Mrs. Claus, Ghost of Christmas Past and Present, chimney sweeps and more. There are lots of good food like roasted chestnuts, meat pies, pasties, bangers and mash. The meat pies were really good. We had steak and mushroom meat pies. There were a lot of really cool shops lining the different streets. There were lots of fair goers dressed up in Victorian clothes and some of them were dressed as Steam Punks which is interesting.
We had a good time. Will definitely go again next year and I may even dress up. Although I should have bought some clothes at the fair.

Job Interview

2011-11-22T01:01:00.000-08:00

I have been working as a classified sub for the school district since 2005. So a couple of months ago I took the school district test for School Assistant and Paraprofessional. I passed and now I am on the wait list for the jobs. I took the test way back in 2005 and didn't pass. I passed the test this time. I think it is easier to take the tests when you have been working at the jobs. Anyway I digress a few weeks ago the district sent me 2 flyer's about job openings one was a School Assistant job and the other was a Paraprofessional job so I told the districts HR person that I wanted to apply for the School Assistant job. I hadn't heard anything so I assumed that they had already hired someone for the position. Beginning of last week I got a call from the HR person letting me know that I had a job interview on Wednesday for the position.

Wednesday comes and I go to the interview with the principal and the school secretary. The school assistant yells to the principal "she's here"! The principal asks me the first question and I got all nervous. I told them that I hadn't interviewed in 11 years so the principal says maybe what my father told me will help you. He told me to picture them in their underwear so I got all discombobulated and red in the face. My son goes to that school and I know the principal and secretary and I didn't want to picture them in their underwear. LOL! The secretary said she didn't want me to picture her in her underwear. So when the interview was finished and as I was leaving I said "you can put on your clothes".

The next day I got a call from the principal saying that he kept thinking about the advice he gave me that he thought would help and that my interview had gone badly and he wanted to give me a fair chance for the job so he asked me if I could come in that morning for a second interview. He kept apologizing to me. He felt really bad about it. If it had been any other principal, I wouldn't have gotten a second chance so I am grateful to him for giving me another chance to interview. The second interview went much better and I was able to give more coherent and detailed answers so now I am waiting to hear if I got the job. It was funny afterwards when I was telling my hubby about it.

Halloween Party

2011-11-05T13:31:00.000-07:00

One of our friends, whose daughter is in the same grade as our son, invited hubby and I to her adult only Halloween party. She invited us a couple of days before the party so we didn't have any costumes on hand. We went to House of Humor to find a last minute costume. My son was invited to a friends Halloween party so that was perfect. There were tons of people looking for last minute costumes there. It was too crowded. I was surprised that there were any costumes left at all. Of course, all of the good costumes were gone. We went up and down the isles looking for a costume but nothing struck our fantasy. We didn't have any idea what we wanted to dress up as. We weren't even thinking about it. It just wasn't on our radar. I tried on several costumes but none of them looked good on me so I ended up not getting a one. Hubby found a pirate costume that looked on him so he got that. I decided to wear my disco costume from my friend's 50th birthday party last year. I just got a few more jewelry pieces to add to the costume. I had on leggings, hippy top with some 60's jewelry and earrings. I got a lot of compliments on the costume. I have lost 10lbs since last year so the top fitted and the sandals I wore fitted better. My friend invited her neighbors and a few parents from my sons school. The food was yummy. She made 4 huge salmons, asparagus, hummus with naan, cheese and fruit. It was a very nice spread. Another friend made some yummy cupcakes. I brought the hostess a bottle of Black Cat Riesling which was in a black cat bottle. So cute. We had a good time even though we didn't know that many people. We got to meet some new people. Hubby left early to go pick up our son from his party so I was at the party by myself. Everyone kept asking if he was coming back. LOL! We were going to have him stay at home but our friend said it was alright if hubby brought him back with him to the party. My son hung out with our friends daughter so that worked out. He hasn't seen her in a while because she is going to the middle school now.

2011-10-31T13:24:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!
Have a frightfully spooky halloween.

Camping With The Boy Scouts

2011-10-31T12:20:00.000-07:00

A couple weekends ago hubby, my son and I went camping at Pinnacles National Monument with the Boy Scouts. This is the first time I have camped with the Boys Scouts and at Pinnacles.

We started packing at 1:00 on Friday and got everything together more or less by 5:00, stopped at the local Safeway for some sodas, cereal, milk, and muffins and headed toward Pinnacles. Traffic was good all the way, no problems at all. We stopped in Hollister – this is NOT a surfing town no matter how they decorate the mall stores – to pick up some sandwiches for supper. The sunset was gorgeous but I didn't have my camera handy in the car to take a picture. We finally got to the campground at 8 pm, a three hour drive.

We weren't the only ones arriving at that late but his friends already had buddies for their tents so he shared his with one of his new friends from his patrol He got the Big Agnes backpacking tent. We set up our own tent. It’s a good one for two; it has covered vestibules both front and back, and both sides have a door, so no one has to be crawled over in the morning. We got the old Eureka wall tent – very roomy with just us two (and the first time we ever got to use it for just us two.

It was warm when we arrived but the evening was chilly. One of the dads is helping the boys earn their Astronomy Badge hence the camping at Pinnacles. He had his telescope set up so we got to see Jupiter, the Pleiades, and some other cool stars. The Milky Way was very visible – we never see it from our house.

My son's tent was to the left of ours, his friends was next to him, one of the older boys was between them, another older boy was to the right of us, his other friend was next to us. The boys to the right of us were talking all night and the people across from us arrived late so they were setting up and talking really loud until 2 in the morning. I had trouble sleeping -- there was so many different animal and people sounds. At 3 am the coyotes started in and at 6 am the coyotes they started in again. They sounded like they were right next to our camp site. It got really cold during the night. My nose was cold so I slept with the sleeping bag over my face.

The boys made breakfast of pancakes and bacon. But they ate the breakfast while they cooked it so there wasn't much left when it got to the adults. After they cleaned up breakfast which took the better part of the morning they gathered the troop to go on a hike. They were going to see some bat caves which were within walking distance of the campground. Hubby and I elected not to go on the hike. It was too hot to go on a long hike. The boys were gone 5 hours because the hike took longer then they thought, so everyone was thirsty, tired and hungry since they missed lunch. While they were resting hubby and I went on a 3 mile walk to the Pinnacles overlook so we could see the Pinnacles but we missed the lovely afternoon sun on them so they weren't as spectacular. There is an observation area where you can see the California Condors that they are trying to establish in the park. We got to see the Condors flying and sitting in the trees on the ridge which happened to be behind our camp site. We saw another Boy Scout troop coming back from their hike which took them 6 hours. As we were walking back we saw this huge tarantula along the path. There was a guy stopped ahead of us looking at the spider. He didn't know what it was. We saw a couple of bunny rabbits and one of them posed for me before taking off into the bushes. For dinner they had spaghetti Alfredo and hamburgers. The tenderfoot den had their astronomy lesson and looked at the sky. We saw Jupiter again and it was bigger and we could see three moons like up in an arc to the right of it. The Milky Way was a lot brighter tonight. All of the stars were spectacular. We saw some shooting stars both nights and the International Space Station came by. Everyone was really tired so we all went to bed early. The coyotes woke us up at 3 am and 6 am again.

Sunday we left late mid morning and stopped in Hollister at Chili’s to have some lunch. I had a yummy grilled herb salmon with rice and steamed broccoli, the boy had some good chicken tenders with mashed potatoes and hubby had a steak pita like sandwich with fries. We arrived home late afternoon and it was hot and crowded when we arrived. Everyone was going to the beach.

Deep Tissue Massage

2011-10-05T12:07:00.000-07:00

I had a deep tissue massage this morning. I fractured my clavicle last February then my shoulder froze up on me. I have been doing the exercises that my ortho Doc gave me and I am also going to an acupuncturist. The acupuncturist has helped but I still have trouble raising my arm fully. I need to kick it up a notch so I decided to try deep tissue massage. My arm feels a little better now. I can raise it a little bit higher. I have another appointment in 2 weeks. This will help me get the blood and chi flowing in my shoulder again. Yay I will be glad to have my arm working again.

NaBloPoMo Day 1 Between

2011-10-04T22:32:00.000-07:00

I just joined NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) where you post something everyday for a month. October's theme is BETWEEN. So this is my first NaBloPoMo post. We will see if I can keep up the with the prompts.

List two things that your childhood home is between.

Two things that my childhood home is between is the Pacific Ocean and San Bruno Mountain. My childhood home was a good place to grow up. We had the mountains and the ocean near by. It is a a suburb of San Francisco. There are quite a few suburbs within driving distance of where I grew up. My hometown has grown and changed a lot since I lived there. The population has exploded and now there are way too many people living there. A lot of the old neighborhood families have moved away. The neighborhoods have also changed. The old neighborhood stores are gone and the small hometown feeling is gone.

Star Gazing

2011-10-02T15:55:00.000-07:00

Last night my son's former Cub Scout pack held an astronomy night. His friend's father arranged the night. There were several amateur astronomers there with their telescopes. One of the guys had a huge scope. It was cloudy when we were first got there then the clouds gradually cleared. The moon was really bright. It was very pretty. Then we looked some stars. According to my friend we saw a Crescent Moon, M13 Globular Cluster in Hercules, Albiero colorful double star in Cygnus, and Jupiter...The boys all had a good time. My son and his boy scout friends were all in the same Cub Scout pack and den last year. Now they are all in the same Boy Scout Troop. One of his friends dad is active with the Cub Scouts because he has another sun in that troop and now the Boy Scouts. Anyway the boys are working on their Astronomy Merit Badge. Our friend is the Merit Badge counselor for the Astronomy Merit Badge. It was a fun night. We even got to cross a bridge we have never crossed before so that was cool.

Fog Fest

2011-09-26T19:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we let the boy go with a couple of his friends to the Fog Fest. They took the bus. His friend told him he had a bunch of bus tokens that he could use but he wasn't able to use them so he called hubby saying he couldn't get on the bus because he didn't have any ones so he eventually figured out he could use his change to pay for the bus. We saw a lot of people we know there as well as kids from the boy's school. Later we met him over at the Fog Fest. He was glad he didn't have to save money for the bus trip home since we would be driving him home. We got to enjoy the fair without the boy and got to see the booths. Usually we go to the fun fest at the junior high school where the parks and rec have a bunch of activities for the kids. Later in the afternoon we listened to our friend and her husband performing on one of the many stages. The street fair has several stages and lots of different kinds of musicians performing at the same time. We missed our son's band teacher who performed earlier in the day. Every year the weather is sunny and warm during the Fog Fest weekend but this year it was foggy and a little damp. They also have a Fog Jog which is 5 miles. Hubby ran the race again this year. We did a lot of walking up and down the street looking at the booths. We were all tired after our trip to the Fog Fest. Until next year...

Quiet Without My Son Home

2011-09-16T23:11:00.000-07:00

My son is at Boy Scout camporee this weekend. We dropped him off at the Boy Scout meeting place. There are 18 boys from the troop going. My son is carpooling with his best friend's dad who is driving and is also camping with the boys. It is just hubby and I this weekend. It feels funny not having him around. The house is so quiet without him here. Now that he is getting older he is doing more things without us. He is becoming more independent which is a good thing. He is fine with going camping without us.

First Middle School Dance

2011-09-09T20:14:00.000-07:00

Tonight was my son's first middle school dance at the community center. It is put on by the Parks and Rec staff. A few of his friends also went. Quite a few girls from his grade were there also. There are 6, 7 and 8th graders from the different k-8 schools and the middle school. He told me that he probably wouldn't dance even though he likes to dance and he is good at it. So I bet the girls will be lining up to dance with him. I told him that he had to say yes to any of the girls who asked him to dance. There were a ton of kids there. Once they are in there they don't let them out until it is time to go. I remember when I went to school dances and the girls were on one side and the boys were on the other side. After a while everyone started dancing and the girls would dance in groups. So I wonder if the kids today still do that? I hope they have some good music that he can dance to. It seems like the kids today like the remixed songs and hip hop songs. There were ground rules that the Park and Rec staff enforces. I hope they all have a good time.

Back to School

2011-08-24T17:20:00.000-07:00

Today was back to school day for my son who is in 6th grade. Every year hubby and I walk him to school on the first day of school. I take a photo of him and his friends on the first day. It is always a madhouse on the first day and the parking is pretty tight so it is easier to walk since we live near the school. His backpack was so heavy he couldn't even stand up straight with it. It is always nice seeing old mom friends that I haven't seen since the end of last year. My son was a little disappointed that none of his friends were in the same class this year.
I don't know why they decided to start school in the middle of the week. The district also changed the start time of school by starting 10 minutes earlier. I enjoy having my son home for the summer but it was nice to be able to do things while he was at school. When I picked him from school at the end of the day, he still had a bunch of things in his backpack. I don't why the teacher didn't have them put some of their things in their desks. I walked over to pick him up so he had to carry his fully loaded backpack home with him. Poor guy he said that his shoulders were hurting from carrying his fully loaded backpack. I hope they get to put some of their things into their desks tomorrow.
Quite a few of his fellow classmates are going to the middle school now so it was strange not seeing them on the playground this morning. Most of them have been going to school with my son since kindergarten. His school is a K-8 but he decided to stay there instead of going to the middle school. One of his fellow classmates that moved at the end of kindergarten year is back at his school so it was nice to see her back.

Ramblings

2011-08-14T14:39:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I have posted anything. My son has been busy this summer with 2 camps. The first camp was an Actors Studio camp which was 3 weeks. At the end of the camp the campers put on a play. This year it was The Three Musketeers: All Swash and No Buckle! My son played Porthos. The play turned out good. My son and all of his fellow cast mates did a great job. The play was a farce so it was pretty funny. After Actors Studio ended, he attended a basketball camp. It was a one week camp. He learned a lot and had fun. He did both camps with his best friend.

I applied for a job through the school district and had to take the test for it. I have been working as a classified sub since 2005. Now that my son is going to be in 6th grade it is time to go back to work. I applied for 2 jobs so I had to take 2 different tests. I will know sometime next week if I passed the tests. If I passed I will then have to do an interview with the principals from the schools. I haven't taken tests or gone on any interviews in a long time. The first test was hard. I always get tripped up my the math questions. Math is not my forte.

On Tuesday I will start working in an acupuncture center. That should be interesting. I will be answering phones, checking in patients, collecting money from the patients and other general things. I am starting off working one day a week that may develop into more days a week. We will see how it goes. I haven't worked in a clerical setting for a while so I will have to relearn my office skills.

Boy Scout Day at AT&T Park

2011-07-27T23:24:00.000-07:00

This last Sunday hubby, my son and I went to the Boy Scout day at AT&t Park. We took Bart to the Embarcadero Station and then took Muni to the stadium. The stadium promotion was a Fedora hat. The lines were so long we thought we weren't going to get one but we all got our hat. They are very cool. The Giants played the Brewers. We were sitting in the view seats so we were up high with a good view of the bay. We were above home plate. The Boy Scouts paraded onto the field before the game. The weather was sunny and nice. It was warm in the stadium but after a few hours the sun moved so we were in the shade. The Giants played a good game we won 2-1. Madison Bumgarner pitched a good game he went into 7 2/3 innings and got 8 strikeouts. Sergio Romo pitched in the 8th inning. The crowd went wild when Brian Wilson came in the 9th inning to pitch his 31st save. After the game the kids got to run the bases. My son ran the bases at Safeco Field and now at AT&T Park. After the boy ran the bases we walked down to the Embarcadero and went to the Ferry Building shops. Some of the shops were just starting to close but we did get some cheese at the Cowgirl Creamery and some chocolate from Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker.
I am planning to make a fruit, cheese and chocolate platter for dinner tomorrow night.

Seattle Trip Day 10 July 9, 2011

2011-07-25T11:10:00.000-07:00

After a good nights sleep we got up and had some breakfast with our friends. The boy wanted to go swimming so we got ready to down to the lake. The lake was so full that the trees were in the water and there was no beach. The last few years the lake water was way down. The last time we went camping there a couple of years ago the water was so low that we had to walk way down where it dropped off to get to the water. Hubby and the boy went swimming but I didn't feel like swimming so I just sat and watched him. The weather was warm but not too hot with a little breeze. After a bit we went back up to have some lunch. We went and laid down in the tent and fell asleep so by the time we got up it was too late to go back down to the lake. I think our 9 day trip finally caught up with us. We had dinner with our friends. It was a yummy chicken curry with rice and naan. It was really good. All of the kids were having fun saying naan, naan. They were coming up with sayings with naan in it. Tomorrow we pack up and head home. We can't wait to get home.

Seattle Trip Day 9 July 8, 2011

2011-07-24T23:35:00.000-07:00

We are leaving Shady Grove, Oregon and off to see Crater Lake. We stopped at Rogue Gorge. With all of the snow and rain we had the water was roaring down the gorge. I have never seen this much water running down the gorge. It was very pretty and wild. We got to Crater Lake and there is still snow on the ground and on the peaks. Some of the Rim Road was closed so we couldn't drive all away around the lake. The water was a deeper blue. It is so pretty and breathtaking. My son enjoyed seeing it. The last time he saw Crater Lake he was not quite one yet so he didn't remember seeing it.
We are leaving Crater Lake and off to Klamath Falls, Oregon. My hubby lived there for a while so he wanted to see the place again. We stopped at Mc's On Main for lunch since all of the other restaurants closed at 2:30. I had a turkey with avocado and bacon on a croissant with potato salad and melon slices, hubby had a pulled pork sandwich and the boy had a meatball sandwich. It was pretty good. We are headed to Moore Park. My son wanted to throw some ball so hubby is playing catch with him and I am sitting here writing in my journal and listening to my Ipod so I can later write my blog post. It was a very nice day and the park is nice. There is a marina across from the park which is nice, too.
It was a fun trip but I'm so ready to go home! Nothing like sleeping in your own bed. It has been 9 days of travelling in the car and staying in hotels. We are stopping at Trinity Lake on the way home to camp a couple of days with our friends who camp up there every year. On the way to Trinity we stopped at Sundial Bridge in Redding, CA. We have been wanting to see this bridge because it is a really cool bridge. It was really hot out. We stopped for dinner in Weaverville to get some groceries and grab some dinner before we headed to the camp ground. We wanted to eat at the hamburger drive in but there was a 30 minute wait so we went to Burger King which took as long to get our food. They were a little slow in there. It was dark when we got there so we had to set up our tent in the dark. The boy and I are were grumpy because it was a long hot drive and we were exhausted after our long car trip. We all fell asleep quickly.

Seattle Trip Day 8 July 7, 2011

2011-07-23T14:59:00.000-07:00

It was overcast this morning. We are driving to Multonmah Falls Columbia River Gorge. It took us a little while getting our of Portland because the GPS kept giving roads to turn on that had construction going on so we had to find alternate routes to get our of Portland. We finally got on the highway after our little tour of Portland! It took us a little while to get to the falls because it is a ways East of Portland. The falls were spectacular. There are several falls in the park and the major one is the Multonmah Falls. We saw an old tunnel that was built into the rocks that used to be the road through the area now it is just a path that goes to some falls. The inside of the tunnel was way cool.
After visiting the falls we headed to Shady Cove, Oregon where we are spending the night. It was a pretty drive going to Shady Cove. I saw a bald eagle sitting in a nest atop a pole. That was cool but I wish I had gotten a picture of it. Too hard to get pictures while in a moving car. We finally arrived at the Edgewater Inn which is along the Rogue River. It is a nice hotel. Our room was on the river side so we had balcony and a nice view of the river. The river was running very rapidly. We walked over the bridge to a Mexican restaurant where we had dinner called Miguel's Guadalajara Restaurant. The food was very good. We sat at a table at their outdoor deck with the river below us. I had the tilapia tacos with rice and beans, the boy had the kids beef enchilada and hubby had the crab enchiladas. The restaurant is directly across from our hotel. After dinner we went back to the hotel and went for a little walk around the area. We went to the little park that is next to the hotel. After our walk we went for a swim in their pool and soaked in the hot tub.

Seattle Trip Day 7 July 6, 2011

2011-07-20T16:35:00.000-07:00

We left Seattle at 10:49am to go to Mount Rainier National Park. Mount Rainier Park is very pretty. There was some snow still on the ground and the hilltops. There were some really nice views in the park. We drove up to the visitor center to see if there were any places to eat our lunch but it was too crowded so we drove back down and ate our lunch on the side of the road overlooking the mountains.

After Mount Rainer we drove straight to Portland, Oregon to begin our trip back to California. We stayed at the Comfort Inn near the Portland airport. We hooked up with my niece and nephew while we were there. We met them at Fred Meyers which is a department store that has groceries and clothing. They took us to see Rocky Butte which had an awesome view of downtown Portland. The weather was nice so it was a pleasant evening so we stayed up there for a little bit. We were hungry so we went through McDonald's drive through. We ate our dinner in our room. Next stop Crater Lake. The boy hasn't seen it since he was not quite one so he doesn't remember it. We are also going to stop in Klamath Falls, OR because my husband lived there for a bit so he wanted to see if it has changed since he lived there.

Seattle Trip Day 6 July 5, 2011

2011-07-19T21:16:00.000-07:00

We decided to stay an extra night in Seattle because there were some things that we still wanted to see. We went on the Ride the Duck tour. The tour was a not their ordinary tour because the was the Lions Club parade going on so the duck drivers had to find alternate routes to drive so we didn't get to see their usual route sites.
We went to the EMP(Experience Movie Project) that is near the Space Needle. Some of the stuff in there was interesting. We had lunch at Bambinos which is on 5th Street not too far from the Space Needle. We got a large Bamino and Capriccies pizza. After lunch we took the bus to to see the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks(Ballard Locks). That was cool. We got to see them opening the locks so the boats could pass through. We got to see the salmon ladders. There was an underwater room where one could see the salmon swimming upstream to their spawning grounds.
It seemed like we spent a lot of time waiting for or riding the bus. We ate dinner at Hamburger Harry's which was OK. I had a spinach salad that was OK, hubby got spaghetti and the boy got a cheeseburger which he said was good.