20 posts tagged “travel”

Yesterday TxK and I decided to venture out of the snowfields of the eastside and head south in search of warmer weather…

To Puyallup we went to the Spring Fair and to the Smashfest Demo Derby.  Even with the frigid tempatures (for April in Washington anyway), we had a super fun time.

Heck I'd go so far as to say: Best $20 I have spent on live entertainment in a long time.

I also found a most wonderful wool hoodie sweater and a carmel apple, both of which have been on my hunt list for a while now.

I need to go on another trip... *sigh* 

I dumped all of my photos in my flickr account but I did very little editing... here are a few of my favorites that I do not think I have already posted...

Day 1.

It was a travel day, I planned to leave my house by 5:30 but I was a little later out the door than I had hoped.  It was all well and good.  I made it to their house in time.  The shuttle van was at the top of their street. 

We all went to the airport, with the exception of almost forgetting the stroller at the house, it seemed fairly uneventful in a good way.  Check in was easier than I would expect with 3 kids, but then there were also 3 adults and we just moved as a unit rather than a bunch of parts. 

The kids are pretty mellow, well perhaps mellow is the wrong word.  They are pretty predictable if you pay attention you get the patterns pretty quickly.  They are good kids with a ton of energy.  It helps that they are smart and have a sense of humor that is a little beyond their years of the average 21 century kid that I regularly come in contact with.  (With the help of his mother the older one SV at 7 is reading the Iliad.)  They are thoughtful and also have their little meltdown.  The youngest RK spent a good 15 minutes crying on the plan until she crashed out.  Typical tired and not really wanting to sleep.  The middle IB watched Mary Poppins and colored.  While SV read one of the many books he is currently reading.

When we arrived in PV half of the family had already been there, I think they had arrived a few hours earlier and were hanging out in the airport.  There were 2 vans taking everyone to the house together.  We waited a bit longer for the last of the party to arrive and make it through customs.

Everyone rounded up, we headed to the house.  It is right on the beach, and by right on, I do not mean a block away, I mean a gate away.  The front of the house is off a cobblestone alley (though it could be a street, I think it is an alley) there are high walls surrounding the property and heavy black gates.  There is a security guard, a cook, a bar tender and waiter and a handful of other staff.  The house is lovely ~ really.  The main house has one bedroom on the main floor, four on the second floor and two in a guest house in the back, between the two houses is a pool and patio, a driveway a garage with a pingpong table and a laundry room.  The other side, which I guess is the front of the house, has a yard with a fountain, another patio and then through a set of gates is another patio area and then the beach.  In the basement of the main house is a media room/office that is almost the size of the main floor of my house.  It is almost as if there is no real reason to leave the property.

   

In a blender add:

 

1 Jeep

4 friends

1 dog

300 Miles

1000 tons of sand

34 Petrified Logs

1 closed malt shop

1 waitress gone mad

14 wild horses

1 bridge

 

Sprinkle with laughs and road bugs and blend for 6 hours.

 

This weekend TxK, J9 and I headed out to Portland. 

I decided to only take my fisheye lens with me, for the sake of simplicity as much as a challenge.

We decided it would be fun to take the train, which was nice since none of us had to drive, though of course I lost my return train ticket and had to buy a new one.  Oh well.

We headed down there for the Crafty Wonderland Craft Extravaganza. 

The first night we called a friend who runs tastingmenu.com to see if he had any recommendations, but he did not. 

So we decided to take it into our own hands when I found a review for Dan & Lois Oyster Bar.  TxK called Pkl who we were meeting for dinner (the place with the bacon tater tots was unavailable).  The food was quite nice.  The steak cooked PERFECTLY.

After dinner we headed for Voodoo Doughnuts since they have a maple bar with bacon on it, yes I said bacon, on the doughnut.  It was quite delightful. 

Then we went to a bar that Pkl’s friend is a co-owner of.  The service was meh, the drinks were good, the lights were blue and the bathrooms stunk.  I am hoping it is a sign of just working out the kinks. We stayed at the Jupiter. 

Which brings me to the Crafty Wonderland craft fair… usually it is in the Doug Fir which is at the Jupiter, not this one; we failed to note this though we ALL looked at the email.  Sadly this resulted in us not getting the goody back.  The fair was packed, I would have taken pictures but all you would see is a sea of people.
Then we headed to another craft fair up the street, something about a Bunny…?

After which we searched for lunch and stumbled upon Hippo’s which was AMAZING.  They have pretty much everything hardware, lighting and bathroom related. 

They even had these HUGE tubs, over six feet!!  One was in One Flew Over the Cukoos Nest (the movie, probably not the book).

We went to Nicolas’ for lunch, delicious.

As we wandered around we came across a tattoo shop.  Kelli decided to get a green star inked on her wrist.

Then it was time to head home.  I had to buy a new train ticket, but whatever it was my own fault for losing it. 

Overall it was a fun weekend, good friends, good food, good crafts.

If you had a time machine, which year would you travel to and why?
Submitted by Michelle.

I would want to go back in time to when my grandmother Marie and her sister Helen were in their early twenties, running around causing trouble, I am a lot like them.

Ok I did it.  I went and fully set up my Flickr account, went pro and everything. 
Last night since I could not sleep, I spent hours uploading images off my hard drive.  It boggles my mind a bit to realize how many pictures I have taken since I got my new camera, it also tells me that it was a worthwhile investment.