Seattle - A Day at the Zoo

Day two in Seattle started with breakfast in our hotel.  It was included with the hotel room and was a small room with half a dozen tables and a kitchen. A single cook spent the morning making a hot breakfast buffet. Callie and I really liked the scrambled eggs so Kerry asked the cook what he did. Apparently cream in your scrambled eggs tastes very good.

After breakfast we headed off to the Woodland Park Zoo. It was about 10 minutes from our hotel and right beside a large public park.  It was a bit chilly but still a really great place and would be a wonderful place to picnic in the summer.

The zoo itself was great. It had all the typical animals with lions, tigers, elephants and giraffes as well as a few more exotic ones like Komodo Dragons. Callie and Carter had a lot of fun as the exhibits allow you to get up very close to the animals and there was even a carousel. It's still quite cool out so it wasn't very busy at all. Mostly mothers and their babies who probably have seasons passes. I think it's spring break down there as well as there were very few classes.




After the zoo we headed back to our hotel and walked over to Pikes Place Market. It's a nice market but once you've been to Granville Island there's really no comparison. The quality of the food and the crafts is much better in Vancouver.

After the market we went back to our hotel for a nap (myself included). Before dinner I walked down to the pier to scout out some places to eat and do a bit of geocaching. I found a small one under a sculpture of an octopus.

For dinner there were quite a few options. We considered The Crabpot where they place the food directly on your table but it's better if you go with a group. We also found a great place that had happy hour from 3:30 to midnight during the off season but it was apparently too good as the wait was an hour and a half. In the end we ended up at Red Robin. Not very sea food like but at least we knew what we were getting.

After dinner it was off to the Space Needle. Kerry isn't very comfortable around heights so she and Callie only came outside for a few minutes. Carter and I spent more time outside taking in the amazing view of Seattle's skyline at night.

Seattle - A Not Quite Stay-cation

It's spring break and it's been a while since we had any sort of vacation so we decided we'd head down to Seattle for a few days. It's only a couple hours drive and it gives us a chance to hit the outlet malls on the way down. Things started out a bit rough as Carter decided to get sick the evening before we left. He was up coughing all night but in the morning he wasn't running a fever so we wrapped him up and stuffed him in the car.

On the way down we stopped at Walmart to pick up some Chocolate Cheerios and a few other unusual foods that you don't see in Canada very often.  Then it was over to the outlet malls for kids shoes and a few things for us. Ronnie gave me some American money for my birthday and I took full advantage of the cheap prices picking up a pair of track pants and a new basketball.

Once we got to Seattle we tried to check into our hotel however it wasn't quite ready so we went straight to the Science Center. Seattle particpates in the City Pass program and for $59.00 for adults and $39.00 for kids you get tickets to all the major attractions including the Science Center, the Zoo, the Space Needle and others. Before we got there Carter was quite excited to see the dinosaurs.  Once he saw them up close though he was slightly less excited.

Callie's favorite part was the Mole Rat exhibit.  I'm mildly uncomfortable around spiders so of course Callie likes to show me spiders all the time. When Kerry and Callie were looking up the Zoo they found out about this exhibit and Kerry didn't like the mole rat pictures.  In the picture to the left Callie and Carter are trying to get a good picture of them so that they can bring it home and scare Mommy later.

Kerry's favourite part was the Butterfly House. There were hundreds of them and signs everywhere saying to be careful where you step. They also had to do a butterfly check on the way out for apparently obvious reasons.

After the Science Center we headed back to our hotel. Our travel agent (Barb) had picked out a lovely Inn near Pikes Place Market.  It was mainly apartments but they had a number of hotel suites as well.  The room was absolutely enormous as I think they just converted a few of the apartments into hotel rooms.
We rested up at the hotel for a few hours before heading out to dinner. We went to the Rainforest Cafe when we were in Disneyland and we wanted to surprise Callie with it. As we drove up Callie recognized the sign but it wasn't until we were inside that she realized where we were going. "Really Mommy! We're actually going here? I thought it was only in Disneyland!".  The picture above is taken with everyone copying Carter's new picture smile. Dinner was great and included their signature desert, a Volcano, which is a pile of ice cream covered in slices of cake and a sparkler on top.  Too much food even for four people.
After  the restaurant we headed back to our hotel to try to get some sleep before continuing our adventure the next day.

A Tale of Two Chairs and Four Dogs

We'll start with the two chairs.  I'm not certain where these came from. They were at my parents house for the past 20 years or so and I thought they came from my Grandparents on my DAD's side but my parents have no memory of this. Even when we got them they were in bad shape. My DAD had replaced one of the seats with an old piece of counter top and the original paint had long since been replaced by a nice coat of rust. I sanded them down to bare metal, painted them with three coats of rust proof paint and replaced the seats with maple. I think they'll have to be plant stands though. I wasn't able to find very good protectors for the feet and when you have them upside down they're a lethal weapon. Still a fun project though.

Now on to the four dogs. We only have one named Wilson. (He's the cute one in the middle.) The other three belong to my in-laws. Captain, Hana and Spencer. (Those are the dogs names, not my in-laws.) They went on back to back cruises in February and we looked after the dogs. As individuals they're each great dogs. As a group they turn into a pack. And a pack of Bichon's isn't something you want to meet in a dark alley. My ear drums are still recovering. We can't complain though since they're coming down to look after Wilson while we go to Seattle in a couple weeks.

This last picture is just plain strange.  I came around the corner to find Callie and Carter creeping up on a few small treasures. They were guarding it while calling on me to clean it up and I guess they figured the smell was rising so it was better to be close to the floor.

Dinosaur Camp

The Surrey Leisure guide lists these types of sessions each season and we figured that since it was only $5 we couldn't really go wrong. Apparently we were mistaken. It was a one hour session geared towards 2&3 year olds and Carter is becoming quite the dinosaur fan so we signed him up. It had all the right elements for a 2 year old but I think the instructors were still in high school and their presentation needed some work. They started us out with some coloring and quickly moved us on to painting. For the first five minutes though they had no smocks which could have been quite the disaster with the huge globs of paint they gave the kids.

After the painting we moved on to some fossil hunting however instead of digging for bones we were digging for little plastic dinosaurs. I should also mention that during the painting they were explaining all about the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. I'm sure the kids were fascinated with all of the facts and figures she had downloaded off the internet to read them.

We also got to make our own fossils. Sort of. We took some dough and used the plastic dinosaurs to make impressions. We finished the session with some "What time is it Mr Dinosaur" and a few stories. Amazingly even though the session was only 1 hour we finished up 5 minutes early.

Carter did teach me a lesson in keeping an open mind and just enjoying the moment. He had a great time and is very excited about the Pterodactyl dinosaur toy he got to take home.

Spring Is Around The Corner

Although the rest of the country appears to be in a temporary deep freeze the west coast was sunny and 10 degrees. On Friday Kerry had the kids out in the back yard for hours including lunch in the gazebo. On Saturday we took the family to White Rock  For some reason we usually go to this beach when the tide is in but this time were lucky and the kids were able to try to walk to Vancouver Island. They didn't quite make it though they did make it to an island of sorts.  With kids in gumboots and adults in sneakers there was no retrieving them after they made this crossing.

After some well scheduled appetite building we started to head back to the many restaurants that line the waterfront. Depending on who you are our timing was either terrible or perfect as our way was blocked by a very long train. I think this is the first time Carter's seen a train this close.

We ended up at Moby Dicks where I chose the One Piece Fish & Chips.  I'm fairly certain I couldn't handle the Four Piece Fish & Chips that they offer. If you're not a Fish & Chip fan you'll probably see this as just a big pile of grease. If you are A Fish & Chip fan I can promise you it was quite delicious. Moby Dicks was voted one of Canada's Best Kept Secrets by Travelocity and I highly recommend it.

An End to Procrastination

Well I wouldn't say an end to procrastination. More like an effort to make a serious dent in the backlog.  I have a habit of starting projects, getting them to the point of being functional and then not worrying about those final finishing touches. This year I have a list of projects that I have to complete before I can start anything else. Subject #1 is a router table that I started about 4 years go. (I think) The base was created, the bottom drawer was in, the wheels were attached and the top... well the top was on top but not attached.  The finishing touches included drawer fronts, attaching the top, creating a centre door and finishing the wiring.  I"m happy to say this project is now 100% complete including a dust port in the back.  (Now I just have to finish my shop dust collection network.  That's not on this years list.)

Subject #2 is our laundry room.  Our old laundry room was very dysfunctional with ancient appliances and no storage.  (Our theory is that the previous owners swapped out the appliances when we moved in but we didn't have pictures to prove it.) This project included building upper and lower cabinets, a new counter over top of the new front loading energy efficient appliances, as well as new tile flooring.  I quickly completed the cabinets, countertop and flooring but three years later I still had to install crown molding on the upper cabinets, install the lower cabinet drawers and finish the back splash.  The doors had a bit of an issue when I installed them so I called the project "functional" and moved on to bigger and better things.  Now everything is complete with the exception of the back splash which should go in in the next few weeks. Stay tuned for my remaining projects.
1) A rocking chair started in January of 2010.
2) Refinishing of the family kids chairs started in the summer.
3) A work bench first dreamed about in January of 2009 but never started.

San Diego

This week I got to enjoy sunny San Diego while the rest of the continent was in a deep freeze. I work for an electric utility and there was a conference there directed at utilities.  Although the focus was for work I timed my flights such that I could get a few tourist stops in. My first stop was the San Diego Zoo. Kerry and my mother-in-law Barb had phoned ahead and bought me a pass for my birthday. Established in 1922 it boasts over 4000 animals and is by far the nicest zoo I've been to. The exhibits are very natural looking while still allowing people to get very close to the animals. These Koalas didn't seem to mind that we were watching them take a nap.

Day two was a conference day.  I signed up quite late so my hotel ended up being about 2km away.  I took a taxi there the first morning but after that I walked most of the time. My hotel was right across from the maritime museum. This particular ship is the oldest iron hauled ship afloat today.  Not far from here there the USS Midway was docked.  It's an aircraft carrier from WWII and was set up as a museum with quite a few different planes and helicopters.

Day three also ended up being a conference day but I left the hotel early so I cold get in a bit of geocaching. With over 200 geocaches within 2km of my hotel there was no shortage of unique places to visit. There were small parks dotting the water front and ordinarily I would have passed right by, however I took a meandering route instead and found my first five international geocaches. This 25 ft tall statue depicts the iconic photo from the end of WWII two titled "The Kiss".

The conference ended early on Thursday and my flight wasn't till the evening so I finished my week with a trip to Sea World.  I treated this week as a scouting mission for the family. All of this was within 5km of the airport and my hotel and there was a ton of family oriented things to do. I never even made it to Lego Land.  (A single guy walking around the zoo and the aquarium isn't too bad but it would just be creepy walking around Lego Land.) We're planning a road trip to Disneyland in 2012 and I think we might add San Diego to the itinerary.