Our Seattle Adventure

We wanted to take advantage of the fact that we both work from home, which means we can pretty much live or work anywhere we want.  So we decided to rent a house in the Seattle area (Port Orchard) for 5 weeks.  We loved Seattle when we visited before, and we thought the weather would be a nice change of pace from the sun and heat of Phoenix.

Road trip

Since we were staying for such a long time, and we were taking the dogs with us, we decided to take a few days to drive there.  We took the FJ and rented a UHaul to tow our Harley and all of the other necessities.  We drove west to California and stayed near San Francisco the first night.  Then headed north to the Redwoods.  We stayed there two nights and then finished the road trip by driving up the Oregon coast.  We really loved Astoria, Oregon.  Ecola State Park was beautiful.  We made a trip to see the beach and neighborhood where The Goonies was filmed.  There were many bridges along the way too that were really cool to see.  I love exploring and seeing all the different and beautiful places.

Redwoods, California

Astoria,  Oregon

Oregon Coast

Settling In

We finally made it to our home away from home.  The house was fabulous, we loved sitting out on the back patio and watching the waterfall and animals.  There were lots of birds and squirrels.  We also saw a bunny and a little family of deer.  I especially liked sitting out on the patio before work, eating breakfast, and having my hot cup of herbal tea.

Home Away from Home

Exploring Port Orchard and Surrounding Areas

On the weekends we would explore the area, including Alki Beach, Port Orchard, Port Angeles, and Forks, WA.

Port Orchard Waterfront

  Port Angeles

Forks

Mom visits and Seeing the Seattle Sights

On our first weekend there, Mom Lane came out for a visit. We picked her up from the airport Friday afternoon and did a little bit of Seattle exploration.  Saturday, we took the ferry into Seattle and went to the space needle, had lunch on the waterfront, and did some souvenir shopping.  The next day we went to Pike Place Market. We had some world famous clam chowder at Pike Place Chowder. It took me some convincing to eat there, but it was delicious!  We bought some chocolate dipped Chukar cherries.  Mmmmmm.  We also went to the Ballard Locks and watched the boats and ships come in.  We spent time at the house too,  I'm really glad Mom visited, it was nice to spend quality time with her.

Taking the Ferry to Seattle

Seattle Waterfront

Space Needle, Seattle

Pike Place Market, Seattle

The line for Pike Place Chowder was out the door and around the corner!

Ballard Locks

Our Anniversary

Can you believe Kevin and I have been married for 13 years now?  I can't, but I'm happy that we're still together!  We always have fun.  Our anniversary was no exception. We went into Seattle for the day.  We shopped at a really cool Japanese bookstore and then went to go see Brandon Lee's gravesite.  We had dinner on the patio at The Pink Door, which is supposed to be a romantic restaurant, but there was a loud party on the patio, so it was more people watching and laughing than romantic.  Kevin bought me a bracelet from Tiffany's for my anniversary gift!  Since it was our anniversary they gave us complimentary champagne.  We took the Ferry back home and got some beautiful photos of the water.

Seattle Skyline/Ferry

Heading to Canada

We took one weekend to drive to Canada.  We stayed at The Burrard hotel in Vancouver, B.C. on Friday night.  It was kinda cool, a little retro 60s theme happening.  We were amused by all of their signs.  Saturday we ate breakfast at a crepe cafe, explored downtown (shopped at Tiffany & Co - what can I say - I'm spoiled!), and went to Stanley Park. 

Vancouver

Saturday Night we stayed at the Hilton Whistler, which was very nice and very dog friendly.  We had a room on the first floor with a glass door that opened up to our own private gated courtyard.  We took the dogs with us to dinner at the grill on the patio.  They were really well behaved.  Sunday we slept in, had room service for breakfast, and then drove back to Port Orchard. 

I have to say that as much as I love to explore other places, I am always happy to be back home in the USA.  I love being an American and am proud to live in such a great Country.  Every time I pass back into the US, the phrase welcome home as I pass through the border check is music to my ears.

Whistler

Holy Harley

We went to The Oyster Run in .  We drove to Port Townsend and then took the ferry to Coupeville, then drove the rest of the way to Anacortes.  It was about a four hour trip, one way.  The roads were very foggy.  We had lunch, but mostly walked around, checking out the bikes.  The drive back was dark and cold!

Oyster Run

Parting Ways

I had to leave Seattle 5 days before Kevin.  I had to fly to California for work.  I was so sad to leave,  it was just such a fun adventure that I didn't want to end.  I listened to Yesterday by Kitten on the plane ride from Seattle to Long Beach  "I can't even see past yesterday, it's too young", those words were my mantra for the day - I just wanted to go back to yesterday!

Kevin and the dogs took the road trip back home, spending one night in Provo Utah.

Please check out our Seattle Flickr Album for all of our pictures from the trip.

Catching Up

I haven't posted anything about this year, so here's a little post to catch you up on what we've been doing.

We spent the New Year Holiday with Kevin's family in New Mexico.  Our weird food for the year was dragonfruit.  Not only did we celebrate the Holiday, but it was a milestone birthday for his mom, so we had a little birthday get together too.  Kevin and I spent much of the holiday working, there was way too much time spent in the in-laws office.

My family came for a visit soon after.  There is a new Mormon temple that opened right down the road from us, we went and took a tour during the open house.

The lease on my Juke was up, so I got a new car, it's a 2014 Toyota FJ Cruiser.  I am absolutely loving it!

I've taken several trips to California for work.  Kevin was able to come with me on one of my recent trips.  We spent the evenings going out to dinner and checking out different beaches.

I took a weekend shopping trip to Palm Springs, California with a couple of my friends.  I got lots of stuff!

The very latest is that I've taken a new position at work which will get me back to my technical analyst roots, I'm very excited about the opportunity.

I think that's about it, I hope to have time to keep the blog updated more often.  What have you been up to this year?

Click HERE to see our 2014 photos.

New York City

I've always wanted to go on a trip with my mom to New York City.  She was born there and has never been back, and it's one of my favorite cities.  So we decided to go this year for Christmas!  Check out my blog posts for photos and stories of what we did each day:

New York City Trip - Day #1

New York City Trip - Day #2

New York City Trip - Day #3

New York City Trip - Day #4

New York City Trip - Day #5

You can see all of my photos from the trip HERE, and my mom's photo's HERE.

and here's a YouTube video I put together of short video clips taken on the trip:

It was a great time, and I'm glad I'll always have these memories to share with my mom!

New York City Trip - Day #5

We spent the final day of the trip traveling back home.  We had a car service pick us up at 8:30AM at the hotel and drive us back to the airport.  We traveled together back to Denver and then went our separate ways.  Luckily our gates were right next to each other so we had a few extra minutes to chat before our flights.

Previous Day:  New York City Trip - Day #4

New York City Trip - Day #4

It was snowing outside when we woke up. We decided to walk to Central Park.  It was so beautiful with all the fresh snow on the ground.  We walked around for a bit and took a few pictures, then hailed a pedi-cab to take us to Radio City Music Hall.

We took pictures with Santa, and then with a Rockette!  She was so tall our heads only came up to her shoulders. We had fantastic seats!  I dare say the best in the house. We were front row on the balcony, facing center stage.  The show was awesome, my favorite numbers were the New York sightseeing bus, and the nativity.  They had live camels and donkeys.  It was beautiful. The whole time watching the show, I just couldn't believe how lucky I was to be in New York City with my mom at Christmas watching the world famous Rockettes!

After the show we took the scariest subway ride of my life.  We wanted to visit the hospital where my mom was born.  We walked to Grand Central Station, and took the 6 train uptown towards the Bronx.  The train was so crowded I had a claustrophobia attack and freaked out.  If I could have gotten out of there I would have.  We were stuffed in there like sardines.  We didn't have to hold on to the hand rails because we were held up by other people.  We befriended an older lady who was getting off at the same stop as us.  When we got off the train she told us to be careful, not to stand around with our phones out, and not to look like we were lost.  We were lost and decided the best thing to do would be to hail a cab and have it take us to the hospital.  We got in and told the driver the address and he kicked us out!  We ended up asking a local guy shoveling snow how to get there and it was only a block or so away. I guess the cabbie didn't think he'd make enough money for it to be worth his while.  We took the short walk to the hospital and got some photos.  I wish we could have gone to the apartment my mom lived in as a baby, but we didn't feel safe enough to walk that far, and we couldn't hail a cab. Afterward, we grabbed a steaming hot slice of New York pizza.  Delicious! 

We didn't have other plans for the day, so we went back to the hotel and just hung out for a while.  Mom searched and searched online for a ferry or water taxi that was open and finally found a tour we could go on.  It was far downtown and late at night.  I was really worried about how we'd get there and back, but mom had her heart set on seeing the Statue of Liberty up close, and this was our only chance.  We decided we'd pay for a car to drive us there and asked the hotel clerk to book the car for us.  We left for dinner and came back in time to catch our car to the tour, but the hotel clerk informed us they were unable to book a car.  She had one of the hotel staff go out with us to try and hail a cab.  After 15 minutes we were finally able to hail a town car.  I don't think he was legit, but he got us to where we were going, waited for us to make sure we were at the right place, and gave us his cell phone to call if we needed a ride back.  The water taxi tour was worth it.  What a beautiful view of the New York City skyline and the Statue of Liberty!  Again, we befriended some people on the tour and we ended up walking to the subway and riding back uptown with them.  I'm so glad we found them.  It was a long, dark walk to the subway station and I'm glad we didn't have to go it alone.

We returned to the hotel and started packing our bags for the trip home.

Previous Day:  New York City Trip - Day #3

New York City Trip - Day #3

We slept in until 9:30!  We are feeling a little jet lagged.  We took the double decker tour bus to Downtown.  It was freezing cold today, we were bundled up, but still bone cold.  Anyway, sitting on the top of the bus was so much fun!  Me and mom were the only ones up there.

We rode the bus downtown to see the Freedom Tower.  We took a few pictures, but we were freezing - my hands were numb, so we went to a nearby department store and had hot chocolate and donuts at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf inside the store to warm up.  It turns out that's the only food we ate until dinner!

After that we walked to Battery park to see the Statue of Liberty.  We were too late to take the ferry to see it, so we admired it from afar.  We were both disappointed we couldn't get a closer look.

We tried to catch the bus back uptown, but we ended up waiting at the wrong stop, and we were freezing and didn't want to wait any longer, so we decided to take the subway.  We rode it to Herald Square and went shopping at Macy's.

We had reservations at 8:00 PM at Becco restaurant in the theatre district.  We walked there from our hotel.  It was a very tiny place, crowded. We were finally seated, but had people milling around by us the whole time.  It was really yummy Italian food though, and we were starving.

After dinner we walked around Times Square and then back to our hotel.

Previous Day:  New York City Trip - Day #2

New York City Trip - Day #2

8:50 AM - We are back at the Denver airport.  So far our flight is on time.  Wahoo!  Because of my insulin pump and CGM, I always have to opt out of the back scatter and get patted down.  So I try to get to the airport early in case I have any problems in security.  Now we have another hour and a half to wait.

1:45 AM - We landed in New York!  We were able to get checked in to our hotel.  We are staying at the Jewel facing Rockefellar center.  We are SO close to the tree.  We our steps away!  We also made it in time to see Wicked.  We had great seats.  I loved the show.  I also got my bag at 1:30 AM, but it is here and I am so happy!

Previous Day:  New York City Trip Day #1

New York City Trip - Day# 1

12/14/2013 2:13 PM - in the air on my way to Denver.  Our connecting flight to New York got canceled because the airport is shutting down ten minutes before our flight was scheduled to arrive.  Mom was able to get us on a flight into New York tomorrow morning, they had nothing sooner, so we'll get into NYC a day late. Not happy that we'll miss a whole day of our trip in NYC, it was already going to be a short trip.  I guess I should just be happy that we will be safe and that I get to spend some quality one on one time with my mom. Once we get to Denver we'll need to scramble to rearrange hotel stays, and hopefully rebook our Wicked tickets.

3:50 PM - so far this is turning out to be the trip from hell.  They lost my bag.  They said it is 'probably' on its way to New York.  Not sure how that can be since they canceled the flight!  It is probably sitting in Phoenix and I'm going to be stuck without it the whole trip!  Good news is that mom's flight arrived and I'll be meeting her in a minute.  Kevin booked us a hotel, so at least we don't have to sleep at the airport.

7:02 PM - the fun continued with us getting on the wrong shuttle and ending up the wrong hotel.  The hotel was kind enough to shuttle us over to the correct hotel rather than us having to take a cab or take a shuttle back to the airport.  We just checked in and then ate dinner at the hotel restaurant. There are tons of people at the hotel who are stranded without bags.  Apparently Denver airport decided to hold bags for canceled flights and then redirect them overnight (although mom got her bag) We were told we are extremely lucky to be booked on a flight for tomorrow, lots of people are stranded until Monday.  Tomorrow is going to be a nightmare at the airport.  I'm going to take a lava hot shower and go to bed and read for awhile. At least I was smart enough to pack the necessities into my carryon, except for a toothbrush.  I'll have to go get one from the hotel store.

Maui!

We spent a week on the beautiful Hawaiian isle of Maui for our 12th anniversary!  This was our second trip to Maui.  Last time we did lots of touristy sight seeing things.  This time we just wanted to take it easy and relax at the pool and beaches - which is exactly what we did!

We stayed at the Hona Kai resort on Kaanapali beach.  Our room had a lanai with a great view of the resort gardens, pool, and the ocean.   We would wake up each morning, open up the lanai doors and drink our coffee/Diet Pepsi and have breakfast.  It was a great spot for people watching too!

We did take one day and drove the winding Road to Hana.  It was a nice sunny day, so we were able to drive with the top down on our rented convertible Mustang.  We hit a little bit of rain on our way back, but we didn't mind, the traffic thinned out, and It was fun driving in the rain with the top down, and we didn't even get very wet.The black sand beach is one of the most beautiful places on earth, I just love it, so we spent some time there playing in the surf.

There was a day that was gray and drizzly in the morning, so we decided to make this our shopping day, we drove to old town Lahaina and walked through all the shops, getting souvenirs and then stopped for lunch at a little restaurant near the ocean.  Later that evening we got a couples massage at the hotel spa, and then had a romantic candle-lit dinner at a restaurant on the beach.

On our last day in Maui we drove over to Wailea.  We had lunch on the patio at Tommy Bahamas. They have the best piña coladas ever!  Then we went shopping!  I got a pair of earrings from Tiffany's sterling silver collection.  Kevin got a new pair of Ray Ban sunglasses.

I know I'm very blessed to be celebrating 12 years with an amazing guy, and so fortunate to be able to vacation in such a beautiful setting.

Click HERE to see more of our Maui photos.