Wii

Friday was Chris' 26th Birthday. And for his birthday he got...

A Nintendo Wii!

We are hooked. We've been bowling, playing tennis, and golf. It's the most fun gaming system ever! And it's great with a crowd. Very interactive.

Homer Weekend

Right after returning from our out-of-state trip, we promptly headed down to Homer for a weekend getaway. We went with our friends Joe & Dellany and stayed at Dellany's dad's place in Peterson Bay. Dave and his wife Caryl are wonderful hosts (amazing cooks!) and are both retired art teachers. Caryl let Dellany and Dori do a little bit of glass work - making drink stirrers and other objects to be fused out of scrap glass. It was great fun!

We spent Saturday afternoon kayaking out in the bay and it was a perfect day for it!

Dellany and Joe in the kayaksChris rode the waterbike, which was a good thing, because after we paddled all the way around, I was pretty tired, and I made him tow me back to the dock ;)
I just thought these buoys were cool. It's an oyster farm in the middle of the bay! The view from the cabin - and one of Caryl's ceramic pieces

Guinness and Salty had a good time running around playing. Here they are near the end of the weekend - pooped!

The best and most exciting news from the trip though, was that Joe proposed to Dellany and she said yes! He hid a message in a bottle and took her for a walk on the beach. She had no idea, and was delighted. Of course, it was our job to keep Dellany distracted and help Joe plant the bottle, so we were equally delighted to be part of such a special event. Congrats to them!

And finally... Seattle!

We didn't get alot of time for exploring in Seattle but we did make it out on the town and had some interesting experiences!

Mike really didn't want to be photographed, but I did get a cute shot of him with Cristen. In this picture we are at a great little bar called The Apartment. After leaving this place, we were heading back to the car when we came upon a guy passed out on the street corner. We called for an ambulance of course and stayed with him until they came. He was not responsive to our attempts to rouse him - and his finger was pretty messed up and bloody. When the paramedics arrived they took over and he sort of told them he had been mugged (although he still had his wallet) we are pretty sure he just had WAY too much to drink and passed out while trying to walk wherever. Yeah, that's embarassing!

Megan had to work one of the nights we were there, so we went and visited her at Zach's Burgers, where she was our server. Smile Megs!

I have no idea what is going on in this picture. It looks like Jess may be stabbing Megan, and Mark is giving the camera his evil pirate eye.

On a sadder note, when we went kayaking on Lake Union, my sister Cristen lost her camera in the water. It just slipped right out of her pocket! While the pictures that were already on there were saved, the camera of course, is no longer operational. So we have no pictures from our kayak trip, as Chris convinced me that i should leave the SLR on shore...

Vancouver

The next stop on our vacation was Vancouver, B.C. Dori's sisters, Cristen & Megan joined us and we took the train from Seattle, which was a fun experience. The scenery along the way was incredible! It basically just hugs the coast all the way north. We even saw bald eagles flying around in one of the coastal towns in Canada.

View of Vancouver from Granville Island. They had the best public market there - wonderful produce and beautiful jewlery, pottery and art by local craftsman. Megan, Cristen & Chris get up close and personal with the Indians in Capalano
Cristen & Jess pose on the Capalano Suspension Bridge about 30 minutes north of downtown Vancouver
On the other side of the suspension bridge is a rainforest. We explored that, and here Chris, Cristen & Megan are posing for the camera. I think this pose was inspired by Derek Zoolander... Is that Blue Steel or La Tigra?
We took the "AquaBus" water taxi from downtown Vancouver to Granville Island. It was awesome!
We all agreed the Aquabus was the best public transportation we've ever been on.

Portland

"Summer Vacation" was great fun this year. We flew to Seattle and met up with Jess & Mark - Dori's college buddy & her SO. That's right Mark, you're an SO ;)

We drove down and spent the first weekend in Portland. The weather was incredible!

Here is Chris looking over the Wilamette River (I think) that runs through Portland. It was the Rose Festival the weekend we were there and people were out and about everywhere!

We visited a few of the Oregon wineries in the Wilamette Valley - sampled some really great wines and saw some beautiful landscape...



Here we are at the Lange Winery with our friends Steve, Mark, Jess & Afton. Afton and Steve just moved to Portland and graciously let us crash at their adorable place.

Then we finished off the day with a drive to the Oregon coast (Tillamook area) It was beautiful!

You can't see it too well in this small pic - but the tide was out and there were these wonderful little air bubble patterns in the sand from whatever creature was buried beneath...

Moving to a blog...

It's about time - I know... I just can't keep up with the website so we are moving to the blog format.

So this way you can all post comments and we can keep everyone updated with what's happening in our world. Stay tuned!