Seattle Bound Nooooo reservations!

Guest Blogger: Dad Dog Beach

2009-09-04T14:09:00.000-07:00

DOG BEACH @

SAN FRANCISCO AT GOLDEN GATE!!!!!

Need i say more!!!

Okay i will...

Uncle Mike and Aunt Sally with their wonderful dogs!

Cochise is on the left (coco) and Lakota (kota) on the right (pic above) Tennis balls and 20 dogs w/ the golden gate and ocean fetching back drop... dogs of all kinds it was really awesome...
It was wonderful to see Megan's place and tour beautiful but crazy busy sanfranciso. Crissy Park was one of many places that were very cool! Kite surfers to wind surfers. I was satisfied with throwing tennis balls. Tristan and I both dswam with the dogs it was inevitable... (the chinese food was the BEST not to mention the company...) LOVE NORTHERN CALI it is a must SEE!!!

BEACH BUNNIES!

There is more to come... STAY TUNED

Zen Garden

2009-09-04T13:10:00.000-07:00

We went to the Zen Garden in California, It was really amazing. All of the buildings and towers really made me want to go to China. I felt like I was really in China. We saw Buddah and fish, It was truly amazing.

Meggie's House

2009-09-01T22:10:00.001-07:00

We arrived at Megan's house later than we thought, and they made Mom a birthday cake. Don't ask about the scarfs. That's just normal behaviour for Catie and Meggie.

Coastal Crisis

2009-09-01T21:56:00.000-07:00

On the way to Meggies, we saw a sign that said Pirates Cove! For those of you who do not know of this significance ask Ben. After that we went to a beach that was one of the most deadly beaches in California. Click on the sign to read the rules it said to not even play tag with the waves. So, I played tag with the waves and ran off!

Chandelier Tree

2009-09-01T21:41:00.000-07:00

We saw many signs directing us to the Drive-Through Tree. We had to do it, too tempting! We thought, this might be a tight fit, afraid our truck (Bert, his name was decided upon days before this) was too tall and might get stuck. But that was not the problem, our truck was in fact too wide. Well almost too wide. We had about one inch on each side. While I was outside of the car, my parents were inside. When they got through the tree, I said, Now we have to do it again except with me inside! They completely disagreed, but after a while I convinced them that I didn't get the full experience, we drove through again. Then I posed in a tree and ran off!

California Coast

2009-09-01T21:30:00.000-07:00

The waves are giganto! Literally, HUGE! We are near the coast of Mendocino, google it because, we left the camera in the car. The ocean was amazing, so me and dad decided we must swim in this freezing, creature infested, salty water.

Redwood National Forest

2009-09-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

We went into the Redwood National Forest, the trees were so huge! You would need 10 people to fully hug one of them. Some of them had trees growing off of them, making it climbable. You could sit inside of the fallen down trees, but it seemed to be the home of an animal, and I didn't want rabies!

Mother's Birthday

2009-08-31T23:10:00.000-07:00

For Mommy's birthday dinner, we had halibut, steak, corn, grilled veggies, caprese salad, and asparagus. Momma was so happy! I bought her a red skirt, that's really comfy, she says its her traveling skirt. Happy Birthday Momma!!

WOW, Mount Rainier, Greek delicous

2009-08-28T20:25:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted for a while because I LOVE WOW, World of Warcraft. Its an online mmorpg, so much fun :D. We went to Mount Rainier, huge mountain, I climbed some rocks, but that was tiny compared to the whole thing. They gave us a hilarious paper that said,

If you see a black bear or mountain lion...

Close encounters with Black Bears

Never feed a bear, either intentionally or by leaving food unsecured.
Do not approach bear cubs.
Back away slowly, do not run. Talk loudly

If Charged by a black bear

Act aggressively, shouting, throwing rocks and sticks
If the bear attacks and you do not have food, fight back aggressively.

close encounters with a Mountain lion

Do not run or turn your back
stand up tall, open your jacket, yell, throw things
stand in a group
Pick up and hold small children
If attacked fight back. stay standing. hit as hard as possible especially in the head use a stick or rock as a weapon, THROW DIRT IN ITS EYES-

what?!? throw dirt in its eyes? really? like that will do much. Its a mountain lion for gods sakes! But it is better than Yellowstone's rules.

lay on the ground
fake death
roll up in the fetal position
suck your thumb
put yourself on a giant white platter and cover yourself in gravy.

We went swimming at the coldest lake in the world, the water was from glaciers! If you stayed in too long you would DIE. Polar Bear club anybody? We had delicious Greek salad for dinner, oh how i love my mothers cooking.

Aquarium / Serious Pie

2009-08-24T23:13:00.000-07:00

We went to the aquarium today, it was really cool, I wasn't as into it as my dad though. He loves fish. We saw soo many fish too. We saw Eel and sharks too. You could pet the sea urchins, that was freaky. There was an arch that you could walk through inside the arch, were jellyfish. That was really cool. We saw Harbor Seals, they were sooo cute! We also saw otters. One of the otters climbed up on a rock right in front of me and had explosive diarrhea. EW! I am scarred for life! There was the little pictures that you could put your head into. "How childish" I thought. I was over there in a second with my head in the frame yelling take a picture! We saw little tiny seahorses too. How cute. Afterwards we went to Serious Pie. Tyler Florence from food network told us to go there on The Best Thing I Ever Ate. We ordered 7 PIZZAS. By the end of this I couldn't move. We got buffalo mozzarella, San Marzano tomato pizza. Which was the winner out of the seven.

Revolving Sushi (Heaven?) / company picnic

2009-08-22T22:35:00.000-07:00

We went to a sushi place (I cannot recall the name) with REVOLVING SUSHI! I thought I died and went to heaven. You could grab sushi right off the conveyor belt and eat it! Each dish was only 1-3 dollars! Today we went to Augusta's company picnic. The food was great, and we found out her company is going on vacation to Maui next year. Exciting right? They had Segway lessons there, I learned how to ride! Its really not that hard. Lean forward to go forward lean back to go back and there is a switch thingy to turn.

Guest Blogger: Mom

2009-08-20T13:35:00.000-07:00

I will have to do the commentary on the Red Hook Brewery tour, Tristan would have liked to go on the tour but since he can not drink beer (legally) he stayed back to play World of Warcraft. Well after much arm twisting we got Ben to go on the Red Hook Brewery Tour in Woodinville, WA. (Just across the road from Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery - which I toured on a previous visit - delicious!) Lots of fun, the guide was hilarious and the history of the company interesting.

Augusta and I, not noted for our beer drinking capacities, would have a sip of the different samples (which included their Slim Chance light beer, SunRye Summer Ale, Red Hook EBS, Longhammer IPA, and Blackhook Porter)and then gave Ben the rest. He definitely enjoyed their liquid goodness! I think we agreed that the SunRye Summer Ale was the best! We also had the opportunity to see the bottling process - impressive. We enjoyed a nice dinner outdoors after the tour.

The Docks/Pike street 2nd trip

2009-08-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

We went to the docks, so Dad could see some sweet fishing. It was pretty decently paved so I did some skating. We went onto the docks, It was pretty cool. You would need some heavy duty rods to fish there. Dad went up to a man fishing on the docks, he was pretty nice, his name is Gill. Me and Mom kept teasing Dad saying Gill was his best friend. It was pretty funny. Later on we went to Pike street for lunch, remember the best clam chowder ever that I posted about? This was better. It won the Rhode Island best chowder contest. It made my mouth water. It was fantastic!!

Pike Street

2009-08-16T21:07:00.000-07:00

We went to Pike street today. Since it is the weekend, the place was flooded. It was seriously an ocean of people! I have never seen anything like it in my life! There were these gates right by were we entered, they were beautifully formed! It looked like metal vines and leafs and flowers all in a repeating design. We decided to go and get fish from Pike Place Fish co. because Gussa told us it was one of the fish places were they let you choose your fish and then they throw it to each other and say what the fish is called and if you want it filleted or on ice etc. There were lots of people playing music and stuff on the streets to earn money. There was one guy on the streets who was doing something pretty cool. He was hula hooping, while playing a guitar, and a harmonica, AND singing. Talent people, that's talent. I had clam chowder at Pike street too. It was the best clam chowder I have ever had. And I've had a lot of clam chowder in my life. After Pike Street, we went to a park. Gus, Patrick, Mom, and I, decided to go down 9 million stairs to the water. We just ending up walking two miles instead of going back up the stairs to the car.

Days 9-10

2009-08-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

We went into Seattle and went past the first Starbucks EVER! That was exciting. I wanted to go there, but there was a line out the door. My dad has an interview! I bought a skateboard. I'm getting better and better. I am having so much fun that I'm having a hard time posting. I will post some pics of me skateboarding tomorrow.

We made it!

2009-08-12T22:08:00.000-07:00

The trip here seemed really short, well because I slept most of the way. I was really only awake for 30 miles of the home stretch. We arrived at Gussy's house, once she got home, she let us in. Her house is really nice. We drove to the mall (although we couldve walked) when Augusta and Aaron were at soccer. We got lunch, I had sushi at a FOOD COURT! Okay i'm hooked. I want to stay here. Sushi in a short distance? Gus let me move in! My sleeping arangments are not the best, but really, I like the air mattress. My parents are sleeping on a bed.

Yellowstone Days 5-7

2009-08-11T21:58:00.000-07:00

Yellowstone was really amazing. It was so beautiful, I saw moose, elk, waterfalls, steam vents, geysers, one of the biggest geysers, Old Faithful. Old Faithful was awesome, but, the wait was really long and it was horribly crowded. The worst part of the trip was the camping. At night we had to camp with temperatures in the high 30s! It was so cold at night, I'm lucky I didn't get sick. It was really weird being in such high altitude, It was a lot harder doing the simplest tasks, and in the day it was really hot. Yellowstone is really cool I would love to go again when I'm older.

Wildlife Loop Day 4

2009-08-09T10:04:00.000-07:00

If you thought the prairie dogs were wild look at these bicen! They were really close to your car and in the road its really amazing! The loop also included Donkeys which would walk right up to your car and stick their head in the window.

NOTE: (Day 5) entering Yellowstone. Horrible service, might not be able to post for quite a while.

Wind Caves National Park Day 4

2009-08-08T20:49:00.000-07:00

The Wind Caves were one of the coolest things I have ever seen! I am already into geology this just furthered my interests. The cave was amazing, and dark damp and cold. It had cave popcorn, cave frost, etc. It was really fun.

Crazy Grasshoppers/ Custer state park Day 3

2009-08-08T16:01:00.000-07:00

First I just want to say, The grasshoppers in South Dakota are INSANE. Second the state park we stayed in, was AMAZING. There were bison, I have never seen them before. THEY ARE HUGE! The pronghorn deer were really cool and totally tame.

Mt. Rushmore / Bike City

2009-08-08T07:48:00.000-07:00

On our way to Mt. Rushmore, there were so many bikers it was hard to drive. Litterally millions of bikers. Mt. Rushmore was amazing. It was smaller in person than in pictures, but still, amazing. We also saw crazy horse. TOTAL RIPOFF! Only half its face was finished and it cost 2x the amount of Mt. Rushmore.

BEWARE: Rattlesnakes

2009-08-08T07:35:00.000-07:00

After the Prairie Dogs, we went to the Badlands, Holy Hot! It was 94 degrees! It was really buetiful. We saw some people from Imlay City!! Small world. I was totally terrified of getting bitten by a rattlesnake. My dad wants to catch one. Hes insane!

Caseys Cafe/ Parie doggies! Day 3

2009-08-08T07:19:00.000-07:00

We ate breakfast at Casey's Cafe, they had the best Belgian Waffle EVER. Unfortunately it gave me horrible gas. :( Casey's Cafe supposedly had the perfect cheeseburger from Maine to Cali. But we were in a hurry, I will eat you someday cheeseburger. We stopped to feed the parie dogs. I went into the store to buy some peanuts for them.

Fact:

Praie Dogs do not drink water, so if you were ever to feed one unsalted peanuts are your best bet.

I bought the peanuts and went outside. I wasn't paying attention and lost my sandal in a parie dog hole. I almost broke my leg from falling in! But I did not. My dad reached into the hole and got my flip flop. I threw a peanut to a parie dog, and since these were tame, I pet its head! Parie dogs are so soft!! They are now my favorite animal.

Day 2 South Dakota 9:50 PM

2009-08-06T19:41:00.000-07:00

We have arrived at South Dakota, we are staying at the Holiday Inn. It is a 3 star hotel, thanks to hotwire.com we are not camping in the rain, or sleeping in the car. Its even got a sauna! The food here was good too! The pool is nice, but the best of all is that I get to sleep in a bed!! We plan to camp at Wind Cave National Park and then see Mount. Rushmore tomorrow. Until then, goodnight and sweet dreams.

Slight Delay In Wisconsin 11:30 AM - 6:51 EST

2009-08-06T15:30:00.000-07:00

We left Gaylord at 5:00AM. After considering buying unhealthy delicious meat patsies, we decided to get a full breakfast in Escanaba. My breakfast was good, although my parents hash browns tasted like they were leftover from yesterday and reheated (yuck!). We have driven an aproxament total of 1000 miles. All our butts are sore! Slight delay in Wisconsin, the po po caught us.

...guess who was driving?

Nooooo Reservations :Food Highlights Day 1

2009-08-05T17:33:00.000-07:00

For lunch we ate in the car, we had the juiciest peaches I ever ate. they were from penzien's.

For dinner we had ribs rubbed in Montreal Steak and A1 sauce. They were juicy and delicous. Some of the best ribs I have had in a while.

Day 1 8:25 PM

2009-08-05T17:12:00.000-07:00

We have arrived at Uncle Charlie and Tante Christa's! Lucy will stay here with them for the month we are out west. The ride was pretty horrible, but it will be better next time, because Lucy won't be drooling in my ear. We will be leaving tomorrow at 3:00 AM (Or leaving later, breakfast is oh so tempting) from Gaylord we are trying to make South Dakota by tomorrow.

(Tante Christa and Mom are "wine drinkers extraordanaire!")

Day 1 11:59 AM

2009-08-05T08:41:00.000-07:00

We are finishing up our packing and heading onward to Uncle Charle's and Tante Christa's house, to drop of our dog Lucy and stay the night. It's pretty chaotic here, with all the packing, it's exciting but also sad. The future is unkown. We should probably go get our truck from the repair shop in a hour or so. I can't wait to see my sister, and possible future homes. Like I said before its very exciting. Neighbors and friends and my brother are coming over to watch our cat. Ready or not Seattle here we come!!