Hike on Tiger Mountain

We went hiking on a good beginner's trail called Tiger Mountain. It's a slowly elevating and windy trail through the forest up a mountain that branches off to some more difficult trails. It was partly cloudy and 65 degrees, a beautiful and leisurely hike (and it's still so strange and wonderful to us that there are no mosquitos!) We came across something on the path that we thought was dog poop, but on closer inspection... was a huge slug! We went for about an hour, but we all could have gone longer if little bubby would have been game, which after an hour, he was not. He wanted to get out of the carrier and walk, but there were some cliff dropoffs along the way. Once we turned back and got on a more even ground, we let him walk and we picked wild blackberries. Afterwards, V remembered a well-touted rootbeer float place close by that we had been to a long time ago on a trip to Seattle when Big S was little bubby's age (picture to follow if I can get my hands on it). Naturally, you get rootbeer floats after a hike.

Soccer Begins

Here are a few pics and video of soccer practice for Big S and Coach V!

Fair Day

The WA state fair is called the Evergreen Fair, and it is in August each year, because that is when "fair-like" weather is here. It's smaller than the TX state fair, but still fun, and you can definitely do it all in a day - especially with three small kids in tow. We went with our good friends, thank goodness we have some good friends here to keep us up on all that is going on! The fair is in Monroe, WA which I immediately recognized as a town very similar to Mesquite, TX where I grew up, but more how it was about 20-25 years ago, when it was a true rodeo town. Lots of little boutique shops and restaurants, lots of rednecks, hunters, fishers, rodeos and monster truck events! The bumper stickers were hilarious (to me because I grew up in a redneck town - lots of gun, hunting, and republican sentiments displayed.. felt like home.) :-) If there was anywhere my parents would like to live here in WA, this place would be it! Even the little gazebo in the downtown city square!

Wish I would have gotten a close up pic of the second truck from the left below, the bumper stickers were HILARIOUS!

The food was good fair food, but not so many fried concoctions as TX (I am still a Texan, so tend to still compare everything to TX, who knows when/if this will ever end), but we way overindulged as usual. We had corn dogs, shared curly fries, cotton candy, popcorn, mini-donuts, and elephant ears (like funnel cakes)! Yummy, but ugh.

Blue Angels

Vic got to attend a Blue Angels show over Lake Washington aboard a lake cruiser as part of a company outing. Here's a little snippit.

Nana Visit 2010

Nana came for a visit in July with two long-time girlfriends of hers, and it felt like a vacation for all of us. We did a lot of things we haven't had a chance to do yet since we've been here. The weather was wonderful, about 70 degrees each day, so we are enjoying it while we can! We already miss you Nana!

We went on an Argosy cruise of Lake Washington and saw Bill Gates' house nestled in the hillside much of it underground (all $120 million of it.)


Here's an acre of land on Lake Washington with no house on it going for $19 million if you're interested. Also a pic of downtown Bellevue from the boat.

We picked wild blackberries on the Sammamish River Trail.

Of course we went on a tour of Microsoft led by V, visited the museum and had lunch there.

Went to the Seattle Aquarium. Pretty neat, but has nothing on Dallas' World Aquarium, which was surprising with Seattle being a port city and full of marine life and plenty of people with lots of money to fund it, but it just wasn't as neat as Dallas' indoor rainforest. We did get in free though. :-)

Little S, stubborn as she is, is not in the aquarium photos because she refused to give up her balloon from Salty's to go inside, so she sat outside with V while we went to the aquarium. She didn't seem at all regretful about her decision.

Went to an amazing all-you-can-eat seafood brunch at Salty's of Alki beach. Truly too good for words. We took a water taxi across the Puget Sound to get there, and had a view of downtown Seattle from the other side of the water.

We were able to go on a date for our 10th anniversary while Nana was here in a very cool neighborhood in downtown Seattle called Wallingford.

Chateau Ste Michelle wine tasting for just the ladies while V stayed with the kids.

Fresh sockeye salmon from Pike's market

Snoqualmie Falls, about 20 minutes from our house. We ate lunch at the little lodge at the top of the falls.

Downtown Seattle - coffee at the original Starbucks, bought some salmon from Pikes Place Market