DEEP FREEZE!! We're snowed in!

The city of Seattle pretty much shut down today. Lots of cars abandoned on highways and littered the sides of roads. Schools were closed and school buses are not running. Any streets with even a slight slope, cars were skidding and sliding back down.

So did Kyle make it to work today, you ask? Of course! being the faithful Microsoft employee that he is, he took the bus (his bus had tire chains) because he had a meeting to go to this morning. No way was I driving him, and a good thing too, since it's just crazy out there!

It's not officially the first day of winter yet, but the forecast warned for this crazy weather yesterday and all we got was rain. Until early this a.m when we got dumped on by thundersnow!!. The current temp is -2 degrees celcius or 27 degrees fahrenheit. And here we thought we wouldn't see snow till we went back home for Christmas in Ontario, it's definately unusual weather and record breaking to say the least.

Watch this clip on the Komo news site, it's a little long, but parts of it is kinda funny. Cars with chains trying to make it up the hill, Bartell drugs having a "sale" on sleds for $20 bucks!!

Here's Frosty sleeping in front of the heater vent...pathetic!

Today, Walking in the Washington Arboretum

I think I'm finally caught up! We had it all planned this Sunday, meet Ryan and Krista for lunch at Djan's while it rained pretty heavily. After lunch, rain stopped, Kyle and I headed over to the Washington Arboretum to check out the fall colours. Great timing as usual, no more rain and the sun came out. We had a nice long walk on the trails, over bridges, under the highway, over the water and into Marsh Island. Very pretty, but I'm missing the fall season in Canada :(




That is the University of Washington's Husky Stadium in the background behind Kyle.

Testing, testing....Caviar!!

This weekend Astra and Brian invited us to Dim Sum, then we all headed over the bridge into Seattle for some caviar tasting. The tasting is free if you make a purchase after, or else it's 10 bucks per person. Definately worth it! as we had five samples each of caviar ranging from the American whitefish, Salmon Ikura and the piece de resistance! the Iranian Osetra at $212 for 1 ounce!! or $1,720 for 8 ounces. Anyhoo, thanks Astra for inviting us along on this delectable treat :)

Bark, bark, bark!!

Some bark pics of the Big Leaf Maple tree and some other interesting ones at the arboretum.

Tilicum Village for the Salmon Bake!

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this Seattle port
Aboard this tiny ship.

The mate was a mighty sailing man,
The skipper brave and sure.
Eight passengers set sail that day
For a four hour tour, a four hour tour.

We arrive at Blake Island to Tilicum village (yeah, the song's over!) where you're greeted with clam soup, then ushered into an Indian Longhouse where there's a salmon buffet waiting. After eating, the stage comes alive with a show about NW Indian culture and stories of a "wild beast" that got blamed for everything including eating children!! Then, we took a short walk around the island before catching the cruise back to port. The Chinook salmon was pretty good baked in traditional Indian style over an open flame. Another honorable mention is the warm whole grain bread. Not something we would do again, but it was fun to get together with some of Kyle's friends from work to an island away from the city with a great view of the Seattle skyline.

Soap Lake

The last weekend in September, we decided to take a trip to Soap Lake, about a 2.5 hour drive SE from Seattle, WA. We tagged along with Astra, Brian and Eric who've been there before (o.k, it's Brian's first time too) and sang its praises. This lake is suppose to contain minerals that promote skin healing/mineralization. We stayed at the "Inn at Soap Lake", appropriately named since its back door sits pretty much right at the lake. The thing to do is wade out into the middle of the lake where it's much deeper until your feet feels like it's stepping in jelly. Collect the mud in buckets to bring back to shore, apply on skin and bake until dry. The black mud at the bottom of the lake feels creamy and cold, and smells like sulfur Phew!! So we slap the stuff on everywhere, even in my hair! and the after effects is smooth skin and shiny hair. It was a great experience and we would definately do it again! Here's the mud people:

Yikes! Where did October go???

Don't know if anyone noticed (hmfph!) but I haven't written in over a month! I didn't even realize that until now. So what's new? we've been enjoying the really nice weather here, don't know what everyone is complaining about. When it rains, it just kinda sprinkles, then gets nice again..."Ohhh, just you wait till winter when it's cold and rainy ALL the time!" so they tell me. But I laugh in their face (no, I don't really), no shoveling snow for us this winter!! Woo-Hoo! So, here's a pic of the view from our condo.

Space Ice Cream!

Hello everyone. This is Kyle and I am writing a guest post on Abby’s blog. Yesterday we went to Fry’s electronics to pick up a few things. As usual I spent longer at Fry’s than I expected and picked up a few extra things. Fry’s is am amazing place. Kind of like a mixture of Futureshop and a local computer shop that does not suck.


So on the way out I picked up some Astronaut ice cream. This stuff feels like Styrofoam until you get it in your mouth and then it dissolves into ice cream!

If you want some leave a comment and I will mail you a package!

Well everything else here is going well. Abby, Astra and I went on a tour of the Theo’s chocolate factory last weekend and that was interesting but we don’t have any pictures :( we forgot the camera battery so we will have to go again (darn). Here is a link to the factory: http://www.theochocolate.com/

Well that is it for today. TTFN Kyle

Happy Anniversary To Us!!! Victoria, B.C Weekend

Beautiful city of Victoria on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, I can't believe I've never been out west of Canada before!!! Looks like the sky is always blue with boats bobbing in the waters and tourists everywhere! We boarded the Victoria Clipper ferry from Pier 69 in Seattle as part of their overnight package. It took 2 and 1/2 hours from Puget Sound into the Strait of Juan de Fuca leading into Victoria's Inner Harbour. The trip was pleasant enough, the clipper is a catamaran that seats about 300 people and travels approximately 30 mph.

As soon as we arrived, a bus took us on a quick tour of the city before dropping us off at Butchart Gardens. We had lunch, then strolled through the Italian gardens, the Japanese gardens, Rose garden and sunken garden. The pictures speak for themselves.

We had a yummy seafood dinner and spent the next day walking around the city. We headed over to old chinatown and Fan Tan Alley, one of the narrowest alleys in Canada. Visited the underseas garden, which is like an underwater aquarium featuring sealife from around the harbour. The main attraction was the octopus and diver feeding the Wolf eel crabs. Barb's fish and chips was one of the best I've had in a long time at Fisherman's Wharf! So yeah, we had a good trip :)






Kyle, the roses pale in comparison with your beauty!

Washington Plates...The Evergreen State

Finally, we received our car import papers and got to register our cars and in turn get new Washington plates. How ironic, my Ontario license plate renewal arrived the same day! It's time to let it go...

So, I think I need a shiny new car to go with my shiny new plates (sometimes Kyle reads my blog) ;)

Don't Be Fooled....Deception Pass & Chuckanut Trail

This labour day we took a drive to Oak Harbor, an hour and a half trip north of Kirkland. We walked over and under Deception pass bridge to trails leading to a beautiful beach. This bridge is not for the faint of heart, look all the way down and you see fast moving, bluish-green waters swirling beneath. I love pebbly beaches and decided to um.."relocate" some rocks. After that we drove along Chuckanut trail/Highway 11 that took us past flat farmlands, winding up the mountain where the road seems to narrow on one side with rock faces and the other side, a steep drop into Padilla Bay. We looked out at beautiful views of the bay during low tide and stopped in Fairhaven for lunch.






Tune in next weekend, we'll be celebrating 15 years together!! Wowzer!! I've known Kyle for half my life!!

We Had Visitors!!!

Wow, seems like I'm really behind on my blogging, only one post in August!! tsk, tsk. Anyhow, the weather was really nice in August, warm breeze, blue skies and puffy clouds. Then when my Bro, sister-in-law and kids showed up, it got really hot and humid for two days, then cooled down and started to rain :(

Kirkland kondos was booked for 1 week and what an exciting week it was....whining, crying, running and playing, who knew Kyle would act like that! Hah, no, the kids were really great and had lots of fun..I think. We miss them now, it's so quiet around here. We went to the Seattle aquarium, Duck tours, Pike's Marketplace and shopping at Bellevue Square, Seattle Premium and North Bend outlets. I was excited to play tourguide and tourist at the same time. Thanks for the great times and hopefully you guys are planning another trip to Seattle again sometime soon. Miss ya!