 The Hood Canal |
 In Ashland, OR |
 At Safeco Field |
 Wine in Woodinville |
We’re having such a great time on this 1+ week vacation to Seattle and our trip back through Oregon and into California. We had originally intended on flying back, but the lure of a nice drive back home was much too strong for Denise and I. So on Sunday, we took the ferry into Seattle with my parents and rented a car from Avis for the return journey home.
With no agenda whatsoever, we began our drive south through Washington, hoping to make it to at least Roseburg, OR before nightfall. Denise thought it would be nice to stop in a visit her friend Julie B. in Vancouver as we passed through. Julie and her family had moved from Vacaville to Vancouver only the week before, so we’d be seeing her family’s new home here in WA. We spent about an hour’s visit in Vancouver and headed south, driving through some of the most beautiful landscapes I’ve seen. I typically fall in love with places we visit pretty easily, and seeing WA and OR was no exception. I’d move up here in a heartbeat. Cooler temps, more rain and beautiful scenery make for a great place to live and work. And with the economy tanking, house prices with acreage are amazingly affordable.
We pulled into Roseburg at about 9:30pm and promptly had a nice dinner at a local steakhouse. After a restful night’s sleep, we were off once again, trying to get to Medford and Ashland for the next night. It was foggy and cold most of the trip and when we arrived in Ashland, it was still very cold. Probably in the high 40’s. We did some shopping in this picturesque little town and found a nice B&B named the Lithia Springs Resort. Ashland is known for its Shakespeare festival and we were hoping to catch a show, but all the stages are dark on this particular Monday. So we went out to listen to some live music at a local bar/cafe and then found our way back to the B&B for the night. Brrrrr, it’s cold up here when the sun goes down.
There are a lot more pictures here.
Well, let me start off with yesterday actually. We started the day in Roseburg, OR and drove through the Umpqua Valley looking at beautiful valleys, mountains, farms and rivers. This is such a pretty part of the world and if you have the resources and time, living out here would be wonderfully private and peaceful; not to mention gorgeous. There are quite a few Pinot Noir wineries around this region, but they all open at 11am, so we weren’t able to pop into any of them as we passed through.
We found our way back to I5 and headed north toward Portland and on to the Seattle area. As we entered into Washington, the skys turned darker and we started to get some rain. The variation in weather was dramatic from Vacaville’s hotness, to the mild late September weather in the Pacific Northwest. It began to get a bit chilly and the forecast for the entire week included the chance of rain every day. We stopped off for lunch in the little town of Centralia, WA at a great little beer pub called McMinimen’s Olympic Club.
We stopped later on at the giant Cabela’s outdoor store in Lacey, WA and finally made the final drive into Port Ludlow and to my parent’s lodge. Cloudy skys, sprinkles of rain, but nothing bad enough to spoil our arrival.
And then today we woke up, had a yummy breakfast in Chimacum at the Chimacum Cafe. Fantastic comfort food! And the scenery around here is simply beautiful and the people are so nice and friendly. We took a brief tour of some nice properties for sale in Port Ludlow and finally headed back to the house to get ready for the trip into Seattle for the A’s and Mariner’s game tonight.
 My parent's wedding location |
 In front of the B&B |
 Inside the Black Sheep Pub |
Denise and I left this morning on our week’s vacation to Seattle. We’re spending time with my parents at their Port Ludlow home and some other cool things around the area. One of the highlights for this week is our planned attendance at the Oakland A’s and Seattle Mariner’s baseball game on Tuesday night at Safeco Field. I’m stoked!
Anyway, we started our drive this morning and made it into Ashland, Oregon for a nice lunch at a great little English style joint called the Black Sheep Pub. I really enjoyed the pub styled interior and the food was great. They even had a live performance by a group of players, enchanting us with some Irish melodies.
Ashland is such a pretty city, and this time of year is particularly exciting because of the world renowned annual Shakespeare Festival. So many theaters around town, all playing various plays by the festival’s namesake. We’ll have to come back through here and catch a few of them and see some more of this beautiful little hamlet. 
Our evening ended as we pulled into the city of Roseburg. We’ll stay here for the night and head out in the morning, possibly making the rest of the journey into Port Ludlow.
More to come..
Elizabeth and Rose (and friend)
Denise, Lauren and Elizabeth traveled to Stockton on Saturday to attend a 4-H event. Although there were so many other rabbits entered into this event, Elizabeth’s mini rex rabbit Rosalina landed a first place ribbon for “Variety”. She was extremely excited about this and told me her rabbit would most likely get a “leg” for this. I had no idea what this meant so I had to look it up. Below is what I found:
“Leg - a leg is earned by winning in an ARBA-sanctioned show as long as there are three exhibitors and five rabbits competing for the win. For example, first place in a class of five or more bunnies showed by three or more different exhibitors would earn a leg.”
Lauren will be getting into raising a rabbit very soon as well. Her future mini-lop is to be born this week and soon after she’s weaned, we’ll have another rabbit in the house. I believe her name will be Daisy!
Just a quick follow up to my two Dr. appointments from a week or so ago. Undergoing radiation to the neck can have some nasty side effects to a person’s thyroid, so it’s a good idea to have this checked with your blood work periodically. I was called by Dr. Woolf’s office today and he indicated that my thyroid results are normal. Yippee!
 Doomed Pinata |
 Wyatt |
 Taking a swing |
 Elizabeth |
 Elizabeth |
 Lauren taking a swing |
Two weekends and two swim day birthday parties. Wyatt’s 16th birthday was on the 19th and he had some friends over last weekend for a great birthday party. They mostly swam in the backyard, but it’s 2009 and almost all boys his age have laptops now, so there was a lot of networked online gaming between all these boys too. They really enjoy World of Warcraft. We got a nice pinata for Wyatt and everyone did very well smashing it to pieces and raining down the candy.
And then this weekend, we had Lauren’s 11th birthday party. Even though Lauren’s 11th birthday is on the 1st of Sept, Saturday was a great Summer for a party and swimming. It was quite warm (102 actually), so we set up the shade room in the back yard for the kids to find a place out of the sun. Lots of Lauren’s school friends came and the whole rest of the day was filled with swimming, eating, birthday cake, presents and lots of fun for kids and adults alike.
I’ve got two appointments with my doctors today. One with Dr. Woolf in the morning which will be a general check up of my mouth and throat and later this afternoon I’ll meet with Dr. Vikstrom and get my blood checked. I’ll post a follow up later today.
Well I had those two appointments and they both went very well. Dr. Woolf poked, prodded and stretched my jaw and said everything looks great. I still have some scarring on my jaw muscles, which explains why I can’t open my mouth as wide as I used to, but he told me some ways I could slowly regain my ability to open my mouth wide again. This is a drag still, because I can’t eat things like hamburgers, sandwiches and other large things, without having to smash them down to size.
I also met with Dr. Vikstrom and he also said things seem to be going well with the healing. My face is clearing up slowly, and I’m getting a little weight back. My lowest was 188, but I’m now weighing in at about 194. So there’s some progress I feel good about. I also had my blood taken for several tests, including making sure my thyroid is functioning properly and didn’t get fried by the radiation (which is pretty common I guess).
So the new was good and I’m doing well each and every day. Still can’t eat anything even remotely spicy but most things are back to normal, except I still can’t drink wine. Whaaaa!
Gran Torino
Wow. We saw a really good movie last night. I’ve been wanting to see Gran Torino for quite a while, but it’s been difficult because I know it’s not suitable for kids, which means Denise and I can only watch it when the kids are not with us. Well, last night we were kidless again, so we set aside some time and decided to finally watch it. We both really enjoyed Clint Eastwood’s portrayal of a crusty, racist Korean War veteran living in a working class neighborhood that had long since evolved into a multicultural melting pot. You really want to hate him for his outdated and close-minded ways of looking at other people and life, but by the middle of the movie you begin to root for his eventual transformation.
The movie is quite heavy and has some very course language and violence, but the overall message is what’s important. And that message is that we all have to live together, protect each other, help others even when it feels wrong and just get along. The ending of the movie was quite unexpected for both Denise and I, but it totally made sense and worked perfectly. It had us both in tears. Awesome!
McNear's Beach
This was a really nice weekend overall. It started in a relaxing sort of way with my company picnic on Friday. The picnic was held at McNear’s Beach Park near San Rafael, CA. What a beautiful location for a company picnic. The weather was spectacular and since we were on the beach (on the SF Bay), the panoramic views were amazing. Other than a moderate sun burn on my noggin, the picnic was a great way to start the weekend.
Saturday afternoon, Denise and I became kidless (girls with their dad, and the boys with their mom), so we decided to have a date night out. We enjoyed a great dinner at Los Reyes in VV and then saw the new movie called Funny People. Needless to say it was pretty darn funny. On Sunday, I decided to finally build the raised garden for Denise I had always been promising. I found a great building plan on the Sunset.com website and we went out and purchased the lumber and other materials. For the rest of the day, I was cutting, drilling, driving screws and applying redwood waterproofing oil. The wooden box for the garden turned out amazingly well and looks fantastic. Now I have to sink it into place in the back yard and get some good soil to fill it up. After that, it’s all Denise’s!
Brief Encounter
And to finish off a great weekend, Denise and I had a wonderful dinner at my sister’s house. Our tradition of watching old time movies led to us enjoying an oldie from 1945 called “Brief Encounter“. The premise centers on a man and a woman who meet at a train station in England, fall in love and have to ultimately decide what to do with their improper relationship. They are both married to other people and have families. Sprinkled throughout the movie were musical moments from Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. One of my favorites! The movie was filmed in England at the tail end of WWII, which meant the film crews had to find locations (like train stations) far enough away from London to avoid by the nightly blackouts because of the threat of bombing attacks by Germany. Interesting stuff.
Wyatt with muzzle flash
I’m lagging on updates these days, but there really isn’t much of a change day to day lately. I’m feeling better all the time, can eat pretty much what I want (gently though) and am back to work 3 days a week now. I still have a bit of the facial rash left and acne seems to crop up from time to time, but I really can’t complain after some of the other things I’ve been through.
Anyway, I forgot to blog about this last weekend, but the kids and I had a great time over at the local shooting range here in Vacaville. The idea came from Wyatt and I thought it would be fun to go shoot at some targets once again too. However this time when we talked about it, the girls became very excited about coming along and doing some shooting too. The reality of shooting a real pistol is quite a bit different than video games and TV, so I thought about it for a bit and decided that after a right gun safety review with all the kids once again, they would be well prepared for some target practice.
Grant with muzzle flash
After the gun safety class put on by yours truly, we headed over to the shooting range and we were almost there, when Elizabeth decided after some deep thought that this wasn’t really something we wanted to do, so she and Denise elected to go shopping instead. Lauren was a rock and said she would stay the course. Once at the shooting range, we rented our ear and eye protection and and were assigned a lane in the range. At this point you can clearly hear the loud explosions coming from deep inside the range and I could see Lauren was starting to get nervous, but still determined to join in.
I always forget how loud guns are when they are fired in close proximity. It never fails to remind me how silly TV and movies are that show people firing guns and not grimacing from the ear pain. Even with ear protection the loud blasts will always get your attention. So we set up our targets and took turns with my little .40 cal Glock pistol. The boys did great and drilled their targets very well.
Lauren is ready!
When it came time for Lauren’s turn, she decided she wasn’t quite ready and urged us to keep going. However after a few turns went by, I assured Lauren that I would be right behind her and wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her. Hearing this, she decided she would try shooting, as long as I was right behind her and even holding/bracing her hands. Easy enough. Lauren stepped up and fired off two rounds right into the target. I was so proud and I could tell she was proud of herself too for overcoming her fears.
