Seattle, WA

Trial Seperation

2008-10-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

Dear fans,

Both Henley and Whitney have mutually decided to go their seperate ways. Whitney has agreed to take full custody of the children, while Henley will be allowed an occassional supervised overnight visit (a.k.a at The LFCP). They do remain the best of friends. A reconcilliation is always possible should they catch the "travel bug" again. At that time the blog will resume. We ask that you respect their privacy during this difficult time.

Sincerely,
Reps for Whitney "Spears"

* A representative for "Don" Henley could not be reached.

Mommy Weekend

2008-09-27T12:16:00.000-07:00

Sept, 4-7th
One of our last weekends in Seattle - may as well make it a good one!! Both of our mom's came into town this weekend - now THAT makes for a good time:) We planned a trip to Victoria and the San Juan Islands. Peggles and Whitney left on Thurs and headed up to Whitstler, BC for the night. Kiki hit the West Coast on Thursday morning. We started our weekend with a day in the city - including a b-day lunch, another stroll through the market and the much anticipated "blue jean intervention". The intervention actually went quite well - as soon as we discovered that Kiki has been wearing the completely WRONG size of jeans we were on a roll! Two pairs of jeans later we headed home for an early night b/c tomorrow we were hitting the road early!

On Friday Peggles and Whitney headed from Whistler to Victoria. They discovered that if you are a few minutes late for the ferry - it WILL leave without you!! Thank goodness they still made it to Victoria with enough time to run through Butchart Gardens - a must see in Victoria. Kiki and I left early Friday morning to start our trek to Victoria as well. We would be staying in Victoria that night and Peggles and Whitney were heading on to San Juan - we would all be meeting up in San Juan on Sat! Mom and I decided to PURPOSELY miss our ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria so that we could take our time getting to Port Angeles. This adventure led us through Port Gamble, past Dungeness Loop (where the Dungeness Crabs come from), past the 5 mile sand spit (longest one in the world) and to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. Needless to say, it was a GREAT idea to miss the ferry! We did catch the later ferry into Victoria that night and enjoyed a yummy seafood meal on the waterside.

Saturday was the much anticipated whale watching excursion in San Juan for Peggles and Whitney. Unfortunately, the whales had decided not to perform that day. No whales:( Kiki and I spend the morning meandering through Victoria (so gorgeous) and the afternoon at Butchart Gardens. These gardens really are sooo amazing!

Sat night we all re-united in San Juan just in time for cocktails and dinner:)

Sunday we drove around the island of San Juan. First we visited Roach Harbour for a little shopping. Our next stop was an Alpaca Farm - these are the cutest animals you've ever seen in your life. Of course I decided that I wanted one as a pet. Whitney started out the visit to the farm saying that I was not allowed to get one b/c it would be too difficult to travel with an alpaca. By the time we left the farm, we were both so in love with these precious animals that she said if I decided to get one as a pet - she would allow me to bring it with me when I came to Wilmington to visit her! The thought of me and my alpaca driving to Wilmington to visit Whitney was enough to put us into hysterics! Of course we had to stop by the gift shop to pick up some wool for scarves - we just love those alpaca! After we wrapped up our day in San Juan we headed back to Friday Harbour to catch the ferry and start heading back to Seattle. Whitney and Peggles decided not to get out of the car during the ferry ride, they thought it would make a good nap time. The funny thing is that Peggles even kept her seat belt on for almost the entire ferry trip (almost 2hrs). She's so silly!

It was such a wonderful weekend to wrap up our stint here in Seattle. We had a great time and lots of memories were made! Mommie-daughter weekends are always a blast!

Hen

Lazy Day in Bed (with one seaplane ride)

2008-08-31T17:34:00.000-07:00

Let's see - I woke up this morning and noticed that Whitney was still asleep (let's give her some credit, she did have to take Moira to the airport at 5:30am). So, I ate some breakfast, did some e-mailing and got back in bed to read my book. My eyes started to feel heavy, so I closed them for a few minutes. I woke up (for the second time) at about noon to my phone ringing - it was Whitney, calling from HER bed. She said that she just wanted to see if I was awake so she could come climb into my bed. So she joined me and we spent about the next hour and a half playing on the computer. The only reasons to get up were to get food (she had to eat breakfast) and use the bathroom. We decided that today we would take a seaplane tour - something we have wanted to do since we got here. This seemed like a good way to get us out of bed. . .

Of course we were thinking that this would be a private tour - silly us, of course there were two Indian men with us who spoke NO English and were taking pictures with their I-Phones (I'm sure those will be some great pictures). Anyway, the tour was only 20 min long. We saw Gasworks Park, University of Washington, my hospital, Bill Gates home, the space needle, Discovery Park, etc all from the air. It was fairly sunny and the views were amazing. The only problem is that I started to feel QUITE sick after about 5 min. My favorite picture is one that Whitney took of her grabbing my hand as I am grabbing her leg b/c I'm starting to feel like I might barf at any minute. I was seriously about to ask the pilot if he had any barf bags on board. Thank goodness we were only up for 20 min. Overall, it was a really cool experience, but I don't recommend it for anyone who suffers from the slightest bit of motion sickness!

Of course - what could cure such nausea??? LUNCH!!! Whitney's blood sugar was dropping by the second and she was starting to feel a bit shaky, so we headed to the closest lunch spot in Capital Hill. After both devouring 1/2 a sandwich and an entire plate of french fries, we decided that maybe we would go see a movie this afternoon. . .

We came back home, and here we are again - IN BED! Neither of us really feels like leaving the house again. I'm still a little nauseated from the flight and we both have lots of pictures to download and blogs to write. So, we are now on a mission to see just how many hours it is possible to spend in bed in one day - we'll let you know how it goes. . .

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention my favorite part of the flight - we asked one of the Indian men sitting behind us to take a picture of us with Whitney's camera (her camera has a large view screen on the back). He agreed with a smile and took the camera. As he held it up, we noticed that we seemed to be looking at HIS face in the view finder!!! We had to explain to him that he was holding the camera backwards and was about to take a picture of himself (surprisingly the picture he took of us was not bad at all). My response to Whitney when the whole thing was over with was, "we have got some serious blogging to be done tonight".

Hen

Bumbershoot

2008-08-31T17:04:00.000-07:00

Moira was here visiting this weekend:) She was here just in time for Bumbershoot. This is an annual performance festival held at the base of the space needle. There are over 20 stages and over 280 acts over 3 days (mostly bands, but also comedians, drama, etc). It was a sunny day, but it has definitely started to get much cooler here already! The high was probably in the low 60's. Our favorite acts were Barcelona and Band of Horses. Beck was headliner - but by the time he came on, the sun had set and we were getting a bit chilly. We stayed for a few songs and then headed home for a hot cup of cocoa:)

It was a good day!

Like a Rock

2008-08-28T18:05:00.000-07:00

Seattle is home to the flagship REI - it's HUGE!!! They have the world's largest indoor rock climbing wall - of course we had to check it out! It's a total of 65ft or 6 stories high.

We attacked the wall with our friend Sheri - everyone had a strong performance and most of us made it to the top (Sheri had a small panic over the height). I thought we looked rather impressive for three measly girls transplanted from the Southeast!!!

Moira comes tonight - yippeee!!!

The Extensions

2008-08-28T17:44:00.000-07:00

There are two sides to every story. . .

2008-08-19T21:29:00.000-07:00

I arrived last night, daughters (plural) kept me up till 3am (body time) watching the Olympics. This morning I had free Starbucks in the apartment lobby - I like this place already! Hen and I hit the streets this morning. We spent some time at Pike's Place Market watching the fish being thrown around. Whitlo joined us at lunch time, I don't know what that girl is eating, but her hair grew 10inches since I saw her this morning! I picked out a gift for Ann, but my daughters refused to let me buy it! I bought two CD's from street musicians, "Rubber Dolly" by the Tall Boys String Band and "A Moment in Time" by four black guys (homeless?) who hang out in front of the original Starbucks coffee shop! On the way home I was harassed by an especially assertive homeless person. I decided tomorrow I will be assertive back! This evening I took my daughters out for sushi. I am very proud of Whitlo - she kept 95% of her food in her mouth (which after reading the blog from the cruise, is pretty impressive). On the way home we almost ran over a very "normal" looking man peeing on the sidewalk. I like this city a lot, but the street life is a little questionable. . .
Frank

Every since Frank arrived last night, all we've heard about is his "body time" and how he's suffering from jet lag. Frank had to have TWO free cups of coffee this morning from the lobby - he keeps saying that this city has no shortage of Starbucks (this is before he's even left our apartment)! Henley and her dad headed to Pike's Market while Whitney had an appointment for hair extensions. Some signs that Frank is hitting a geriatric age - he had to urinate SEVERAL times while we are at Pike's Market and it had to be pointed out to him NUMEROUS times that he was trying to take a picture while his camera was OFF! He attempted to buy a small wolf figurine made out of ash from Mt. Saint Helen's for Ann - thank goodness we were there because we had to explain to him that this was a ridiculous gift to buy (why would Ann want a WOLF made of ash?). We came across two different street performers while at the market - he bought CD's from both of them! While walking home, Henley had to run into a store and while she was inside, Whitney introduced Frank to the phrase, "that's what you call a hot mess". We can't help but laugh every time he tries to bust it out (as he was grabbing a sushi roll that was falling apart tonight, he exclaimed, "boy, this is a hot mess, huh?"). He also learned the valuable lesson in IGNORING the homeless people who approach you on the street - he tries to be polite to them and they end up following him around! He did take us to a nice sushi dinner - but he was disappointed b/c in San Diego he was given porcelain chop sticks and here he was given "a piece of bamboo in a bag" (aka - normal chopsticks). We did run into a man on the way home who was definitely NOT homeless and he for some reason decided to urinate in a bush in the middle of the sidewalk, it was very odd, thank goodness Frank was with us !!
Whit and Hen

ps. pictures of the hair extensions will come soon:)

Proud to be an American

2008-08-18T16:20:00.000-07:00

I would like to describe to you the scene at our apartment the other night:

It is 11:30pm. Michael Phelps is about to swim the 200 meter relay and possibly win his 8th gold metal. The commentators have been saying that he will be swimming "within the hour" since 8pm. We are both in our PJ's. Our stomachs have been churning since 8pm with nervous-ness. Michael takes the block and starts his leg of the race. The only thing either of us can say is "GO, GO, GO!" He finishes and the American team is less than 1/2 a body length in the lead. The Aussies are VERY close behind us. Jason (don't even know his last name) enters the water to swim the last leg of the race. By the time he hits the wall and does his turn (1/2 way through his 100 meters), Henley is jumping up and down yelling, "I LOVE AMERICA, I LOVE AMERICA, I LOVE MICHAEL PHELPS!" Whitney is sitting on the edge of the couch, biting her nails, breathing VERY rapidly saying, "Hen, it's NOT over yet". When Jason finishes the race and it's official that the Americans have won, we both let out a cry of victory! Then we both immediately sit down - Henley states, "I'm seeing stars" at the same time that Whitney proclaims, "I'm dizzy". At that point we realize that if anyone had seen our cheering/enthusiasm during the race - they would have laughed at us! Either that or assumed that Micheal Phelps was our brother. The Baltimore Raven's stadium may have been filled with Michael Phelps supporters, but there is NO WAY the energy level was higher than our little apartment!

Tea Time

2008-08-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

This was our last day on the cruise - and definitely one of the laziest! We pretty much spent the day in our bed, watching movies and TRYING to get Olympic updates on the TV. We emerged from our hole for food and a final lecture on seals and sea lions by our favorite naturalist, Brent Nixon.

We docked in Victoria, BC at 7pm. We took a bus tour of the city and then had tea at the Empress Hotel (we were definitely the youngest people on this tour by a good 40yrs). We both wish we had more time in Victoria - it's such a beautiful place! It reminds me of Laguna Beach, Ca. Lots of muli-million dollar homes all along the water front with views of not only the water, but the Olympic Mt's as well! Downtown Victoria is just as impressive - lots of restaurants, shopping, pubs, lots of street activity! The Parliament building is lit up with lights ever singe night. The city also has 1,200 hanging baskets filled with flowers all along the streets. There is someone who comes along every night and waters all of the baskets so that they are maintained throughout the year - it only makes the city more enjoyable!

Let me just add that the entire time we were in Victoria I was scared that my pants were going to bust! Clearly too many buffets were visited this past week. I was so nervous that the seam of my jeans would rip in the middle of tea - can you imagine the embarrassment? Thank goodness - my pants made it through the evening in one piece!

Our tea time was 8:30 - as luck would have it, we sat with a couple who graduated from ECU! Now, I don't even really like tea, but this was still a fabulous experience. We were served lots of "crumpets" (small sandwiches, scones, and yummy sweet treats). The Empress Hotel is gorgeous!!

We wrapped up the night in our room packing and getting ready for disembarkation the next morning. Oh yeah, and we decided to divulge in one more meal before the trip was over - we had room service bring us pizza in bed:)

Today we were some of the first people off the ship - we actually got up at about 7:10 and we were home in our apt by 7:45 - back in bed by 8:10!!!! So our trip has come to an end, we have some fabulous pictures and wonderful memories. The kitties are VERY glad we are home!

Back to work tomorrow - ick!
Hen

We wrapped

Ketchikan not guess what we did today. . .

2008-08-13T20:48:00.001-07:00

It was another rainy day in Alaska. Ketchikan was the port of call for the day. We chose to attend The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show – in the rain. It was entertaining, lots of plaid flannel, axes, saws, etc. There were two teams competing – the Canadians vs. the Americans. We were happy to find out that we were sitting on the American side of the audience!

The exciting part of our day was after the show was over. We had a coupon in the program for a free beer glass from a bar across the street from the show. Of course, we decided to go ahead and enjoy an Alaskan brewskie while we were getting our free glasses. The people in Ketchikan are extremely friendly. Whitney struck up a convo with a fisherman while I was talking to one of the lumberjacks who had made his way to the bar after the show was over as well. The next thing we know – we’ve been so wrapped up in our convo’s, we realize that the boat is going to be leaving Ketchikan in 5 min and we are several blocks away! We quickly wrap up our conversations – which wasn’t that easy of a task, I think the fisherman and lumberjack were secretly hoping that we missed our ship! We then had to run through the rain and we barely made it to the ship on time – all for a stinkin’ beer! That was probably the most exercise we have had in the last 6 days.

We had our usual afternoon on the ship – listened to a lecture by our new favorite naturalist (this one was on Orca Whales) and then retreated to the lounge chairs to read, knit and nap!

Tonight is formal night – looks like we will have to suck it up and get dressed so that we can make our way to the dining room. No room service for us tonight!

Hen
still can't get pics to upload:(

Did Juneau that the Iditarod is over 1100 miles?

2008-08-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

We also learned today that Juneau only gets 30 days of sunshine each year – and today wasn’t one of them! We spent the morning at Summer Dog Sled Camp. We learned all about the Iditarod and even got to ride in a cart being pulled by the dogs!! We got nervous when one of the dogs started to nip at another dog beside him. The musher explained to us that the dog who was being nipped at was going to the bathroom as they were running and the other dog was mad at him for not pulling his weight. There are 120 dogs at camp this summer – let’s think about this. . . 120 dogs in a city that only gets 30 days of sunshine – that makes LOTS of STINKY dogs!! We even got to hold and interact with some of the dog’s puppies – so cute:)

We walked around downtown Juneau. We grabbed a beer and a bite to eat at the Red Dog Saloon. This is where Wyatt Earp left his gun as collateral – it’s still hanging behind the bar today. I decided to go out on a limb and ordered soup with reindeer sausage in it! Reindeer sausage looks like salami but has a different texture to it – it wasn’t too bad. We also had some smoked salmon - I would hate to hear what Joe Lee would say to us if we came home from Alaska and hadn't eaten any salmon!

We spent the afternoon lounging, napping, reading and knitting on the deck. The whales put on a show for us as we were cruising. There were several of them by our boat. They were breeching and throwing their tales in the air – it was amazing. I continued to get angry with my new camera. It works wonderfully in all situations EXCEPT whale watching - for some reason it REFUSES to focus on whales!!??

We are too lazy to get dressed up enough to go to the dining room for dinner – so we ordered room service and we are now sitting in bed, eating and watching the Olympic highlights. Room service is free on the cruise – it’s a glorious thing. It really comes in handy when we have to be ready for our shore excursions early in the morning. Nothing is better than having breakfast delivered to you while you are getting ready!

L&M,
Hen

ps. Bloggy is being a little touchy with the picture uploads - we will have to post them at a later date - sorry.

Old Mother Hubbard

2008-08-11T22:05:00.000-07:00

The day started off with Henley losing my Sea Pass card (which I might add has all my passport, credit card, identification information on it) at some table on the ship. I couldn’t get too mad at her; after all she was off fetching much needed coffee for me this morning. It was tough to get up, our neighbors were AGAIN being loud throughout the night, and Henley beat on the wall for the second time on this trip in order for them to quiet down. The card was found soon after, and Henley smoothed things over by purchasing us some Bloody Marys to sip on as we learned about Humpback whales in the nature series lecture.

The Hubbard Glacier was next on our daily schedule. The ship steered right up to the glacier (yes, we were thinking about Titanic the whole time, I kept repeating in my head “Iceberg, dead ahead” in a thick English accent, but I decided that might not be a very funny joke aboard a luxury cruise liner) Hen and I both decided this was the most beautiful scenery we have seen since Big Sur. The weather could have not been more beautiful, though chilly, it was crystal clear. We got to see and hear the icebergs “birthing”. This is when ice and snow fall off the iceberg and into the ocean; even the tiniest ice makes a loud thunder noise. A couple times Henley got a bit bossy and forceful with people on the deck because they were hogging the prime picture spots- thank goodness she did – we got some GREAT pictures.

Tonight we dined at a specialty restaurant aboard the ship. It was truly a five star dining experience. The service was phenomenal (they brought your plates and took your plates in sync, as in they counted 1-2-3 and took them away). We thought we were hanging in pretty well until our main course came, Henley got scallops and lobster, I got Chilean sea bass, I noticed my knife was the incorrect knife. Henley waved over the Maître’ de and said, “She got a butter knife” and quickly the Maitre' de responded, “That is a fish knife, but if that does not agree with you I will happily bring another” SHEER MORTIFICATION. HOLY GOSH. Then I said, “oh, of course”. Case closed. The next embarrassing moment occurred in between the main course and dessert, the cheese platter. Our waiter brought us the apples, grapes and bread that we would use with the cheese. I just assumed he had forgotten the cheese because it was not brought out at the same time (little did I know he was walking to get the giant tray on wheels), so I grabbed a grape, de-stemmed it and ate it. Henley looks at me with shear panic and says, “you were supposed to wait for the cheese” at this point I see him coming towards us, rolling the cheese tray, and after the incident with the fish knife I could not risk another humiliation, therefore I quickly moved the plate back to its original setting, swallow the grape and throw the stem on the floor. BINGO, like nothing ever happened. Same fun, different night!

We get up early for dog sledding in Juneau!

Love and Miss, Whit

You “otter” be here, we are having a “whale” of a time.

2008-08-11T09:46:00.000-07:00

Sitka, Alaska

This morning started off with room service before we embarked on our wildlife quest. Luckily, the wildlife was up and at em’ this morning. Right off the bat we saw a humpback whale that not only blew out his blow hole, but showed us his tail and actually “breached” out of the water (for those of you who aren’t Jenny Johnson, that means he jumped). The guy in the loudspeaker told us they often do this to clear their throats, scratch or impress a female. We thought that that seemed like a lot of effort to “cough up a minnow”. Henley got some great shots of the male otters (they aren’t too afraid of having their pictures taken because they aren’t franticly trying to watch after their young like the females are- typical) and she got some wonderful pictures of bald eagles both in flight and perching on rocks. It was the first time I had seen one in the wild, they were amazing. Seeing a bald eagle in Alaska, is like seeing a seagull in Wilmington, thankfully this was something pretty impressive to both Hen and I. I was able to get some video footage of the humpback whales tail and a still shot of this. While this was going on Henley was cussing out her new camera because it didn’t know how to focus- good thing I was paying attention. After the 3 hour wildlife quest we walked around the town of Sitka. It was originally settled by Russians, so there is a lot of Russian heritage. We went into a church called St. Michaels Cathedral which was really pretty (Mom and Dad, I lit some candles like you always do). The weather was nice, about 50’s, not too cold. No rain, but foggy, I think that is pretty normal. We lost in the casino (but only $1, we played the nickel slots), watch a ventriloquist show and observed bingo (we decided we are going to play tomorrow). Henley thought we should participate in the “Newly Wed” game, but I had to draw the line somewhere.

Tomorrow we are cruising by the Hubbard Glacier. We are getting up early to listen to the naturalist talk about humpback whales and brown bears. We are being educational and mature on this trip.

Love and miss, Whit

A Day at Sea

2008-08-10T09:46:00.000-07:00

We started the morning a little slow today (it’s amazing how long you can sleep in a dark room with no windows). We spent the first part of our day trying to fit in with the old folks. We were lounging comfortably on chaise lounge chairs facing a big window (great view), Whitney was enjoying a “cup a joe” while Henley was busy knitting away. At first glance one would have though we were in our 60’s. It was decided that old folks have life pretty good – we enjoyed the lazy morning of lounging. We even saw several Doll Dolphins - other people said the saw a whale, but we must have missed it, bummer!

We attended a lecture on sea otters (hoping that Whitney can now tell the difference between a squirrel and a sea otter). It’s good to learn something this week besides the price of alcohol on board.

A nice nap was needed after our hectic morning of lounging and learning.

We have one complaint – the Olympics. There seems to be an issue with viewing the games while on board. The ship is showing highlights from the day before, but there seems to be something wrong with the sound. Watching olyimpic highlights with no sound isn’t so fun. Guess we will have to catch up on the events when we return – we are NOT happy about this situation.

Food is something that the ship is NEVER short on. This afternoon we snacked on some sushi. Since we somehow were placed in a room with one queen size bed, instead of two twins, we’ve decided to act like lovers the whole week. So, as we were traveling through the sushi line we chose to use one tray for the two of us (that’s what lovers do, right?). Whitney pointed to a piece of sushi and asked Henley to put in on her plate – Henley asked if Whitney was aware that what she just requested was eel. Whitney tried to be mature and taste the eel since it was already on her plate. Henley was proud of her for trying it. Unfortunately Whitney’s face went a little sour after the first chew and she said that she was going to need to spit out the eel (the maturity level is dropping here). Henley told her it was ok, at least she tried it. Now, you would think that Whitney would maybe spit the wad of sushi into a napkin or something – but no – she proceeds to lean over her plate, not even bending over any to be closer to the plate and lets the Eel sushi wad tumble out of her mouth. It sorta plopped onto the plate like a bird poo. She has no manners!

We bonded more with our table mates at dinner (see pic). After dinner we observed some karaoke in the lounge area. We discovered that all of the people who try out for American Idol and get angry/upset when the judges tell them that they are awful are on our boat! There were an extreme number of participants who thought that they were quite talented – but we have the videos to show otherwise!!

As those of you who have been on a cruise before know, there is a nightly turn-down service (they even leave little chocolates on your pillow). When we came back to our room tonight we found that the housekeepers had incorporated Whitney’s “pillow and blankie” into the bed/sheet display. They even make blankie into a little bow – it was precious. The funny thing, however, is that they thought that Henley’s computer cover was a pillow/blankie also and they nicely places it on top of the bed pillows!

Going searching for wildlife in Sitka tomorrow – looking for whales, otters, eagles and bears. . . .hopefuly will hav some good pics!!!

ps. these posts are being posted a day late (this really all happened YESTERDAY, 8/9/08) but since we can't get wirless connection in our room, we wait and post them the next morning when we are up and moving around the ship!

Lenora

2008-08-09T11:00:00.001-07:00

Away we go. . . off in the deep blue sea! We boarded the boat around 2:30 today. First things first – “report to your muster station”. For those of you who aren’t expirenced in the world of cruising – this is when everyone has to don their lifejackets, assemble in the theater on the boat and have a lifeboat drill. As we were heading down the hall, on the way to our muster station (lifejackets on), we ran into Lenora. This sweet old woman was stading in the hallway trying to figure out both how to put her lifevest on AND how to use her cell phone. Lenora’s approx age would probably be around 70ish. Being the sweet southern girls that we are, we adopted poor Lenora right then and there. We helped her put her lifevest on properly, showed her out to use her cell phone and escorted her to the muster station (we were her heros). Of course she was extremely confused by what was going on, we had to practically hold her hand through the whole process. Somehow we managed to snap a picture with her without causing too much extra confusion.

After unloading our bags, we explored the boat a little (it’s huge) and then decided to head to the hot tubs. Of course some small child vomited in the indoor pool on cruise day 1, so that has already been shut down! After having an adult beverage while relaxing in the hot tub, we headed back to our room to get ready for dinner. Lesson learned – drinking beer in a hot tub can REALLY drain you of some energy!! So after a lovely dinner we have decided to go ahead and call it a night – so sad that our idea of a good vacation means going to bed nice and early – when did we become so old?

Seafair=reason to be glutenous pigs

2008-08-03T20:07:00.000-07:00

Hello All,
We went to Seafair this weekend. We watched the Blue Angels perform and saw a couple hydroplane boat races. I had no idea what was going on the whole time, but they go REALLY FAST!
The best part of the whole day was the FOOD! I started the day off with a hot dog, and Hen had a "thick spicy polish sausage "- later I needed to let her know she had some remaining "spice" left in her tooth! We watched the race and airshow from the Jack Daniels beer garden. When we saw a coast guard ship, Henley and I referred to it as "Mike" ( in honor of Molly ) and an airplane I referred to as " Tay " ( in honor of my little Tay Tay Shenkman ).
We went to another Beer Garden after proclaiming " we were tired of airplanes " and continued drinking and eating more curly fries and funnel cake ( I dont even like funnel cake, but managed to help scarf it down). We finished seafair later in the afternoon, we left without meeting any cute boys and got home in time for happy hour. Believe it or not we continued the binging with appetizers from Twist ( a new bar we wanted to check out). We called it a night ( none of us are very good at drinking all day and then being worth anything at night) pretty early. Henley and I came home ( not before we stopped at the Rite Aid for ice cream), curled up on the couch, popped in a movie and passed our ice cream pints back and forth like an old married couple. I asked Hen, " are we pathetic?" she replied, " no just perfect for each other."

Food+friends+beer = a good day!

Fleet Week :)

2008-08-02T08:21:00.000-07:00

So, apparently it is Fleet Week here in Seattle. This is not as big of a deal here as it can be in some other cities across America. The only difference I've noticed is that I've seen several groups of young men in their Navy whites walking through our area (I've actually rather enjoyed it, to be honest!).

Yesterday Sheri and I were walking along an exercise path that goes along the water front. As we are in the middle of a conversation, I notice some EXTREMELY white teeth coming our direction. I've never seen someone with such perfect teeth smile so perfectly WHILE jogging!! I found this so strange that I couldn't stop staring at him - then I noticed that he seemed to be smiling in our direction. First thought that crosses my mind is that there IS a benefit to wearing a sports bra that gives you a uni-boob if it makes men like this look your direction! Second thought - is that Andy Baldwin, from The Bachelor, season 10. As he gets closer, I decide that YES, it is Andy, YES, he is looking at us, and YES he looks just as suspiciously gay in person as he did on TV - I mean come on, who SMILES like that even when running??? Once he's about 1/2 a step past us, I grab Sheri's arm and exclaim, "I think that was Andy, the bachelor!" She is embarrassed b/c I'm so loud, of course. I explain to her that it doesn't matter if I was loud - he was totally checking us out (even if I do have a uni-boob). She says that perhaps he was trying to figure out if he knew us b/c once she realized who it was, she accidentally did this awkward wave with her hand way down by her hip (trying to be non-chelant) and was mouthing "hi", but was so caught off guard that nothing was coming out of her mouth!!!!!

Once we analyzed the situation to death - we decided that he was NOT checking us out, he probably couldn't get over the uni-boob walking with a stranger who was in such awe at the sight of him that she lost her voice!! We were totally busted!!

I might add that he also lapped us on the path - and he has quite nice legs. I still think he might be gay though - again, who looks that happy while running???

Henley

shrimp and grits

2008-08-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

One of our friends, Sheri, is also a travel nurse here from Louisianna. She invited us over the other night for some shrimp & grits. Of course we all got sooo excited t the idea of the sinnfully southern dish. One problem we ran into that of course no one thought of - WHERE are you going to find grits in Seattle?? One grocery store tried to sell us polenta - we had to explain that "shrimp & polenta" just wasn't going to cut it - he seemed confused! Finally Sheri found a box of grits in some teeny-tiny vietnamese grocery store way in the back corner of Pike's Market. She said she was a little leery of buying and using the grist b/c the entire box was covered in writting in another language. . . however - the shrimp & grits were a HUGE sucess!!! So, lesson learned: Vietnamese seem to enjoy good old southern cookin!!

Thanks Sheri - dinner was YUMMY:)

A day in the park

2008-07-22T18:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a busy day. We started off by heading to Granville Island – had to take a water taxi to get there Granville Island has a fabulous little farmer’s market and tons of art galleries and unique little shops – it’s really a pretty cool place. Next we walked through China town (this was a fast walk b/c literally EVERYTHING was written in Chinese and we were confused as to what all the signs said). Our next stop was Gastown, unfortunately we took a wrong turn and witnessed some of Vancouver’s not – so- pretty side. Whitney was extremely nervous and practically ran for a few blocks to safety! Gastown was another nice part of town – tons of flowers hanging everywhere. We saw the steam clock and got to hear it’s song. We spent the afternoon sitting on a bench along the seawall enjoying the scenery and being entertained by the people passing by us!

Dinner last night was scrumptious (Vancouver has some really good restaurants!) Maybe the two bottles of wine weren’t so smart - we had a little bit of a rough start to the morning today! The plan was to rent bikes and ride around the perimeter of Stanley Park. Sheri’s nausea got the best of her and she decided to skip out on the bike riding. Whitney and Henley mounted up and headed out – such troopers, we don’t miss ANYTHING!! The only unfortunate incident that occurred during the bike riding was when Henley was literally sprinkled with bird poo! We thought that we felt some rain drops falling from a tree, perhaps from a small gust of wind. Later, when Henley noticed the white and green spots ALL over her body, we discovered that that was NOT rain we felt! The bird poo was literally everywhere from her face to her arms to her legs – it would only happen to her! Once we recovered from that hysteria we spotted a seagull with a starfish in his mouth. Whitney proceeded to spend about 15 min chasing the bird around trying to get a picture of the starfish in his mouth - I'm sure the Canadians were watching us and making some kind of comment about the "Silly American girls. . ."

Back to the good old USA today ! We are so proud to be American – at least the birds here can control themselves!!

Alaska in two weeks. . .

Vancouver

2008-07-20T22:03:00.000-07:00

It was such a beautiful day in Whistler this morning - hard to leave:( Vancouver is a pretty cool city, though! Sheri, our friend from Seattle met up with us today - it's good to have another friend to play with:) We just walked around and explored today - shopping on Robson St, strolling along the sea wall, dinner on the water - it was definitely a good day!

We forgot to mention one of our observations while driving to Whistler the other day: Canada road work crew (aka the people working on the highway) seem to be about 60% female. We are talking about the people directing traffic and driving bull dozers in the middle of the highway! This seemed odd to us - isn't that a man's job?? I bet women have to take the trash out here, too! God bless America - thank goodness we don't live in Canada!

A Day in Whistler Village

2008-07-20T08:47:00.001-07:00

Today we learned the value in NOT planning out every minute of a vacation. We are both the type to usually have everything planned down to where we will eat each meal. Today was a wonderful day - lots of strolling around, the weather was gorgeous (low 20's. . .aka mid 70's). We slept in, did some shopping, picture taking and then decided to spend the afternoon sitting on a patio sharing a "jug" of beer (pitcher). The only problem we've found with Whistler (or Canada in general) is that the Canadian accent is completely annoying!

For dinner we rode a gondola (enclosed ski lift) to the top of the mountain and had BBQ at the lodge. It was a LONG gondola ride (didn't realize how HUGE the mt is) and we were on the look out for black bears the whole time. Didn't spot any, but Whitney swears she saw a pile of bear dung!

Funniest story of the day: We head to a bar for a drink after dinner. Whitney is determined to get rid of her Canadian money (even though we are still going to be in Canada for 2 more days). She decides to pay the bill with all her Canadian money and asks the waitress to put the rest on her debit card. The waitress returns with the receipt so that Whitney can sign it - there was a total of 45 cents charged to her card!!! I'm sure the waitress thinks we are incredibly strange people! Lesson learned - we need to actually COUNT those silly Canadian coins, some of them are worth more than we think!!

On to Vancouver. . .

"Ohhhh Caaanada"

2008-07-18T19:11:00.000-07:00

Today we ventured to another country. The day was off to a rough start - Henley asked Whitney as she was driving out of the city if she knew how to get here and Whitney's response was, "I was just going to go north. . ." Luckily, thanks to the GPS, we made it. We were trying to make it to Whistler (our first destination) by a certain time b/c we had zip line reservations. The second problem occurred when we realized that we had no idea if Canada observes (or celebrates, as Whitney puts it) day light savings time. Luckily, again, we found out that they do - so we were still on the right track (that's for the confirmation from Joe). Our next question was whether we would be able to use American dollars in Canada (I mean, you would think that we didn't do ANY preparations for this trip). We decided just to wing it and find out when we got there (and yes, they do take American $$ - duh, who wouldn't). Thirdly, we began to question whether or not the border patrol would accept our passports and let us INTO Canada b/c neither one of our looks like us. Whitney has long brown hair in hers and Henley looks like a terrorist (this is NOT an exaggeration - look forward to the video on vimeo!!) Once we FINALLY made it across the border, we thought we were home free - but wait, does that sign say 100 KILOMETERS/hr??? What does that mean?? Panic sets in immediately as we realize we have NO idea how fast we are supposed to be going. We decide to just keep up with the cars in front of us while Henley attempts to find a conversion chart in her tour book (ok, that was dumb, neither one of us can figure out how 1mi = 1.6km is going to help us without a calculator), finally we decide it must be approx. 80mph b/c that's about what we are going. Wait, suddenly it occurs to us that the extra set of numbers on the speedometer are KILOMETERS - thank goodness! The unfortunate part of this situation was that 100km/hr = 60mph NOT 80mph. No harm, no foul!

We eventually made it to Whistler - it was a little bit of a miracle. It is sooo beautiful here! The mountains are huge and the tips are covered with snow. The ski slopes are all grass right now, but they are open to mt. bikers (you can actually buy a lift ticket and take your bike up the mt and ride down!).

We zip-lined through a coastal temperate rain forest b/t Whistler and Blackcombe mountains. It was AMAZING! The longest zip line was 1,100 feet!!! During our trip we got to see the bobsled track that is being built for the 2010 Olympics - turn 7, been there, seen that!

Taking showers and heading out for the night. Whistler Village (where we're staying) has lots of fun shops, restaurants and bars. We thought it would be a good idea to write BEFORE we head out for the night! There's gotta be a cute boy under one of those mt. biker helmets out there - and we WILL find them (that's called shear determination - we'll let you know how it goes tomorrow).

The Lee's Come to Seattle

2008-07-14T20:50:00.000-07:00

Peggles and “The bear” came to stay with us from the 4th-9th. It was a great visit! They got in really late, but surprisingly Joe wasn’t too grouchy, just a little perturbed that it took “just as long to fly from Philadelphia to Seattle as it did to get t[heir] bags once t[hey] landed here!”
We started the morning pretty early with donuts at Top Pot Donuts (nothing like a hot krispy crème), but I guess that’s how they do it here in the Pac NW. We walked to Pike’s. Dad of course bought enough salmon and tuna to have shipped home to feed a small army- he was truly a happy man that morning. Mom was blown away by the flowers and made many comments on how “easy it would be if I got married in Seattle because the flowers would be cheap”- Dad merely said, “um” with an eyebrow cocked.
We took public transportation, introduced them to “homey” our not so friendly homeless friend across the street and inadvertently booked reservations at a “gay” bar for dinner. Mom, Dad and Hen were convinced this pub was for “gay” people, I just think it happened that a lot of “gay” people decided to eat there Saturday night as well. Dad was nursing a cold, so before nearly each dinner (as in, with appetizers, or even sometimes before we left the house for dinner) Dad would take some alka seltzer PM, so “he would be able to sleep and not keep mom up all night”. Mom swears he only coughed or sniffed when he thought she was listening. Surprisingly, he did not fall asleep at the table and was able to converse without slurring his words, though I think he was getting a little sleepy when his foot rolled on on a mountain dew bottle and he nearly slid into the cab after dinner. Mom and I thought it was HYSTARE, Dad not so much, Hen was just confused.
We took a nice road trip to Mt. St. Helen’s,Snoqualmie Falls
(I don’t know if anyone watched Twin Peaks, but this is where it was filmed) and got drinks on Lake Union and watched seaplanes fly in. I think by the time mom left she was able to figure out what body of water she was looking at, it didn’t matter how many times I told her- “this is a lake, this is a bay, this is a waterfall, this is part of the pacific ocean , “ she was totally confused. Bless her, I told her she needed to start using that brain.
They really enjoyed the sail we took across the Puget Sound in Elliot Bay. The captain of the boat actually graduated from UNCW in 1999- talk about a small world. Unfortunately, not cute.
Having Mom and Dad come out to visit was so much fun. Every time someone comes to visit it makes me miss home that much more. I really enjoy the traveling and seeing new places and learning new things, but I sure do miss my family and friends, and work believe it or not. Henley and I are so lucky to have such supportive friends and family that root for us in our adventures, so we get really excited to show off the places we have grown to love. To Peg and Joe, thanks for all the treats this past weekend. We REALLY had fun with you both! and I really MISS YOU so so much!
Love and miss, Whit

"Happy 4th of January"

2008-07-04T23:11:00.000-07:00

Henley had a patient at work today who colored her a 4th of July picture - you can barely see in the bottom corner where she wrote "Happy 4th of January" and erased it!! Bless her heart!

We both had to work today:( 4th of July is one of our FAVORITE holidays. Henley tried to "bring the fireworks to the hospital" by wearing the headband that Peg sent us with sparkly stars flying off the top of it! She also wore red, white and blue from head to toe. Unfortunately, her day was nothing special. Every baby born on Whitney's unit today got a special beanie with fireworks and a pom-pom on top of it! This was the extent of the excitement for her.

No worries about missing fireworks - as the man behind us pointed out tonight, "It's 10:20 and I can still see daylight". This is no joke. So, we had plenty of time to make our way to Sheri's rooftop to watch the firework show over Elliot Bay. Of course we had to take time to dress for the occasion. APPARENTLY people here don't celebrate the day of our country's independence the way we do back in the South East . . . we were both donning red, white and blue from HEAD to TOE (see pic). Let's just say that we stood out. We didn't see anyone else with even an American Flag on their apparel. It was rather disappointing, but we collected a TON of compliments on our outfits. It would be fun to return to Seattle next 4th of July and see if we've started a new trend:)

The fireworks were ok, we still are biased and believe that NOTHING beats the 4th of July celebration in Wilmington! Now we are just anxiously awaiting for Peg and Joe to get here so we can start our next adventure!

Confession of a Car Driver

2008-07-02T16:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, ok, everyone has been asking about how my bike riding has been going - so here's the scoop. . . it's not!

Let's start with the mis-information I was given: I was told that it would take me approx 30-40 min to ride from my apt to work and that most of the ride was on bike paths.

Here's what happened: I went for a "test ride" one afternoon to make sure that I knew where I was going and exactly how long it took me to get to work. First of all - yes, a good portion of the ride is on bike paths, but the part of the ride that is not on bike paths is on a MAJOR road. I'm talking the kind of road where the bike riders are in a lane IN the road. It was scary! I would get so nervous at the stop lights as the other bikers lined up behind me - it was just not a good situation! Once I finally hit the bike path I find it so enjoyable that I decide that I can probably get used to the road portion of the ride with time. The bike path is really quite nice - I was actually having a really nice ride until I noticed that other bikers were FLYING by me. I'm talking about bikers going at speeds MUCH higher than mine. I start to fiddle with my gears (no luck there) and finally decide to blame this lack of speed on the fact that my bike has mountain bike tires and not road tires (not sure if that is the true reason or not, but it sounded good to me). So, I'm still riding along and by now my butt is starting to get really sore from the seat. I'm thinking that with time my butt will get harder from the bike riding and this won't really be a problem for long. I glance at my watch and realize that I have been riding for AN HOUR - I'm NO WHERE near work, my butt is KILLING at this point and the other bikers that keep passing me are REALLY making me angry. So - I give up! I turn around and start the LONG ride home. Needless to say the butt pain only got worse and the hills were becoming TORTUROUS at this point! I STRONGLY considered ditching the bike on the side of the road and calling a cab (Whitney was at work). I mean, this was SERIOUSLY looking like the best option. I toughed it out and made it home. I was SO angry when I got home that I decided to leave the bike unlocked on the sidewalk while I aimlessly wandered around Rite Aid hoping that the homeless people outside would steal the bike. I thought that if it was "stolen" I could use that as my excuse for not riding it to work! Unfortunately, the homeless people didn't want the bike either!

So, bottom line is - I'm driving to work. I think I gave the whole "go green" thing an honest effort though, right? I still ride the bike to the market, Nordstroms (ha) and other locations in town - but I will NOT be riding it to work anytime soon!

I would like to give a shout-out to Whitney for carpooling to work the other day (at least SOMEONE in the house is doing their part to go green). However, I'm not sure if she did it for the good of the environment, or just to save gas!

Hen

From Sea to Shining Sea

2008-06-27T20:46:00.000-07:00

I just returned from a trip back to the East Coast. . . I'm going to admit, it was kinda hard to return (but keep reading). . .

The start was a little stressful - travelocity decided to send me PAPER TICKETS (ok, haven't seen one of those in about 15 yrs) and of course I forgot to bring them. Thank goodness for best friends. . . Whitney risked her life after taking a sleeping pill and drove all the way BACK to the airport to bring them to me (I think she was afraid of the emotional WRECK she would have to live with for the next week if I missed my flight)!

First stop was in Atlanta for a visit with family (always a good time). Thank goodness we made it to the pool since working on my tan was a TOP priority during this trip (it was clear that I came from a place with very little sun exposure)! I miss my family and I never get to spend enough time with them:( In Atlanta I picked up Grandmommie's caddy - my transportation for the next week - ha!!

From here I headed to Wilmington - of course it rained all weekend (thank goodness for the pool day in Atlanta). Spent the weekend with GREAT company, drank a little too much, ate WAY too much, and laughed a TON!! I got to help Missy shop for a wedding dress - my favorite quote from the experience was "This dress feels like . . . luxurious . . . butter!" Only Missy would describe a wedding gown in such a way! It was hard to leave:(

On to Charlotte. . . first stop, the VanBeek household (my most favorite little boys house)! We were supposed to spend the afternoon at the pool but, if you haven't figured out the trend in the weather pattern of my trip so far - there was an unexpected thunderstorm (of course). (I would like to take a moment to point out that it has now rained 4 of the first 5 days of my trip - why did I leave Seattle, again? I'm sure you can all guess that it was sunny as can be in Seattle the whole time - go figure). Life in the VanBeek household hasn't slowed down any since I last saw them. My favorite quote from this trip comes from the infamous Jakob - we stepped outside (after the storm) so that he could show me how well he could walk with his new walker. I had parked Grandmommie's caddy in the driveway. Jakob spotted the caddy and with awe in his voice stated, "Miss Henley, I didn't know you drove a limousine!" Needless to say, the caddy is now referred to as the limo!!!

Next stop was the Lineberger household where I got to be a stand in parent for Hadley at her Dr's appt for her first set of immunizations. I explained to Kim before we went that yes, she was going to cry - you can fill in the rest of the details on how the appt went from there). Hadley is a beautiful baby and her mommy is looking GREAT!! I wish I could be around to see her grow and change during this first year:(

I got to spend lots of time with Katie Enright and help her pick out colors to paint the walls in her townhome. Staying with her is always fun b/c I get a private fashion show every night of all the possible outfits for work the next day - I LOVE that someone actually thinks I have good fashion sense!!

Finally I returned to Atlanta to spend some more quality time with Grandmommie. She took Tommy and I out to the Olive Garden for dinner and we got to meet Aunt Barbara and the girls for lunch the next day. It wasn't any easier to leave them this time around. . .

Last stop on the East Coast - an OBGYN appt with Brook Nash. I took the liberty of explaining to the RN that we were NOT lesbians, I was there for support! I did get to hear that baby's heart beat:) I had to leave the appt early (don't worry, Chris was there by this point), and truck it down what must have been one of the busiest roads in Atlanta dragging my suitcase to the MARTA station to make my flight home (I got some very strange stares while crossing the streets). I only got about 2 hrs with Brookie - we all know that was another hard departure:(

BUT - here's where the e-mail stops being so depressing. . . Today I rode home from work with the windows DOWN, sunroof OPEN and sunglasses ON! There were TONS of sailboats out on the lake. Mt. Rainier was VERY visible (this means there were NO clouds ANYWHERE). I think summer has FINALLY hit Seattle!!!! I'm excited to be back (even though it was hard to leave) and I think that the fun is just beginning on the West Coast:) Looking forward to lots of sunny days and warm weather - I KNEW we came here for a reason!!!

It's also 9:30pm and STILL daylight outside - LOVE it!!

-Henley

Beatnik and LaBu come to Seattle

2008-06-11T19:42:00.000-07:00

Drews and Lauren came to visit us this weekend. The first time we have really had a house full since being in Seattle.

The weekend started like any other...a visit to Pike's Place ( so Drews could see the fish and Lauren could get some dried apples). We made Drews do lots of embarrassing things like pose with " Rachel the Pig" and with a fish monger! We headed to Fremont for lunch and to visit our friend, "The Troll", where some brotherly/sisterly love took place (see picture)- when Hen asked for just a little help onto the Troll, Drews kindly shoved Hen up onto the rock. Lauren and I found some cute shops and even dodged the rain.

Later that evening (after Lauren did a full outfit change in the parking garage and then we ran 1/2 mile to the bus stop- severely huffing and puffing) we met up with Drews and Hen for the night time Seattle underground tour. We learned everything from drug running UPS, to prostitutes with syphilis and raw sewage floating in the streets of old time Seattle- overall, it was something I thoroughly enjoyed ( and I am sure my dad would too)

We then went to a Burlesque show- Lauren loved the M.I.A booty shaking dance, I now have a desire to be a burlesque dancer, Hen thought one of the "gay" male dancers looked like one of my ex boyfriends and Drews actually got on stage and did a hip thrust ( ok, so that didn't really happen, but I called his dad in the middle of the night to tell him that- Frank said, " and couldn't I have learned of this in the morning?" He was surprisingly more ok with it than I thought he would be)

Lauren left at the crack of dawn on Sunday, but Drews stayed through Monday. We went to Mt. Rainier and hiked in 13 feet of snow! blah blah blah ..the best part of the trip was when Drews asked us to pullover so he could get ONE more of the THOUSAND pics he wanted of Mt. Rainier. So Hen and I are waiting nicely in the car, when this woman (clearly she is foreign) walks up beside our window with a GIANT piece of toilet tissue hanging out of her nose. Now most people would have possibly just used a tissue to dab the nose or tuck the tissue fully into the nostril- NO this woman did not, she just let the tail end of it hang blatantly out of her nose. Well, Hen and I were so tickled as we were VIDEOTAPING this woman, I believe she caught on to the fact we were indeed filming HER and not the GIANT mountain behind her and she began to READJUST the tissue for a more snug fit. Henley believes the altitude might have gotten to this woman. This video will be available for your viewing pleasure in a few weeks, as we are still in Yosemite on our Vimeo page.

Today is June 5th. . .

2008-06-05T14:28:00.001-07:00

and I had to come STRAIGHT home from my haircut to get a cup of hot chocolate. . . .that's all I have to say about that!

Gone Fishin'

2008-05-30T21:27:00.000-07:00

Linzi came for a long weekend, but it went by too quickly. We took her to Pike's first thing on Friday (well, after we hit Nordstrom's- which is the flagship by the way)- of course, all the fisher guys LOVED Linds and pulled her right up behind the counter in order to catch a flying fish! Henley and I, like proud parents, stood on the side lines videotaping and taking pictures. We thought for sure she would drop it, after all she doesn't even eat fish, but she proved us wrong and caught that fish from 30 feet away- and that was a slippery little sucker!
By 4pm we were ready for happy hour and to head out for the night. We ate some fab sushi, shook our booties on the dance floor, and made a couple prank calls- it was a good night. The night wouldn't have been complete if Hen wasn't hit on by EVERY Bahamian, dread locked, foreign accented black man in Seattle. She made Knox proud.
Pioneer Square is how we started the day on Saturday. Again, we were hassled by some homeless men- I think making some sort of gross remark to Linzi posing with a hose and a statue honoring firefighters. We went to 35th floor of the Smith Tower to see views of the Olympic mountains and of the Cascade's. The best part was sitting in the "wedding chair", a present to the "Smith's" from the Chinese empress- legend has it that if you sit in this chair you will be married or engaged within one year. The catch was you had to REALLY wish for it, and I think most of us were just concerned if our hair looked good and if we didn't look fat in the picture.
We ended the night with ski ball and beer and a cute new bar we found across the lake.
Our "inner hippy" (per Jenny) had to wake up early the next morning to kayak in Lake Union and Lake Washington. Some how I got stuck with the child's boat...literally, I was asked how tall I was, but once I saw it was PINK I was no longer offended. I personally HATED kayaking, I could never keep up with Hen and Linz, I felt out of control. I imagined alligators capsizing my little pink kayak, I imagined snakes swimming up beside me and I imagined falling out of the kayak and having to touch the gross yuck bottom...that is if a shark didn't bite my legs off and I could touch.
Went spent TOO much money, drank TOO much, ate TOO much, laughed TOO hard, took TOO many pictures and realized life is TOO short to go that long again without seeing one another :)

Kiki and Jeff (5/16-5/19)

2008-05-26T09:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm just going to give a brief summary/itinerary from our weekend in Seattle. Once you see all that we packed in, you will understand why I can not take the time to write about the entire weekend - we were quite busy!!

Friday
- pick Mom and Jeff up from airport
-drive to Snoqualmie, lunch at Isadora's
-hike to bottom of Snoqualmie Falls
-return to Seattle
-Pike's Market
-walk along Elliott Bay
-water taxi to Alki Beach
-dinner @ Salty's (Copper River Salmon - YUMMY!)

Saturday
-Underground Tour in Pioneer Square
-walk through Pike's Market (again)
-Seattle Cheese Festival
-visit flagship Starbucks
-lunch
-Lake Washington Boat Tour (see Bill Gate's house, Sleepless in Seattle home, Mt. Ranier. . . )
-Mom and Jeff went to the top of the Space Needle
-baseball game @ Safeco Field (Seattle Mariner's vs. San Diego Padres)

Sunday
-get up at 6:30am
-drive to Anacosta (2hrs) to catch Ferry to San Juan Islands
-MISS the ferry
-charter 6 passenger plane to San Juan Islands
-whale watching cruise (see lots of orca whales)
-take ferry back to Anacosta and drive back to Seattle
-Mexican fiesta with Whitney at a neighborhood restaurant

Monday
-drop Mom and Jeff off at airport on my way to work (6am)

Now that was a little bit tiring, but LOTS of fun:)

It isn't easy being green. . .

2008-05-22T17:48:00.000-07:00

Most of you have heard by now, I'm on a big "go green" kick. The northwest is having a serious effect on me. I've taught Whitney the importance of recycling and forced her to attempt to run the dishwasher only once a week. She is handling both of these rules very well, but she didn't appreciate it when I turned the lights off in her bathroom (which has no window) and told her she didn't need a light to brush her teeth! Hee-hee!

So, my biggest move so far is the purchase of my new mode of transportation. Yes, I bought a bike (found it on Craig's List for a whopping $35)!!! My goal is to ride my bike to work. This is going to be a 30-45 minute commute on a bike, but I'm DETERMINED to do it! My friends and family think I'm nuts - but you kids just wait and see, I'm seriously going to do this.

I had an adventure on my bike today. I was headed to Nordstrom's to buy a new bra (Simon ate the strap off of mine). I'm still not quite sure if I'm supposed to be riding on the sidewalks or the streets, so I kind of weave between the two. It was all going well until a city bus honked at me (do you know how loud a bus horn is?) in the middle of downtown and some homeless person accross the street started yelling (I'm not sure if he was yelling at me or the bus). Needless to say, everyone was staring and I was embarassed. Of course I decided to buy more than just a bra while at Nordstrom's (shopping bags and bikes don't exactly get along). On the way home some homeless lady was asking me where to get pot, I ignored her and was VERY glad to be on the bike so I could speed away. She was yelling at me as well.

So - it's off to a bit of a rough start on the bike, but I'm confident that things WILL get better:) I'm doing a trial run to the hospital on Tuesday and plan to start riding the bike to work on Wed - I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes!!

Sorry we've been bad about keeping the blog updated, I promise I'm going to start writing more often. Things have been kinda crazy with work, my mom and Jeff came to visit, etc. Linzi comes tonight - YEAH!!! Pictures and stories of Mom and Jeff's trip are coming and I'm SURE there will be MANY good stories form our girls weekend coming up!

Pictures:)

2008-05-22T17:37:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures from Pike's Market and the Tug Boat races that we went to!!

Attack in Seattle

2008-05-12T22:57:00.000-07:00

I was awoken circa 3 AM by Keely. She enjoys walking along the top of my headboard. Apparently Keels was a little sleepy too and she slipped off the headboard and landed on my face- with her nails out. So needless to say, I woke up as her nails sliced my forehead and chin and I was bleeding profusely all over my sheets. In a sleepy stuper, I stumbled to the bathroom and couldnt find bandaids at first so I wrapped my face in toilet paper. Finally I found 2 bandaids ( and they were big ones) and put them on my cuts. I looked like Henley after senior year formal after the "cement slab" incident and Knox put bandaids all over her ( even on places that werent cut).

I tried not to leave the house today bc I am a little self concious about the scrapes- I mean Hen just looked at me from across the room and started laughing...thats got to make you feel good. The man at the gym today looked at my face and said, " oohhhh what happened to your face, youve been scratched" Uh no duh, I wanted to scratch his face- thanks for pointing that out. I mean you dont say to someone with a huge zit on their face, " Wow, you have seriously disgusting acne". Anyway, I told him that my cat scratched me, but then I didnt want him to think I had an unruly cat that attacked me on purpose ( now Simon is another story), so I had to go into all the detail of the fall.

I dont have to worry about the scary drunk, psycho homeless man across the street breaking in- its hard for bad guys to get in with all the security here, but now we have to worry about wobbly cats on the headboard.

XOXO,
Whit

Top 3 signs Whitney is NOT from Seattle. . .

2008-05-07T13:26:00.000-07:00

1. Incorrectly referred to the Space Needle as "The Needle Point"
2. Called Pike's Market "Pikes Pier"
3. Waits at the corner for the "walk" sign even if there are NO cars or people in sight!

Ok, so I'm supposed to be working on some modules for work - but I thought I would procrastinate a little and do some blogging (I've been suffering withdrawals).

So. . Seattle is great so far! We found Pike's MARKET - it's definitely in walking distance:) We've decided to buy all of our fruits and veggies from there while we are here - they are so yummy and fresh, plus it's good exercise! There are lots of "conveniences" near us and we are within walking distance from downtown, so our intentions are to walk as much as possible!

Work - ugh! It just gets in the way, ya know? I've been in orientation for the past two days (BORING) and I finally hit the floor tomorrow! I've been to the floor and met some of the nurses I'll be working with and had a tour of the unit. I'm REALLY excited, I think that I'm going to really like the patients that I'll be working with and the other nurses were really nice! This is definitely "acute pediatric rehab" unlike the "long term pediatric rehab" I was doing in NY - I can't wait!! Whitney's been working like a hog this week - I feel like I haven't even seen her:( I'll let her fill you in on her job, etc. . . if she's ever home!!

The weather has been cloudy, kinda chilly. Everyone keeps talking about how it should be sunny and getting warmer by now - I hope they are telling the truth!

Other exciting news - we just booked an Alaskan cruise:) We decided that we needed to take advantage of being this close to Alaska, so we are going to take a week long cruise through the icy waters at the end of our assignment - yippeee!!!

Ok, I really should get to work on those modules. . .

Henley

"Home Sweet Handicap Apartment"

2008-05-03T22:12:00.001-07:00

We made it!! Finally!! We got into Seattle Friday afternoon with few mishaps from the cats. The weather was in the 60's and overcast when we came into town, but NO rain! Our apartment complex is really nice, we are 3 blocks from the water, within walking distance to Pike Place Market and we can actually see the Space Needle (see picture) from our balcony. We are literally right downtown, so we hear buses, cars, people and even the homeless man on the corner cussing and fighting with nothing because he apparently on drugs. We enjoyed trying to figure out who had made him so mad! Not to worry, our apartment building is super safe, in fact you have to literally have a key to get in and out of the stairwells, front doors and garages and even if some bad guy sneaks in the building, the likelihood of them being able to enter onto one of the resident floors is slim to none.
We walked to dinner friday night, ate on the water, had some killer clam chowder at Anthony's Pier 66- we had a view of the Mariner's stadium and the Seattle Seahawks stadium.
Our apartment is clearly for someone who is handicap- I say this bc the layout is absolutely ridiculous. The bathrooms have literally one cabinet, there is 5 feet between the sink and the toilet and about 1.5 inches between the bathtub and the sinks- not to mention the mirror is about waist level (which in my case is perfect, but God forbid Knox and Jenny come to visit- it will be at crotch level) Our kitchen counter is at waistlevel and we dont even have a drawer that is wide enough to fit all out our silverware in one drawer. Now, A. if I was handicap, I would be mad bc regardless of if I was in a wheelchair or not, I need storage. B. how can I wheel my wheelchair around on carpet? C. just bc I am handicap doesnt mean I dont wear winter coats or use sheets and towels so how come I dont have a closet for such items?
Thank goodness we are only here 3 months, bc my bathroom is being used as the "suitcase and vaccuum" closet and we had to make a linen closet out of boxes (nice).
The kitties (and Little Lewie) are getting adjusted- I think they like it here, they have great big windows to look out of and they are constantly stimulated with all the noises you hear in the city. They like the balcony, but today when it was misting they didnt want to go outside- they are used to the warm, sunny beach weather!
Exploring tomorrow, going to find out workplaces and maybe see some "flying fish" at Pike place market!
Shout out tonight goes to: Grandpa and Aunt Peachie on their kickin' recoveries from surgery! and to Drews' for being born 26 years ago today (maybe we need to shout out to "your mama"!?)
Love and miss, Whitney

Midnight Air

2008-05-01T22:15:00.000-07:00

Last night we had the pleasure of spending the night on an air mattress. As those of you who have had this wonderful experience know, you don't want to toss and turn too much while on an air mattress with someone else - it causes a very interrupted sleep for the other person! So, in the middle of the night when we both woke up wondering if that was the floor that we were feeling - we tried to be considerate and lay still and hopefully go back to sleep. Unfortunately, as Henley took a turn to the left, due to the small amount of air that was actually left in the air mattress, she body slammed not only Whitney, but the floor at the same time. Of course, at this time we are both awake. Whitney states that she feels like she is sleeping on the floor. Henley states that she was hoping for a midnight air re-fill. We then realize that there is NO effort needed in getting off of the air mattress. We simply rolled to one side and we were suddenly on the floor! Pumped that sucker back up with some air and went back to sleep. . . that is until about 6:00 this morning, when the whole thing happened again:) Of course we are both laughing hysterically both times b/c when we wake we can't help but wonder if it is only ONE side of the air mattress that is flat and if the other side is high in the air . . . it was an entertaining night!

Today was a fabulous day in Portland. We went to Powell's Books, the largest independent book store in the country. We had lunch at a local brewery (beer is BIG in Portland) of course we enjoyed some beer samples along with our lunch (can't go to a brewery and not sample the beers)! We also did some shopping on 23rd St, enjoyed happy hour at Portland Grill (had great views of the city) and still made it home in time for Grey's Anatomy!!

The road trip ends tomorrow:( We think that we are going to keep up the blog with pictures and stories from our adventures in Seattle, so keep checking - tomorrow won't be our last blog! There may not be a post everyday, but probably once a week or so.

Check out our "take two" post below with mis-hap pictures we've taken throughout the week! Some of the pictures are hard to see, but if you click on the picture, you can view a larger image!

Shout-out today goes to Kim Lineberger - she's a labor champ! Hadley Kuff Lineberger was born today at 12:45, weighing 7lb 12oz, 21 inches!! Happy Birthday Hadley:)

Take Two (photo outtakes/mis-haps)

2008-05-01T20:03:00.001-07:00

click on picture to view larger image

Day 8 - we are over it!

2008-04-30T22:26:00.000-07:00

Ok, today was the breaking point - we are officially tired of being in the car and driving!! Yesterday's drive pushed us over the line - today's was a struggle. Thank GOONESS Portland is our last stop before Seattle! Let's not forget to mention that the cats are CLEARLY showing that they are no longer enjoying the trip (no more details necessary - sure you can figure out their behavior patterns by now).

First stop today was at the Oregon Vortex and Mystery House. It was definitely a strange place - at one point Whitney was almost as tall as Henley (something about her molecules stretching while Henley's were shrinking). We took several pictures, but it is harder to see in the pictures than it was in person - it was a weird place. Made us dizzy and sea-sick!

Next - the mission was to make it to Portland. At last we are here. We are staying with a friend of Whitney's from Durham. Glad to have a non-hotel accommodation:)

Observations on Oregon:
-clean highways
-COLD temperatures (we clearly aren't in California anymore)
-no sales tax (love it -can we shop for groceries here before we head on to Seattle?)
-only full service gas stations in Oregon - why can't we pump our own gas?
-many hipsters

Moms - you are more than welcome to come along on the next trip. . . we think the cats would LOVE to have you in THEIR car:)

Shout-out tonight goes to Laren Burkle (youngest female in the Burkle Circle) - thanks for giving us a place to stay!!

"From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf Stream waters - this land was made for you and me"

2008-04-29T21:51:00.000-07:00

LOTS of driving today - blah! We left Napa this morning and drove through the Avenue of the Giants (Redwood Forest). The trees were HUGE and BEAUTIFUL! We even drove THROUGH a tree trunk!

At last - we are out of California! We've logged in over 1,000 miles on the odometer and we will be staying in Oregon for the next few nights.

It rained for the first time during our trip today - we've been so lucky with the weather. After the small shower we spotted a rainbow in our rear view mirror. Henley got extremely excited and pulled over to take a picture - in the thrill of the moment, she forgot to put the car in park and it started to roll away from her as she was trying to photograph the rainbow. . . NOT a good situation!

Gas went over $4/gallon today. We've been floating in the $3.75-$3.97 range ever since we left San Diego. Today, however, we had to pay $4.05/gallon!!!

Finally, how could we POSSIBLY have forgotten to mention the traumatic event that Whitney had to go through in Napa yesterday. In the parking lot of Cakebread Winery, she spotted a snake - from her reaction you would have thought it was an 8 foot copper head. Thankfully, once the limo driver came to check on her and the "situation" that was causing such a ruckus - we realized it was a 12 inch garden snake! Don't think that this realization put a stop to the post dramatic stressing - it was continuously brought up throughout the rest of the stay in Napa! (THIS IS WHITNEY TALKING NOW, HENLEY HAS BEEN DOING THE WRITING THUS FAR, BUT I MUST EXPLAIN THE SITUATION- I WAS MINDING MY OWN BUSINESS, JUST TALKING TO MY CUZ ON THE CELL AND TRYING TO GET INTO THE NICE, CLASSY WINERY ,WHEN OUT OF NO WHERE A MONSTER OF A CREATURE SLITHERED OVER TO ME, HISSED AND TRIED TO BITE MY LEG OFF- NATURALLY I SCREAMED AND EXCLAIMED- "THERE IS A SNAKE, I SEE A SNAKE, THERE IS A SNAKE IN NAPA VALLEY" I WAS SURE TO ALERT THE STAFF AS WELL, THINKING I MIGHT NEED SOME SORT OF MEDICAL ASSISTANCE OR STRONGER DOSE OF WINE FOR MY PTSD, BUT NO SUCH LUCK, THEY LAUGHED AND SAID "OH YEAH, WE HAVE RATTLE SNAKES, TOO" FROM THAT MOMENT ON MY WINE TASTING WAS RUINED- THIS IS NO LAUGHING MATTER AND THE WHOLE TIME I HAD TO LOOK OVER MY SHOULDER FOR MORE SNAKES TRYING TO RUIN MY VACATION. I WAS NOT HAPPY- NOW THAT IS HOW THE STORY IS SUPPOSED TO GO!!)

Well, now that we got that straight. . . shout-out tonight goes to Frank (the Tank)! Thanks for the walkies - they have made our trip much more enjoyable (and entertaining).

We LOVE the comments and REALLY enjoy all of the alias' that everyone is using:) So fun!

BTW - we can't seem to get our videos to upload onto the blog correctly. We are going to try to upload them to U-Tube once we reach Seattle - believe us, there are some HYSTERICAL ones:)

How could we forget to mention. . .

2008-04-29T09:57:00.001-07:00

the bar back at the Fransiscan Winery burped in our faces!!! (this comes as no surprise by now, we find it an everyday occurance on this trip)

Feeling much better this morning. We successfully visited 5 wineries yesterday (that should explain the headaches) - Peju, Fransiscan, Hall, Del Dotto, and Cakebread. We got to grab lunch at Dean & Deluca and eat on the patio at Hall Winery while tasting wine and we took a tour of the caves (gorgeous) at Del Dotto!

Some very nice guys bought us a glass of champagne at dinner and then we tourtured them by making them take lots of pictures with Little Lewie:)

Nappa was a blast - on the road again!!!

OUCH

2008-04-28T21:55:00.000-07:00

Napa Valley gave us a headache. . . that's about all we can say!

Two shout-outs tonight. . .
-Amanda Swenson - thanks for the hook-up at Hall Winery, we had a blast!
-Cookie - thanks for teaching Henley that spraying water on a wrinkled garmet will produce the same effects as "wrinkle release" - we looked much better today thanks to this info! We can't shout too loud - our heads hurt!!

The Great Escape

2008-04-27T23:24:00.000-07:00

Today we left Yosemite - it was hard to say goodbye to all of our animal friends at the Bed of Roses petting zoo!! Our activities today included going to jail (Alcatraz) and driving accross the Golden Gate Bridge:) However the most exciting part of the day wasn't something we had planned. . .

As we were driving towards Yosemite this morning to get the "kids" picture in front of the Yosemite National Park sign - Simon decided to take his daily poo. Of course the stench was so HORRIFIC that he made himself sick (as he has done everyday on this trip). Now, as you can imagine, if it is bad enough to make himsick, it was making us gag as well! So, we had to pull over so Whitney could sling the poo out of the car. Now, let me tell you that the litter box in the car stays in the bottom of Keely's carrier. As Whitney opened the back door, she discovered that Simon had missed the litter box (quite a bit) and had basically pooed on Keely's carrier. As she is assessing how to handle/clean up this situation, Henley (thank God for her) notices that Keely has ESCAPED from the car and is now standing by a tree behind Whitney!!! We can't blame Keely for wanting to run away, our little brothers have all pushed us to that point before. So Whitney takes off to catch Keely - Henley of course scrambles for the video camera! Keely decides to run zig-zag down the road with her tail thrown high in the air while Whitney chases after her saying, "Now, Keely, get back here. . . You are making Mommy VERY mad. . . This is just unacceptable behavior. . . At least get out of the street. . . I SAID get OUT OF THE STREET!" All the while everyone is praying that a car doesn't come flying around the curve and kill us all! Keely finally decides to attack a bush and Whitney is able to rip her out of the bush and bring her back to the car safely. . . . meanwhile Little Lewie and Simon are sitting in the car like good boys behaving themselves!! The video is hysterical but it is way too long to upload to our blog (there is a limit to the size file you can download)!

We finally made it to Napa safe and sound - Keely made several more attempts to run away and Simon decided to skip the litter box completely and pee in Keely's cat bed this evening. Whitney has declared that she might by charged with shaken cat if things don't get better. She has also declared that she has decided that she NEVER wants to become a mother after her experience today! Little Lewie on the other hand, just slept nicely in the car all day:)

Thank goodness we get to drink wine all day tomorrow - I think we all need a break!! Please excuse and expect spelling mistakes tomorrow night!!

Our shout out tonight goes to J Glaze - thanks for letting us keep a car at your house while we went to Yosemite:) Sorry there wasn't more time for conversing and catching up - road tripping is a fly-by kinda thing!

Observation for the day - you are DEFINITELY foreign if you are carrying a book titled "Californie"

"Enter through the front door. . . the back door is for exit only"

2008-04-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

Hiking and bike riding in Yosemite today - we are EXHAUSTED!! Lots of beautiful views, waterfalls, trails, and many strange tourists! Hiked a 3 mile trail, half of which was not only steep, but wet. Henley only fell once (that's pretty good for her)! There was a gorgeous waterfall with rainbows and all at the end of the hike - thank goodness it was worth the hike! We were so tired that we ate dinner at 5:00 (slightly geriatric-ish) and came home for hot tub and jammies. FINALLY - we are going to bed early.

Lessons learned today - never trust other tourists to take your pictures!!

Suggestions for Yosemite bus drivers - you may want to be a little more specific with the "doors" you are speaking of!!

Whoo-hooo

2008-04-25T22:19:00.000-07:00

YEAH for wireless internet @ Bed of Roses. . . pictures have been added below:) Check out Big Sur - our new favorite place in the whole world!!!

A Bed of Roses

2008-04-25T21:25:00.000-07:00

Well, we became a happy family of 5 in the car today:) Dropped one car off in San Fran and headed to Yosemite (of course we had to do some luggage re-arranging in order for us to all fit). We are staying in a bed and breakfast called A Bed of Roses. Today Whitney learned that a bed and breakfast is called such b/c they actually make you breakfast in the morning - she was amazed! A Bed of Roses is the cutest place EVER - it has a pool, jacuzzi and a petting zoo. . . yes, you read that correctly! The petting zoo consists of 2 goats (Scruffy and Billy Bob), a chicken and several pot-bellied pigs!!! Interesting - to say the least! We did take a short 4 mile hike this afternoon in Yosemite - to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. A lovely dinner on lake Bass (where the waitress sat us on the SAME side of the table so that we could both have a view of the lake - Henley's #1 pet peeve is when 2 people sit on the same side of the table at dinner). Now we are back at our cozy little nook - Whitney is in the tub b/c we have no shower in our room! An early night - got to be ready for breakfast at 8:30am!

Thank you to Simon for NOT taking a poo in the car today!!

Shout out today goes to Jenny for helping us cancel our hotel reservations while we were driving!

ps. I only mis-spelled two words tonight - I'm getting better!

Its a rough life....

2008-04-25T09:26:00.000-07:00

Being on the road gets a little lonely- can we get some love COMMENTS please!
We will be writing from Yosemite tonight!

Shout out to Nina Delaney- our blogging mentor! Thanks a bunch!

Too tired to title. . .

2008-04-24T22:22:00.000-07:00

Let's start off by apologizing for the spelling errors in the previous blogs. Let's just say that a. Henley is typing, b. we were a little pushed for time this morning (notice that the posts were done around 7am) and c. we were having to share a seat in the lobby of the Madonna Inn b/c the internet in our room stopped working last night!! From now on, we will be sure to make time for spell check!

We are happy to have Simon and Keely in our company again, they had a fabulous time at the pet resort last night!

We are still having some difficulties figuring out this blog stuff, so we might just have to stick to typing and send pics and videos at a later date.

Day started early -
-Hearst Castle - tour guide burped during presentation (rubbed his belly and said, "Mmm, breakfast").
-Elephant Seals at San Simeon - huge monstrous beasts, entertaining video of them barking and slinging sand on top of themselves.
-Simon took another poo in the car
-Drive up Pacific Coast Hwy - GORGEOUS views, we became experts at taking pictures and videos while driving (don't tell our parents b/c this can be scary when you are driving on a cliff by the ocean).
-Lunch at Nepenthe, Big Sur. Wonderful view, good food, nice service, man sitting next to us burped in our direction (what is it with people burping at us this week?)
-Hiking in Point Lomos National Park - amazing views, "the greatest meeting of land and sea"
-Hog's Breath Inn and Saloon, Carmel-by-the-Sea. Made a toast to Peg and Joe - 30 years and going!!
-Fisherman's Wharf, Monterey. Great clam chowder, finally saw an otter in the ocean.
-Ocean Pacific Hotel, Santa Cruz. In bed, wearing PJ's, eating salt water taffy and again entertaining ourselves with today's pics and videos!

God showed his love for us today by:
-giving us a GREAT seat at lunch, with no wait!
-finding shaded parking spots for the cats throughout the day
-didn't let us fly off any cliffs while driving
-didn't let us get lost

God is shaking his head at us today because:
-Henley had to pee on National Park property (literally)
-We continuously sunk Little Lewie into several "no dog" areas
-Whitney emptied the litter box on Hearst Castle property

Looking forward to posting out takes caught on film later this week:)

Heading to Yosemite tomorrow, not sure if we will have internet. . . -

technicaly difficulties

2008-04-24T07:32:00.000-07:00

We are having some trouble uploading some of our pictures, and videos. Hopefully we will have an early night tonight so that we can work on this:)

We DO have a video of our room at the Madonna Inn and we have SEVERAL picures of "Little Lewie" (in memory of those who could not join us).

The internet connection has been an issue as well. . . unfortunatley, we gotta keep on moving. . .

The Honeymooners

2008-04-24T06:51:00.000-07:00

Today’s itenerary: (really yesterday, 4/23 - internet connection at the Madonna Inn is a little sheisty) -Flower Fields (Carlsbad, Ca): lots of preschoolers! Colorful Roniculus (?), looks like good flowers for a weddingJ -lunch on Queen Mary (Long Beach, Ca) – restaurant somewhat resembled the dining room at the local old folks room, perhaps the collection of parked wheel chairs by the hostess stand had something to do with it! -bathroom stop (Santa Barbara, Ca) – very windy, must get cats to pet resort by 6pm, no time to dilly-dally. -Bubblegum Alley (San Luis Obispo, Ca) – gross. 40 yrs worth of chewed gum stuck on the walls of an alley (germ city). We were sure to leave our mark -Madonna Inn (San Luis Obispo, Ca) – our favorite Here’s a mental image for you of the end of our day. . . cake in bed, matching pink hotel bathrobes on after showering (seprerately) in the waterfall shower, laughing hystericaly at ourselves in our videos and pics from the day!!! Quotes: Henley: Could you take a picture of us? Man at flower fields: No, sorry, I am legally blind!! Whitney: I think our toilet just had a diarrhea attack. Henley to stranger: Could you take a picture of us in front of the fire place. . . it’s our honeymoon! Whitney:We need to make an emergency stop, Simon just threw up and took a dump at the same time in the car. Henley: I will stop at the next gas station. Whitney: Uh, I’m going to need some thing with a little more privacy than that! Whitney: This little pink thing is so cute! Henley: That would be an ice chest! Hostess: Any special occasion for you tonight? Whitney: Nope, we are just girlfriends. . . Strangers in hallway: We’ll guard the door for you if you want to check out the men’s bathroom. Be sure to stand IN the urinal!

Beer for Bowls

2008-04-22T21:39:00.000-07:00

Can't believe that tomorrow is the big day. Today has been quite busy with preparations. . . keep in mind that Henley is moving through the entire day on 2 hours of sleep! There were several errands to run. Our favorite was to the yarn shop where the cashier burped mid-sentence in Henley's face and just kept on talking as if nothing had happened. Whitney had to immediately begin perusing through yarn (which she has no interest in) just to keep from looking at Henley and breaking into hysterics (the thought of this situation continues to bring us to hysterics now, 6 hours later).

Accomplishment of the day: EVERYTHING fits in two cars!!! NO boxes needing to be mailed. (there is even room for the cats)

Last supper in San Diego - such a pathetic event! We had to eat in complete silence b/c the cable box has already been turned in and the TV is packed. On the menu - scraps, literally. How about some ravioli, strawberries, almonds and we each get half of an ice cream bar - sorry, that's all there is in the fridge! Oh wait, all the pots and pans are packed - how are we going to cook the ravioli?? Here's an idea - let's bribe the neighbors with the 6 cans of beer left in the fridge for a bowl to cook in!! Mission accomplished - beer for bowls is the theme of the day:)

Early start tomorrow - 9am. Want a little teaser of what's in store for tomorrow's adventures?? How about a hotel room with a waterfall shower and lunch aboard the Queen Mary! And let's not forget that Keely and Simon will be having their own adventure at the pet resort in San Luis Obispo tomorrow night (no pets allowed at the Madonna Inn). Hopefully some pics will be posted as well!

Gotta get some sleep -