White Friday!

Let me begin this by saying that I hate being around crowds. People tend to become more rude when in a group setting, or it at least seems that way to me. It just makes me crazy. So me, Danny and family friend Mike decided to get away from crowds and take a trip up to Hurricane Ridge at Olympic National Park. It just so happened that Friday was the one really nice, sunny day of the week, too. Good planning on my part! No rain on the trip, and the roads were good right up until the trip up to the visitor's center. Nothing a little four wheel drive action couldn't conquer.


Today - assemble the Christmas tree. We spent last year in a rental house in San Diego, so it will be nice to see our own ornaments on the tree!

No lifts, but plenty of snowboarders.

Looking down into the valley from Hurricane Ridge.

The roads were not too bad.

Danny and me.

Mike, Danny and me.

Happy Thanksgiving

Well, the family was home for the holiday for the first time in a couple of years. We spent last Thanksgiving in a rental house in San Diego last year, so it was nice to be cooking and cleaning my own house this year. I love this time of year, and it is much better at home. Mike came up to spend the holiday with us this year. He drove up Tuesday during a very wet storm - even by Seattle standards! It is always good to spend time with him.


This is the time of year that people usually tell you what they are thankful for. My family knows what I am thankful for already. I am thankful to have them in my life. It is what makes me, me. And I am thankful for butter. Without it, Thanksgiving would have less flavor. Dinner turned out great!


We are going out to enjoy a little bit of dry weather today. No shopping for this guy - I do not enjoy crowds on a normal day. Trying to shop today would likely result in incarceration for me.

Melissa took this on campus at UW.

I do enjoy making cranberry sauce from scratch!

I ask you - what would the day be without butter?

I am also thankful that a turkey named Tom gave
his life to make mine more enjoyable!

Holidays at Home

I am so looking forward to Thanksgiving! For the first time in a couple of years, I will be living at home for the holidays instead of "visiting". This is my favorite time of the year and the whole family will be together this year. Stephanie and Melissa are coming home, and we even have one of our closest friends, Mike, coming up to join us. Throw in the fact that the San Francisco 49ers play on Thanksgiving day this year, and it is on!


Jeannette and I attended Danny's cross country awards banquet (read potluck) last night. It was neat to see the kids together and enjoying themselves, but the coach was very long winded and it went three hours! He had to speak a couple of minutes about each of the kids. I suppose it was good for them and him, but it just dragged on and on after Danny went up there. And I missed the Big Bang Theory last night. Thank goodness for a DVR.

Fall Colors in the PNW

So who says we can't have some nice colors in our neck of the woods? I know the northeast has a spectacular show every fall - seen it for myself. Melissa and I walked through our neighborhood this afternoon to take in our own little collection of fall colors, and it was a great day for it.

Fall colors in our neighborhood.

Great day to be alive!

I Love Breakfast!

I just want to say that breakfast is probably my favorite meal of the day. I found a couple of places to indulge while I was in San Diego and have been hoping to find a nice spot up here now that I am home. Success! I found (sort of) a small, independent restaurant in Kingston that does breakfast the way I like it - big, bold, and sweet! I actually saw a post by one of my friends and decided to give it a try. The place is called the Oak Table Cafe.

The Oak Table Cafe - Kingston, WA

Breakfast #1 - Strawberry Waffle with ice cream. Oh, yeah!

Breakfast #2 - the Apple Pancake. The picture is good, but doesn't do it justice. Danny and I couldn't finish the whole thing!

We will go back!


In other news, I managed to get one good ride in to watch Danny run in a cross country meet on the other side of the mountains. It was a beautiful day - the kind that makes every other state jealous! Perfect sunshine, very few clouds, and 75F. I have included a few pictures of the day below. Enjoy!

Mt Rainer at sunrise - notice the Seattle skyline, including the Space Needle, in the foreground.

The Cascade mountains at sunrise.

If it looks like there are a lot of kids getting ready to run, this picture only captured about two-thirds of them!

Danny running his meet.

And a strong finish!

Danny really enjoys his running. Unfortunately, he is getting so good at it, he kicks my butt! I am hoping to build my endurance a bit so we can go running together.

Heading Home (Finally!)

Well, on my way home finally. I took some leave and rode my motorcycle up the coast to get it home. Three days, 1,500 miles and lots of head clearing later, I arrived in my driveway after nearly two years being gone. It felt great!

I could not have asked for better weather for my trip home. I left San Diego on Monday evening and stopped in LA for dinner with Beth. No traffic - really? On Monday evening? When I left SD I thought my timing was horrible and that I would run into massive traffic in LA. Good news for me. I kept going after dinner to Camarillo for the night. It was far enough above LA that I felt like my travels wouldn't be slowed by traffic the next morning.

I spent most of Tuesday traveling up the CA coast using HWY 1. Occasional stops for pictures and to stretch the legs helped break up the scenery and slow drivers. Hwy 1 is not the road you take if you are in a hurry. Patience and concentration are the keys to success on that highway. I travelled up through San Francisco - again arriving around rush hour to find that no traffic was waiting for me. I made my way north through Marin county without delay and pulled in for night two in Ukiah at a reasonable hour. This was my longest day at almost 525 miles. Unlike a car, 525 miles on a bike is about as much as you would want to do in comfort, even on my baby BMW.

On day three, I had a choice to make. Go north through Grant's Pass to Crater Lake, or continue up the coast and head towards home. I have been to Crater Lake before, and would not pass up a chance to see it again, but the pull of home and the kids gets stronger the closer you get to the prize, so I continued up the coast and skipped Crater Lake. I will make that trip with Jeannette sometime soon. So, up the coast on US 101 I went. I chose the coast because it was much cooler than heading inland to I-5. And more scenic. The following pictures were just a sample of what you get to see on the California and Oregon coasts. My travels took me up through Eureka, Crescent City, Florence, and finally Newport, OR for the night.

My bike along the Oregon coast on the way home.

Looking south along the Oregon coast in the afternoon - beautiful!

Day four, and the final day, found me in familiar territory as I made my way up through Astoria, southwest Washington and along the Puget Sound into Silverdale. Again, some awesome weather and great roads for riding. It was a great trip and I am happy I did it instead of trailering my bike and driving home without riding it.

I will be home for a week or so and then back to San Diego to turn over to my relief and get ready to drive my truck and trailer home for the final time. The two years have flown by pretty quickly, but it has come at a great cost. I don't regret my decision to stay Navy, but I will not do this again.

Death Valley & More

I recently made a trip to Death Valley for some site-seeing while the weather was manageable. Death Valley claims consecutive days with temperatures above 130F during some summer months, so a January trip seemed like a good idea. It worked out well with 65F and sun all day.

My first stop was at a place outside Ridgescrest, CA called Trona Pinnacles National Natural Landmark. It was a stop of opportunity when I saw the sign on the side of the road. I enjoyed it but the picture didn't do it justice in the early morning light.

Trona Pinnacles

The drive into Death Valley was spectacular. I came up from Ridgecrest and through the Panamint Valley. You climb up to about 4500 feet above sea level before plunging in to the valley, eventually winding up at the lowest spot in the US at 282 feet below sea level - Badwater Basin. Along the way were stops to see Salt Creek, the Devil's Golf Course, and Artist's Drive. It was beautiful. Crazy to think how hot it gets there. I find it very interesting that the lowest point in North America (Badwater Basin) is less than 100 miles from the highest point in the continental US (Mt Whitney). Talk about extremes!

Salt Creek - Home of the Pup Fish

One of the views from Artist's Drive

The Devil's Golf Course - salt deposits

Me at Badwater Basin

I also got word that my orders are changing a bit and I will now be assigned to submarine group nine in Bangor. This is a much better job that requires no commute and is real shore duty - no deployments. I am supposed to be relieved in July and should be home in July. I can't wait!