Courtyard By Marriott Seattle Kirkland

... Bible study, discussions, workshops; hiking around the mountains the village is nestled into; eating meals together as a community; and attending Vespers each evening. It was a wonderful time of renewal and recreation. Since coming home, I have begun to embrace this transition period of my life. The other day I came across a book called Life Journeys According to Mister Rogers, which is a collection of Mister Rogers' thoughts published a couple years after his ...

Credit goes to Monica, my astrologer. (I call her mine, though I've only seen her once.) To my surprise -- and let's be honest, delight -- this trip to India was simply in the cards for me. Turns out, with both Venus and Jupiter in the 9th house on my chart, I benefit tremendously from long-distance travel. Just ask any astrologer, says Monica. Oh, and the 9th house is a spiritual one. Hmm, long-distance travel and spirituality...India. Bingo! So ...

... night so I get all dressed up and go to the Captain's cocktail party. The drinks are free so I had a rum punch and cosmopolitan. Never had a cosmopolitan before and it was fruity but good. After the caribbean cruise I took a few years ago, I swore I'd never touch rum punch again but hey, it's free. Since I was all dressed up, I decided to eat at one of the ship's fancier restaurants. They sat me at a table with a couple from Denver, a couple ...

... a table in the food court and he told me all about the company and the job. He then introduced me to someone else I would be working with. It all seemed to go very well and we have arranged to meet up again at the ALA down in Anaheim in two weeks. After that I went to see Hannah and we chatted over a Haagen Daas ice-cream. Yum - good decision! We decided to go out for dinner after the conference so we arranged to meet up at 5:30pm. I whiled ...

... Diane is part of the Agate Passage Friends Meeting on Bainbridge Island. They live in a beautiful, Japanese-style house surrounded by a lovely pond and gardens called "Poem Rising Garden" since Harry is a poet and retired gardener and landscape designer. We spent a leisurely morning (for a change) talking with them before heading out on our 10-mile day. Diane took the photos of us plotting and planning, getting ready, leaving, and walking. Thanks to Diane for the photos. It's ...

... the cowboy town of Stanley. Although the buildings looked quiet new & well maintained, there were lots of old chuck wagons & water carts & historic memorabila throughout the town. As there were no campsites, we umed & ahed about shelling out $75 for a cabin at the Triangle C ranch. The owner was short on looks and charm - we called her Cruella Deville (we didn't see any Dalmations?) - she almost put us off staying. Her words were short and curt and we felt ...

... The Cascades were soon behind us, Seattle's highrises in front of us, and Lake Washington right around the corner. Oh yeah, getting lazy on the front deck back home, munching on carrot cake, was certainly not a bad way to end a great roadtrip! The numbers: Miles to/from Kirkland: 3450 Dollars spent on gas: $270 Dollars lost on gambling: $1 Number of deer seen: 6 Times we wish we had a job: 0

... Ko Phi Phi. A flaming baton flying into a crowd of drunk German kids is about as funny as the disintereted Thai swinging flaming ropes around. Maybe you had to be there, but trust me, it was funny. Other than the new extreme sport that we discovered in KL and Bangkok called crossing the street, that is about it. Thanks for following along with us. It was a great trip and we're looking forward to some time to recover and relax back in civilization before the next adventure.

... 2. It has been wonderful to be home, power-outage and all, seeing friends, decorating the tree with family, and listening to Christmas music. The foods I missed the most were peanut butter of course, since it is my favorite, but also chai tea, popcorn, nonfat milk, and regular pancakes, so I've been eating them all again. French word du jour: Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année, which means Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Or to wrap it all up, Joyeuses Fêtes, which means Happy Celebrating.

... doors open...and I'll miss the screeching sound of the train on the tracks as it comes to a stop...and I'll miss the rocking motion of the train cars and the sound of the train on the tracks as it speeds along with me trying to balance myself like a surfer in the aisle of the traincar whilst holding on to the metal poles so I don't go lunging forward into the other commuters when the train jerks about. I've found that it's those little things that stick with ...