Crossland Economy Studios Puyallup

... Kai loves people, truly, whoever walks through the door is usually greeted with slobbery kisses and toothless face splitting grins that make you feel like his dear old friend.  He is quite skilled at building relationship, even with those who claim babies don't like them.  I think he especially likes these converts. Kai loves that he can sit now and play with toys.  Toys are currently defined as anything that can fit in his mouth.  He loves to jump ...

... instead. There's a storm moving in and the waves were starting to get pretty formidable. Gina decided (and I whole-heartedly supported her) that today was perhaps not the best day to brave the waves so our plan changed to just hanging out at the pool. Lunch was at MamaMias (a huge cheeseburger that ranked about a "7" on the Kelly's cheeseburger scale). The afternoon was spent reading on the beach under one of the thatched umbrellas that are there for just that ...

... been over ten years since we'd last seen each other. I needn't have worried she spotted me first! Can't imagine how I was so easy to spot! Any way she hadn't changed a bit, it was great to catch up. We spent a really pleasant evening on the waterfront eating and trying the local beer! To the south of downtown is Pioneer Square, this was the original downtown area of Seattle. It is now a series of tree lined streets packed with craft shops ...

... tours" The Duck tours are amphibious ex-marine vehicles that tour the city as well as a section of the water ways. The Skipper on the tour was really into giving us a great time with his commentary and change of hats to take on different roles. It was an informative and fun filled ride. We are such seasoned travellers now, this was shown with the way we hopped off this tour and looked for a bus to take us Downtown. We alight from ...

... So I just read in my classroom, it was boring, I need to not take Jane Austin novels to sub with, they are to slow of a read and I can´t maintain focus when I need to have the "with-it-ness" attention on the kiddos. Anyway I let the kids play "sparkle" or "typewriter" a game (that is really like a spelling bee only fun) for about 8 minutes. And then we played heads up seven up during the end of their lunch. By the end of ...

... an hour later. We got a taxi to our hostel in the downtown area and were assigned a bunk bed in a 4-bed room - our first dormitory experience! We went in and were met by a fellow South African from Cape Town who was there with her boyfriend. So that was lucky - they seemed really nice and normal! It was great to hear a South African accent again and to see Gill shampoo and Radox shower gel in the window sill...how small things remind you of home when you have been gone so long!

... of Friday, September 28, 2007. We went right to the timeshare condo to see our friends and to hang out.

After we had visited for a few hours, Brian and I went to the strip and stayed out until about 3:00AM. We spent most of the time playing no-limit poker at the Paris Hotel/Casino. I won a few bucks.

... Hardy lives in Nelson and we got an invite to join him for Christmas - what a wonderful gift! Thurs 9th Aug Packed up camp, said our farewells to Hardy - he was great company - Sunny day, went back to Paradise to hike Mt Rainier. On approach, got our 1st view of Mt Rainier - it was fantastic to see - took photos. For walk, took (2) walking poles, hats, jackets, gloves, went on Skyline Trail. Saw deer, 2 stags, Marmots. Trail all tarmaced & wide, chatted to hikers along the way. We ...

... diarrhea. Mystic was a rock and helped me as best he could. We got back on the crazy train, or rather van and eventually made it to seattle. We slept in the park the first night finding rats everywhere the next morning. We picked up a nice brother named biome who fed me a superfood reenergizing health food drink and picked up my spirits. I liked seattle a lot. There were tons of cool murals around, more than in any town I'd been ...

... did a portion of it, but well worth a visit. The aquarium etc. gets a lot of tourists and we're told the local museums are very good if you're into them! We were inundated with black squirrels wanting to share our lunch and then a raccoon walked out on me from behind a bush, which got my heart racing!! We are now in Seattle where we have spent two days, leaving here this p.m. for Portland for the next two days. We had a lovely day walking miles ...