Everett Mall Travelodge

... Bird Watching, Rafting, Jet boating, Sea Kayaking, Glacier Walking, Hiking, drop you on an active volcano and introduce you to the Maori culture! Plus lots more!

December 21 Checkout Local attractions such as SKy tower and the Aquarium.

December 22 Finish last minute Christmas shopping and fly back to Seattle

The other day a dear friend courageously said to me, I don't want to pretend that we are having the same experience raising our children.  While we share so much in terms of values and beliefs and undaunted love for our children, she pointed out, her children weren't born with Down's syndrome.  And she knew as much as she yearned for us to be having the same experience, there were inherent differences.  She wanted to explore that with me and invite open ...

... a colander. All you do is heat up the pan to around 500 F. That's hot. The highest setting on my stove. Keep the door open or an extractor fan on. Then throw in half a cup or more of green beans, which you've just washed. Then shake and stir, keeping the beans moving. After a few minutes the colour of the beans changes from green to yellow. Steam is released from the beans. The smell is grainy. Already papery chaff is coming off in small flakes. Then you start to ...

... The wind was so strong that the birds were flying backward and I think I may have seen some small children and dogs take flight! The attached picture of my hair blowing in the wind doesn't do justice to how windy it really was! I arrived at Ann's in Everett around 7pm last night. This afternoon, Mary and I went to Pike Place Market and did a short driving tour of downtown Seattle. We picked up lots of goodies at the market ...

... resorts in Dubai. I doubt it as there's a value clash with the latter, but who knows. Things keep changing. Todd says he'd like a purpose-driven vacation. He's noble like that though. He would like to go exchange beneficial farming practices with other agriculture experts. I just want to see the farm. I wonder about the crowd factor. It bears on decisions for me alot. It feels strange to read over and over again about tourists avoiding ...

... Drive on down to Bellingham uneventful but again very little traffic for a Friday afternoon. We hit I-5 and proceed to make our way to Burlington to make a quick stop at Camping World to pick up some propane and look at surge protectors. Weather is clear and sunny and life is good. We are making good time and think that we could be at the Casino by 4:00. Not so, as we turn into Camping World my turn signals stop working. Now if you are driving a car this would not be the ...

... was an obvious french influence here as you can tell by the names - sur la table, du jour & the very french bakery. There was Turkish & Greek food, Italian, Falafel and most perculary a Russian place that sold wierd looking food that had the longest lines of the lot (if I was adventureous I'd have tried some). The only reason why this market is not better then anything in Melbourne is that nobody was selling 2nd hand CDs - if it did it would be a shoe in for worlds best market ...

... In Banff N.P. I picked out a walking trail Sulphur Mountain with Shaun and Cees. It was quite a difficult trek, not helped by the varying weather of rain, sleet and eventually snow. Still the views kind of took your mind off all that. Our second trek took us to Tunnel Mountain. Just as we thought we had seen and shot the best scenery we walked around another corner to another 'wow' view and another great shot. Before returning to camp stopped of at ...

... and back at bed at 12 where I awoke several times throughout the night. once i woke up at 8:30 there was a manic sense to my energy and productivity...i got gas and I had a quarter of a tank left (i usually run it to the ground), bought vitamin water, sleeping aid, bath salts for sore muscles, picked up vietnamese at Tamarind and picked up Kathy from passages, where we then headed to the waterfront park to catch up, dropped kathy up, caught up with ...

I grabbed the red-checkered tablecloth, the one that has covered picnic stops for me from here to Georgia and back, and stuffed it in the bag with the paper plates. The homemade brownies, check; the ice chest full of Nestle's chocolate milk and 7-UP, check (never caffeinate the kiddies!); the folding chairs, check; the sand toys and digging tools, check. Everything into the car in a flurry hurry and head for the nearest KFC ...