Shannon Five-0

 I decided that I was not going to stress over turning 50 this year.  I was going to embrace it and decided that I wanted to do a bigger than usual party and celebrate with some of our friends.  I planned a Hawaii Five-0 themed party.  A friend threw one for her husband last year and I thought it was a great idea.  I love Hawaii Five-0 and what a fun way to celebrate your 50th.

My birthday was actually on Thursday but we celebrated on Saturday.  Since it was my friend Denise's birthday on Saturday, I decided to include her in my celebration and put her name on the cake.  The bar even gave us Birthday Cake shots to down together. 

 We had dinner at Tommy O's--a Hawaiian restaurant in downtown Vancouver.  I didn't do a whole lot of decorating, but I did buy leis for everyone and put some crime scene tape on the table to carry out the theme a little bit.  I invited the people who have been a part of our lives almost as long as we have lived here.  I have never celebrated my birthday with this big of a party before.  Usually just with one or two girlfriends for dinner one night and with the family.  But it was actually really fun.

Weekend Trip to Bellingham and the San Juan Islands

 Bill and I had made plans to join our flying club on a flyout to Friday Harbor.  Chris has been wanting to go to Western Washington University but has never seen the campus.  So we decided to combine trips and take Chris to Bellingham for a campus tour and to Friday Harbor with us.  We had a beautiful flight up to Bellingham on Thursday afternoon.  We had a great view of Mt. Baker when we were landing.  We have seen a lot of other volcanoes in our travels but Mt. Baker isn't one that we see very often.  I haven't flown on the west side of the Cascades in awhile so I had forgotten how busy air traffic is and how much more you have to look for traffic.  We got to Bellingham late in the afternoon and Bill was tired from getting up so early to work so we didn't really explore Bellingham much.  Just ate dinner at a nearby restaurant to the motel and watched the Democratic Convention.

Friday morning, we made the trek to the WWU campus from our motel.  I was expecting it to only be a mile but it was at least two miles.  And much of it was climbing up hill--so my old bones were not liking that.  And still had to take the tour and get back to the motel on foot.  The campus is beautiful--on a hill overlooking the bay.  We had a very nice tour and Chris is anxious to get started there.  So now he needs to work on his application and essay to get the ball rolling.

 After the tour, we took our short flight over to Friday Harbor.  It is always so beautiful flying over the San Juan Islands.  Photos can't do any justice to the true beauty of being able to see over 100 islands, the Olympic Mountains, the Cascades and Mt. Baker all at the same time.  The photo above is of Orcas Island--one of the bigger ones.  It has been a really long time since we have been there.

 And you can see Mt. Baker from Friday Harbor as well.  Took this as we were landing.

 Most people take the Washington State Ferry to the islands.  It has been quite awhile since I have taken the ferry.  I have to admit--as much as I like it--it is much better to fly.  In order to get to the San Juans by car, it takes about six hours to drive up to Anacortes.  Then you have to spend the night there and get to the ferry dock really early in the morning to get in line.  And it is the same drill coming back.  Flying only takes about an hour and a half to two hours.  Much quicker way to get there and back.

 One of the activities for the flyout was to go on a whale watching cruise.  We've done it before but it has been eight years so thought it would be fun to do again.  We got to see these bachelor stellar sea lions sunning on this rock. 

 And this is a picture of the Cattle Point Lighthouse on San Juan Island.

 We got to see this Minke whale.  We spent quite a bit of time looking and chasing after it.

 We saw lots of harbor seals--both in the water and sunning themselves on rocks.  And we got to see a lot of porpoises too but they were too fast to try to take pictures of.

 The whole goal of these trips are to see Orca whales.  But unfortunately, we didn't see any on this trip.  So our guide had a little fun with us and let us take a picture of her toy Orca breaching off the side of the boat.

 San Juan Island is also known for its lavender farm.  So we took a ride out there and enjoyed some lavender lemonade and looked at the fields and the products that the make with it.

 And Bill found an Orca friend at the gift shop.

 That evening we went to a restaurant out of town to have dinner.  Bill and I had been there a few years ago and had a wonderful gourmet meal there.  So we were really looking forward to it.

 And we were not disappointed.  Ducksoup Inn is a wonderful place to have dinner.

The flight home was not quite as beautiful.  We had to do what Bill calls his "serious pilot stuff"--flying by instrument rules to get above the clouds and back down.  But we were able to get above the clouds and see the tip tops of all the mountains from up there.  The picture above is of just the very tops of the Olympic Mountains. 

It was a fun weekend.

No Longer A Teen

My baby is no longer a teenager.  He turned 20 today.  He had a busy schedule today so we celebrated yesterday.  We went to Burgerville for lunch.  He wanted to go to see "The Dark Knight Rises" so we decided to go to the new Cinetopia theater at the mall.  While we were waiting for the movie to start, we did a little window shopping.  Enjoyed seeing the bunnies, puppies and kittens at the pet store.  Then it was Thai food, cake and presents at Grandma's.  Uncle Chuck is visiting this weekend so we got to celebrate with him too.  Happy Birthday Chris! 

Our Weekend in Winthrop

 At Tom's graduation, Maddy's parents invited us to come to their cabin for a weekend.  With such a busy summer at work and having to work so many weekends, this weekend was really the first opportunity that we were able to take them up on it.  Tom has been there several times to go fly fishing, cross country skiing or enjoy their annual crab feed on Labor Day weekend.  Because it is a full day's drive to get there, the only way we could really manage it was to fly.  Saturday was the perfect day to fly.  So perfect that we took a route that we have never taken before--over the Cascades between Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier.  Bill often takes people for flights around Mt. St. Helens but he has never been that close to Mt. Rainier either.  And I have never seen the north side of Mt. St. Helens from the air so it was quite a treat.

 

The first thing we did after they picked us up at the airport was to go to the Farmer's Market in Twisp. Then we went to their cabin to eat a little lunch and head out to the Chewack River to let their dogs, Emma and Ariel, go swimming.  They had the best place place for Marian to make her way down to the beach all scoped out.  The dogs are so funny.  Emma likes to chase rocks.

 And Ariel likes to chase sticks.  It was a beautiful spot on the river to enjoy the afternoon.

 After spending a little time at the river, we went into Winthrop.  It is a cute little town that has a western theme.  It is like Leavenworth in that every business in Leavenworth has to look like it is in Bavaria.  Every business in Winthrop has to look like it is in the Old West.  We stopped at a glass blowing shop, a book store and had some drinks at the Old Schoolhouse Brewery.  They had some cutouts to take pictures so we had a little fun with that.  Marian really wanted to do the picture in "drag".  She and Pete have often gone to Halloween parties dressed as the opposite sex and have always won the best costume award.  She was disappointed that she couldn't get herself high enough to be the cowboy in the picture. 

 After that we went back to their house to enjoy the view from their deck, have a nice dinner together and play games in the evening.

The next morning, we went to the place that Marian rides horses.  She is in a horse therapy program trying to help with her stroke recovery.  They have a lot of accommodations for handicapped people to be able to ride.  They have a ramp for her to get up to sit on the horse and she has a special stirrup on her saddle and special reins to be able to ride.  Then we went up to Sun Mountain Lodge to enjoy the view from that part of the valley and have a little lunch.  Then it was time to come home.

On the way up to Winthrop, we saw a portion of the wildfire near Ellensburg with some hotspots still burning.  On the way home, we wanted to land in Ellensburg for fuel and got to see how really close the fire got to Ellensburg.  There were something like 50 homes and 25 outbuilding that were lost in the fire.  And it is scary how close it actually got to Ellensburg.

So it was nice to go see a part of Washington that we hadn't seen before and to get to spend more time with Maddy's family and get to know them a little better as well.

First Phase of Training-Check

Tom finished the first portion of his Air Force training yesterday by passing his checkride in the DA-20.  He has been in Pueblo, Colorado for the past month learning to fly.  It is a required course for all pilots, combat systems officers and remote controlled pilots.  It is a pretty intense course of ground school and flying lessons.  They expect a certain percentage of students to washout at this point.  One of Tom's friends from CWU didn't make it.  He wasn't able to pass the written test after two tries.  Since this course is so contingent on him being able to continue in his combat systems officer training--I have been anxious for him that he do well in it.  So he has managed to pass and is on his way back to Pensacola for more training.  Congratulations Tom!

 Here are a few more pictures that one of his friends took celebrating their successful completion of the course.

Trek in the Park-Journey to Babel

 A couple of years ago, Bill and I were introduced to "Trek in the Park" by a friend of ours.  Her daughter had a part in the play.  It is a free play in the park featuring an episode of the old Star Trek series.  Bill was a big Star Trek fan and remembers the episodes that they have portrayed.  This year there was a change in venue.  It was moved to Cathedral Park in the St. John's area of Portland--directly under the St. John's Bridge.  As you can see by the picture of the bridge, the name of the park came from the gothic look of the bridge supports and it appears cathedral like.  Very cool visual.  Our friend, Kim, and her new husband were there and we sat with them to watch the show.

 Margaux--our friend's daughter--didn't have an acting role in this year's production but she sang the theme song at the beginning and end of the show. 

 All the familiar characters were in the production--Captain Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy, Chekov, Scott, Uhura.  Included scenes from the bridge

 and sick bay.

And a few great looking aliens.

There were at least a couple of thousand people there.  Huge crowd.  It was featured on CBS Sunday Morning news so we figured that brought even bigger crowds than they have had in the past.  Very fun and campy. 

Bill and I enjoyed a dinner out at The Rock afterward.  Fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon and evening.

Busy Week of Charity Events

This last week has been a busy one for Bill and me.  There was something going on practically every night.  We weren't home at all in the evening this week between the events we attended and going to have dinner with Beverly.

We started out our Monday with going to "Paws on the Patio" at the Hilton.  The Humane Society had a fundraiser going on there.  We stayed there for a little bit and then headed to La Bottega for dinner.  I had never been there before and Bill had only been there for lunch--not dinner.  So it was a fun night to explore a new restaurant as well.

Wednesday night we went to PIR to go to the Beaches Cruisin".  Beaches sponsors a Cruise-In there every Wednesday night and has for several years now.  We used to go when it was being held at the Pearson Air Museum but haven't gone since they moved the venue to PIR.  Bill went to work at the Children's Center booth.  He put flyers for donating in Ali Novinger's name in 500 of the cars that were there.  Ali is going to be "Pretty Woman" at the Glamorous Gams event the end of September and so she is trying to garner funds ahead of time toward her winning the competition.  I just went to look at cars and take pictures.  I love looking at some of those beautiful old cars--especially from the 40's and 50's.  And so many of them are restored to such beauty.  

The Glamorous Gams contestants are doing a lot of pre-event parties and events to raise money--they have really gotten into it in trying to win the competition but ultimately to benefit the Children's Center.  Bill and I had already attended "My Big Fat Greek Birthday" party for Tonya Rulli last month.  She wore a portion of her Wonder Woman costume that night.  Thursday night we went to another pre-Glamorous Gams fundraising event for Troy Van Dinter.  Nelson Holmberg sponsored a margarita party and silent auction at his home to go toward The Children's Center.  Troy is going to be Fred Flintstone at the big event and he was wearing his costume at the party.  He has already had a bowling party to raise money too.  We didn't go to it but I thought that was a great idea since the Flintstones were always going bowling.  Local artists have decorated mannequin legs and have them on display around town to advertise the event in September as well.  I got to see the one in the picture at the margarita party.

Switching gears from Children's Center events, we went to a Keiretsu Forum event at the Sego Herb Farm.  Kathy and Roger have this party at their home every summer.  It is always the same weekend around Kathy's birthday.  Bill doesn't really belong to any of the organizations that are invited to the event but he goes to some of their functions so he always gets invited.  It was a much bigger event this year--over 120 people.  It was held as a bit of a trade show with 10 entrepreneurs from Portland and Clark County having displays to show off their products.  Our friend, Steve Hix, who is a serial entrepreneur having already started In Focus and Planar Systems as well as six other companies, was promoting his new company, Circle Technology.  The product he has invented is a tablet based presentation package including software making the tablet its own secure encrypted WiFi hotspot enabling presentations to other tablets within 75-100 feet of it.  The application would be for sales presentations although I am sure there are plenty of other situations that it could be used in.

Sunday night we went to another Children's Center fundraiser arranged by Troy Van Dinter--a Britnee Kellogg concert at the Three Brothers Winery.  She has auditioned for American Idol in the past and plans to again.  We went to NW Best Fish before the concert to have fish tacos with Jeff and Julie and then we headed to the concert.  It was a wonderful concert--lots of country music that I could sing along too.  I was surprised to see that Justin Klump was in her band--but I have found that there is a lot of crossover among the music community in this area.  Britnee is also the lead singer for Five Guys Named Moe--another popular band in this area--so she has a few gigs going on as well. 

So it was a really busy week--but in a good way.