ropes & air mattresses

Friday:

Big brothers graduation day! Hurray! Grandma and Grandpa Spencer came over bright and early and we were out the door at 8:10am. I munched on cheerios and had a juice box. We left to arrive at the Tacoma Dome at 9:10ish, but we arrived in traffic a mile from the Tacoma Dome at 9 and were totally stuck, inching along for a long long while. There were some people with caps and gowns that ran past our car. I'm pretty sure they made it.

Grandpa accidentally bumped the person in front of him, so they pulled out of traffic. Mom and I decided to walk the rest of the way, so we could grab seats with Celia as we didn't know how long it would be.

Mom and I clambered into our seats on the far right just in time to see Nathan and Rubie walk into the seating area. We whooed and hollared and they saw us and waved.

Then it was a long time sitting. The student speeches were quite good. No crap about making a speech about making a speech. It was a three hour commencement. And about six seconds of that was Nate and Rubie. Nathan walked with ropes for being magnum cum laude. Go smarty pants!

Dad and the Grandparents found a spot up above. We left after Nate and Rubie so that we could avoid the traffic.

We were set to congregate at Peanut Sauce Thai Food. I left with Celia. It was a little bit of a wait to wait for Rubie, Nate, Rubie's Mom and Micky (Miki?), but that was okay. Appetizers! Whoo! Then I got filled up on giant spring rolls and chicken satay. Oh well. Left overs. It was a nice meal. Really good food. Thai, when done right, is really yummy even if I can't stand spicy.

I went home with Nate and Rubie because they were having dinner with Brynne and I needed to see my Auntie. There was time between that was spent playing Wii. Wi is so much fun, one day I will have one.

Lunch was at Two Koi. Not hungry, I just had a little plate of shrimp tempura. Auntie Brynne bought three of my bandanas and Dave Olson really wanted one, so I really need to print up more. Enough to fill the boxes left over and then just sell the individual bandanas for like, seven bucks. It was a lovely dinner. Lots of chat and food and celebrations. Dan, who is graduating on Sunday, was there with his parents.

After dinner, Nate, Rubie and I went to a little party at Nate's classmate Chad's house. Computer nerds galore! I had a beer and danced a little with Rubie, who was teaching a couple some possibly moves for the wedding. We played a few rounds of Chad's Android phone game. Looked at Andrea and Chad's wedding album. And just hung about and chatted. Rubie drove us back and rolled out the inflatable mattress for me and then it was nighty night.

Saturday:

Had my first Eggo waffle with Eggo syrup and a glass of chocolate milk. Mmm! Played more Wii as well. Then it was a drive to the other side. Out of Tacoma, back to Seabeck. Unfortunately I missed Dad leaving for work. He won't be gone for long, still it is nice to have him around.

Nate dropped Rubie off at her parents. It was a beautiful and warm day. Nathan wanted the hot tub, I wanted the sprinkler, so we did both. We ran through the sprinkler to cool off and then got in the hot tub to warm up. A good combination, except now I need to siphon some grass out of the hot tub.

Nathan left and then it was just mommy and me. Watched the rather lack luster new Doctor Who episode (it was just off and all over the place and what was with the head butting?) and made rice krispy treats with mom. Then we watched Up In The Air. It had a weird start but the characters really developed. Ended up liking it quite a bunch. Tomorrow, mom and I plan to go see Sound of Music at the Rhododendron Theater aka the Mountaineers Theater. That will be nice. I've never actually seen the movie.

sands of time are really hard to get out of swimsuits

Youtube just refuses to not have a lag on my videos. Maybe I should switch to Vimeo or something.

Had to get up bright and early for a dentist appointment. First one in three years. Not that I was too worried, I try to take good care of my teeth. Mom drove me to Kingston. Sue Sharp was the hygienist. Cleaned and X-Rayed my teeth. And guess what: no cavities! With the exception of some tartar buildup, I got a good report. Wisdom teeth might need to come out eventually, but no hurry. Hurrah!

Got some chicken and macaroni salad afterwards and then back to Seabeck.

Read on the lawn for an hour or so. Dad came back with a new haircut, and joined us in our reading. We decided to catch a matinee of Prince of Persia and then grab dinner. Prince of Persia, I liked it fine. Some of it was a bit jumpy and felt like a video game to me, but still had some good sequences. Gemma Arterton had a good fake tan. Afterwards we went to dinner at Fiesta. I had this enchilada that I didn't like all that much, and I wasn't that hungry.

Dad helped me rewire the jack on my headphones. It got damaged on the trip. The sound is pretty good. The soldering worked for now, only time will tell. We watched the one hour special performance only episode of So You Think You Can Dance. Then time to go to bed.

Earlier day tomorrow. Nate's graduation. Going to stay in Tacoma overnight. See auntie Brynne and uncle Dan.

Changed the layout on my blog. I like having a wider text box. Still playing with the colors.

vacation pictures - one

east of the cascades, west of the border - part two

TUESDAY

Mom talked us into another dip in the soap lake. I got in to my stomach. I wasn’t so inclined to take a full dip. Apparently the way to activate the soap lake powers is to just soak in it till you feel lighter. The mud makes a good exfoliate as well, even though it reeks of sulphur. I bought a slush puppy from the little store.

Then at 11:30 we set out to go further east. Or was it north. Whichever direction Grand Coulee Dam is from Soap Lake.

Lake Lenore was a nice little stop over. It was a very alkaline lake with lots of dragonflies. There was a path that branched out a kagillon times up the hills. The path was a nice little hike to the Lost Lenore Caves. The people who titled it need to look up cave in the dictionary. More Alcove than cave. Still, interesting. A beautiful view accompanied the walk.

Next was a stop at the Dry Falls Visitor Center. I bought a Junior Ranger badge and some wicked dinosaur and mammoth rings. We three sat and watched a little film about the forming of the area around here. During the ice age this huge lake, Lake Missoula, formed and it burst and carved out the landscape. And it did this multiple times. The guy who first came up with the theory was dismissed, even though no better solution was provided.

We continued on to our camp ground, Steam Boat Rock State Park. It was a nice little spot. Near the lake. A lot of the other motorhomers had dogs and cats. I petted one, a Pomeranian puppy named Pitch. A fluffy hyper little thing. Dad and I went out in the kayak. We went through some all grass and paddled around. Then I traded with mom and read some of Year of the Flood.

They returned and we ate salmon on crème cheese on rice crackers. This poor Tern was being attacked by a black bird. Its tail feathers kept getting yanked at. Then we played a round of Skip-Bo. Dad took the early lead, I remained steady, but mom ultimately won.

Then it was fire and s’mores time. I constructed a great little fire. I had three s’mores, dad had two, and mom had one.

At the Grand Coulee Dam, there is a light show projected on it almost every night. So we took off to see it. It was a history of the water and America and the building of the dam and the power of its energy. Too bad most of the energy now goes to a private seller and he sells it to damned California. That is our energy!

Anyway, we got back a little late and went straight to sleep. I had a hard time sleeping because so many bugs congregated around my light and there were spiders and little bitey bugs. Uhg. I felt like they were crawling all over my skin, so I moved down to sleep at the table.

WEDNESDAY

Rough night sleep. When mom and dad got up, I moved to their bed. Had a juice box and a cookie and some antihistamine and went to sleep for a few more hours. It rained all through the night, but the weather picked up again.

It was a long drive back to Kitsap. We hit a point of interest spot with a gorgeous view for lunch. There was an antique shop in Ephrata that we checked out, but it wasn’t priced all that well. Nice kitty named Maggie in it, though.

But it was mostly driving. Nearly seven hours of it. Took about an hour to unload. Twenty minutes in the hot tub. Then two hours of So You Think You Can Dance! Kent got through! Yay! Glee was good as well. Totally called that Quinn was going into labor.

It was a good vacation. Now back to the rest of it.

east of the cascades, west of the border - part one

SUNDAY

Got up. Got packing. Slept through most of the heavy duty stuff. Mom and Dad were fine doing that on their own. Packed a lot of shorts and my swim suit, but put on pants and a sweater just in case. I’ve almost learned my camping lesson: always bring coats. Mom brought extra jackets as well.

At 11ish we took off. Noon we left Silverdale. It was a mellow trip. I don’t quite remember the last time I crossed the Rockies. It was a long and winding road. Lots of pretty trees and chunks of ice. Mom and I played Go Fish and tried to figure out Five Alive.

We stopped by the Leavenworth Safeway for some missing items. Leavenworth is this Bavarian inspired town. Everything has the same font and it is cute in a tourist sort of way. Mom bought me pudding cups! One thing I love about camping is the food. It is just a great excuse to eat a little worse than usual and in beautiful settings.

Our camping spot on Lake Wenatchee is pretty nice. It is a wood view, not a lake view. I ran to the top of the little hill and there were some deer on the other side. They ran in the other direction, as deer do.

I made a fire in the fire pit. A nice fire too. Dinner was these turkey medallions with steamed veggies and corn and potatoes and salad. Mmmm! Lots of food. I accidentally poured too much dressing on the salad. Thought it had a small hole instead of just an open bottle, you know.

After dinner we went on a bike ride. I’m not a fan of mom’s electric bikes. The seats at their lowest are still too high, and they are so heavy you have to rely on the motor to go uphill. Also, when the terrain isn’t good, it wears down the battery really fast. We did a little lake loop. There was mulch all over the trail so it was very hard to push through. Still, the lake was pretty.

I spun a little too fast on a tire at a playground.

We all returned to the camper as it started to lightly rain. I made a couple s’mores. Mmm. Time to go to bed. We might move farther East in search of warmth.

MONDAY

Took me a while to get started, as per usual. Pancakes and bacon and hot cocoa for breakfast! We sat outside for a bit, enjoying the morning sun. Mom and I took a little hike to gather some plant samples. After a little bike ride, it was time to pack up and drive further east.

My job was to fill the water tank with the hose. Probably the best job as all I had to do was stand there with the hose. No heavy lifting or anything. Got my pants rather wet though. Oh well.

We went back to Leavenworth. Took a hike along a path, which ended up taking us further out that we expected. It wasn’t that much of a trek back into town, but we complained none the less. I had some fun on a play ground. We decided to get a bratwurst for lunch. The guy at the place was brand new and it took about 20 minutes to get us our food. As my yoga teacher Fawn says, when we are being inconvenienced, most of the time we are just being asked to slow down. It was a big good sausage that made for a good meal. We wandered around the tourist traps. There were some goats on the side of the path, in a fenced hill area next to a golf course. I picked up a wedding present for Harmony and Peter. And some taffy! There was a great hat shop as well. Tired of that, we got in our camper and road out into the sun.

Smallwood’s was a destination of mom’s picking and it had an amazing friendly kitty named Katie. It was big and fluffy and infinitely friendly. Mom picked up some food and honey and other things. There was a folder holder thing with tons of old fruit labels; you know the kind that go on boxes? But they were loose and a buck a piece, so we picked up a few. I really liked the Triton Washington Evaporated Pears one. Too bad we couldn’t buy the cat. Ma and I posed with some of the face hole boards.

Then another two or so hours on the road. I napped a little bit. It was quite warm. The scenery is quite beautiful. Lots of hills and trees but dry and snug warm. We arrived at Soap Lake. The first place was a tiny RV lot with nothing special. We drove on to the other RV spot, which had a pool and hot tub and minigolf and better lake access. So we pulled into a spot and set up. Not yet hungry, we swam in the pool and then the hot tub. The wind died down so we took a chance on the lake. It was quite muddy, but apparently the lake is known for its healing mud. We swum about a little bit and tried to float. We scrubbed our limbs with sulphur smelling mud and then washed it off. Shower time! Finally washed my hair. It was getting gross.

Dinner was tortellini and burger and broccoli. Yum!

This place has wifi; the next place might not, so again: see you Wednesday!

sun!!

Finally some 70 degree weather! I got up a little earlier, but no one was around. Mom was working and Dad was at the motor home. So I made myself a sandwich. Mmm!

When mom came back, we all lounged in the sun. I adjusted several times to keep in the sun. Sometimes I was cold, sometimes warm. I was leaning back in the recliner and it tipped backwards and I fell and it sort of collapsed on me, trapping me. It took mom and dad a while to come and get me out. I crushed some flowers.

We took Holly to the kennel. She was a good sport about it.

So more packing. Ate some ravioli. More packing. I jabbed myself on this rod in the camper.

Watched Doctor Who. After a dinner of salmon, beans, bread, and pasta, Ma, Pa, and I watched District 9. It is weird the difference between watching a film in theaters with friends familiar with the movie and at home with parents who are not. It is quite the upsetting movie at times. But they both said they thought it was good after. I was worried for a second.

Tomorrow we finish packing and head out to Eastern Washington. Lake Wenatchee specifically. Probably won't have internet, but I'll have my computer so I will still write what I'm up to.

See you Wednesday!