last day

We spent our last morning driving out to Malibu and Pepperdine. Pepperdine was just an awesome looking campus. It was Sunday morning so we didn't get a tour and nobody seemed to be awake yet. We ate breakfast in Malibu and took the scenic drive back to LA and the LA Farmers Market. There was a cancer walk/run going on so there were people everywhere. The market had a lot of good food booths and we were upset that we had eaten already...
After walking around a bit we headed to the airport and had an ontime flight heading back and got home around 6pm. I drove back to the airport around 10 to pick up Meg and Joe who had a great time in New Mexico...

more LA

Spent most of the morning around USC and the Coliseum getting ready for the big game. We got stomped but it was still fun being in the huge stadium and cheering with the Husky fans.

After the game we went to the Griffith Observatory and saw the planetarium show. Then we had mexican food and went to see a movie in Burbank. It was a packed day again. going home tomorrow...

More Bandelier

Bandelier

Bandelier park is amazing, ancient cliff dwellings and petroglyphs. Joe and I had a great time exploring.

New Mexico

Drove through cool artist community of Madrid, then headed over to Bandelier National Park. Drive was beautiful, stunning vistas everywhere.

Exploring in New Mexico

We headed out right after breakfast to explore the area. Some things we wanted to see are closed for the season (we were bummer to find Tinker Town was closed....a 'museum' of a guy whose been collecting 'stuff' for 50 years). Our first destination was Sandia Peak, over 10,000 feet, awesome views and COLD!

Mom n' Joe in ABQ

Joe and I landed in Albuquerque mid-day Friday. After getting our car and finding our hotel (old style motel on Route 66), we wandered around Old Town, checking out shops and what not for the afternoon. Old Town was pretty quiet- the tourist season has ended around here.

After a brief rest, we went exploring in other parts of town, then went to see a movie.

California trip

Jess and I had a busy first day in LA. We got here so late on Thursday night because of plane delays that they had given away our room. We ended up at a dumpy hotel next door that smelled of smoke. Friday we got it figured out and now we are back at the Pasadena Rodeway. Friday we toured Caltech and then Harvey Mudd. Both of them are great schools but neither of them are much too look at. Last summer on the East Coast, all the colleges looked like beautiful fancy old schools. The California schools just look a lot different.

We really got around yesterday. Had breakfast in Pasadena (Dennys), Lunch in Claremont (In n Out), dinner in Hollywood (Hard Rock Cafe) and dessert in Santa Monica (ice cream on the pier). After the colleges, we went to the La Brea tar pits. The museum was almost closing but they let us in for free for the last 15 min. to see the animal bones that they found in the tar pits. Amazing how many stupid animals there were.... We then checked out the art museum next door and saw a bunch of picassos and other great paintings although we didn't stay long because we were hungry.

Made it down to outside of the Chinese theater and saw the Hollywood walk of fame. Not that exciting and we didn't really see any interesting restaurants so we went to the Hard Rock. Overpriced food but a fun atmosphere. We then drove out to the Santa Monica pier. The rides and the rollercoaster looked lame so we just kind of walked around and had ice cream.

Today, we will be heading to the UW-USC football game at the LA memorial coliseum. Nothing else planned but I am sure we will have another busy day. Hoping to hear from Meg and Joe who are in New Mexico...

soccer game

Nephew Henry and Bill at Sounders playoff game

Jess homecoming

New Orleans

We love New Orleans! lots of great food and great music and just fun to hang out in... Spent last weekend there with Marc and Stephanie Wallace who are great travel partners. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed every minute we had there. Getting there and back was a pain but we survived...
Highlights were joining Larry the Cable Guy in a small parade. He even threw us some beads... We saw some great jazz and blues and ended our first night watching Stephanie ride a mechanical bull. I have videos but I think the pictures on Flickr show everything just fine.

Tuesday we crushed our Merlot grapes. It has been a cold summer in Eastern Washington so everything is delayed but the Merlot was perfect on sugar and acid. We are waiting for Zinfindel and Petite Verdot to fully ripen and everyone is a little concerned that they might not make it before the rains or freezes start.

This weekend is homecoming. The football game is Friday and big dance on Saturday. I think we are just going to hang out at home and catch up with our chores... Sunday is Henry's birthday with the whole family.

October

It has been a busy October as usual. Many things have not been posted on the blog. Joe had his 12th birthday at the beach house. Lots of fun for Joe and his friends The first pic of Rainier was from a solo hike I did to Lake George and Gobblers Knob. The 2nd picture is a bear that we saw on the other side of the mountain. Meg and I took some scouts up for a day hike to Fremont lookout. We didn't make it all the way because the snow got too deep. It is early October and there is already a foot of snow in places. Meg and I went on a drive to Sequim last weekend. We are still mildly looking for some investment/ retirement property.

Thursday, Meg and I are going to New Orleans with some friends for the weekend. Neither of us have been there before so we are pretty excited. The boys will be with Nana and then Paul and Kara over the weekend. The next weekend is the Homecoming Dance and then the next weekend will be Halloween. Jess and I are also getting ready for our trip to Los Angeles in November to check out colleges.

Mt. Rainier Anniversary

Last Weekend, I took Meg on her secret anniversary trip. She didn't have any idea where she was going. We started at the new gondola at Crystal Mountain. It was a great view but we were going to see better views later. In the afternoon we made it to Paradise where we stayed 2 days in Paradise Inn. We did a lot of hikes and took a lot of great pictures of the mountain and the meadows. It was probably the best weekend of the year at Paradise. It is a late snow melt and there are still a lot of snow patches around. The weather was awesome; we barely saw any clouds all weekend which made for a lot of good pics. I took almost 400 pics and loaded 78 of them to Flickr.

Next weekend, Jess and I are going backpacking with the scouts to Cape Alava. Joe is going to a birthday party. Meg may be crushing our grapes for some white wine. The whites are ready but the red grapes need a few more weeks.

We are going to the beach for Joe's birthday in a couple of weeks with a bunch of his friends. It should be a lot of fun...

Guemes

Last Weekend, Meg, Jess and I, went with all the Wallaces (10 of them) to their beach house on Guemes Island. It is kind of in the San Juans but really just a 5 min ferry from Anacortes. We had a great time, crabbing, boating, kayaking, eating, drinking and having a great camp fire with 1/2 of the Stoutpounders on Sat. night. I got some good pics- it is nice to have some new subjects for my camera, my family doesn't want me around with the cam anymore. We all had a lot of fun and we need to hang out with these guys more.

Joe went with the boy scouts to a model rocketfest near Port Townsend. He said it was awesome and Jess totally missed out.

I took last Friday off and got up early for a solo river kayak ride on the Green River. It was a little complicated. I drove up river south of Auburn and ditched my kayak in the woods. I then drove down river and parked my van north of Kent. Then I rode my bike back to the kayak up river. I locked my bike to a tree and then kayaked 13 miles downstream. It was fairly flat water but I had a few minor rapids. I can't handle too much because it is really a flatwater kayak. After 3 hours of kayaking I ended up at my van by the Riverbend golf course. I then drove to pick up my bike and went home. It was about noon and I talked Joe to going to Riverbend for a quick round at the pitch and putt. We were parched afterwards so we had some drinks and an appetizer lunch at the golf course. We were still hot so we went back to the green river and swam in the best swimming hole that I found when I was kayaking in the morning. Finally we came home and finished packing for our weekend. I am going to try to do a lot more river kayaking...

Next weekend is Labor day at the beach! All the Nylands will be there and we are hoping for good weather. The boys are ready for school which starts on Thursday. Jess is a mentor for the freshman so he has been spending a lot of time at the school helping the school get ready for the first day.

Our September weekends are all filled up already but the only thing we have scheduled for October is our trip to New Orleans. We have to keep weekends open for the grape crush.

No pics

I have not done well in August with the pictures. I keep forgetting the camera. Last weekend we went out to the beach, and the week before we went camping to the Sun Lakes in Eastern Washington. I would have got some good pictures both weekends.

Next weekend, the boys will go camping at a rocketfest with the scouts. The are going to make some model rockets and shoot them off with all of the rocket enthusiasts. Meg and I are going to the Wallaces cabin on Guemes. The Scout thing ends on Saturday evening so we still have to figure out how the whole weekend is going to work. It will sure be nice when Jess can drive...

more summer

At least I blog more than my brother....
OK, updates....
Boy Scout summer camp was really fun. The camp wasn't the fanciest camp we went to but the kids had a great time. I went for most of the week and wish I had enough vacation for the whole week. Next year, Meg and I are still planning 2 weeks in Italy for our 20th wedding anniversary so I need to save as much vacation as I can.

After summer camp, Joe took off to Grammy Ann's and Jess went to a friends cabin in Winthrop. I did a lot of bike riding and meeting Meg in Seattle for dinner after work. Last weekend, we went to Michelle's birthday in Bothell which was really fun. We had a seafood pot boil that we are going to have to try at our house. Maybe for Joe's birthday in September.

This weekend we are going camping to Sun Lakes in Eastern Washington with Michelle and Scot. Looking forward to driving fast in Scot's speed boat. Next weekend we will probably be at the beach house. Weekends for August are all taken up and it will be mid- sept before we spend another weekend in Auburn.

Joe has decided to learn to play the saxophone. We rented one a couple of weeks ago so he can have a head start before middle school starts. Jess is still playing trumpet and bass guitar. Hard to get him to practice trumpet but he is constantly playing the bass and getting really good.
This week he is at Ignite camp at school teaching him how to be a mentor to incoming High School Freshman.

It is fruit season now which means I am busy making fruit wine. I bought some apricots, nectarines, and plums. I made the apricot wine last night and the other fruit is ripening up in the back room. Just ordered a groupon for a box of peaches so I will have at least 5 gallons of 4 different fruits and that translates to about 100 bottles of wine. I just bottled some apple wine and strawberry wine that I made last spring. The grapes are ripening slow but we hope to be crushing in late September and we are crossing our fingers it doesn't interfere with our trip to New Orleans in Mid-October.

summer

I have found when you don't blog enough, then the blog posts are just jumbled posts of what we have done instead of interesting stuff. But in order to document out summer, I must tell what happened the last couple of weeks.

Jess came back from leadership camp and is very "inspired". He has spend the last couple of weeks hanging out with friends and planning activities to keep him away from home. He is going to friend's cabins and hiking trips that will help him obtain his goal of not sleeping in his own bed more than a few days this summer.

Joe has been to golf camps the last couple of weeks and is "all golfed out" so he hasn't been able to show me how improved he is.
The weekend of July 9-10 we went out to Stretch Island and had a fun time but the weather wasn't the best. We still haven't been to the beach on a weekend where we could go swimming yet. hopefully Aug 6-7 will be nice. Jess and I finished the weekend for dinner Sunday at the Bite of Seattle.

Last Saturday, Joe and Meg and I hiked Rattlesnake Ledge in the morning, had lunch at the Renton River Days. Meg and I then went to dinner in Seattle and watched the "Stoutpounders" Irish band with our friends. Sunday I took the boys to summer camp up near Mt. Vernon. I have to work Monday and Tuesday but then I will spend the rest of the week up there. After dropping the boys off up North, Meg and I went to dinner down on the Fed Way waterfront at Saltys. Great to eat on a deck and able to take an after dinner walk and watch the sunset over the water. We are both sun burned from the weekend.

Today, I rode my bike all the way from home again (54 bunnies). By the way, I don't think I posted that the new all time record is 77 bunnies. I am going to ride to Seattle after work and meet Meg for dinner. Again- I like the one way riding and I always make sure that the bike rack is on Meg's car.

Home Again Home Again

We made it home last night after a long afternoon/night of traveling. The weather yesterday was still pretty hot but it was rainy and thunderstormy. We did a few more museums including the National Gallery art museum and then took the bus back to the hotel to pick up our bags around 5pm. We then walked to the Metro with our bags and had to take 2 subways to get to Union Station. It seems like the escalators at all D.C. metro stations were broken and we struggled to carry our bags everywhere with all the heat and humidity. At Union Station we then took a commuter rail to the Baltimore airport and then a shuttle bus to the airport gates. Check in was hell. People were everywhere that don't know how to use a check in kiosk. We were way early but after check in and security we didn't have time for the long Mcdonalds lines so we just got on the plane. Air-Tran only gives out pretzels. We were dehydrated and hungry for the night flight and that probably contributed for Joe throwing up everywhere half way through the flight. But we survived and now we are home looking at our weeds in the lawn. Joe feels just fine this morning. I will try to get pics posted on flickr today.

It is HOT!!!

This was our hottest day yet and we spent a lot of time walking in the heat. Took a huge loop around all the monuments starting in the morning- Jefferson,Korea, FDR, Lincoln, Vietnam, WWII. Many stops to get water and ice cream but it was just HOT. Ended up at the Air and Space museum and spent a couple of hours checking out the planes and space stuff. I was hoping to see the space shuttle and the bigger planes but they are at a different Smithsonian that is 45 miles away. That will have to wait for another trip.

We struggled back to the hotel and spent an hour floating in the pool cooling off. We had heard that D.C. had the best Ethiopian food so we found a place on Yelp that had great reviews. We took the subway to a neighborhood that tourists don't go to. It was awesome. Great platter for 3 over injera with 2 beers and 2 wines for less than $50.

Tomorrow we are heading home but our plane doesn't leave until after 8 so we have most of the day to see what we haven't seen yet. Need to see some art, the archives and maybe some other minor museums...

Aaaahhhhh!

We took advantage of the WWII memorial to dip our feet in cold water.

Now at air and space museum.

Monuments

Spent the morning walking around the monuments. Neat, but scorching hot. We kept sucking down water and gatorade, which quickly converted to sweat!!

I'm just a bill...

"I'm just a bill, sitting here on Capitol Hill..."

The morning was spent at the international spy museum - very cool! Then we took Jess out to the U of Maryland, where he will spend 6 days at leadership camp. He couldn't wait for us to leave!

Bill, Joe and I checked out Union Station, the Postal Museum (seriously), then walked past Capitol Hill. We didn't tour the inside, maybe today or tomorrow.

Then we headed back to the hotel, and cooling off in the pool. After dinner, Bill and I watched a funky old school jazz group in the lounge of our hotel, while Joe relaxed in the room.

DC continued....with Baseball...

Meg let me write on my blog today...
I let them all sleep in today after last night's fireworks so we got a bit of a late start. We started at a Waffle shop across from Ford's theatre and next to the house where Lincoln died. By the way, I am a little behind on my yelp reviews....
Next we wanted to go to the Spy museum but it was crazy busy so we are going to put that one off until Wednesday morning.
Instead, we went to the American History museum and tried to see as much as we could before we needed to head to Georgetown University to do another college tour. We ended up splitting up and Jess and I went on the tour while Meg and Joe shopped around the Georgetown neighborhood and made their way to the White House.
After lunch we met up and went to see the Washington Nationals vs the Chicago Cubs. Michelle Obama threw out the first pitch so now we can say we say the first lady in Washington D.C.
Tomorrow- After the Spy museum, we will drop Jess off at his camp. It will be weird to have our foursome down to a threesome for the next 3 days. Jess is really excited about the camp...

Culminating in fireworks!!

What a day! Left Williamsburg fairly early, headed north. Stopped at Mount Vernon Gristmill & Distillery for brief tour, kinda interesting. We intended to go to Mount Vernon too, but it was crazy busy with holiday activities, so we bailed on that plan.

After getting rid of our car and checking into our hotel, we set out to explore. Hit the Mall, crowded with lots of people, religious nuts, hare Krishna festival, and horse flies the size of hummingbirds that liked to dive bomb us.

It was so hot and sticky. We ended up diving into museums just foe the AC. Saw the majority of the Natural History museum, and just a bit of American History. After grabbing dinner, we staked out a piece of grass right by the Washington monument To wait for fireworks. Worth the wait, they were tremendous!! Back in hotel relaxing....Joe's pedometer had us at 11.7 miles walked today! No wonder my feet are sore.

Julia Child's kitchen at the American History museum

It's HOT on the Mall!

Lots of cold liquids...it's hot (92) and humid.

Natural History museum

Williamsburg

Spent the last two nights in Williamsburg. Yesterday Joe and Meg spent the morning in Colonial Williamsburg (restored period buildings, with associated people in period dress, little shops such as the coffee house where Joe got hot chocolate). Meanwhile, Bill and Jess went to see Jamestown. We met back up mid-afternoon, then all went to see Yorktown (final battle of Revolutionary war).

Beaches and other fun

We spent the morning on the beach on Chincateague Island (Virginia part of Delmarva peninsula). Boys wanted to stay all day, but Bill and I were going to get scorched. On the way out of town, we stopped for lunch at the Crab Shack - soft-shell blue crabs, hush puppies, fries, oh my!

Then we continued south, over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Ah.Maz.Ing! 17.2 miles across, so cool!

Tonight we are Williamsburg. Tomorrow will be some combination of Historic Williamsburg/Jamestown/Yorktown sightseeing.

By the sea

Stopped in Philadelphia this morning, saw the liberty bell. The historic area downtown was packed with throngs of people. We skipped the Independence Hall tour, as the next tour was a few hours away.

Headed into Delaware, down the DelMarVa peninsula. Found fun Atlantic beach town, complete with boardwalk and arcade games. Boys swam, I got my vitamin D.

Pennsylvania countryside

Not many hotels around the area Megs aunt and uncle live. We ended up at this "motel" in the woods. Upside: the fireflies are SO cool!!! I want to import them to the west coast.

Pennslyvania

Amish country, pennsylvania. Town called Intercourse (teehee). After cute village of crafts, we visited Meg's aunt and uncle and cousins in Coatesville PA.

Mystic

We are touring Mystic seaport, an open air museum about ship building and whaling villages from 1800's. Cool stuff, and my dad would have loved the wooden ships and restoration of them. We are melty, though...77 degrees with 77% humidity is oogy.

leaving Boston

After 3 nights in Boston, we rented a car this morning and started driving South. First stop was Plymouth to see the rock, the Mayflower 2, and to listen to a ranger talk about the Pilgrim History. Next we headed toward Cape Cod and went to museum on the history of the glass industry. We then made it to Rhode Island and saw a bunch of mansions in Newport. We went on a tour of the Breakers- the Vanderbilt home. Finally we ended up in Connecticut in Mystic.

Higher education!

This morning, Jess and Bill went to MIT for an info session and tour. Joe and I dinked around - walked the Beacon Hill neighborhood, saw the original Cheers bar. The headed to Harvard area. Walked around some more, then B&J joined us for lunch. We then sat in the Harvard info session. Sounds like a great school, provided a) you get in and b) you have 57k/year to spend on one child's education! I think Jess was pretty jazzed about MIT, I know Bill was (he wants to go to school there too!). We leave Boston tomorrow AM, headed south then west.

Bunker Hill

Morning sightseeing at Bunker Hill memorial. Kinda glad the memorial obelisk was closed for restoration, so we didn't have to argue/cajole/convince /demand Joe to climb to the top. Now going to see the USS Constitution.

We are in Boston!

I have again been a bad blogger so I don't feel right about switching to Boston even though we just spent our first night here. First I better catch everyone up really quick.

It was a very busy end of the year. Both the boys had perfect report cards and Jess got his first 4 point ever. We let Jess have an end of the year BBQ for about 20 of his friends. Joe graduated from 5th grade. His kid graduation party will have to wait until later in the summer. I took the Friday off and went to his 5th grade graduation which was pretty fun.

I am still riding my bike to work. 380 miles in May and 220 miles in June. This last week we had too much going on and I really missed it.

Jess has passed drivers ed and is a pretty good driver but now he needs to wait for his birthday in January which is already hampering his summer plans. I think he is going to be riding his bike all over federal way this summer. We spent the last week before leaving on vacation going to a lot of doctor and dentist appts. It would be really nice if he could drive.

Our old cat Lucy has been having problems the last few months, seeing, hearing, walking and got really really skinny. I had to take her in to have her put down before our vacation. It was a lot harder than I thought. She had been in our family for 16 years.

Last weekend the boys went with the scouts to their annual shooting sports outing at Blewett Pass. Meg and I took that chance to get away to Oregon. We did some wine tasting and sight seeing around Hood River. We really like the area and think about buying some property for retirement if it wasn't so far away from our current home or Stretch Island.

OK- now you are caught up. Meg will probably post pics and the story of our first day after breakfast.

June 2011

Still pretty busy around here but things should be slowing down soon. Joe's play was a couple of weeks ago so that is finished. He played Lewis Carroll in an Alice and Wonderland play. He was excellent. He also just finished up with the Steel Drums band at school. 5th Grade graduation is this week and he will be heading to middle school next year.

The scouts went to Ancient Lakes a couple of weeks ago. I have some really good pics on flickr. It was fun but we have been there 4 times now. We will look for somewhere else next year. Next weekend they are going for a Shooting Sports weekend at Blewett Pass.

I am still riding to work and building up my endurance. Now, I sometimes ride all the way from home (14 miles) instead of parking at the Kent park and ride. On Friday I saw the all time record- 63 rabbits!

Jess is getting ready for finals this week. He is very close to a 4 point but needs to do well on a couple of his tests and final projects.

Last Saturday, we spent the day on Whidbey Island for Grandma June's 94th birthday. We had a lot of fun with cousins and extended family. We left a little early to get Joe to a birthday party on Saturday night.

We have just 2 weeks before our trip to Boston/Washington DC. It is coming fast and we are getting excited.

Bike to Work Month

Yep, I started riding again this month. I am riding every day 10 miles from the Kent Park and Ride to the Renton factory. I am thinking of riding from all the way from home starting in June. I am at about 170 miles for the month already which means I should be able to meet my goal of 300.

But the real stats everyone is waiting for is the bunny count.

******174 bunnies in 8 days***********
for an average of 21.75 bunnies per day

The record for this year is 31 on May 2nd. Last year I rode from home one day and saw over 50 which is the all time Bunny record.

Mother's Day weekend

It was a long weekend for me because I had Friday off. The boys also had Friday off school so Jess had a bunch of people over on Thursday. Friday, Joe and I went golfing in the morning and I did errands in the afternoon. Meg and I went to Jack's tavern to watch the Mariners win on Friday night. Saturday, we all volunteered at Northwest Harvest with the Scouts. The boys spent the night at friends houses while Meg and I took her Mom out to dinner and then went out for drinks with some of her old high school friends. On Mothers day, we checked out the Fremont outdoor market in the morning and then met my the whole family for Dim Sum and then a nice walk at the Kubota gardens in Rainier Beach. Next weekend, Meg is going to Portland with Michelle Kono so I think the boys and I will head to the beach house.

Goodbye Grandma

April

April has been a strange month around the Nyland family and I haven't had a chance to update the blog much. I have pictures to download from our Eastern Washington Scout Outing and I meant to update the Jess election but I haven't gotten to it. (Jess lost by 10 votes).

This is a long story and I will try to keep it short.

2 weeks ago Grandma Lois (my Dad's mom, 96 years old) was walking on the sidewalk and a car coming out of a parking lot hit her. She ended up breaking her pelvis in 2 places and messing up her shoulder. She spent a few days in Tacoma General and then was transferred to the Lutheran Home( a nursing home with some physical therapy). She has been improving and is able to walk 30 feet with a walker so she actually joined us for a while at our house on Easter.

1 week ago Sunday my Grandma Genny (Mom's mom, 87 years old) was getting out of her car at church- slipped and fell. Broke her pelvis and her foot in 2 places. She spent a week in the hospital and was transferred to the same Lutheran Home 2 doors down from Lois. After Genny was moved to the nursing home, her condition worsened and she seemed like she was in constant pain. She ended up passing away Tuesday morning. It was quite a shock because we thought the worse was over. But in retrospect, the family is relieved that she didn't have to go through any more pain. Her body and mind were just worn out and it was her time. My mom is hurting but she has accepted that was the best thing.

My mom, dad and my brother have spent most of the past couple weeks visiting my grandmothers, moving them, closing on selling Lois' house, and a ton of other Grandma things and they are just worn out. Now we have funeral arrangements to take care of and a bunch of relatives converging this weekend. I am looking forward to seeing a lot of those people but I am also really ready for all this to be over. I will try to update the blog better to keep folks posted.

Vote YES for JESS

Monterey Trip

Meg and I had a great weekend trip seeing Monterey and Carmel by the Sea, California. We landed at the same time as the big waves hit from the Japan earthquake. As we drove down the coast, most of the beaches were closed to keep the surfers away from the potential tsunamis. We had lunch in a small town and then did some wine tasting in Santa Cruz before we made it to our hotel in Monterey. We walked along the waterfront to the wharfs and Cannery Row where we had dinner.

Saturday we started at the Mission before we drove in to Carmel and did some window shopping. We then did some hiking at Point Lobos which was really cool and saw some sea lions. We had lunch at Nepenthe which was on the cliffs overlooking the water. We then drove further south to Big Sur and did some more hiking to a waterfall. We ended up eating dinner back in Monterey at an old Roadhouse.

Sunday, we had breakfast at Clint Eastwoods ranch restaurant. Then we did a few wine tastings as we drove through the hills back to the airport. Took lots of good pics. Check out our Flickr

Lunch at Big Sur

Waiting for lunch at Nepenthe in Big Sur. Tucked into trees high above the coast. Sun is shining, and I've got a glass of rose. Life is GOOD!

California coast

No tsunamis here. Flew into San Francisco today and started driving south. Went through Santa Cruz and did some wine tasting. Ended up in monterey and now we are having dinner on cannery row.

High Fives with Chris Ballew

I got a vid of the boys high fiving Chris Ballew of the Presidents. They were pretty excited.

Presidents of the United States of America

The whole family went to the presidents show last night at the Showbox. It was a packed house and they played most of our favorite songs. We got there early enough for the boys to be on the rail in front the whole time. Everyone had fun and we will remember this concert for a long time.

catch up on this blog stuff

We have been busy but I haven't been good about putting stuff up here. Last weekend we had dinner with the DesJardien family on Saturday and got to see Matt and Abby's new baby twins. We like hanging out with all those guys and we need to find ways to see more of them. Last Sunday, Jess and I went snowshoeing with the Venture crew. It was a practice for this weekends boy scout snow camping outing. Joe and I have both bought golf clubs and we have been at the par 3 course and the driving range a lot the past couple of weeks. Joe loves golfing...I am not so sure....

Thursday, Max and I went to the Harlem Globetrotters game in Kent. Lotsa fun but we were sitting in the front row behind the basket and it was hard to see sometimes.

This weekend was the snow camping at Mt. Rainier with the scouts. We built a snow cave large enough to fit 4 kids and their packs. Jess stayed the night but I went home with Joe right before it got dark. It was really cold but everyone survived the ordeal.
While Jess was still at Mr. Rainier, Meg, Joe and I drove around the Olympia area looking for a piece for land to build our dream retirement home/ winery. Still just in the early looking phase.

Tonight the whole family is going to the Showbox to the Presidents of the United States of America (the band, not Obama). I don't know how I am going to get to work at 6 tomorrow morning. The boys don't have school Monday or Tuesday

Wine is bottled

We bottled most of our 2009 wine on Sunday after we finally decided our winery name and got the wine labels printed. We decided on Des Jardin which is of the garden and is also Meg's maiden name. Meg painted the dogwood branch and they came out looking really professional.
We ended up with about 200 bottles and we kept 8 gallons of Cab to blend with our 2010 Cab next year. We have Zinfindel, Syrah, Cab Sauv., Merlot and a Zinfindel Rose. Most of them we kept solo but we did blend some Zin and Merlot (named Nepenthe) and made a Meritage with Cab, Merlot and Zin and also a few bottles of Cab Merlot.
I obtained some huge bottles last summer and we filled up 4 of them. They each hold about 4 regular bottles. Lots of fun for parties.
So, the wine is still a little young but we are anxious to share it. We need to have people over soon.