Fun & Crazy Pics from WA & BC that I might not post other places

With the boy at Chihuly, taking the picture down at us, before I realized the awesome glass above us and then.......

Took this one......btw, over half of my pictures either have him sticking out his tongue or pretending he is a zombie

Nice picture of the kids looking out at the waterfront at Pike Place

Kids pointing at where they put their first piece of gum (not touching it) before we found out that was the "official" wall and gets scraped clean a couple times a year. We then put it on the opposite wall in the location that is on the national historical registry and so will never be scraped clean

In front of all the gross gum.....imagine all the germs....

Kids on the water stairs that are across the street from the Seattle Art Museum

 Random weird find of a wooden  Sasquatch

On the stage at the Seattle Center.......a couple of crazy kids.....

Wearing her wiki stix glasses she made....great idea to give WS with a kids meal!!

My burger, the New Yorker (one of the sauces on it is a hot sauce ketchup) from the Lunchbox Laboratory

It was hot in Seattle (usually it is 10 degrees cooler) so the kids enjoyed some shaved Ice at the Seattle Center after playing on the playground

Brain eating zombie & statue of liberty poses in front of Little Sister Liberty...

 With the kids on Alki Beach

 
I look happy here, but I was actually slightly terrified that the boy would lean forward and fall right out of the ski lift as we were carried up to the top of Grouse Mountain.

Everyone using their binoculars at the top of Grouse Mountain in the wind turbine viewing area. I bought them before we went on this trip. We didn't spend a whole lot of money on souvenirs on the trip, but I did buy some things ahead of time (like binoculars) to help make this trip more enjoyable and that we could continue to use afterwards and not be spending money just to spend money on souvenirs. We did buy a Seattle t-shirt for each us, but that will get used. Kids have each worn their twice on the trip already.

Rock stacking at Lynn Canyon....It was like a gallery of these that so many people made, this is one the girl made

He looks like I caught him doing something he shouldn't. This is at the 30ft. pool at Lynn Canyon.....there is cliff jumping here that some crazy young men were doing.....not sure if I would be brave or crazy enough to do it....perhaps...

Back in WA at Larrabee State Park....view of the San Juan islands....picture before we changed to explore rocks in another cove that were covered in a slick moss & seaweed as well as tons of SHARP barnacles which I slipped on proceeded to gas up my hands so that I looked like I was in a fight with a cougar and thus ended our playtime there, but only about 10-15 minutes earlier, so we had lots of fun exploring before we left.

So happy to find starfish. 2 years ago when we were in Oregon we saw tons of them, then some kind of disease killed them off last year and we didn't see one starfish last year on the coast in Oregon. It wasn't until Day 9 of our trip that we even found these starfish in Washington, but we were happy to see them.

South Beach Miami - Day 2 (Anniversary)

 The purpose of this trip was to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. We started out our day at the beach (pretty much how we started out every day) for 3 hours. As you can see, my summer tan has faded a lot and I am pretty white here at the start of our trip.

 The beach is so clean with smooth white sand. Love the beach! The warm is warm (& very salty, of course) and such clean water as well. So far I have seen a jellyfish & a large (about 10") angel fish and a small (about 3") angel fish in the water as I was searching for shells & coral to bring home for the kids (and a bunch of other little fish.)

 Happy Anniversary!  I love you!

 This evening we went to the Art Center of South Florida to tour their gallery. We really enjoyed the variety in each of the different studios.

 Here I am at the Kung Fu Sushi restaurant. We decided to have happy hour drinks, then stay for dinner and the Burlesque Show. We had fun giving our own names to each of the characters (Mustache Girl, Glitter Nipples, Chick-Dude, Dude-Chick & Little Hat). We talked with Little Hat for a while. And then got put in the show a bit by Mustache Girl, who proceeded to give me a spank with a large paddle (kinda stung, but was fun to be part of the show).

If you go here, we really liked the Kung Fu Crunch Sushi Roll, Salted Edamame & Tuna Tacos. Everything we had there was good, but those were our favorites.

The bartender gave us a complimentary shot  for our anniversary called "Watermelon Ass". I have no idea what is in it, but it did taste good.

South Beach Miami - Day 1

 We found the pool right away (although, as of day 5 we have not actually gotten in it and have only sat out here to read and for breakfast). The hotel we are staying at the is the Riveria South Beach Luxe Hotel Suites.

 I will post more pictures of our suite in another post and write about it. They serve a free continental breakfast every morning out by the pool, which is a nice way to start the day. It's a pretty typical continental breakfast with a couple choices of breads and baked good, a couple choices of fresh fruit and fruit cocktail, yogurt & granola, a variety of cereals, juices, milk & coffee.

 As we made our way out exploring (finally after took a 2 hour nap right after getting here, seriously waking up early to drive to MSP and fly out first thing in the morning was exhausting) we found the New World Symphony. It was too bad that the only show there during our stay was a Children's orchestra concert, very similar to the one we are taking our kids to in October in the Cities. But the grounds here are very pretty. It was kinda frustrating trying to find shows to watch since we came at the exact wrong time. The symphony was just kicking off their season this weekend with the kids concert, the ballet was on a 2-wk break while they waited to start their next season, the convention center had nothing at it, and the Jackie Gleason theater had a spanish speaking guy doing a concert. I would find us a comedy show to go to (more about that on Day 3.)

 Here we are at the Kung Fu Sushi restaurant. We have spent a lot of time here because our hotel is a part of the South Beach Hotels Group and we can go to the bars (3 of them) at the  Catalina Hotel from 7-8pm for free drinks by showing our room key. We are not going to turn down free drinks, so we tend to go to Kung Fu Sushi every evening because they also have sushi happy hour food specials during that time. We have eaten so much sushi; it's great!

 This picture was taken when we went next door to Maxine's Bistro & Bar for dinner. We had this cheese ravioli with meatballs that had the most wonderful sauce on it. Part of our stay, we get a $20 dining credit at Maxine's or Kung Fu. So of course we are going to use it.

This was really as close to all-inclusive as I could find (free drinks 7-8pm, a bottle of Verdi champagne upon arrival {really tasty!} and a nightly dining credit.)

Another picture of me at Kung Fu. I look kinda goofy here.

Phelps Mill, MN

Yesterday on our cabin vacation we went to Phelps Mills, MN and toured the old mill & viewed the dam. I thought there was lot fo interesting & beautiful pictures to be taken here, so I was snapping away. I was actually really pleased with how a lot of them turned out, which is why I had to make 2 different collages.