Seattle then Portland (again!)

On November 10th we left Lakebay to go to Seattle.  Mario, Ryan, and Michael stopped at the American Automobile Museum and had a great time looking at all the cars.

Genny, Jason, and I went to the King Tut exhibit.  It was really cool to see all the things they found with him. Apparently since he died so young, he wasn't very well known in his time, which is why thieves didn't rob his tomb as much as the other Pharaohs.  We spent about an hour and a half going through it...well worth the price of admission!

On Sunday, we robbed our own piggy bank and got tickets to the Seahawks game.  It was a bit chilly, but we bundled ourselves up, and enjoyed the game.

It was a good game (the Seahawks beat the Jets 28-7 - sorry Josh), and we were plenty warm.  We wound up parking across the street from the stadium, and getting there and back was relatively painless.

On Monday we left the Seattle area for Portland, Oregon.  Tuesday was Michael's birthday and he had asked to go out to an Italian restaurant.  We decided to back to Portland to go to this little Italian place that Mario and I had tried (and loved!) when we were in Portland in October.  It's called Abella Italian Kitchen in Wilsonville, and if you're ever in the area, we highly recommend it.  Mario and I even went back there for dinner on Friday!  You can find them online at www.abellaitaliankitchen.com.

We left Portland on Saturday, the 17th to go to the Redwoods.  It was rainy, but still beautiful.   I'll post about that tomorrow, with lots more pictures!  Sorry for the lack of them today!

Lakebay

On Monday, November 5th we boarded the plane to head back to reality, ie northwest Washington.  I think we all wanted to to stay a bit longer, except for Mario who was feeling a bit warm since the humidity had picked up.  

Karl, Robert, and Mario

While in Lakebay, I had the opportunity to have lunch with a college friend of mine, Becky.  It was really great to see her.  On Wednesday, Mario's brother Karl joined us.  We took advantage of the cool nights to have a few bonfires, which of course led to some photo opportunities.

We also had dinner with Mario's nieces, Sam and Keri, Sam's two boys, and her husband.  It was great to see them all grown up!!

Sam, Brandon, Sean, and Devon

Genny and Sean

Jason and Sean

On Saturday we left Lakebay for Seattle, Mario, Ryan, and Michael heading to the Car Museum, and Genny, Jason and I to the Pacific Science Museum for the King Tut Exhibit.  More on those tomorrow...

On to Kona

On Wednesday the 31st, we said goodbye to Mom at the airport in Kauai, and got on a flight to Kona, on the Big Island.  We had a short layover in Honolulu, but the trip was a short one.  

 We were at the condo by 4pm and had some time to relax and stock the fridge before dinner.  We stayed in  a 2 bedroom oceanfront condo with a loft at the Outrigger Kanaloa at Kona resort.  It was wonderful, and I would definitely go back.  Below is the view from our lanai (balcony), which is where Mario, Michael, and I worked for the week.

On Thursday Genny and I went on a snorkeling trip.  It left from a bay that was just a short walk away.  We had a great time, saw lots of fish, and even a couple of schools of dolphins!  The catamaran had two 15' slides that you could go down and drop about 25' into the water.  Genny really liked that, but we were both a bit too uneasy to jump off the platform that was about 40' from the water.  There were a bunch of other kids there, who obviously didn't understand how scary it was!!  They kept doing back flips off the platform...crazy kids!

We went to a Luau on Friday evening at a hotel that was close by.  They roasted a pig underground, and we got to watch the ceremony of them unearthing it.  Very cool.    

 After dinner was the show, and I guess the amount they must have to rehearse the hula dancing is plenty to keep their abs in great shape! I wonder if there's a hula class in Pennsylvania??

On Saturday we took a drive around the island.  It was an all day trip, covering more than 200 miles.  We started with a trip to one of the many Kona coffee factories.  Then continued south to a black sand beach.  

Our next stop was to the top of Kilauea volcano!  It was really cool to see the steam pouring out.  Apparently at night it glows red, a reflection of the magma that was too far down for us to see.  While in Volcanoes National Park we also got to walk through a lava tube.  This is where the lava flows when it's coming down the mountain.  As the outside begins to cool, the hot lave still inside continues to flow out, leaving just the shell.  It was a bit eerie walking through it!Then on to the Mauna Loa macadamia nut farm, now owned by Hershey.  They had a Do It Yourself walk around tour to see the process of claiming, cleaning, and packaging the nuts.  Apparently the shells are so hard, they used to drive over them to break them open!  This is where we found the Macadamia Kisses!  Only available in Hawaii...too bad, I'm almost out!

 On Sunday, our last day, we took a little time to do a little more boogie boarding.  This was White Sands Beach, a great little spot with the bluest water, and some great surf.   Michael, Genny, and I had a lot of fun.  Unfortunately now our Hawaii trip had come to an end.  It was really sad leaving, I think we all would have loved a few more weeks (!).  I think I may a found a spot worth moving to. 

Hawaii - Kauai!!

We left for Kauai on October 24th, a nonstop flight from Seattle.  

 Mom had also flown in for the week, and we met her at the airport on Kauai.  We spent a week in Princeville, on the north side of the island, in a three bedroom townhouse.  The location was great, we were just a short drive to Anini Beach to the east, and Hanalei Bay to the west.  Anini is good for snorkeling and is a very calm beach, Hanalei Bay has waves for novice boogie boarders and surfers.   I did some snorkeling wih Genny and Jason at Anini, and were saw sea turles!

At Anini Beach

While we were playing in the ocean at Anini, Mario and Micheal went on a hiking trip down the Napali Coast on the Kalalau Trail.  A rather grueling 11 mile trek (each way) to one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  Check it out at : http://www.kalalautrail.com/

 The tsunami warnings came at about 8pm on the Saturday night that they were up on the trail.  With no cell reception, and no park services at the end, I spent an anxious few hours hoping they got word to get to higher ground.  The wave was meant to hit at 10:28pm, but there didn't really seem to be much.  At around 10:45 the news was reporting about a one foot change in sea level.  I stayed up till almost midnight, but still no significant change, I figured the worst case would be that their tents got wet.  It was great to hear Mario's call that afternoon around 2:30 telling me they were ready to be picked up.

On Monday and Tuesday we went to Hanalei Bay, a quaint little town with a beautiful beach.  The kids and I really enjoyed the boogie boarding and body surfing.

Hanalei Bay

A very nice gentleman there with his two boys (ages 8 &10), asked if Michael would like to try surfing.  He must have let Michael take 7 or 8 runs, giving him tips on what to do and when.  Finally on the 5th or 6th time, Michael was able to get to his feet.  I think he's found a new hobby!  Too bad we don't live in Hawaii, yet  :-)

Going back in time- Portland Oct 10th

So I'm plagiarizing a bit from Mario's Office of the Week, but I want to get caught up, and also keep a record of where we've been.  If you've already seen some of these, sorry, I'm going to try to put some new photos in too. 

We spent the week of October 10th just south of Portland, Oregon.  While we were there I found a great mall with  a Tesla dealership.  Tesla's are all electric cars, very sleek, but rather expensive.  Michael tells me the 2014 will be all wheel drive, so I think that might be my next car!. Oh, and it can seat 7 people (two in the back!!)

  
The inside of the Tesla features an IPad-ish touchscreen display instead of thore old-fashioned buttons!

A very excited Ryan gets an iPod 5.   A contract (written by him) was worked out where it is contingent upon a minimum 88% grade point and an Eagle project (and yes there is a timeline). 

Lunch at the food truck block in Portland (yum).

On the 16th we went up to Kent, WA (outside of Seattle) to spend a few days before going to Mario's brother's house.   On Saturday we spent the day in downtown at REI (where we spent WAY too much!), and at Pikes Place Market.

Vancouver

On Thursday, I took Genny, Jason, and Michael into Vancouver to visit the science museum there. It was a fabulous place, full of hands on activities. We got there around 1:30 to find out that they closed at 4. They enjoyed every minute, and I was threatening to leave them overnight, because I couldn't get them to go! Mario and Ryan were running around the city visiting hotels, so we took the "Skytrain" - the local rapid transit that was an easy way to get from where we were staying to where we wanted to go.

They had so much fun at the museum, that when we went back into Vancouver for the day on Saturday, it was our first stop. We spent another 2 hours there, and I think we probably could have stayed a few more, but we wanted to see more of the city and get some lunch.

We took the "Seabus" - the continuation of the train across the harbor, to Lonsdale Quay, in North Vancouver. They had a nice market there, with a food court for lunch. After the trip back across the bay, we made a stop at the Spy Store (nope, didn't find any spies there!), we headed back to the RV.

 

Today is Sunday, and we are now back in the US for the remainder of our trip. It seems a bit bizarre; we've logged over 8,000 miles out of the expected 14,000, in only three of our ten months! So I guess now we get to slow down the pace.

Sea to Sky Highway to Vancouver

So we made it to our last long trek, the Sea to Sky Highway to Vancouver.  We had a choice of taking the regular highway, or this very scenic route, which of course we chose.  The difference in mileage actually said about 15 miles shorter on the Sea to Sky, and showed about the same time to drive.  I had heard that there were a lot of twists and turns, but again, Google maps said they were basically the same, time and mileage wise....heh heh heh!

We started off quite well, and it was a beautiful drive, but about 50 miles in we did hit some "twists and turns", make that hairpin twists and turns!  Oh, and did I mention the 14% grades???  Yeah, that's pretty steep in a 33 foot motorhome.  Up AND down, again and again, this time 11%, the next 13%...for about 50 miles.  Those 50 miles to us 3 hours by themselves!  Well, again, at least the scenery was spectacular!  Here's a sampling:

It was well worth it, and I would do it again, but probably not all in one day.  It took us about 9 hours to drive.  We were quite tired (Mario especially) when we got into Vancouver that night.  So now we've completed about 8,000 of the 14,000 total miles we expect to log on this trip.  In less than three months!  So I guess we're going to be taking it much more slowly for then next 7 months!  The park in Vancouver has an indoor pool, so we've taken advantage of it.  Here are some photos of Mario playing around with the kids:

Tomorrow I'm taking Genny, Jason, and Michael to the Science museum here, should be a lot of fun.  Mario and Ryan will be going out to hotels.  On Saturday we're all going downtown to explore, so I should have some more photos by then.  Sunday we leave for Portland, Oregon, our first stop back in the US!