Kauai

Sunday 4/7/13 Day 1 I apologize for errors but I will not spend vacation trying to have perfect penmenship;)

We flew out of Seatac Alska Airlines 0730 arrived Portland 0820, flew out of Portland 1130 and 6 hours later arrived in Kauai @ 1430. Flight was good and they served us a free Mai thai J

We met dad at budget rental and then drove to Costco picking up so food and boos.  The trees and plants have been amazing. The sharp ridged mountains towards the middle of the island, it is my closest experience to a jungle.  Saw some banana trees and other fruit (wasn’t sure what it was) The hotel Waiohai (Marriot) is beautiful it is right on the water.  We have a king size bed and our sharing the room with my parents.  MJ and Mike are 2 resorts over ( 5 minute walk). We are going to try and eat most meals here to save on money but we do have some planned events. We had a few drinks and Mai Thais and then went to a burger joint called (Poipu Tropical burger?).  Food was good but they would not cook your burger any less than med-well.  They had a musician play the ukulele, of course the 1^st song he played was somewhere over the rainbow, haha.  Janelle and I had a small small cup of gelato (chocolate espresso) on the walk back to the hotel.  Everyone was extremely tired from traveling so we all went to bed by 2000, which was 2300 our time.

Day2

Today we got up around 7am and went for a walk around the area and along the water, beautiful.  We saw 2 monk seals sleeping on the shore with smiles and I talked to a fishermen about shore fishing.  I am excited to try it tomorrow morning. We stayed around the “campus” most of the day today. We did go to farmers market today.  It was a crazy, people were rude ,everyone was trying to get stuff quickly.  It was amazing to see, all the different fruits were crazy, we bought lettuce, tomatos, cucumbers, onions, avocados, papaya, guava, mango, soursop (crazy looking fruit), apple bananas and a mountain apple, (that was good!!)  On our way back to the campus we stopped and had puka dogs, they were very good both Janelle and I had them with a papaya sauce. When we got back Mike Carrie Janelle and I went to the pool and hot tub and enjoyed some R&R. Later that night we grilled steaks and had a nice family dinner.  Drinks have been flowing constantly which reminds me of when we went to Mexico.  Mike and mom were in prime form, Mike did some dancing (by himself) and mom was just fun goofy.  We were all going to go back to the pool and hot tub but J and I got tired and dosed off.  Mom Dad Mike and Carrie did end up going to the pool/Hot Tub.  So I have been good about getting sleep.

Day3 Today is slow, J and I got up around 615 and made some coffee and went for our daily morning walk.  It is so nice to walk with my wife and just enjoy each other, I wish we could do this every day of our life.  We saw a hen all puffy and looked like she was sleeping but then under her chest feathers we saw 2 little legs and then out of her chest popped out a little head (kind of like out of alien but cuter) then it disappeared and then it came running out a little chick, we watched for a few minutes and then 6 more came out, you would of never known it was fun to watch.  I am still trying to find a gecko and mom has spotted four.  We are constantly looking at all the tropical fruit growing on the different trees and bushes.  I am hoping I can grow some of these plants indoor.  I will at least try.  We had a nice sausage and egg breakfast with our soursop fruit, everyone liked it but dad, its texture is a little off but I think it is just a bit over ripe.  The fruit is a giant green football with nobby things on it.  It was a white flesh and black seeds about the size of pumpkin seeds, it has a pineapple mango papaya taste, like a mixed tropical drink.  We blended some up with rum and every liked that and the rest of it I blended with rum and made ice cubes for drinks in the future, fun stuff.  It is almost 11am Mike and Carrie are not over here yet and MJ and Alex arrive at the airport at 1430.  J is taking another nap and dad is walking the campus taking pictures, mom just took a shower and got ready for the day.  I got my fishing gear ready for tomorrow morning, I would of fished this morning but I never got my gear ready, so I am set for tomorrow.

Remember you can click on the pictures to see a bigger version, some of the pictures dont show the whole picture on the post.

Camping on Lake Mills 08/09/10

Glines Canyon Dam on Lake Mills

Lake Mills will be no longer accessible soon, and soon after that it will no longer exist.  The Glines Canyon Dam that creates Lake Mills will be taken down through 2011 into 2012.  This is one of the largest dam removal projects in the world.  A little farther done the Elwha River you run into Lake Aldwell and its dam will also be taken down simultaneously.  Olympic National Park will be heading up the whole project. This will help return salmon and steelhead back to the river, which have been absent since 1927.  The Elwha River used to be known as the best fishing river on the west coast (not including Canada and Alaska).  100 lb salmon were common to the river.  

Lake Aldwell Dam

My turn, so Brian thought it would be important for us to go kayak in the lake before it is a thing of the past. Plus we hadn’t kayaked in over a year, so sad! We have some great friends with a terrier names Spot who agreed to take on watching Nala for us, which was exciting to have a little time away and a little scary.  By the way she did great, only peed on their carpet once and played with Spot and even met a cat for the first time.  I dropped Nala at the babysitters Sunday afternoon and then met Brian at the end of his shift in the Elwha area of the National Park. We drove to the place were we put the kayaks in the water and got them loaded up and pushed off around 4p.m. The lake is beautiful and it was so fantastic to be back on the water, I had totally missed it.  We reminded ourselves how to paddle and as usual got to racing right away. We enjoyed a really leisurely paddle to the end of the lake where we intended to camp, it was maybe a 45 minute paddle with only a little bit of rough water at what I think they call “Windy Point”.

We coasted inland, got out and carried our kayaks onto the bank for the night. We set up camp, I usually start on the tent and Brian gets the varying sizes of wood for the nights fire. Brian was itching to fish so we went back to where we docked our kayaks and I got a piggy back ride out to a stump in the bay where I sat and was the official “fish spotter”. I have played this role before, I generally get bored quickly but it was such a beautiful afternoon, the water was calm and the fish were jumping. I had a great view from my stump, the lake and trees covering the mountains surrounding the lake, toppled trees in the water which had flowers growing from them and of course my amazing husbands backside J I would yell “fish” and point and then he would cast in that direction and I’m sure he’ll correct me after he reads this but I think “We” caught 6 fish. I would yell “Ohhh, fish”, more excited than I expected it to be, I think it’s cause he was really catching the fish I would spot.

Brian took some photos of me on the rock, one of which I’m going to work into advertising for my business and I got some good shots of him fishing.  I got cold and hungry which is what usually happens and we ended the fishing session. Actually I went and made some chili (started the camping stove all by myself) and Brian fished some more. We had chili and chips and carrots for dinner and of course followed it up with S’mores. I had a little time for deep breathing and just soaking in the sounds of the forest on this really great big log.  There is nothing like the peace that the forest brings, it’s all encompassing. I find that it makes me feel small and so very connected all at the same time.

We both slept really well and actually didn’t wake till 9:30a.m the next morning. We had some oatmeal and coffee for breakfast. Coffee also tastes way better in the forest.  We packed up and made lunch at the same time, sausages and apples, and filtered some more water for the journey home. Brian thought he had some more time for fishing 

so I decided to get into the hammock that we always bring with us. It isn’t a necessity but I’m always glad when we bring it because it’s so nice to sit in and I’m always amazed when I fall asleep in it. Brian got me my sleeping bag and I got into that and then back into the hammock and had an hour or more nap which was excellent. We were stalling a little bit during this time because the water was a little rough. By the time Brian had enough fishing and I was up from my nap we headed out back on the water to home. It started raining shortly after we began our paddle and once I decided it was okay if I got drenched it became actually really refreshing and fun to be kayaking in the rain. It was a quick paddle back and ended in Ranger Doolittle chatting with several different people at the boat landing about the changes that are soon to come to the area. We got going soon and went to pick up our little girl who was very excited to see us.

It was a great weekend and a very relaxing camping trip, even if it was a little short.

The beginning of our new garden!

Janelle and I our pumped to have our own garden in our own yard.  Today I tilled the grass.  I believe the next step will be to get dirt, here are two pictures Janelle took, it will be fun to see the changes take place!  The garden space is 16X32 almost 3 times bigger than her garden last year in Seattle.  We think we are going to grow most of it by seed, so we only have about 3 weeks to prepare.

I am growing a Hop garden on the other side of the garage.  I have picked out 5 different hop plants to grow.  I started brewing beer last month and I am excited to grow my own hops.  I should of taken some pictures of the process but I was to focused on making sure the beer turns out great.  My friend Bud joined me on the adventure.  We bottled Saturday Feb. 13th so it will be ready to taste on the 27th.  We did taste some of it before bottling, of course it was warm and flat but it tasted really good.  We will see how it tastes in 2 weeks when its cold and has bubbles.  I can not wait!!  (it's a IPA)

Valentines Day

Lower Elwha Dam

Janelle and I had a lovely Valentines Day.  The day started out with us going to Church and then we headed west on Hwy 112, we were going to drive to the very corner of Washington, Cape Flattery.  Flattery, it just sounds like a place to go on Valentines Day.  We went and saw the Lower Elwha Dam, which will be taken down (blown-up) in the next year and a half.

On our way driving down a back road to Salt Creek Beach we saw a Eagle right off the side of the road, what a beautiful creature!  We arrived at Salt Creek Beach to find mostly blue skies.  We had a picnic lunch on the beach with hot chocolate!  We walked the beach and enjoyed a rainbow, a nap and the pleasure of being lightly rained on while the sun was shining.  I think that is romantic? Anyways, we could not of asked for a more beautiful February day.

LOVE!

We continued our trek and stopped in Sequi and Neah Bay.  Neah Bay is also the home of the Makah Tribe.  We took a picture of there welcoming Indian figurings.

Finally we got to Cape Flattery where we took a 1/2 mile hike to the corner of Washington.  There were many beautiful views that pictures can't fully represent but here are a few we took.

 Cape Flattery Lighthouse Cape Flattery Island

What beautiful trees and small "Rock Islands"

 This had a deep cave, signs said caves ran under us as well!

Looking North, you can see Canada

  Looking South

On the way home we stopped by a little cafe called the Blackberry Cafe.  They served delicious desserts,  so we decided to have dessert before dinner.  Janelle had a chocolate brownie with a blackberry frosting and hot fudge and I had the raspberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream.  The blackberry pie had already been all eaten up. 

When we got home we cooked dinner together, grilled salmon, brussel sprouts and Janelle wanted my special hashbrowns.  We ate while watching the U.S.A women's hockey team clean-up on China.  I can't give you anymore details of our Valentines Day but the whole day was special, we had such a good time!

Work, The Parkway just disappeared! 01/18/2010

Here are a few pictures of the parkway just after Lake Dawn road.  It is the only entrance to Hurricane Ridge; it looks like the Ridge will be closed down for a while L

You will see in the first picture that it has a lot of the road and then you will see in the last picture a big chunk fell.  I wasn’t ready with my video when it happened but it was amazing to see it; such power! The middle picture shows how far the slide happened you can see fresh cut trees all the way down at the end of the picture.

Dr. Doolittle's own Practice Room!!

Ok I have a few more late blogs to add, but here is a short recent one.

Today Janelle started seeing patients in her own practice room.  WOW, I am so proud of her, this has been a hard 3-4 months for her.  She went from residency in Seattle to starting her own business a week later and now she has made another step forward.  I have to tell you it is amazing how many people she already knows.  People see me name tag in the park and ask me if I am related to her.  It is definitely a switch of roles for me and her.  Her practice is taking off and she is working her tail off to keep it moving.  Once again I am so proud of her.  Sometimes she comes home and her head is swirling. I can't imagine how it would be to start a business without business training, but she is learning a quick curve and exceeding.  She says she really enjoys the doctor-patient part of the day its all the other stuff thats giving her grey hairs.  Only a few grey hairs ;)  So here are a couple pictures!