Christmas

Christmas was good.  It was nice to spend time with the family but of course it wasn't complete with out Janelle.  She is in Minnesota until the 30th.  Mom served up some fantastic food. Of course we played apples to apples and the snow was beautiful!  Bo enjoyed chasing snow balls but he could never find them, this is what he looked like after trying to catch one.  

Tonight is my last night at Canlis, there is excitement and sadness as I move on to a new chapter of my book.  I just finished applying for my first position as a law enforcement ranger for summer work after the ranger academy, how exciting and scary.  For those of you who don't know the academy starts Monday and will take place at Skagit Valley College in Mt. Vernon.  I will be staying there 4-5 nights a week. A church friend introduced me to his parents to stay with them while I am away from home.  Janelle and I drove up to meet them last week.  They are such nice people, the whole process of this academy is a blessing and I look forward to new relationships ahead of me.  It will be hard with out my number one fan but I am excited!  Janelle is going to drive up to Mt Vernon for New Years, that should be a lot of fun!

A night at Canlis!

Janelle and I went in for a final dinner at Canlis as an employee.  Walt Wagner the pianist and a friend was playing that night (He played at our wedding, for all you who were there).  Pepe made us some great drinks, Janelle started with her favorite, a sidecar and I had the maple old fashion.  My next drink was a creation of Pepe's, with brandy, lime and some other ingredients, it was great!  We ordered the steak tar tar as a starter app.  Nothing like raw beef, great cocktails and beautiful piano music, what a start!  After that Brian Canlis moved us to a corner table by the window (table 35).  I have served the table many times but I had never realized what a beautiful table and view it was, don't get me wrong all the tables have a amazing view (which never gets old to see).  We requested Wanda to be our server.  She had trained me as a server and in my eyes, she is the best!  She has been a server at Canlis for around 20 years.  She is also a good friend!  I ordered a beet salad for Janelle and I had the crab salad. Beet: gold and red beets, creamy goat cheese, Hawaiian heart of palm, watercress, citrus vinaigrette and chive oil. Crab: dungeoness crab, avocado vinaigrette, papaya, parmesan crisp and french green beans. mmmm good!  We then had a mid-course meal, (set up by Chef Jeff Taton, who has been there 27 years another good friend) it was the day-boat scallops pan seared golden brown, with a cauliflower puree and a lime, crouton and caper vinaigrette, AMAZING!  We took our time and enjoyed the whole scene.  For our main course Janelle had the muscovy duck, with scalloped potato, persimmon puree and a veal demi-glaze.  Somehow it also had a half of the Australian lobster tail, WOW.  I ordered the Australian Lamb Chops, with Isreali Cous-Cous, Oregon blue cheese, Swiss Chard and a Lamb and Pancetta Au Jus. Again it showed up with a half lobster tail, half a American Wagyu tenderloin and Foie Gras, Oh my Gosh I was in heaven!!! I forgot to mention the side of truffle fries and forest mushrooms (Thanks Josh) Phillip, the Somm, set us us with a perfect match in the new Peter Canlis Syrah from Buty, 06!  After dinner we moved back into the lounge to enjoy Walt as we ordered dessert.  Of Course we ordered the  "What I like to call: The Canlis Doughnuts!!  Beer and rum battered doughnuts filled with hot apples and bourbon buttermilk sauce to dip them into, accompanied by pumpkin ice cream!!! Somehow a Milk Chocolate Espresso Mousse with choc. Almond Cake Caramel espresso and Mascarpone arrived as well.(Thank you Ryan and Chef Neil)  Heaven again!!  Janelle ordered the Clover Coffee, specifically the Sulawessi (thanks Jackson), which is so flavorful.  (Everyone watch out for the clover machine to come into your town, it makes amazing coffee).  I went to the scotch list :) Brian Canlis came over to take my order and check in on us and set me up with a, I want to say 23 year old Port Ellen Scotch, that isn't made anymore.  It was amazing!! Janelle even liked it, and she doesn't like Scotch.  Janelle and I had the most wonderful experience, we felt so special!  Thank you Chef Jeff (Cheffrey), Wanda, Pepe, Ryan, Phillip, Jackson, Chef Neil, Josh, Walt and Brian Canlis for making my last employee night an unforgettable one!!  (Thank you to the whole kitchen team and front of the house as well, I know everyone plays a role!) WOW!

Night Dive!

So last Thursday Morgan and I went on a night dive hoping to find our large friend the Great Pacific Octopus.  We have found him during the day sleeping in his den but that isn't too exciting because he is huge and we want to see him out and about.  So we know the octopus go hunting at night and sleep during the day.  Finally I had a night off of work and we decided to go try and find him, we were also hoping to find a 6 gill shark which our known for feeding around 80 feet in the Puget Sound area, specifically around Alki.  So hopes were up, it was below freezing outside and I am in a wet suit so I knew it would be a cold finish to the dive.  We were in the water around 9:45 pm, the tide was fully out.  It was pitch black dark underwater, only being able to see where your flashlight shined.  If you turned your head to the right or left it was like looking at a black wall.  We saw some cool fish, the ground was alive with crabs, starfish, prawns, and shrimp.  As we were heading to the octopus den I saw a large grayish color hovering above us, Morgan hadn't scene it yet (wimpy light) my heart jumped, my first thought was it was a 6 gill shark but quickly I figured out it was a seal.  A old friend told me at night they would sometimes hunt off your light.  The seal looked huge!  It got lower to where Morgan finally noticed it, he stopped and froze.  It then grabbed a crab off the the ground and quickly disappeared into the darkness.  Morgan looked at me with a "What do we do now look". I quickly figured out he either didn't get a good look and wasn't sure what we just saw or he had no idea seals like to hunt off lights.  We continued on and after a minute, sure enough the seal reappeared, held for awhile, hit the ground (I think this time he got a prawn) and vanished into the deep dark abyss.  Morgan looked a little fragile for awhile, we found the den and he let me get down on the ground and peek into it.  I saw a little risen sut in the water but no octopus.He must of recently left the den.  I was curious if he was swimming near us watching us, this 10 plus food octopus.  They are very curious.  We kept a look out for him, I even carried around a de-pinched rock crab incase we came across him or the seal.  I have seen video's of octopus taking crab from divers.   That was disappointing we never saw him but we both had already saw a first with the seal, so we were pretty excited to talk about it after the dive.  Morgan took a few pictures and we continued looking around, saw some huge prawns. mmmmm wish it was season!  We went to a depth of 48 feet and stayed under for 45 minutes, I need to check my temp gage to see how cold it was.  Morgan had a little ear problems and I gave him the "I am chilled" sign and we headed back.  A great dive and I will always remember my first dive visited by a seal, it only took 70 dives.

The 2nd Annual Christmas Tree

Janelle packed the snow shoes in hope of another winter wonderland Christmas Tree hunt.  Unfortunately that wasn't the case.  There was no snow in the mountains, but the view was spectacular, as you can see from the picture.  We enjoyed the search for the perfect tree for our home, and of course we found it.  There is nothing like disappearing from the craziness of life into a quiet peaceful outdoor scene, that smells and looks like heaven.  I guess the pictures will tell most of the story.

Turkey Day!

Isn't Thanksgiving great!  I mean the Seahawks were a downer but there is something about spending a whole day with your family.  Your family you grew up with and there spouses.  Mike and I spent a hour in the garage drinking beer watching the turkey drown in hot oil.  This was Mikes first deep fried turkey and it turned out great.  We had to adjust the cooking time with our knowledge and skills due to a faulty flame but in the end and a few beers later and some great conversation a beautiful golden brown turkey was created.  Mike and Carrie hosted the day and Carries parents Linda and Bill, her sister Tara, our parents, sister and newest Brother-in-law MJ and Alex as well as Janelle and I all had a great time. We played a fun game of apples to apples and before you knew it, it was late and the night sadly came to a end.  Thanks Mike and Carrie for hosting!!

Seattle Pub Cup Soccer Tournament!

It was great to be on the field again.  I have sat out 4 weeks with a cracked rib and this was the weekend for my return.  THe Pub Cup is in its first year, a holiday tournament that looks to grow, and hopefully will!  It was beautiful but chili weather, the sun was shining but you still wanted a warm jacket.  Every team in the tourney had to pick a pub/bar/tavern as there team name.  Since a lot of our team is south we went with Bonney Lake Tavern, unfortunately I have never had a beer there.  There was a Irish team from St. Patties and 2 other teams.  As I said a small tourney.  We played each team once and the two best teams play again in the final.   Day 1 we played the Irish team, they were loud mouths and hacks and we beat them 3-0, I was hoping not to play them again, they were the type of team people get hurt in while playing.  Our 2nd game we won 6-0 and didn't blink a eye, our team was playing well.  Unfortunately we took that confidents into cockiness and had our worst game against a team that had lost to the other teams we had destroyed.  We had the skills and ball control but could not finish.  We got beat 4-1 for a wake up call!  We advanced to the final and played the Irish team and the team that beat us.  See they picked up players from the other teams.  So... in the final we were playing a combined team of our 2 toughest games.  We got back on track and started playing our game.  Dave (a PLU graduate)  scored the first goal in the first half to give us a 1-0 lead and with15 minutes left I was able to score my first goal of the tourney.  It felt good.  The keeper cleared a high ball to around the 35 yard line where I chest trapped it beat a player and hit a lazer into the upper V.  It felt great!  We finished 2-0 received a nice Crystal Trophy and headed off to a near by pub to celebrate!  A Great Weekend!!

A River runs through it

If any of you are seattleites or follow the news you know we had a pretty big rain almost a week back and there was a lot of flooding around Washington.   Today I had the pleasure to float the Skykomish river with Joe.  Joe wanted to check out how much the storm changed the river (He's a guide).  So we grabbed our fly rods ((Spey rods, which is a 2 handed fly rod that is usually 12 plus feet long, mine is 13 ft and Joes is 15 ft) and headed out.  We put the boat in at 2 bit hole (which now cost two dollars)  We ran into the owner that told us he opened up his property in 1955 for the public for only 2 bits, nice guy!  As we drove down the road of his property we quickly saw proof of the flood.  The road became covered in sand and mud, we kicked in the 4wd and parked by the river.  the bushes, grass and tree branches looked like a large comb was ran down the side of the river bank and then painted with dirt and mud.  The large log jam that use to be straight ahead of the launch sight was practically gone.  A lot of big trees had been moved by the powerful force of the water.  

It was a beautiful Nov. morning, the sun was shining and it wasn't chili at all.  Along the way some of our old fishing spots had been washed away, which was sad but we did find knew spots as well.  This trip down the river held the most ever Eagles I had scene on this river, with out exaggerating I can say I easily saw 20 plus eagles, a handful of the youngens.  We got pretty close to a lot of them, boy they always amaze me in how big they are.  We were great at the fishin part but there was no catchin happening.  Though Joe did snag a 16 inch sucker fish on the dorsal fin.  I had one good knock on my line but no one was home.  At the end of the trip we started to see some fish tails waiving at us (Frustrating).  It's nice to catch fish but that is only a added bonus to a fly-fishing outing.  We saw a deer cross a wide part of the river in a strong current.  She made it across but was swept pretty far down the river before she made to the other side.  I also saw a red-tail hawk,  There were some new log jams, different sand bars and trees blocking certain routes of the river.  Its amazing how mother earth can be so powerful and change things with a little water.  The humpies (salmon) had just starting to come in I bet there will be better luck next week.  I hope to go, I am determined to catch a hen and make caviar.  The river had great color to it.  The hills and the mountains added color to the blue and white sky and the constant sound of the river added peace to my mind.  All I know is the country is beautiful and a river runs through it, any old way it wants to run through it!

Ranger Dooey

I guess I haven't posted my good news, though I have told everyone.  I was recently accepted into a Park Ranger Law Enforcement Academy that begins Dec 29th thru April 10th.  They accept about 36 "cadets" a year and I believe their are only about 7 other programs like this in the U.S.  It will be held at Skagit College in Mt. Vernon.  It is a 8-5pm boot camp m-f 30 credits and you have to be in uniform at all times.  I am pumped and doing everything I can to be in shape for it.  It's amazing how easy it is to get soar at 33.  This is a great jump start for my goal to be a law enforcement ranger in the olympic national park!

MJ'S Wedding

Well my little sister is married and is now a Compton.  I just wanted to say she had a beautiful wedding.  She looked stunning and oh so happy!!  The two of them (Alex and MJ) looked great together.  The wedding was in a little church in W. Seattle.  The night finished at the fauntleroy hall for the reception and the party began.  A lot of amazing dancing going on.  It's nice to have a family that gets on the dance floor and celebrates.  I think there were a lot of new moves invented!  I think the two that got the most attention for their style were my brother Mike and cousin Jamie.  Though everyone got their groove on!  I finally lost my voice to Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi which is ironic because I had to lead worship the following morning at church.  I am excited for my new brother Alex.  He fits in well with the family. I also know that MJ and Alex fit so well together, they will take good care of each other.  They are off in Hawaii avoiding our stormy weather and enjoying the sun, beach and ocean!  It has been a great time to see the family both the Doolittle side and they Lyford side.  I am very blessed to have the relatives I have!!

A Sweet Dive!

Morgan (my Dive-Buddy) and I went diving yesterday at the Edmonds Underwater Park.  The visibility was 20-25 feet.  The dive was full of fish!  We were swimming in hundreds and thousands of schools of different kinds of fish.  At one point the school came at me at lightning pace as the light flashed off there sides, I looked to find what made them take off so fast and saw a bird flying underwater at about 35 feet.  The bird then headed for the surface, pretty cool!  We also saw some huge mammoth looking lingcod, 6 plus feet with gigantic heads, some had pretty fat bellies, most likely pregnant.  We did get challenged by a few lingcods that would do a dance to try to scare us from their nest another few would start coming at us, hoping to scare us away.  We saw some cool grunt sculpins, nudibranchs, shrimp, many thick layers of colorful types of seaweed.  We took a nice route underwater, we came across a lot of sunken boats we hadn't seen before, one in particular was wood, it looked like a pirate ship and it was surrounded by schools of rock fish, with a handful of rockfish larger than I have ever seen.  The sun was actually out so everything was well lit.  We entered a few large cement boxes like caves.  There was one I swam into to wait for Morgan, I was going to jump out and scare him, when he didn't arrive after a minute i figured I would go look for him, as I swam out he came from above me arms wide and scared me half to death.  Talk about your major backfires!!  There is nothing like laughing hard underwater.  We were swimming at noon at high tide the water temp was in the high 40's, are deepest depth was 43 feet and we navigated are way back to the bay.  Nothing like popping your head above the surface and being in the right spot.  We were underwater for exactly a hour.  Morgan was on his second dive with a drysuit which sent him scrambling to get out so he could use the restroom, but at least he was dry.  I went scrambling for the car to get my hot water to pour down my suit, my feet and hands were pretty cold.  We went to the near by pub which has a fireplace to have a burger and beer and chat about the dive. BEAUTIFUL!!

YEHHHH JANELLE!!!

We just found out Dr. Doolittle has passed her BOARDS and now is a licensed DOCTOR!!!

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

THE LAST 5 WEEKENDS

OK Sara, I think you are the only one who reads my blog and I am going to start doing a better job at it.

Sept. 14-15th  Kayak Camping on Cypress Island in the San Juans

Janelle and I took off right after church on the way to anacortes to drop our kayaks in the water and go for a paddle.  It was a really windy day but there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  We launched around 3:30pm and the wind was in our face and creating some nice size waves.  We crossed the Guemes Channel and stopped at the Guemes General store for sun lotion as Janelle was starting to get rosey cheeks.  As we approached the bellingham channel (between Guemes and Cypress) the tide was in our favor but the wind wasn't it was a long hard paddle but we both got used to the rocky waves splashing us on the way across.  We arrive at Cypress head at about 5:15.

The Cypress head is a almost island that connects to Cypress Island, a very skinny path between the two keeps it as part of the islands.  It's beautiful, you can stand on it and look out into bays on both sides.  We scattered up the path to see what camp sites were available and out of the wind and we found a really nice site on the NE side.  Janelle started setting up the tent while I carried the gear to the site and started a fire.  I went out on the waters edge sat on a nice rock and fished a little while Mt. Bakers slowly disappeared into the night and the full moon gave me light.  I caught to Rock Fish and we added them to the dinner menu.  Off the side of the island there is a rolling current that keeps the water "boiling" and as you are camping it sounds like you are near a river, very therapeutic!!  Janelle and I roasted s'mores and sat on the bank pearing off towards the other islands and the full moon, BEAUTIFUL!!!

Janelle had a few stumbles and falls as I told her she might be a little bit clumbsy, she denied it.  The 20 minutes later she fell again and her direct quote was " I am clumbsy, dammit!!" and she rolled over laughing at herself.  I am still working on creating the perfect tinder bundle for a spark, my fire making skills only need a small flame to get going, so I am a one match man, but creating the flame with my flint and steel is still hit or miss!

The next morning (today) we got up to a magnificent sun rise over Guemes Island and next to Mt. Baker.  They created a orange red purple color along the skyline.  Janelle has been determined to be the handy camper so she volunteered to take everything down while I made breakfast.  A funny yet scary moment was when I heard Janelle yelling, I turned to see her running out of the tent chasing my matress as it was rolling towards the cliff, she stopped and there went my matress off the cliff, luckily tied was out and I just had to find a way down and around.  It was a relaxing morning for both of us and the tides required u to leave by 11:30am.  This time the wind was lighter and in our favor and we timed it so the tide changed by the second channel so they wee both going "our" direction.  This did require a 45 minutes lunch break on Guemes Island.  Oh Yah and as were leave Cypress a pod of dolphins swam within 50 feet of us, "Cool".  It was another breath taking day and a wonderful weekend!

Anniversary Weekend in Deception Pass Sept 7-8th

Janelle and I went to the Canlis Employee Party Sunday afternoon after a dissapointing Hawks game.  Where I took runner-up in the belly flop contest winning us 2 tickets to the Mariners game.  The flop was off a water-trampoline, my goals were set high but awkwardly enough I slipped on my launch flipped over and landed on my back, embarrassed as 100 friends and work mates were watching.  I came up from under water to hear a loud cheer and clapping.  I would love to tell you I planned it that way.

J and I took off for Deception Pass State park and parked at a nice sight.  I set a shoe-lace rabbit trap but had no luck.  We enjoyed walking on the beach that night and sitting on a log and enjoying jack and cokes with a nice cigar.  I brought the guitar and played for awhile and of course we had s'mores.  The next morning we went on a hike through the woods and walked the beach collecting rocks and aggots.  We then packed up and went to a near by pub to watch the Packers beat the Vikings!!  To finish our Anniversary night off we had a nice dinner at one of our favorite places to eat.  A small little restaurant called the Deception Pass Cafe and Grill.  I had the filet Mignon and J had chicken Marcelos (sp).  It is a romantic litte place off the side of the road with about 8 total tables.  It was a perfect way to celebrate a wonderful first year of marriage!!

Labor Weekend Aug. 31-Sept 1st.

The two of us aren't big on camping labor day weekend, too many people!  So Sunday we invited the my parents over for dinner and s'mores.  I made a concrete fire pit that sits on our porch and we sat outside around the fire enjoying good company.  Dad and I had a few scotch's and mom said she had the best s'more she has ever tasted.  Part of the secret is cinnamon dusted graham crackers.

The next day J and I jumped on our bikes and road 8.5 miles to the edmonds ferry, mostly downhill.  We took the ferry to Kingston where we ate lunch at the main street pub.  We diddled around Kingston for awhile then took the ferry back and decided instead of riding back uphill we should learn how to take the bus with our bikes. (131, 358 future reference).  It was a very simple trip back the we did pedal a quarter mile from the bus stop.  It took us about a hour, but that i only because we came upon some HUGE blackberry bushes and we couldn't pass them by.

Kayak Camping on Saddlebag Island Aug 23-24th

It is getting harder to remember all the details as I type back weekend after weekend, I guess that is why it is easier to keep the blog up to date.  

J and I hit the guemes channel and it was pouring down rain so we decided to take the fery to guemes and paddle from there to Saddlebag.  It was a wet paddle as the rain down poured on us.  It wasn't difficult though just wet.  We arrived to this small island and were excited to see we had it all to our selves.  We quickly set up a tarp over the picknik table and I started working on starting a fire in the rain.  Once the fire was nice and large we sat under the tarp near the fire getting warm and changed into dry clothes.  The campsite was on the NE side of the Island out of the wind and after awhile the rain stopped and we didn't see it again.  Janelle and again enjoyed a jack and coke with a cigar as we relaxed into nature.  The island is full a blue herons and they make a loud yelling noise when you upset them by paddling by or walking to close.  There must of been like 15 on the Island as well as 2 eagles, 1 was young.  That night I went out to fish and caught nothing.  It was so beautiful as the sky was half full of clouds and stars with a nice moon showing.  Every paddle Phosphorus florescence would show in the water.  Making movement look magical.  A few seals dove off the rocks as I paddled near shore.  They would startle me with there large splash.  The next morning J and I hiked around the Island.  It was a great weekend and a easy paddle back.

Solo Trip to Saddlebag Island Aug. 16-17th

J was off in Wenatchee with some of our friends celebrating a 30th bday party so I took the opportunity to go spend some personal quiet time!  Since J and I were planning to kayak here the next weekend I though I would check it out.  I left from Anacortes and had a nice paddle to guemes and then Saddlebag.  There is something about being by yourself is so calming while in the outdoors.  I arrived at the Island and was the only person there.  It was me and MY island!!  I didn't bring a tent just a small tarp.  I did bring a 12 pack and of course the jack and coke with my cigars.  I wanted to practice some survival skills and so I knew I had to bring the necessities.  While I was on the island I made a spring trap, shoelace trap, changed my stuff sack into a net to catch needle fish on the surface.  I ate a few raw needle fish cooked a few and used the rest by smashing them with a rock and putting the meat under a rock as the tide was coming in to lure a few rock crabs.  I caught 3 plus one with my spear I made.  I also set a water catch out to get fresh water.  So surviving was going well!  That night it was completely calm.  The phos florescence were bright.  The moon was shining and the stars were clear and easy to see.  I spent some time reading and relaxing and everything was great.  It rained that night but my 6x4 ft tarp kept me dry.  The next day was nice but really windy.  Too windy to paddle so I missed my chance and catching the first tide, then I missed the second tide.  So I was palnning on spending another night on the Island when a group of people came to the Island to have employee party.  They brought around 50 crabs and a lot of drinks and invited me over to join them.  It was a good time.  Then one guy (Jeff Anderson) offered to give me a ride back to anacortes.  I took him up on the offer and got home late that night (3am).  It was a good thing because I had to work the next day!

Well for you readers I apologize for typing errors I just wanted to get caught up!

VACATION CALIFORNIA

To celebrate Janelle's finishing of college we took a nice 10 day vacation to San Diego, Temecula and L.A.

My Aunt Kathy, Uncle Dan and Cousin Sara housed us for the first half of our vacation and they were so fun to be with. Dan treated us to grapefruit off his own trees and BBQ'd some excellent chicken. He was also the driving force in us hiking up Cowles Mountain. The highest peak in San Diego. It was about a 45 minute hike with a beautiful view in every direction. If I learn how to post pics I will add some from the hike. Dan also got out the "Cruisers", a common bike Californians use to cruise. Janelle and I road to a Starbucks a few miles away around Lake Murray and enjoyed some exercise topped off with a carmel frappacino.

The first night the Pro's took us out to Miami Grill, a cuban restaurant with tasty Sangria's. We met Jeanie (sp) Dan's daughter-in-law there. The food was great. Then we drove thru La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya, please don't make that mistake in front of the Pro's) We went to the beach where 50 plus seals gather to sleep at night. The next day Janelle and I spent the majority of the day at Sea World. (Thank you Craig!) It's the only place we used the camera on a regular basis. We saw the Shamoo show (J's favorite) and the dolphin show and the Sea Lion and Walrus show (my favorite, except for the part where the ship pointed a large water hose directly at me and soaked, pretty much, just me). I was also lucky enough to have a seagull pee on my head, on the fly-bye, while looking at the seal exhibit. I watched another seagull attack a lady for her fish, it was pretty funny. Sea World was amazing, the sharks, walrus's, Baluga whales. etc... and their shows were a lot of fun to watch. We spent around 5 hours there.

That night Laurie visited for dinner as we watched the M's win the first out of a sweeping 3 in the battle between the two worst teams in baseball. Laurie said she is becoming a M's fan.

The next night Sara took us out in the town, the Gas Lamp District. Boy was that place alive! We stopped in a few Irish pubs and finished the night off with great conversation over a bottle of wine and cheese. We had a lot of fun people watching. The next day Sara took us out to the South Beach Grill on Ocean Beach for the best fish tacos in S.D. We tried the Mahi Mahi (the best), Shark, Wahoo and Lobster tacos while sippin a cold one and watching Spain beat Germany in the European Cup Championship. What an atmosphere. Thank you Sara I think we need to make that a regular stop everytime we are in S.D.

Janelle and I did spend a day at the beach where I found it hard to stay still. I don't know how people lay in the same spot during a sunny day for 4 plus hours. Janelle can do it. I had to get up and play in the ocean every now and then. We managed not to burn ourselves but we also didn't pick up much sun, we found out SPF 30 really doesn't allow the rays to soak in.

We spent a little bit of time at Pacific Beach, Mission Beach and Ocean Beach. All beautiful beaches with cool stores and restaurants but the Coranado Beach was by far the most beautiful. Kathy, Dan, Uncle Craig, Janelle and I went out to a beautiful dinner right on the water at II Fornaio where we enjoyed specialized pizza and Janelle had the scallops. We could see the large air craft carriers, down town San Diego, beaches, the Coranado bridge, our table was right off the water, beautiful. From there we went to the Del hotel where I managed to break our camera and I think Dan was able to round up around 8 people to look for a tiny spring we never found. Dan was telling some of them it was a contact we were searching for. The camera was fixed with a ballpoint pin spring (Magiver style). We all dreamed of family vacation at the hotel, Kathy says to save your money and we can make it happen with about 40 people. As we were just about to leave Coranado a 10-15 minute firework show went off on the beach, it kind of topped off the night and since it was are last night in S.D it was at the perfect ending.

We drove to Temecula to hang with the Lyfords. Uncle Craig, Aunt Kelly and Cousin Truman. Unfortunately we didn't get to see Cousin Emily, she was out of town making some $ working sport camps. ( We missed you, thank you for letting us use your room). The visit started with a nice tour of the back yard, shady and cool. Craig showed us all the different plants as Jethro (the dog) tried to eat a peach seed. Craig and mom (Tru) remind me a lot of each other. They both have a special ability with animals and plants. We had a relaxing night with amazing conversation and another great BBQ. I am proud to have Uncle's that know how to work a grill. We had steak and chicken and beer and margarita's. Kelly then amazed us all with a grilled peach cobbler that was delicious!! Craig and I did our thing and played with a black widow's web. It never came out. I think one of the funniest moments was watching Craigs deep sigh when he would have to ask Jethro twice to do anything. It was always followed with a "I wouldn't have to ask Laska twice". The next morning we slept in and had breakfast with Truman. He add gotten back from a 6-9am football practice. It was a good time hanging and chatting with Truman.

Our San Diego/Temecula trip was so fun. Janelle kept saying how easy it was to talk and hang out with all of the Proughs and Lyfords. She felt like she had already knew you all for a long time. We both already miss our time with you! Thank you so much for taking care of us and opening up your schedules to us! We hope to come back soon and look forward to seeing you hopefully in November.

I will write part 2 (L.A) later, I am tired of typing! :)

Dr. Doolittle (psrt 2)

Yesterday was amazing! That had to be the most exciting graduation I had ever been too. Janelle is officially a Doctor. She worked so hard to get here and I am so proud of her. She is my hero. I have taken 2 quarters of school lately which consist of only 2 total classes and I have no idea how she did 9 years (5 of them medical) of college.

She glowed the whole day. She woke up and went to bed the night before being extremely nervous, but during graduation she glowed. My mother, and all of Janelle's family (Leslie, Marlene and Meredith) were all there cheering her on! I am married to Dr. Doolittle, WOW! I wish I could write in words how proud I am of her!!!

After graduation we had to pull some lies, specifically Meredith and I, to lure Janelle into believing dinner was at Anthony's homeport, that night. She thought her and I were just stopping into Canlis for a personal couple celebration cocktail before dinner. As she turned to Pepe at the bar she noticed a bright flash and then heard my dad (Gary) say her name. She turned to see her whole family sitting in lounge with cocktails. At first she thought they were just there to enjoy a cocktail too, but finally realized we were all going to have dinner at Canlis.

Dinner was special. We had champagne for toasts. Then started with appetizers (Braised beef short rib, teriyaki tenderloins, Canlis prawns, steak tartar and oysters). Then we went to the salads, (crab salad with papya and a avocado vinegarette, a mango prawn and avocado salad, canlis salad, a baby artichoke serrano ham with champagne vinegarette salad and a heart of palm salad with smoked paprika oil). We enjoyed our salads with a 2006 sauvignon blanc from Maipo, Chile. For our entre's we had wagyu ribeye (mine with foi gras) with crimini mushrooms, a soy madeira sauce and a port reduction with a yukon potato gratin (with goat cheese and cream) Meredith and I enjoyed that. Janelle and Leslie had the NZ lamb chobs with Isreali cous cous and Oregon blue cheese. My dad had the ahi tuna with a spring vegetable ratatouile and a black olive oil emulsion. My mother had the king copper river salmon grilled with a kumkwat and bell pepper emulsion, garlic spears, esparagus and fingerling potatoes. Finally Marlene had the filet mignon with fingerling potatoes, market vegetables and a bordelaise sauce. Wow, was the food and service great. We enjoyed the 2003 J.L Chave Syrah with the entre. Oops I almost forgot we also had the truffle fries as a table to share. Finally for dessert accompanied with some coffee we enjoyed the cherries poached in pinot noir and sugar topped with a cinnamon lattice crust and sweet corn ice cream, lemon thyme creme brulee', chocolate covered chocolate, apricot almond cake with a apricot consume' and olive oil ice cream and the Dr. had a almond expresso chocolate cake with mango and chocolate mouse, cocoa nib and mango sorbet. Lets just say at the end of the night we all couldn't speak due to the food coma we were all suffering. This was all while enjoying Walt Wagner on piano. Both Mark and Brian Canlis paid a very pleasant visit as well as a lot of the Canlis team and the floor manager Doug K. Our server was a combined team of Chris Matthews and Panita. We had a really wonderful time.

What a great 3 days to celebrate Dr. Janelle Margaret Doolittle!!!!

Dr. Doolittle

I am so proud of Janelle! She has worked hard to get to this day, 9 long years of college and medical school. It has been really nice celebrating her all weekend. Her parents (Leslie and Marlene) flew in from Minnesota Wednesday to spend a week here for this special occasion. Her sister also flew in Saturday just in time to make her graduation BBQ party.

The BBQ was great, a lot of close friends came over for burgers, steaks and beers. I believe we hosted around 25 people and it was great to have them all in our new place in Greenwood. Marlene, Leslie and Tru have spent countless hours in the morning helping us unpack boxes and organize our place. After the BBQ Janelle, Meredith and I went to Janelles's graduation party for Bastyr with all her peers. I know for a fact Janelle had a great time for she glowed the whole time, and that wasn't just the drinks. There was good food, drinks, a picture show and a lot of dancing. It was nice to put faces to a lot of her friends names I have been hearing over the years. Meredith and I had a lot of time to hang and catch up through-out the night. We got home at around 2am to get a few hours of sleep before we got up to join the Johnson half of the family and my parents at N. Creek Presbyterian. We had lunch afterwards at the Saw Mill.

The afternoon for me was filled with a nap, while Meredith and Janelle took a power nap and went shopping. Leslie and Marlene put a lot of time into a fantastic 4 course dinner. We started with cocktail hour and then started dinner with a delicious curry carrot soup, chilled. The salad was called fattoush, which was a greek style salad, very refreshing. The Entre' was roasted halibut with peppers, zucchini and fennel and served with crispy potato's mmm mmm good. After a champagne toast to Dr. Doolittle (thank you to Mike and Carrie) we enjoyed coffee and Leslie's wonderful lemon meringue pie. Meredith was welcomed into Doolittle game night and was surprised by how quiet and calm we all are! ;) We played apples to apples and of course Meredith won (beginners luck).

Tomorrow we watch Janelle receive her ND and boy am I excited!! This is our first blog so we will learn how to post pictures and fix up the sight!