MONDAY/TUESDAY TO VICTORIA AND BACK

Glenn had a thesis defense on Vancouver Island in Victoria.  He asked us if we wanted to join him for the trip over - sounded great - so off we went.
Kayley packed her bag.

And off we went to the ferry.  I had remembered the shops at the ferry dock as a little more interesting than they actually were.  But we did find great cupcakes.

The trip to Vancouver Island is gorgeous.  The boat winds between lots of islands.  For Kayley, there was a children's play area, and even better, an arcade.

Here's a few outdoor family shots.

In Victoria we got a hotel suite.  Kayley got her bed (a fold out cot) in the same room as Krysty and Glenn.  I'm not so sure about Krysty and Glenn, but Kayley was delighted.

The next morning, Glenn went off to the defense, and Krysty, Kayley, Charlie and I went to see a bug museum.  They really had nifty bugs, but given that they were out and climbing on people, didn't appear to be to nifty to Kayley.

Kayley took one look at the huge stick insect and asked to go "outside".  We did wander through, quickly, but Kayley found nothing that wasn't scary.  So we went to a museum across the street, a miniature museum.  Now, this WAS nifty.  Lots of buttons to push, (good for adults too)

but Kayley's favorite exhibit is below

You could push a button in the booth, and the phone would sing different nursery rhymes.

A few Victoria scenes outside of the museum

Glenn returned, and we drove back to the ferry and eventually back to Vancouver.

VANCOUVER - SATURDAY/SUNDAY

We flew to Vancouver on Saturday afternoon.  In typical Sammis-style we ended up at the airport with 3 1/2 hours to spare.  Needless to say, with lots of extra time all the lines were short, no traffic, and no interruptions.  We found a space at the United Club.  Charlie went to the La Brea Bakery and got two chicken salad sandwiches (which were fabulous).  We got on the flight and got up graded right away to "first class".  On this flight it meant snack packs or packs of pretzels.

Glenn, Kayley and Krysty met us at the airport.  We went to the Greek restaurant Kirkis for dinner.  Great start to trip.  Stayed the night at Stephs.  We've gone so often, Steph's condo feels like home.

We brought Kayley a Jessie doll (from Toy Story).  Thanks to a hint ahead of time, it was a real hit.  Kayley spent a lot of the trip 1.) with Jessie and 2.) announcing  "Yee Hah"

Sunday, after a relaxing breakfast - and some great Krysty coffee - we went to the science museum in Vancouver (Telus?? Museum)  What a great place.  It feels a little Tardis-like.  A metallic ball from the outside, it has incredible amounts of space on the inside.  How did they do that?  Lots of buttons to push, made the place great for Kayley.  Great for the rest of us too.  The most interesting ecological exhibit I've ever seen, great physics exhibits, and an amazing dinosaur exhibit too.  The creatures were full sized and animatronic so you could push buttons and make them move.  I felt like I was two years old too - push those buttons, oh yea!

An ecological push button exhibit.

There was also an amazing puzzle room.
And the view out the window was incredible.

WHALE WATCHING

Charlie and I haven't been whale watching in years.  We decided, after reading that it was a banner year to see whales off the coast this year, that we'd go again.

Mid January, we drove up to Ventura to the "Day Packers" building and joined a three hour boat ride around the channel islands.  

I love boat rides in general, so any excuse to go out on a boat is great (not cruise boats - smaller boats).  Leaving the shoreline, the first thing we came near was an oil platform.  I knew the platforms along the central coast were in a line.  What I didn't know was that they were lined up on a shallower sea bed.  Just beyond the platforms, the ocean floor takes a steep dive down to 250 ft or so.  Apparently, the dip in the sea floor is what the whales use to go up and down the coast too.

We then saw a huge pod of dolphins.  They were hard to take photos of, but they surfed on the wake of the boat which I think is very nifty!

Pelicans are one of my favorite birds...

Eventually, we came across three gray whales on their way south - a female and two males.  Here's a couple of them visible above the waves:

Charlie and I posed too -

On the way back to the harbor, we dropped off a ranger on Ana Capa Island.  I'd seen the islands from a distance, but never was so close to them.  There's an arch and a lighthouse on the island.

The island is also a nesting spot for sea birds.  Here are some precarious nests for sea gulls.

Dropping someone off on Ana Capa is a bit precarious.  Here's a few photos of the procedure:

It was a gloriously beautiful day - here's some photos on the way back to the harbor.

NEW YEAR'S 2012

Good grief!  It's already February 10th, and I haven't written a thing about the last month and a half.  I'll go back and fill in some details.....

The second half of Winter Holidays, Ian, Sarah, Sean, and Harriet came down to visit.  The trip was very relaxing.  We ate, watched TV, and celebrated the new year in a calm, lovely holiday.  Just before New Year's Eve, I thought it might be nice to walk over to the Veteran's Memorial building to check out the South Pasadena float.  "If Life Hands you Lemons".  Although a bit of a walk, and although Harriet wasn't sure treking out to see it was a good plan, she liked checking out the float after all.  Here are a few photos of the experience....

Wally came too...

Needless to say, he preferred the attention he got to the float.

TRIP TO PORTLAND OREGON

We got a week off for Thanks-giving.  At the beginning of the week, I took a trip to Oregon to see my friend Joyce Cerimele.  I figured, somehow, that Charlie and I would drive up the coast to see Glenn and Krysty.  It was becoming increasingly clear that would never happen.  Flights up there are only 3 hours and that gives us more time to spend with them.  The only way I would get to see Joyce and Frank would be to go there directly from LA.  So that's what I did.

Joyce and Frank were amazing hosts - now they'll get invaded by us some more!  The first day we went to the Portland River walk.  Portland sits on several rivers - the Willamette (pronounced with an accent on the Will- kind of Will ah met) and the Colombia River.  The Colombia River is the dividing line between Washington and Oregon.  I knew very little of this (except the last fact) before I got there.

Joyce and Frank along the river.

We then went to the Portland rose garden.  Apparently, Portland is known as the Rose City.  The trees were at the end of their coloring in the fall - but still beautiful.

The next morning, after a relaxing start, Joyce and I drove to Multnomah Falls.  What a gorgeous spot!

I walked up to the second level of the falls.  The trail up there is seen in the photos above.

It rains a lot in Oregon, and the trees show the results

At the risk of sounding a little Sarah Palinesque, we could see Washington from the trail.  The mountain above is in Washington across the Colombia River.  The photos below are of the Colombia River gorge.  It's a huge river, and the gorge looks almost like an ocean scene.

My last day in Oregon, Joyce and Frank drove me around the countryside.  Lots of apple farms and nut farms.  We stopped at a nut farm and I bought the best filberts and walnuts I have ever tasted.

Then I flew home.  A great trip!

Thanks Joyce!!

WIND STORM IN SOUTH PASADENA

About three weeks ago, we had a Santa Ana wind storm here.  It was quite unusual.  Usually, when the wind howls it goes down the canyons or in the mountains.  Very, very rarely, it hits in the city itself.  This particular wind storm whacked South Pasadena, Pasadena, San Marino, Temple City, Sierra Madre .... basically all around our neck of the woods.  The winds were incredibly loud, so Charlie and I laid in bed and listened to the howling (some of the winds were clocked at 94 mph).  We heard a huge thud against the roof and looked outside to see if we could figure out what that was.  Sigh... it was a branch of our old 50 foot avocado tree knocking against the garage roof.

A little, loud, later I heard another huge thud and looked outside again.  "Charlie", I said, "the tree's gone".

We went outside in the middle of the storm to see what else happened.  It was terrifying, branches, leaves, and who-knows-what else blowing past us.  We went back inside pretty quickly.  The next morning we saw what we thought was one of our orange trees out back on its side.  What it was was the top of our neighbor's tree that crashed into our fire pit furniture.

Our neighbor to the south lost a huge branch of a street-side tree that crashed into his front yard.  When we were out exploring the yard in the middle of the storm we saw him running about.  He had just moved his car from what would have been a parking space under the branch.   Whew.

A day or so later, we found a guy (thanks to our neighbor to the south) who took down the avocado remains (I was worried they'd cause more damage)  Much to everyone's surprise, despite the branch that hit the garage, another that whacked into our fence, another that crunched into our neighbor's car parked in the back, we had very little damage.  I do miss the tree....

The only damage was our neighbor's tree top and our patio furniture.

We lost our electricity for four days.  That was awful.  Fortunately, my brother (who lives only a couple of blocks away) who lost his electricity too, suggested we get some dry ice for the refrigerator and freezers.  Thanks to that we lost very little.  On Sunday, Charlie went to a meeting in San Francisco, leaving a dark, cold house behind.  I went to a local laundromat.  How long can one go without clothes washing?  I went home around 11:30 to get a dryer sheet, and noticed odd lighting in the kitchen.  I thought it must have been because the tree was missing.  ELECTRICITY!!  I'll never go into a dark closet again without a bit of joy being able to light it up!

quick update - for the first time in 3 weeks - the local cities are beginning to pick up the piles of branches and leaves in the gutter.  Driving around here has been scary.  Most streets have at least one lane blocked with branches.