Road trip to Oregon and Washington State

I had a great time seeing my friend, Pilar. It was like old times and I was so happy to see her after so many years of not seeing her. I enjoyed time spent at her house with her family and had a lot fun playing and goofing around with her kids.

Washington was nice too, although my former college roommate and I didn't get into downtown Seattle until Sunday, so many shops were closed for the day, not to mention it was July 4th. I missed the magic of Pike's Place in action, but enjoyed being there when things were calm so I could see and take pictures without feeling like I was a sardine. I was happy to see a big fireworks show in downtown Seattle, it's been a long time since I've gone to a show.

My one claim to fame in Seattle was a celebrity sighting...although I have no photo to prove it.  ;-)  While walking through the streets of Seattle, I glanced in a window of a cafe and did a double take. I exchanged a look with the actor, Ron Livingston from "Office Space" and HBO's "Band of Brothers". I was shocked to see him and wanted to badly to sneak a picture or meet him...however I pride myself on not interrupting or invading other's privacy...so my only proof is my memory. No worries.  :-)

I did a lot of driving in a short time, but the trip was worth it.

***I'm having issues getting my slideshow to post....so it's in the next blog...it took me a while to get it put together...I've been so busy with work and just too tired to deal with it...I'm not liking some of the changes made to Blogger and I'm not used to it...can't quit figure out  how to get it to do what I want....whatever....at least the slide show is up....I'm such a perfectionist and it's hard to let go.  LOL

Road Trip coming up!

In my 30, almost 31 years (all living in Northern California) I have never been to Oregon and Washington State. *Unless you count the Portland and Seattle airports.  Ha ha.  Finally I have reason and time to go see these places. Next week I'm making the drive up to Seattle to visit my old college friend for a few days...then I'm driving down to Eugene to see a friend I haven't seen in over 12 years!!  I'm so excited!  I'm bringing my camera and a lot of memory cards...maybe even my 35mm SLR for those special shots! 

My car is all set to make the long drive...at almost 95,000 miles on my '02 Civic, I got my timing belt replaced, a new water pump and a fresh oil change. Pictures to follow! It'll be a long drive, but a pretty one. :-)

Timber and Chico

Timber and I drove down to Orange County to visit "Auntie" Christy and "Uncle" Dylan and play with Chico the dog. The plan was to breed the two dogs. Chico will be 4 years old in June and if the breeding was successful, this will be her first litter.

Day trip to the snow!

I had two weeks off work for the winter break. It was my hope to get some things done and get to the snow as much as possible......Sadly, I only got to go one time. However, it was a good time. My friend Jessica, her two young kids and their dog Dylan joined Timber, Jade and I for the day trip. Jessica was generous to drive and risk her van to my two furry beasts since I woke with a sinus headache and had to take some sinus medicine that causes drowsiness. She offered to reschedule the trip....I said no way! It had been such a struggle to make the trip happen, I was not about to disappoint her kids and another kid: yours truly. Ha Ha!

This trip was Baby Jade's first time in the snow and of course, she loved it. Timber was exposed to the snow very early on, at about 4 months of age in the same area as well as the extreme winter conditions of South Dakota and Montana.
see posts: http://melanialynn.blogspot.com/2009/12/day-trip-to-snow.html, http://melanialynn.blogspot.com/2009/01/more-snow-january-12-2009.html, http://melanialynn.blogspot.com/2009/01/wyoming-south-dakota.html

I can't wait to take them up again. I love the snow and it's fun watching the dogs enjoy themselves. Timber likes to eat the snow and Jade couldn't stop running. I would eventually like to move a little closer to the Placerville area. I love the mountains and it's a great place for the dogs too.

I'm hoping before the snow season ends this year to experiment having the dogs pull a light sled. Jade isn't full-grown, so she can't pull me despite the help of Timber. However, if I can trust the dogs enough to be cautious, I might have them pull around Christian or Patryk. I will start out with just the sled to see how they react. So far Timber is not particularly fond of his harness. I made him wear it all day and through the night and he was restless almost the entire time. Perhaps a more custom harness for sled dogs with padding would be less annoying. We'll see.

Visiting with Christy, Dylan and Chico

Two of my best friends, Christy and Dylan came up to visit from Hungtington Beach for a night. They brought Chico, momma Jade's sister and baby Jade's aunt. Baby Jade had never met Chico and the last time Timber and Chico saw each other was a year ago. The dogs got along great and we two-legged friends enjoyed out time too. We enjoyed a late lunch at Qins then relaxed at home for a while and watched a movie. I cooked up a nice dinner and after we ate, we decided to go for a drink in downtown Clayton, my home town. We had a good time and it was great to see my friends. We were too buzzed to really get any photos later that night, so I mostly have shots of the pups playing.

Halloween in San Francisco...one to remember

After a late afternoon at the Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate Park, Yuliana and I decided on a whim to check out what was happening on Haight and Ashbury. She's never been there and it's been ages since I cruised the streets. There were a lot of people out, some with friends, some with dogs, some with kids, some just too damn old to be out asking for candy from the store fronts!

After checking out a few local shops, grabbing a bite at McDonalds and people watching as we wandered Haight for about 5 blocks...we stopped off at a small local pub. It was quiet, the only bartender was dressed as a serving wench and she had her beautiful Samoyed dog there hanging out at the bar with her.

Sometime after 9 pm, the bar started filling up and Yuliana and my glasses were empty! We met a group of people there and chatted and drank for a while. They invited us to a private Halloween party several blocks away so after a stop at the liquor store, we were headed over to the party where we hung out and met tons of characters.

Here is a glimpse of our fun evening in San Francisco and some of the nice people we met, including a guy I graduated from Chico State with in the same major! Small world, even in a big city.

A pretty cool store front we stumbled across

I had to do it!

Yuliana and I being silly at the pub

Halloween party

I love fog machines! The smell brings be back to all the Haunted Houses I went through as a kid...

And we are headed down the steep, foggy staircase to go home....No worries, I was sober and taking good care of both of us!

Japenese Tea Garden...Golden Gate Park

Yuliana and I drove out to San Francisco the afternoon of Halloween. We drove the long way over the San Mateo bridge and the Golden Gate due to a closure of the Bay bridge for repairs. We had decided earlier in the week to go check out the Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate park since we both love Japanese architecture, tea and design.

As usual, I had to get a picture of nearly every opportunity I saw...I'm addicted to taking landscape photos. I also have a difficult time sorting through the photos and chosing just a few...so here are twenty-two images from the afternoon out of...oh, over 125 images!

When we saw this sign, we just had to laugh at our good luck! We arrived at the gate at 4:45 pm, Saturday, October 31st! Had we put off the trip to the next day, and arrived at the same time, we wouldn't have made it in time! (in case you can't read the sign, begining in November, the garden closes at 4:45 pm)

I would love to have this as my backyard...although knowing Jade and Timber, they'd destroy it!

The branches of these trees are incredible!

I love bamboo!

Mochi (a Japanese sweet...very gooey, sticky and squishy)

Yuliana and Me enjoying our Jasmine Tea (I absolutely love the smell of Jasmine and now I can comsume it!)