Last month

It's September & we are heading for Seattle.  We have finally gotten smart about how we do this trip. Last time, we flew Sydney to Vancouver direct, then hired a car & drove over the border into the US. There is of course the hassle of getting an "alien" into the country, but he is quite happy to get his thumb prints taken & his eyeball photographed, so that makes the process a bit easier. And we need a car while we are there anyway. This trip, instead of flying to Sydney, we are driving. We need to be there on Saturday for my back treatment, so it's a relatively leisurely drive up on Saturday in the hire car, we stay overnight in the Holiday Inn on staff rates anyway, & it's a quick skip to the airport on Sunday morning. We even managed to get ourselves dropped off at the car hire office in Civic, by the friend who is using our car while we are away. Then on the return trip, we grab a car from the airport & go. We will be stopping at Marulan to collect a present for Paul, Brooke & the kids, that we hope they will treasure for a very long time. More details on that when they are officially released!

The trip was going OK until I was checking my wallet on our arrival in Sydney, to discover that my credit card is missing. Panic! First thought: I left it on the counter at Hertz in Canberra. I remembered I had pulled out 2 cards, my drivers licence & a gold card. Now the Hertz card & the credit card are both gold, so it could have been either. And I'm usually pretty careful about putting cards back in. Next step, after calling Hertz & finding out that the city office is closed until Monday morning, was to get online & check transactions. Aha! With Julie's help ("doing a Rodney" & otherwise approaching the whole issue logically), I remember drawing cash from the ATM one morning while on the bike, & probably put the card into my bike pants pocket. But no, that was on Wednesday & I used the card to pay the chiropractor on Thursday. But since it's the only other likely place to look, we called our wonderful neighbour Tim to go over & check the pocket anyway. Bingo. So where was I on Friday that I used the card? Ah. I bought fuel for the bike. OK, now it's all explained, I can relax!

Julie really needs to trim up her requests to the Universe. She gets nothing more & nothing less that what she asks for. Before she met me, she remarked that it would be nice to date an Aussie. She forgot to ask for one that was staying for a while. This time, she had said, please don't put me next to a baby. When we got on the plane, we didn't have 2 adjacent aisle seat as we had expected, but 2 seats facing the bulkhead, with tons of leg room, but right next to a baby. No sooner had we settled in than the hostess offered 1 or 2 spare seats further forward, so the mum could use an extra seat for the baby. So Julie headed off forward to occupy one of the spares. And the baby turned out to be one of the sweetest tempered babies I have ever spent time with. At one point, she was clearly overtired, so I went to sleep with her on my chest & she was quite happy to drop off to sleep herself. Really nice to be able to connect with a kid like that.

It's now Monday (which is really Tuesday). Dammit, we've had a rough time with some of the essentials this trip. And we were so prepared & calm too. We went to the Credit Union to submit our change of address & Julie then discovered that the debit card she had brought with her was out of date. Just as well we had drawn a chunk of cash in Canberra, so we're OK. Just another frustration, is all.

We've also spent several hours with Mum & Dad, chatting & having lunch. Great to have the time, this time, to just sit & talk. And Dad got to help me put together the wooden bike that we brought for Duncan. And Julie got to tick off one from "the list" with a grilled cheese sandwich (aka toasted cheese sandwich) with Tater Tots (aka potato gems).

Today was a very late start, after we got a second wind last night & stayed up way too late. We ticked off IHOP (pancakes) on "the list" & then cruised on down towards Seattle downtown, then worked our way over to where the houseboat scenes from Sleepless in Seattle were filmed, then across the bridge into Fremont. We were down by the water, taking photos from the other side of the lake & got talking to a truck driver on his break, who mentioned the Fremont Troll, a piece of artwork that has become a symbol of the local community. And of course, being a troll, he lives under the bridge. The dude directed us to it, which was just up the hill. Then we ambled up across Queen Anne Hill, trying unsuccessfully to get a good unobstructed view of the downtown area. Called in to a bar for a drink & a pee & met someone who mentioned a pub called the "Kangaroo & Kiwi", so of course we had to go & see that too. And then it was on to Mum & Dad's place via KFC (needs no explanation) to tick another one off the list. Tonight, April assured me that the original houseboat is still there, just a little further south than where we were looking - it's here. Or copy these coordinates  47.64108, -122.34072  then go to the maps page, paste into the coordinates field & click on "Set Centre".

It's amazing how much we can forget over time. We planned to hang out in the Boeing cafeteria at Kent. We made our way down there, with the few inevitable detours, & navigated successfully to the car park, only to realise that to get from the car park into the compound, we had always been able to swipe in using a Boeing staff pass. Without one of those, we weren't going anywhere!

We took Mum & Dad to dinner at Rays Boathouse, which is right on the water overlooking Puget Sound. Expensive but awesome. And a great time was had by all.

Thursday, and it was time to move from Northgate to Everett, as we can only stay on the staff rate for a maximum of 7 nights & we need to stay for a total of 9.

We had pre-booked tickets for the Underground Tour, which explains a lot of the early history of the city, including the need to get the city up off the tidal mudflats on which it was originally built. The city eventually solved it by building the streets where they wanted them & finally (after a couple of years), building the footpath to attach the street level to wherever it needed to be on the buildings, leaving a whole ground floor (now the basement) to its own devices.

Hmm, it's now Wednesday & I need to catch up. Let's see. Friday, Julie went shopping with April & Debbie, while I went down to the locks & got some photos. I spent about an hour with the camera perched on a safety fitting in (more or less) one position & got a series of photos of the lock filling up with boats, then all of them rising & finally all of them leaving. I've made it into a movie.

Saturday was an early start for me, to get to the airport by 8:30 for a flight to Salt Lake City to meet up with Matt, who has been guiding me through the intricacies of Internet marketing. After lunch, he proudly showed me around the Mormon area in the city - the conference facility, the Tabernacle, the Temple (can't go in there) and the headquarters. Another highlight on the way to his place was Cabelo's, a HUGE men's outdoors shopping paradise. It even has its own aquarium & stuffed wildlife "museum". And when we got home, their hospitality was certainly the most gracious I have ever experienced. I was not just a guest, but an honoured guest. Meanwhile, Julie was out & about with the kids.

Sunday was an even earlier start to get back to SLC airport & fly back to Seattle. After that, Julie & I had the day to ourselves, so we went for a drive in the country, "because we can". Here follows a story that we had forgotten about until we were talking our neighbour Tim after we got home. We called in a motorhome dealership to have a look, (you guessed it, "because we can") & got talking to the salesman. There we were, looking over a Winnebago & I mentioned that we would of course need a right hand drive model in Australia. This guy tried to tell us that he was quite sure that they would be able to make a RHD as a special order, because the only place they are made in the whole world is (blah, blah, wherever it is). Now just humour me for just a minute & jump out to the Winnebago Australia site - doesn't that site give you the impression that Winnebago make motorhomes in Australia? Anyway, he then went on to tell us about his experiences on driving on the wrong side of the road for a few weeks in Germany - uh, say what? At that point, his Bullshit Factor went so over the top that Julie immediately lost all interest in the conversation & we left shortly afterwards.

Then that evening, we received an email from our friends Anna & Chris, who live on Lake Union, right across from the University of Washington. Would we like to go out in their boat on the lake? Any other plans for Monday were immediately put on hold!

So we had a brilliant day out on the lake on Monday. They had recently purchased a 21 foot electric boat, so they would have taken it out anyway, being such beautiful weather. So we checked out the whole Lake Union area & the shipping canal, almost down to the locks (with a lovely seafood lunch in the process) & got right up close to the sleepless houseboat for some photos. We got to April's place just in time for dinner.

And another nice surprise for Tuesday, when we caught up with Katie Miller at Boeing on the way through to staying the night with Frank & Paula at Olalla. We went with them into Gig Harbor for a look, followed by a drive past look at the Tacoma waterfront, which has recently been revitalised, and dinner & some fun on the slot machines at the casino. HUGE place! Julie has picked up a sore throat, so that has cramped her style a bit.

Today will be a series of drop in & say goodbye to various folks along the way north to Canada. Our flight leaves at nearly midnight, so we have plenty of time. Photos to follow when I have the time to process them.

And indeed it was, with a twist at the end. I decided to take the alternate border crossing, which turned out to have a wait time of about 2 minutes. However, we then headed due north to the Canada 1 Highway & almost immediately saw signs directing us to the airport. It seemed to take bloody ages to work our way through the suburbs when in retrospect, we could have barrelled up Canada 1 for a while & then looked for the airport. But being without GPS at this stage, it was better to be safe than sorry. Even then, we had to pull out the map to figure out where we needed to be. Checking in was dead easy, with Air Canada's new self service system (and we were also disgustingly early too), but by the time we were heading for the departure gate, we realised the Julie's cold was rapidly degenerating into a nasty dose of bronchitis, much faster than we had anticipated. So by mutual arrangement with the gate staff, we offloaded. Then of course, we had to make our way all the way back to Immigration, collect our (now offloaded) luggage & somehow find somewhere to stay. Fortunately with Julie being a part of IHG, the Holiday Inn was the first call. We took "second best" at the local Holiday Inn Express for the first night, finally getting to sleep at about 3 am.

Next morning, we left the luggage in storage, caught the hotel shuttle back to the airport, sought out the airport medical clinic & got Julie in to see a doctor. So, loaded up with antibiotics & 2 (yes 2) inhalers, we went off to hire a car. Julie was having a smoke while I did the paperwork. The assistant asked me whether I would like a Suburban or a Hummer for the same price. Sure. Which? I'll take the Hummer, thanks. So I was cackling all the way to the parking space, while Julie rambled on about how we always seem to get a silver car. So when the vehicle responded to the remote control, imagine her surprise at seeing a bloody big black Hummer H3! Hee hee.

Collect the luggage, drive to the HI, check in & sleep. Shoot off some emails asking the IHG colleagues back in Canberra to arrange authorisation for the staff rate, as well as advising those that needed to know, that we'd be back home 4 days late. Congratulations & thanks to the folks at the Convention Centre & the HR people at the Crowne Plaza, for getting the paperwork through. We REALLY slept that night (Thursday). And there's another Hertz Hummer at the hotel, with a number plate just one number off. We're both refreshed but still pretty buggered, so Friday's activity has been focused around driving to somewhere, getting out for a very brief walk & getting back in the car.

Funny: I decided to have just dessert tonight in the restaurant downstairs. Lo & behold - they have Deep Fried Mars Bars on the menu. Never thought I'd see them again, after the take-away shop in North Lyneham shops closed. Even funnier: I was walking through the lobby a short while ago, heading for the room to write this & crash, when a couple of guys came out of the lift. Over on the left was a large group of teenagers. One of the guys snapped his fingers as he walked past & the whole group obediently peeled off & followed him. Wow, I'll have what he's got, thanks. Probably a school teacher, but hey, it looked pretty damn good!

Saturday's activity also centred around lots of driving & very little walking. We headed north to Squamish on the coast road, for some truly spectacular mountain scenery. Sunday - today we went east. The amount of timber activity on the river is just amazing. Numerous times we have seen log floats being towed up or down the river by tug boats. And at one point on the river road, there must have been several miles of timber processing plants. And on the way back, I figured out how to get from the main Canada 1 Highway through to the airport using mostly freeway-style roads, instead of dragging through miles of suburbs. Sadly, we had to hand the Hummer back in. Quite an amazing vehicle actually, lovely to drive, turns on a dime, but it cost me almost as much as the total rental price to fill it with fuel - it has an 87 litre tank! (That's 23 gallons)

Ah, the joys of getting older as we continue to travel. Both of us had a terrible flight, in that we each got about an hour of sleep. And I do stand corrected, it's not 13 hours, it's 14 on the way over & 15 on the way back. So we have stayed in Sydney, as both of us would have presented a "danger to shipping" on the roads today. Three more cheers for IHG staff rates! And because we are "regulars" here at the Holiday Inn at Sydney Airport, we didn't have to go through the paper war either. Julie has accepted NCC's offer to take the rest of the week & I'm thinking about it too.

OK, we survived the night, crashing about 7 pm & were both wide awake at 5:30 am, so we figured we may as well get going & beat some of the traffic. And we made it back home by lunchtime, stopping off at Goulburn for a look at the War Memorial tower (& the panoramic view). So nice to be home again & sleep in our own bed. Julie is still stuffy & I have a nice cracking migraine.

I am pleased to report that after a visit to the chiropractor yesterday, my migraine has disappeared.

Wow, Spring has certainly sprung around here. I took a walk around the garden & fired off the camera.

This is hilarious. We have both been WIDE AWAKE at 6:30 every morning since we got back. Given how much Grumpy enjoys getting up early, it's been a lot of fun watching her.

The software driver for the YardCam camera did arrive & didn't do a scrap of good, so those 2 cameras are now relegated to indoor duties only. Then I had a thought (yes, it did hurt). I could go back to only one PuppyCam camera & split the signal for upload & motion sensitive, & then use that camera in the bedroom until the arrival of the 2 more that I have ordered. So it is temporarily taped onto the window & badly needs a bit of a focus, but it certainly improves the view from the YardCam.