Chapter 201: Ahoy Matey!

Thanks to all of you that have hung in there reading the over 200 mindless blogs that I've churned out in the past few years. Although I should have been doing something more productive with my time, I've enjoyed sharing our simple lives. I really do worry about you, loyal readers, that you don't have something more productive to do with your time other than read about our simple lives. Thank you.

As I mentioned last week, I had a wonderful time at Aunt Karen and Uncle Bill's house. Each morning I took my coffee out to the yard and enjoyed the morning sun and beautiful yard. Then the gardening equipment, pool maintenance, garbage trucks, and other services started their racket and it was GAME OVER for peace and quiet.

The neighbor provided photographic evidence of said peace destruction. A landscaper climbed the palm and trimmed the branches. Since this one didn't use a noisy machine of some sort, I sipped my coffee and watched intently. You can see the climber up in the palm throwing fronds to the ground.

Under the guise of taking little Logan to Zoomar's Petting Zoo I happily hopped into the car to go see what the zoo had to offer. One of the first guys I saw was this alpaca with the tassels on his ears and the saucy bangs over his eye.

Alpaca #2 was not happy Alpaca #1 was getting his picture taken and butted in to be sure to get his photo taken. 

Psst! Hey buddy. You wouldn't happen to have a carrot on ya, would you? 

Meanwhile Logan is on the choo-choo train ride. The "conductor" thought he was being nice and offered a few more laps for free. Logan was obviously not appreciative of his thoughtfulness and Logan's face was less happy each time he circled past us. 

After the petting zoo we went to walk to Old San Juan Capistrano. The city is the site of California's oldest residential neighborhood, Los Rios. It is the home of the oldest building in California and the area was also the site of both the first vineyard and first winery in California. 

Aunt Karen and Logan crossing at the San Juan Capistrano Amtrak station. 

Mission San Juan Capistrano was built in 1776, the same year as the year of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This mission is known for the return and nesting of American cliff swallows migrating from Argentina March - October each year. The swallows took advantage of the two nearby rivers, it's insects and the mission arches provided ample nesting space to hang their mud nests while the mission provided protection for their young. Unfortunately the growth of the town and construction have driven the swallows to nest in other areas less populated.

An earthquake in 1918 destroyed the largest part of the mission (by the palm trees), and was never rebuilt. 

The "economy" view was obtained from the street by climbing on a bench then perching precariously on a post outside the 6' wall surrounding the mission. I think the wall was supposed to be a hint that one is supposed to pay to see what's inside...

After Aunt Karen dropped me off at the airport and I had been through the strip search, I had some time to kill so I checked out the shops. I found this awesome t-shirt, but I didn't buy it because it would be too much of a temptation to wear it to school...every day. 

After the palm trees and giant succulents of southern California, it was back home to the various molds and fungus' that the Pacific Northwest has to offer. Here's a giant mushroom that was about 12" across that I found in our front yard on  my way to the mailbox. It falls into my uber-creepy category along with air roots on trees and plants.

I went met Carissa for lunch last week and by the time I got to Silverdale, my car smelled of coolant. I checked the radiator after lunch while it was cool and it was full of pretty green stuff that coordinated with the outside of my car so I headed home with confidence. I got stuck in merging traffic at the 38th Street curve and steam erupted from under the hood.  I targeted an overpass by the Tacoma Dome in case it rained to sit and literally chill for a while. After cooling for an hour I checked the radiator to find it stone cold and empty of vital life fluids.

I limped it to Fife and found a Stop 'n Swipe that had water. The clerk would not make change for my dollar bill to use the water machine unless I bought something. Since I was starving, I risked a hot dog so I could get my change. As I was filling my radiator, the skies opened up and dumped on me. I had paid 4 shiny quarters for 3 minutes of water and I was going to get my money's worth.  The irony that I had to pay for water to fill my radiator while standing in free water falling from the sky was not lost on me! While I was filling my radiator, I set my hot dog on a post and by the time I got back to it, there was only a naked hot dog on the post, the bun and mustard having washed down the post and into the gutter with the rain.

Early Saturday morning we got up and went to the All British Field Meet at Portland International Raceway in Oregon. Mt. St. Helens got off to a sleepy start with us as the fog lifted.

In case you need a refresher, this is what Mt. St. Helens looked like before the eruption that shaved 1,314 feet from the top of it.

Just a couple of old people walking around the car show with their straw hats on just like all the other old people at the show. 

I took a picture of this Jaguar because of it's license plate. My dad used to call his (now ours) XKE  the "Cat" and this license plate would have been perfect for it.

 After about 10 minutes of wandering around, I'd come to the conclusion that all I was going to see here was cars. Funny, that. It was a car show. My sidekick Sue wasn't there to entertain me so I put on my best flip-flops and headed out to a MAX train I could see in the distance. After hiking over a half mile to the station, bungling my way through the ticket-buying process, and getting on a train going the correct direction, I settled in to watch local train culture in action. Where else can you see a full-fledged Jack Sparrow pirate, a guy wearing crime scene tape streamers, a lady feeding a kitten yogurt, a girl wearing a tail and kitten ears climbing around the upper handrails of the train like they were monkey bars, a guy wearing a dog on his shoulders, bicycles, strollers, and a girl wearing a snake, just to name a few? As it turned out, this was just a primer for what I would see once I got to Portland.

I hopped off the train at several stops in Portland. One stop was the Portland Riverfront Street Fair. Not only was it awesome people watching, I bought a cool Coca-Cola bracelet, a pair of chain mail earrings, and a kitty body pillow for Nitro that he absolutely loves and a fantastic freshly made Himalayan lunch. Nitro loves his organic catnip body pillow.

When we checked into our motel room, we were told it had been upgraded to a room with a spa in it. Woo Hoo! When we got to the room, we found there was more "spa" than "room".  Worst of all, no matter how I tried, I couldn't get away from the mirror until the lights went out for the night.

After the car show we took the long way home through the country passing closely to Mt. Rainier, staying off the freeways as much as possible. Since we are in the foothills of Mt. Rainier it doesn't look as majestic as it does from home.

Here one of the locals crosses the road in Morton. Watch out buddy, we just passed one of your kind laying by the highway hoof-side up.

To entertain myself in the car, I try to look for 3 types of animals to get what I call a "wildlife trifecta". That failing, I can usually put together a "roadkill trifecta" with not so lucky ex-wildlife I find laying on the road fur-side-down. A roadkill trifecta is much easier to get since the objects of my hunt stay put and wait for me to find them. This weekend I had no luck with the wildlife trifecta, but I did have a roadkill trifecta. A deer, a racoon, and a coyote gave their all for me achieve this personal goal.

Anytime we go through the fine town of Buckley we have to stop at Wally's Drive-In for a snack and a pit stop. That's just the way it is.

Following in the rest of the family's foot steps this fall, I start school on Wednesday. I hope I am as successful as they are.

Have a good week everybody!

If you've got a few moments, check out Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo giraffe cam 

to see what an adorable 2 week old giraffe calf and it's mom are doing in real-time. To take it a step further, check this video out to see said giraffe being born. Thanks to Kyanne and Carissa for each showing me a video.