Quick update on the lack of activity...

So... for those of you who don't know I was recently diagnosed with a high glucose count and warned that with out some changes I would very soon be listing into the world of diabetes.  Scary wake up call.  I've had some moments, but so far the adjustments to my diet and exercise have been going well.  Plus for me on the side effect side, working with a nutritionist to learn how to eat has helped me to loose some frustrating extra weight.  :)  

Living through the holiday season with no options for desserts?  This has been tough.  I am very thankful to all the wonderful people who have been giving me recipes for all the foods I want to try but can't. I know when I get these level under control I am going to enjoy making all the tasty holiday treats for myself a little later next year.  Over the last month I have made some awesome steps toward getting this under control and expect to be living a little more normally by January.  I have been really encouraged by all the support from those of you who know as I have been going through this :)  More to follow as I go :)   

Galiano Island Day Trip

Waters around Galiano Island

A flower along the road ;)  

 In August I realized I hadn't made any plans for my weekend off and wanted to get out for a day.  I took the ferry out to Galiano Island.  The plan was ferry out in the morning, catch the noon ferry back and run  my errands in the States before heading home.  There was supposed to be an art and wine festival that sounded like fun.  

The ferry ride over was fun.  I grabbed some breakfast at a random table and pulled out my trusty book, a sure conversation killer, right... The cafeteria slowly cleared around me but it was still pretty full.  A gentleman asked if he could sit on the other side of the table from me.  No problem, except he wasn't taking the book hint.  Hmmmm, no problem. I can carry on a polite conversation, except by the end of my breakfast this old guy has declared himself as my Island tour guide and I'm to meet him at his car for a ride.  Whoa, I listened to my mom when she told me never to get in a car with a stranger.  So I politely excused myself to walk the deck of the ferry, ducked into the restroom when I was out of his site and promptly changed my top and put on a hat. :)  Yes, I carry a change of clothes, I had planned to hike and didn't want to run errands in a sweaty top. As soon as the ferry docked I could see the guy looking for me, so I did the polite thing again.  I hid in the crowd ducked my shoulders and moved with the crowd off the island.  

Fun little pies at the Bakery

I explored around and discovered the art part of the festival was the town's weekly farmers market... OK, and the wine part wasn't starting until 13:00.  Blah, what a bust.  I'm so ready to leave, problem, the noon ferry doesn't operate on weekends, Argh.  No problem I can chill out until the 17:00 ferry, There's still the wine festival, of which I definitely got my money's worth, thank you complimentary hors d'oeuvres.  I ate so many spinach puffs and cheese, I'm sure the people passing platters were purposely avoiding me. 

I started hiking back and figured I should grab something on my way off the Island for dinner, as my day was going to be longer than planned.  "Spicy" Chipotle Chicken Burrito ended up being about as bland as mayo, but was filling on my ferry ride home :)  Next time we'll be a little more careful with the time table but other than that , fun day trip out.  

4th of July

In May I realized two things... I was going to be off work for the 4th of July and I am an eight hour drive away from Family!  Too close to resist I made the drive for an American Holiday :)  

Sparklers to start off the night... After the BBQ of course :)

Whiz- Bang

It was an exhausting drive, but well work the tired to make it down to Oregon for the day.  SHOPPING was accomplished, thanks Aunt Randie and Kristin for introducing me to the Outlets :)  

And thanks for the place to hang out before my mad dash back north again :)

The Summer's Order

The last few posts have been out of order so I figured I'd post a quick list of the order of my summer trips...

-May- Las Vegas
-June- Okanagan Valley- Brianne visited :)
-July 4th- Salem Oregon
-Mid July- Home to San Jose
-August- Galiano
-Late August- Visiting Family in Salem
-September- Grouse Mountain & Whistler with Sister
-Mid September- Stanley Park- Jesse & Andrea visited
-October- Washington & Oregon Coastal Drive
-Late October- DC Weekend

So far that is what is coming up, already posted and the order they go in.  Thanks for the patience as I madly spend the weekend getting these posted :)  Stay tuned for the last few installments to be posted by tomorrow...

Inn Boonsboro

The Inn from across the street....

Fresh Flowers in our room

Aren't Surprises the best?  Especially when you get to surprise someone with going someplace you have wanted to go yourself?  These are shots from my surprise trip to Inn Boonboro with Danielle.  A perfect retreat.  The only downside of the trip was I don't think I will be content at another hotel again.  The inn keepers exceeded everything I expected.

Magic Shower with 6 jets :)

Amazing pizza and to die for desserts...

Our package included Dinner, we went with pizza, salad and fresh cannoli with sparkling wine to top it off. 



After a fun chat over skype with another friend we crashed out.  The only unpleasantness of the weekend occurred at 0600 when an emergency buzzed under our window with sirens blaring.  For the two early morning shift people we are... sleep was not something we were gonna get back... good thing we remembered where the krupps brewer was at :)

Comfort defined :)

Little cool?  No problem with our fireplace in the wall.

Who knew a healthy breakfast could look this good?  Don't worry.  We had unhealthy bits too.

 After an amazing breakfast and of course more coffee :)  Our spa treatments awaited to be followed by shopping and a relaxing lunch.  Thanks Danielle for putting up with my silly surprise :)  Hope you had a great night out :)

Coastal Road Trip

 I accomplished a goal of seeing more of the West Coast in October.  Starting by driving across Whidbey Island to catch the ferry to the Olympic Peninsula... Where this gorgeous bridge is.

Tidal pools a little farther south... 

Sun on the waves in Southern WA...








As gorgeous as these shots are, my trip was not all pretty scenery... Splitting my trip by stopping in Astoria, OR.  I went out for dinner.  I should have known something wasn't right when I felt a little off after the soup.  Oh my goodness!  Who knew food could come back up so fast, even with a little pepto to try to keep it down!  Sorry for the weak stomachs who are reading this now...  I was so glad to have family close by, I spent the rest of the weekend couch surfing, recouping after that bout.  I guess there is always next time to get farther down the coast.

Jesse and Andrea Visit

  In September Andrea and Jesse, friends from Long Beach made the trip up to visit also...

Picking locations I hadn't visited yet we went out to hike around Stanley Park... 

They were so patient with my slow pace, who knew a chest cold could mess with a person's lung capacity...
But even the slow pace didn't stop us from getting amazing views.

 We also checked out the wild life in Queen Elizabeth park....


I'd have to say the best part was walking through Gas Town in Vancouver.  The buildings are always beautiful and the food is always fantastic.  We went for Japa-Dogs. Yum, then hiked out to Chinatown for Steamed Pork Buns.  And yes, crossing quickly across Hastings, we even witnessed a little more downtown flavor :)  As a guy walking in the opposite direction took a hit of coke.... Skytrain, please...

Despite the downtown fun, it was great to have the visitors and the company to explore a little more while I'm here.

Sister's B'day Visit

In September my sister was able to visit :)  Since I've been building up hotel points since I got here I decided a little road trip was in order.  We drove up to Grouse Mountain.  We did some hiking, although the famed "grind" was a little too packed so we took the tram.  Even with out the major train, we found some spectacular views.

  and checked out the Grizzly Bear Exhibit.  Cute little bears and just a wire fence between you and them...

Becca braved the fence and got close enough for a picture before we hit the road to head up another mountain to Whistler...

Our room in Whistler was FANTASTIC.... but I forgot to take pictures.  We checked in, grabbed some dinner then crashed out.  A bike race delayed our departure but we made the most of it by hiking to a lake, where we found a nice spot to read out books...



Then made a stop with the Olympic rings before we headed back down the mountain...







Before we headed back to the States to get Becca on her flight home we took a drive through Lynden, WA. I learned what a Blue Town was... I never would have thought a whole town could be closed for Sunday, but yup.  The only thing open was the sidewalks in this place!  It definitely made for a quiet end of trip for us.  

Las Vegas Trip ...from May

So this post is going a little back in time... I've had it written for a while but didn't get the pictures together until recently.  So here is a little bit about my trip in May...

Been a while since I've posted, so ladies and gentleman hold on to your seats… This is how we play catch up.  Work has been mostly, well, just work nothing really exciting going on there so 

  We’re gonna go back on this with a little bit of my awesome trip to Las Vegas last May… I know, I moved to Canada and where do I take my first trip big trip?  Las Vegas?  Well first off when a friend calls and says “I’m gonna be in Vegas for a conference, would you like to keep me company and have a hotel stay for free?”  Free room, just have to cover my plane ticket and incidentals?  Heck yeah!  I’m going to definitely plan some awesome incidentals!  I ended up hitting trip adviser and giving rave reviews for everything we ended up doing. 

Who knew the abridged version of Phantom of the Opera could be so cool?  It was like pushing play on my Highlights CD.  I’d never been to a cocktail bar at a theatre and we thought it would be fun to see if there was a “Phantom” drink.   The bar had just stopped making the signature  drink but the bartender went ahead and set us up.  Before we hit the show we did justice to a Buffet.  As is the Vegas tradition.  Oh my goodness Danielle!  Thank you so much for selecting the buffet based on their dessert menu!  The Wynn has an entire room just for dessert.  The food was amazing too, but I had to pace my dinner on the desserts I planned on hitting.  And, man did we enjoy them!  Of course we dressed to the nines and had a fantastic night on the town.  If only sexy shoes were more comfortable for walking those HUGE Vegas blocks.  A taxi has never seemed like a better idea than when your feet are ready to be bare foot. 

Bestest Chocolate Ending

Champagne Martini

Back to the show, we got coupons with our tickets and planned out our next night around them.  How fancy, Champagne Cocktail bar, Dinner at a fancy French place then reservations for dessert at a place with a 5 page chocolate dessert menu.  Is it becoming apparent this vacation was all about the food?  Dinner at Bouchon, in the Venetian was amazing.  I wanted to try something new and fancy.  I got brave and tried seared Fois Gras for my culinary adventure!  What an experience!  I can honestly say… It was amazing!  I can’t believe California has banned the dish.  Another reason I probably won’t end up back there.  Cheesecake filled crepe with an orange mint salad and a cup of sipping chocolate for dessert rounded out the evening and my middle.  

Needless to say it was a trip all about visiting and food...Ahhh, best way to plan a vacation :)

June Weekend

These are gonna be a little out of order but I'm getting my summer pics up here this weekend without exception... Skipping a little in here are some shots from my weekend in June :)

A friend of mine visited for my weekend off in June and was a good sport with a road trip for wine tasting in the Okanagan Valley among other Vancouver tourist spot...  

We stayed at a very interesting B&B- Gorgeous, but not quite complete.  1900's Farm House Decorated with funky Buddhist style a little at odds with itself.

Visited a Lavender Farm...

Next we went to a honey farm... 

Tantalus Vineyards went above and beyond...
All our stops were their tips
And we got a private tour of the vineyard, cellar and 
had a private tasting!

Summerhill Vineyard's view from their restaurant was incomparable!  And the Sparkling wine... Yum!

Tasting at Cedar Creek Winery....

View from St. Hubertus Estate... 

When we got back to the coast we stopped at 
Steveston, a cute old town fishing village.

Sampling Cider and Beer in the Buck and Ear Tap Room... 

...and crossing the border to head back to the States.








Awesome weekend all the way around :)  Thanks for giving me the excuse to get out and explore Bri :)