11 December 2012
20 November 2012
06 November 2012
{election eve}
It's the eve of the 2012 election, and I think most people feel relieved that the negative ads and constant footage of the candidates will be largely finished in about 24 hours.
I happened upon an article today about the change of power happening in Beijing this month as well. Foreign journalists are being offered tours of model Chinese companies, have been gifted with beige press caps and back packs bearing strange Chinglish directions for use. But, the journalists are getting very little in the way of actual hard news on the passing of the leadership baton in within the PRC's communist party.
I find the contrast so striking.
for more on what's unknown in Beijing ::
http://world.time.com/2012/11/05/searching-for-news-journalists-covering-chinas-leadership-transition-get-hats-instead/
For more on US politics ::
your TV
your computer
your smart phone
and your FB page
I happened upon an article today about the change of power happening in Beijing this month as well. Foreign journalists are being offered tours of model Chinese companies, have been gifted with beige press caps and back packs bearing strange Chinglish directions for use. But, the journalists are getting very little in the way of actual hard news on the passing of the leadership baton in within the PRC's communist party.
I find the contrast so striking.
for more on what's unknown in Beijing ::
http://world.time.com/2012/11/05/searching-for-news-journalists-covering-chinas-leadership-transition-get-hats-instead/
For more on US politics ::
your TV
your computer
your smart phone
and your FB page
15 October 2012
This Is China (TIC)
My auntie {who is also Bei Bei's "Fairy" Godmother} is
in her second year teaching at a college in inland, Mainland China.
Her host
city is the "88th largest city" in the Middle Kingdom, and although the
population of the city proper is 743,601, she has only met a handful of other Westerners during her tenure.
The other day she sent a great "this is
China" story about buying eyeglass frames.
This is her email, and with her permission, I'm
running it here.
The problem with putting $265.00 (Canadian dollars) eye glass lenses in 15 yuan frames is that the frames break. After all they are cheap in price and now apparently quality. (like I should have known that.)
Anyway, I think, what if I could find another pair just like them or close to them? So I said a little prayer and off I went down town and lo and behold what did I find but a pair that looked like they were the same shape as the lens when I measured the old frames to these new ones. What's more the new ones are flexible - rubbery like . And yes they were 15 yuan too. When I got home I was able to pop the lens right in. There is a minuscule gap between the frame and the lens on one corner but you can't see it unless you look real hard.
So off I went down town again to see if she had any more of the same kind and she did, so I bought 2 more pairs in case these break in the future. And because I returned for more she only charged me 10 yuan each so, 20 yuan for the additional two.
Today I went to the new DQ that opened recently. I had a Moolatte for 26 yuan. $4.15 for a latte but only $1.60 for glasses frames. Some how that doesn't seem right. But now I'm set and have new frames and can still use my original lens. Yeah!
{by SFL} Xinxiang, Henan, People's Republic of China
Sources for XX info ::
http://numbersandstatistics.org/population/population+of+xinxiang+-+china+in+2000/
http://population.mongabay.com/population/china/1788572/xinxiang
http://population.mongabay.com/population/china/1788572/xinxiang
Dairy Queen Image ::
(Google image search)
11 October 2012
Illini Soccer {and Young People with Backpacks}
Last Thursday we drove down to the University of Illinois to watch the Fighting Illini women's soccer team. It was a great experience and all three of the girls loved it. Illinois beat Michigan and there were all the highlights one could hope for in a live soccer match :: flip throw-ins, a yellow card, PKs, and our little girl kickers where a little amazed that even at a collegiate level handballs and offsides are a common part of the game.
{This is the only picture of our University visit!}
The night of the game was perfect, and really it was the last nice day weather wise we might have this fall ... Mild with a slight wind.
We stayed at the Illini Union Hotel, which doubles as the student Union. It was fun to be there on a weekday, so that we could see college life in action. When Bei Bei peaked out of our third story room Friday morning and glimpsed students with umbrellas rushing along the zig-zagged wet sidewalks of the Quad to make their 8 am classes, she quipped, "There sure are a lot of young people with back packs out there!"
{I love that girl!}
We did our obligatory trip to get new T-shirts.
EHJ got a fun one that reads :: I SEE ORANGE PEOPLE
Bei Bei opted for the chanting :: I-L-L I-N-I, the raucous cheer of every Uof I sporting event
and MGJ opted for a subdued university logo.
Like I mentioned. We took exactly one picture.
But in our mind we have many more.
And great memories of showing the girlies around our old stomping grounds. (Remember last year when we revisited our first meager apartment in married student housing? We drove by building #2112, and glimpsed lamplight in the familiar windows we once artfully hung bed sheets in as treatments.) We were glad we used the Nikon a little more liberally on our last trip to the campus, because this year the Alma Mater statue is MIA ... off being refurbished somewhere, and it really looks naked near the Illini Union!
Thursday night we ate at a great ethnic joint on Green Street and got a pre-game Bubble Tea. Friday morning we popped around the corner to a Korean place where we ordered take away for lunch. Bi Bim Bap and Bulgogi are not generally synonymous with 'car friendly', but we made a go of it and managed to even wield chopsticks on our route to our State Capital where we had a date with Mr Lincoln.
Confessions of a Crockpot Hater
My name is Tai Tai Johnson, and I hate crock pots.
Or so I thought.
Until this fall.
{Until this week actually.}
I remember offering our oldest daughter, when she was a toddler, a mini cooked carrot that had roasted beside a beef roast with, no doubt, a sodium rich packet of french onion soup mix and a few diced onions in a bath of water, in a crock pot for 4+ hours. Baby Millsie was delighted by the familiar sight of a the tiny carrot (the likes of which Barbara Kingsolver of Animal Vegetable Miracle calls 'lathed carrots' since they actually machined from larger carrots), but upon sampling the mush ... which quickly lost its carrot shape and tasted so unlike what she had expected ... she promptly spit it out and looked at me as if I'd betrayed her. She, apparently, was not a big fan of the crock pot either.
There has always been something off-putting about the crock pot for me. I don't like the steamy smells of a crock pot in which the aroma (and flavor) of individual foods has become a single combination. I'm irritated with strange directions that suggest simply dumping everything together and leaving it for four or eight hours. (I find this a conundrum as well. Are people's lives so often compartmentalized into four hour blocks? What if you have six hours, or four and a half? What if you start out on 'low' and then plans change?) My distaste comes from an amalgamation of several other issues as well: the frequent ingredients (cans of condensed soup or instant soup packets), the texture of the food it creates (somewhere between boiled and disintegrated), and perhaps even the enthusiasm so many others have for a kitchen appliance I have found so appalling. There are entire websites and blogs devoted to crock pots. Entire sections of cookbooks. Don't even get me started on the Pinboards with clever crock pot names.
In China, many of my American tai tai friends schlepped their crock pots over to the Middle Kingdom in their sea containers. Never did we have a tai tai gathering without someone's beloved crock pot ... a Medusa of wires stretching from the machine and wall socket with a power adapter in between ... converting China's shocking 220 v into a voltage more crock pot friendly. I get that it was comforting to have familiar objects and comfort foods. I simply never formed an attachment to my crock pot.
Back on this side of the international dateline, I further understand people's facilitation and even dependence on crock pots. Work and busy schedules often demand a low impact dinner preparation. I get that it works for many people to prepare a meal at breakfast that will be ready after the work day to serve for supper. I just don't like those kinds of meals.
Or do I?
It was good old Ben and the Pinterest team that sparked the possibility that pulling the crock pot out of storage might be worth a try.
I used it to make steel cut oats one morning last spring. The oats actually cook in a glass bowl which is set in a hot bath in my old enemy the crock pot. Plug it in at bedtime, steel cut oats for breakfast. The texture is steel cut oat texture. The smell is steel cut oats. I would simply not have time on a school morning to make this healthy high fiber option.
{My resistance to the crock pot faded minimally.}
Next up, my friend Mavis over at One Hundred Dollars a Month posted a Italian Chicken soup for the crock pot. This last Sunday before we left for weekend Chinese school I assembled the soup in the crock pot and set it for 4 hours on high. It wasn't my favorite, but the family seemed to like it. (They all agreed they'd like to have it again ... which is more than I can say for my Dinosaur Kale chips!)
I doubled the recipe and used orzo pasta that cooked nicely without bloating. (The orzo was my only substitution and made a nice addition. I think this is noteworthy because I am famous around The Bungalow for my penchant for culinary substitutions ... which explains why I'm a better cook than baker, and may, come to think of it, explain why my previous foray into Crock Pot Land may have left much to be desired ... I think with crock pots one must follow rules pretty closely. I've never been a good rule follower ingredient wise ... I find rule following, and until now crock pots, rather main stream.)
On Tuesday night after a group trip to the orthodontist (the fact that our seven-year-old has joined ranks with her sisters as a patient of orthodontia is fodder for another post), we dined on the reheated remains of Sunday's soup. (Reheated, in the crock pot for two hours on low whilst we were visited aforementioned ortho, who may force us to take out a second mortgage on our home before The Three have perfectly aligned pearly whites.) You know what? The soup was even better the second time around.
Emboldened by my success, I made a pot of decadent crock pot hot chocolate for an afternoon snack for the girlies today. The ingredients are rich and so I used more milk and less cream ... which I'm not sure makes much a difference when you add a WHOLE BAG of CHOCOLATE CHIPS and a WHOLE CAN of SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK!! The adaptations worked. Two of the three girls liked it. Our oldest was the main dissenter ... but then again, she's never really cared for crock pots.
Or so I thought.
Until this fall.
{Until this week actually.}
I remember offering our oldest daughter, when she was a toddler, a mini cooked carrot that had roasted beside a beef roast with, no doubt, a sodium rich packet of french onion soup mix and a few diced onions in a bath of water, in a crock pot for 4+ hours. Baby Millsie was delighted by the familiar sight of a the tiny carrot (the likes of which Barbara Kingsolver of Animal Vegetable Miracle calls 'lathed carrots' since they actually machined from larger carrots), but upon sampling the mush ... which quickly lost its carrot shape and tasted so unlike what she had expected ... she promptly spit it out and looked at me as if I'd betrayed her. She, apparently, was not a big fan of the crock pot either.
There has always been something off-putting about the crock pot for me. I don't like the steamy smells of a crock pot in which the aroma (and flavor) of individual foods has become a single combination. I'm irritated with strange directions that suggest simply dumping everything together and leaving it for four or eight hours. (I find this a conundrum as well. Are people's lives so often compartmentalized into four hour blocks? What if you have six hours, or four and a half? What if you start out on 'low' and then plans change?) My distaste comes from an amalgamation of several other issues as well: the frequent ingredients (cans of condensed soup or instant soup packets), the texture of the food it creates (somewhere between boiled and disintegrated), and perhaps even the enthusiasm so many others have for a kitchen appliance I have found so appalling. There are entire websites and blogs devoted to crock pots. Entire sections of cookbooks. Don't even get me started on the Pinboards with clever crock pot names.
In China, many of my American tai tai friends schlepped their crock pots over to the Middle Kingdom in their sea containers. Never did we have a tai tai gathering without someone's beloved crock pot ... a Medusa of wires stretching from the machine and wall socket with a power adapter in between ... converting China's shocking 220 v into a voltage more crock pot friendly. I get that it was comforting to have familiar objects and comfort foods. I simply never formed an attachment to my crock pot.
Back on this side of the international dateline, I further understand people's facilitation and even dependence on crock pots. Work and busy schedules often demand a low impact dinner preparation. I get that it works for many people to prepare a meal at breakfast that will be ready after the work day to serve for supper. I just don't like those kinds of meals.
Or do I?
It was good old Ben and the Pinterest team that sparked the possibility that pulling the crock pot out of storage might be worth a try.
I used it to make steel cut oats one morning last spring. The oats actually cook in a glass bowl which is set in a hot bath in my old enemy the crock pot. Plug it in at bedtime, steel cut oats for breakfast. The texture is steel cut oat texture. The smell is steel cut oats. I would simply not have time on a school morning to make this healthy high fiber option.
{My resistance to the crock pot faded minimally.}
Next up, my friend Mavis over at One Hundred Dollars a Month posted a Italian Chicken soup for the crock pot. This last Sunday before we left for weekend Chinese school I assembled the soup in the crock pot and set it for 4 hours on high. It wasn't my favorite, but the family seemed to like it. (They all agreed they'd like to have it again ... which is more than I can say for my Dinosaur Kale chips!)
I doubled the recipe and used orzo pasta that cooked nicely without bloating. (The orzo was my only substitution and made a nice addition. I think this is noteworthy because I am famous around The Bungalow for my penchant for culinary substitutions ... which explains why I'm a better cook than baker, and may, come to think of it, explain why my previous foray into Crock Pot Land may have left much to be desired ... I think with crock pots one must follow rules pretty closely. I've never been a good rule follower ingredient wise ... I find rule following, and until now crock pots, rather main stream.)
On Tuesday night after a group trip to the orthodontist (the fact that our seven-year-old has joined ranks with her sisters as a patient of orthodontia is fodder for another post), we dined on the reheated remains of Sunday's soup. (Reheated, in the crock pot for two hours on low whilst we were visited aforementioned ortho, who may force us to take out a second mortgage on our home before The Three have perfectly aligned pearly whites.) You know what? The soup was even better the second time around.
Emboldened by my success, I made a pot of decadent crock pot hot chocolate for an afternoon snack for the girlies today. The ingredients are rich and so I used more milk and less cream ... which I'm not sure makes much a difference when you add a WHOLE BAG of CHOCOLATE CHIPS and a WHOLE CAN of SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK!! The adaptations worked. Two of the three girls liked it. Our oldest was the main dissenter ... but then again, she's never really cared for crock pots.
05 October 2012
Year Four ...
The Johnson's in China : The Tales of Tai Tai Johnson
Celebrates four years of blogging this month
Thanks to the 30 of you or so who follow regularily!
Cheers!
A few of our very first posts ::
http://thejohnsonsinchina.blogspot.com/2008/10/three-red-stars.html
http://thejohnsonsinchina.blogspot.com/2008/10/welcome-to-next-time.html
04 October 2012
Expat Ruminations & The Northwest {Part III}
As I mentioned earlier ... our trip to Vancouver allowed us to catch up with four other families we knew in China. There is really no way to explain how neat it is to reconnect with people you knew on the other side of the planet!
When we bid our farewells in Qingdao twenty-two months ago, it was with the knowledge that we may never see some of our friends again. So, in many ways any such reunion is sweeter with the knowledge that it's likelihood was so slim.
Expat life is a series of circles and cycles. I often equate it to a Venn Diagram. Our family's circle, overlapping with another family's circle because of living arrangements, school choice, something as simple as shopping in the same international import aisle at the grocery store and/or, most importantly, because my husband's employer and the employers of other families all deemed a seaside city in peninsular China a worthy spot to deposit an expat family for a couple of years, allowing our circles to overlap.
{Of course ties where often greater than a shared interested in hazelnut spread, but that was often the fun and sometimes funny way friendships began. I recall one friendship in my earliest days in China, that began with a rather disgruntled expat wife showing up at playgroup after having voyaged back from a month of blissful seaside living in her motherland, returning in the smokiest days of Qingdao March. She complained about her husband's American employer, the hours of he was required to phone into conference calls... which translated into almost the middle of the night in China ... and about the the abysmal air quality in the Middle Kingdom. But, I noticed, her daughter had left the house in a dress-up cape, and I gave the mum the benefit of the doubt. Sure enough, it was jet-lag and exhaustion talking, and she became of my staunchest confidants in those first fledgling months in a foreign country. She was as fun and witty as her daughter's cape had suggested! Our Venn overlap began @ the expat playgroup.}
We had, in 2010, on our return voyage to QD, laid over in Vancouver, and considered it fortunate that we were able to see both The S & W families at the same time {in fact, at that moment, both families were sharing the same roof as they waited for slow boats from China to arrive with their expat goods.} They gamely let the girls and I hang out with them for a weekend.
When we promised a return trip this summer, and then learned that our Australian pengyoumen {The T's} had also managed to arrange a summer in North America {with greater Vancouver serving as a home base of sorts} we were thrilled!!
As noted earlier, we had a week with The S Family before they took off for a 40th birthday get-away in bear inhabited interior BC. We headed south across the boarder to Seattle for a long weekend and a little 15th wedding anniversary celebration, some penny smashing on the tracks, swimming with skinny dippers, and drinking coffee.
Sufficiently caffeinated, we then returned to Vancouver, where The S's generously allowed us to live in their well appointed home, in their absence, and we spent three more lovely days biking, hiking, canoeing, swimming ... sharing lattes, BBQing and simply catching up with good friends.
As an added bonus, another family that we knew from our QD fellowship had recently repatriated to Seattle and joined us for part of that time as well. It was bittersweet as The H's lost their 11 year old son in a tragic accident in China last year, and now face a new life in America with three, instead of four, children.
There is much to be said about the importance of maintaining and nurturing these relationships, though oceans and timezone separates us. Our children benefited from the re-connection with other expat friends as much, if not more, than we did. The emphasis of the whole 3CK Movement (Third Culture Kids), is that expat kids share a unique camaraderie with other children who live abroad in a culture that is not their home culture, and not fully their host culture. For me personally, I see my kids reconnecting with other expat kids in shared lingo (referring to some words in Chinese rather than English) or using terms they shared in the British school system. I also seem them come alive as they rehash memories or connect on common ground (a shared dislike for Weekend Chinese school and a love for their respective Chinatowns).
When we bid our farewells in Qingdao twenty-two months ago, it was with the knowledge that we may never see some of our friends again. So, in many ways any such reunion is sweeter with the knowledge that it's likelihood was so slim.
Expat life is a series of circles and cycles. I often equate it to a Venn Diagram. Our family's circle, overlapping with another family's circle because of living arrangements, school choice, something as simple as shopping in the same international import aisle at the grocery store and/or, most importantly, because my husband's employer and the employers of other families all deemed a seaside city in peninsular China a worthy spot to deposit an expat family for a couple of years, allowing our circles to overlap.
We had, in 2010, on our return voyage to QD, laid over in Vancouver, and considered it fortunate that we were able to see both The S & W families at the same time {in fact, at that moment, both families were sharing the same roof as they waited for slow boats from China to arrive with their expat goods.} They gamely let the girls and I hang out with them for a weekend.
 |
| The S, W, and Johnson Girls {Summer 2012 :: Crescent Beach} |
When we promised a return trip this summer, and then learned that our Australian pengyoumen {The T's} had also managed to arrange a summer in North America {with greater Vancouver serving as a home base of sorts} we were thrilled!!
 |
| {All set to bike Stanley Park :: seventeen bikers and two riders} |
 |
| {The Johnson fam, The T Fam, The W Fam, and the H Fam} |
 |
| {silly faces} |
As noted earlier, we had a week with The S Family before they took off for a 40th birthday get-away in bear inhabited interior BC. We headed south across the boarder to Seattle for a long weekend and a little 15th wedding anniversary celebration, some penny smashing on the tracks, swimming with skinny dippers, and drinking coffee.
Sufficiently caffeinated, we then returned to Vancouver, where The S's generously allowed us to live in their well appointed home, in their absence, and we spent three more lovely days biking, hiking, canoeing, swimming ... sharing lattes, BBQing and simply catching up with good friends.
As an added bonus, another family that we knew from our QD fellowship had recently repatriated to Seattle and joined us for part of that time as well. It was bittersweet as The H's lost their 11 year old son in a tragic accident in China last year, and now face a new life in America with three, instead of four, children.
There is much to be said about the importance of maintaining and nurturing these relationships, though oceans and timezone separates us. Our children benefited from the re-connection with other expat friends as much, if not more, than we did. The emphasis of the whole 3CK Movement (Third Culture Kids), is that expat kids share a unique camaraderie with other children who live abroad in a culture that is not their home culture, and not fully their host culture. For me personally, I see my kids reconnecting with other expat kids in shared lingo (referring to some words in Chinese rather than English) or using terms they shared in the British school system. I also seem them come alive as they rehash memories or connect on common ground (a shared dislike for Weekend Chinese school and a love for their respective Chinatowns).
 |
| our TCKs |
 |
| {The don't call it Beautiful BC for Nothing!} |
 |
| {sweet girlies} |
 |
| {ice cream boy in his ice cream shorts} |
29 September 2012
A Good Childhood ...
Early this summer an acquaintance posted on Facebook a gentle parenting reminder ...
"You only have 18 summers with your child."
For some reason the reality of those words hit hard. Probably, because we're five years away from the expiration of childhood for our oldest daughter.
{And, it's probably really less than 18 summers, I reasoned with myself. In those earliest years, which revolve around nursing and nap schedules of an infant and then toddler (and if you have multiple children, the pattern repeats itself a few times), summer really differs little from any other season. And then, at the other end of the spectrum, the closer you are to adulthood, the more likely that friends and summer jobs will get in the way.}
There was an urgency this summer. An urgency that remains now, even as our girls have been back in school for a full month. Our time with our kiddos is really pretty fleeting.
I want to maximize it.
Taking our girlies on a road trip or even a jaunt to the zoo or museum now (versus when they were preschoolers) is in many ways more rewarding. Everybody can walk on their own and wipe themselves. They make interesting observations and when we get home we can have stimulating conversations. However, I also think that part of their appreciation for outings now comes because of the outings they did when they were younger.
We sometimes wrestled with what was too much to do with little kids. It was hard when we lived abroad because there were so many choices around us, or just a short airplane ride away. I remember then ... when it was frustrating that the hotel pool seemed a greater attraction than say, The Great Wall. {So we usually ended up doing both, and I think they are the better and wiser for it.}
We did so much together this summer. More than I have space to put here (and more than readers are interested in knowing about!)
But ... There sometimes are epic fails. Like when we went to the Adler Planetarium this past June, just hours after the moon passed directly through the center of the Earth's shadow. My middle was so interested in this phenomenon. My youngest was, as usual, happily along for the ride. My oldest asked repeatedly when we could go home.
I get that Planetariums don't rank very high on the coolness radar of teenagers. Someday in the future she might appreciate the gesture. But 2012 wasn't exactly the summer of teen appreciation.
To be fair, I'm not sure how appreciative I was at thirteen. (My record of groundings would suggest not very.)
Never-the-less, I will continue this active hands-on, activity filled time of their lives. Even if I have to sometimes remind my oldest that she's having a good childhood :-)
"You only have 18 summers with your child."
For some reason the reality of those words hit hard. Probably, because we're five years away from the expiration of childhood for our oldest daughter.
{And, it's probably really less than 18 summers, I reasoned with myself. In those earliest years, which revolve around nursing and nap schedules of an infant and then toddler (and if you have multiple children, the pattern repeats itself a few times), summer really differs little from any other season. And then, at the other end of the spectrum, the closer you are to adulthood, the more likely that friends and summer jobs will get in the way.}
There was an urgency this summer. An urgency that remains now, even as our girls have been back in school for a full month. Our time with our kiddos is really pretty fleeting.
I want to maximize it.
Taking our girlies on a road trip or even a jaunt to the zoo or museum now (versus when they were preschoolers) is in many ways more rewarding. Everybody can walk on their own and wipe themselves. They make interesting observations and when we get home we can have stimulating conversations. However, I also think that part of their appreciation for outings now comes because of the outings they did when they were younger.
We sometimes wrestled with what was too much to do with little kids. It was hard when we lived abroad because there were so many choices around us, or just a short airplane ride away. I remember then ... when it was frustrating that the hotel pool seemed a greater attraction than say, The Great Wall. {So we usually ended up doing both, and I think they are the better and wiser for it.}
We did so much together this summer. More than I have space to put here (and more than readers are interested in knowing about!)
But ... There sometimes are epic fails. Like when we went to the Adler Planetarium this past June, just hours after the moon passed directly through the center of the Earth's shadow. My middle was so interested in this phenomenon. My youngest was, as usual, happily along for the ride. My oldest asked repeatedly when we could go home.
I get that Planetariums don't rank very high on the coolness radar of teenagers. Someday in the future she might appreciate the gesture. But 2012 wasn't exactly the summer of teen appreciation.
To be fair, I'm not sure how appreciative I was at thirteen. (My record of groundings would suggest not very.)
Never-the-less, I will continue this active hands-on, activity filled time of their lives. Even if I have to sometimes remind my oldest that she's having a good childhood :-)
27 September 2012
{the Northwest II}
After a great week with the S's ...
We headed south in our wretched rental car across the boarder along the scenic coastal highway to Seattle. (When we got to Enterprise we had our "choice" of 11 generic grey Impalas!) But regardless of the gutless vehicle, we had a great little road trip ... stopping for local cherries, and at scenic spots along the way.
When we got to Seatown, we stayed right downtown in the heart of the caffeinated hipster city. We took advantage of our great location and walked to the Klondike Gold Rush Museum, Wing Luke Museum (a fabulous tribute to Asian American culture and its troubled history in that corner of North America), took the monorail out to Seattle Center where we chilled out with skinny-jean clad locals, drank Starbucks (what else?) and caught the outdoor performance of several live bands preforming @ the EMP while gazing up at the famous Space Needle which to me seems both and retro and futuristic at the same time. Whilst in Seattle, Mr Johnson & I celebrated our fifteenth wedding anniversary!
 | |
|
 |
| {fresh produce} |
 |
| {fish that fly} |
We enjoyed jaunts to the Pike's Place Market where we watched the fish fly, haggled with the vendors, posed in front of the first ever Starbucks, and dined alfresco on shellfish ... looking out across on Puget Sound.
On our last morning, Mr Johnson and the girlies toured Boeing, while I had a solitary brunch back @ Pike's Place, and chatted with both of my sisters on Skype.
 |
| my Seattle home in the late 70s |
Before heading back to Vancouver, we navigated around Seattle, searching for the rental I spent a year of my life in in the late 1970s. We found it, and I posed on the steps of a house I don't remember living in when I was two.
On our return to Vancouver, we stopped again at the quaint On our way back toward the Canadian border, we stopped again at a cove we had happened upon on our way down. On our second visit we remembered to grab some coins from the car, which we put on the track that ran right along the beach front at the base of the trail. (Placing coins on RR tracks was a childhood trick that I knew, but that Mr Johnson and the girlies had never done.)After reading up in our Lonely Planet, we learned that the cove is a infamous, locally, as a nude swimming area ... which quite frankly explained a lot. We had great fun on both stops there, and we remained mostly clothed. (
Related Interweb Sites ::
Wing Luke
http://www.wingluke.org/
Klondike Gold Rush Museum
http://www.nps.gov/klse/index.htm
Pike's Place Market
http://www.pikeplacemarket.org/
Seattle Center
http://www.seattlecenter.com/
EMP
http://www.seattlecenter.com/locations/detail.aspx?id=63
Boeing
http://www.boeing.com/commercial/tours/index.html
Washington State Parkshttp://whatcom.kulshan.com/Washington/Whatcom%20County/Western%20Whatcom%20County/Outdoors/Teddy%20Bear%20Cove.htm
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