{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. (Although if you looked closely you would note Mr Johnson adopted a 'when in Rome' philosophy ... Most of the summer term college kids @ the cove just went swimming in their undies ... and he followed "suit"less)

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

Such A Good Summah {The Northwest I}

In late June we jumped on a United flight bound for Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

We spent two and half absolutely wonderful weeks in the scenic, wet, Northwest ... a welcome change, as by late June it was already very apparent that the summer of 2012 would be remembered in the Midwest as a season of drought. {Fate and good planning allowed us to reconnect with four families from China, and there might not be a more beautiful place on the globe for such a summer reunion.}

We stayed with our great friends and gracious hosts the S's who made elaborate meals, treated us royally, and introduced us to their life and surroundings in the Greater Vancouver area. In two short years since emigrating, they have immersed themselves in Canada. Their girlies who carry passports for three countries, are living a Canadian childhood.

We visited Fort Langely, White Rock Beach, Crescent Beach and ...

 a local berry farm, where this picture of
five of our favorite girls was taken!

We were "show and tell" in their girlies classrooms, and we got to see their school and meet their classmates and teachers. In YVR proper we played tourist @ Granville Island, Stanley Park, and Canada Place on Canada Day.





The Johnson's (& some smiley random guy)
in front of the Olympic Flame
@ Canada Place on Canada Day

Related Links on the Interweb ::
Historic Fort Langely
http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/bc/langley/index.aspx
Stanley Park, Vancouver
http://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/stanley-park.aspx
Canada Place, Vancouver
http://www.canadaplace.ca/

Labor Day

On Labor Day the population of our little town, in our little square county easily quadruples. It has become our little tradition to watch the set-up from the vantage point of our front porch. We drink our coffee and watch our little town vibrantly spring to life:

BBQs are lit and smoking. The kiddies line up on their bikes for the parade. Firetrucks and sheriffs squads queue in the street. And floats, with kids anxious to launch candy, are staged in the school parking lot. There is the familiar cadence of the antique tractors' motors, their belching of smoke and then the Veterans kick the whole thing off.

The parade begins at 10:00 and usually ends about a quarter of an hour later, but this year is an election year, so there were a few more floats (dueling candidates for coroner!) and there was a fire call @ 9:55 that our volunteer crew promptly attended to ... and then even made it back (only modestly late) to throw candy and blow sirens.

Later there were jumpy castles in school lawn, and pork chops in the gym. There was music, a classic car show, and in the park our girlies and their cousins (the even blonder Johnson's) enjoyed the Reptile Show.

We registered Bei Bei for the pedal tractor pull, and she claimed third place in her age group, beating out some boys, and pulling the same weighted sled her dad and uncles pulled at local festivities a generation ago.

Pallet Salad

"If you do it," my sister laughed over the phone, "you have to blog it."
(She was laughing about Spring Project :: Jen's Hen's)
"No really, you should document it."
I struggle with running a blog called 'The Johnson's in China,' while living solidly in the Bible belt of the American Midwest for nearly 18 months, after promising to document repatriation. There is only so much overhaul and redefinition you can make of a blog ... but for the thirty faithful followers that keep adding to my hit count, and, of course for my sister (whom I love) (even though she laughed at me), here is the documentation (not of chickens, but of another worthy homesteading attempt) I promised my giggling sister that night on the phone.

Tonight each Johnson girl took out a dinner plate and picked their salad. They could choose from spinach, romaine, butter crunch and three varieties of leaf lettuce. They picked their greens, washed them, and created salads according to their own preference. Mr Johnson marinated and grilled some steaks, and we had an awesome summer meal.

Their Auntie

My sister visited earlier this month, bearing pounds of coffee and lots of fun.

We may or may not have busted a certain tweenager {not pictured} out of school for an "appointment" during the last afternoon Auntie Becca was with us.

I'm so glad our girlies have awesome aunties.

And, I'm rather glad I have wonderful sisters too!

Scrabble Remnants ...

Memories of moments last weekend ...






We've been passing hand held devices around The Bungalow since Christmas playing Words with Friends. The girls are actually quite good, and give their old mom and dad a run for their money. So this weekend we thought we'd pull out the analog version. The real version ... Scrabble.

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{January}

We've taken matchy-match to new heights this month going all out in green and gold for the Lady Lions!

The Birthday Girl