Back in Hawaii, building a house

Time for this blog to take on a new direction -- the construction of our house in Volcano. Here's a video Emily made while we were still clearing by hand.

Pretty much says it all.

We walked over to the Spaghetti Factory last night for dinner. It was a typical day that we've had pretty much all along -- gray & cloudful. I noticed this tree that I had walked by before but this time noticed that it was made of metal--if you look at the top part you really can't tell it's not a real tree. It pretty much exemplifies the gloomy, gray days of winter here in the NW; colorless, leafless, unchanging. I do like Seattle despite the gloom. Would like to be here in the next month when the color arrives, but today we head for Forks, WA in search of teenage vampires.

Drunks in the night

For some reason there are a bunch of youngsters in our hotel (20-somethings) and the other night a few of them got drunked up a bit and one of them had the bright idea of pulling the fire alarm at 3:30 am. Everyone else is the hotel, being sober, did as they are supposed to and grabbed some clothing and headed for the fire exit and out onto the sidewalk. It was cold outdoors. We all stood around, shivering, out on the sidewalk waiting to see our earthly possessions get converted to ash, but all we could see was a young kid staggering up and down the stairs appearing variously in this window and then that. The cops and then the firefighters appeared. They shut off the alarms and then let us know that someone had pulled the alarm. I suspect, being the only guy left stumbling around inside and wreaking of cheap beer, the guy kind of gave himself away. And, I'll bet he's regretting his shenanigans once the fire department handed him his bill for hiring them that evening.

Heading for Seattle

We decided to spend a week in Seattle. Too cold to camp, so we got a hotel for the whole time. It was about a mile from Pike Market so we went there often -- the seafood and produce there being some of the best anywhere. The drive up here was not too bad, but with the typical NW weather -- Gray & Cloudy. Getting my fill of Gray & Cloudy. Need to head back down to sunny California soon.

Made it back to Portland.

The return into Portland now puts at about 9000 miles driving around the US without crossing the Missouri River by car. It's a big country for sure.

Roseburg, OR ?

Nope, not much to see here, just a stop over to get some sleep and push it on in to Portland the following day.

Chico, CA aka Mecca!

	Finally, I have visited the Motherland, the Mecca, the El Dorado of beer -- Sierra Nevada Brewery! It never tastes quite as good as it does from the source. And this source is something to write home about.

To Salinas, CA

One day up near Salinas, I let him slip away,

He's looking for that home and I hope he finds it,

But I'd trade all of my tomorrows for one single yesterday

To be holding Bobby's body next to mine.




This was a beautiful drive partly along the coast and then through verdant green hills and finally through rich, fertile farm land. This is an are to return to.

Britta, Jonathan and the Santa Barbara Farmer's Market

Had a great time with Britta & Jonathan. One highlight was definitely the Santa Barbara Farmer's Market which is one of the best I've ever seen. I've several more pics of that on my Flickt page (link is at the top of this blog). Another was getting to see the house that B & J recently moved into.

Carpinteria, CA to see Jonathan and Britta

We packed up the campsite and headed for Bliss' cousins (Jonathan and Britta) house in Carinteria, CA. Had to swing by Jeff's house to pick up some mail and then we headed out of town. Once we cleared the traffic, shortly after the Getty Museum, it was smooth sailing and a real pretty drive all the way.

Emily turns 11 at Disney Land!

What 11 year old wouldn't want to spend her birthday at Disney Land? We had a great time. The weather was kind of junk with occasional showers but the lines were short as a result so we were happy for the rain.

Santa Monica Pier

Our first day trip was down to the Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach. Venice Beach is a bit toward the Coney Island side of seedy in the winter time and Santa Monica Pier was almost deserted but these places are iconic and still fun to visit -- no matter how many times you've been there.

Los Angeles, CA

We spent the first evening in a hotel close to the airport. If you're like me, you forget things and have to relearn them. I relearnt that staying in an airport hotel is a bad idea. We had to boost.



So we found a KOA campsite over in Pomona, CA. It was still a pretty urban setting but nice to have some distance between us and LA proper. And, it made a good base for us to go exploring Los Angeles. We had to stick around for March 4th either way since Emily was to celebrate her 11th birthday at DisneyLand!







Here's a shot of our old tent which lasted 15 years but broke while there and the new replacement grand daddy 6 person tent we now live in! It's a beauty -- obviously only works for car camping though.

Just Working in February

We returned to Portland on February 3 -- back to the cold weather. I spent a couple weeks working before flying to NYC where I had some more work. Bliss and Emily drove the car down to Southern California where I met them in Los Angeles on the 28th. Which meant, we were back in warm weather again!