Zach and I went up to Snoqualmie Pass skiing on Saturday. This was his first day for the 11/12 season. We both have season passes so I wasn’t worried about whether we were there 30 minutes or 2 hours. Zach and I skied for 3 hours and he loved it. He some difficulty with the chairlift but as he practiced he was doing well. He likes to go fast and not turn so his face plants looked a little harsh. However he always got back up and continued.
First video showing Zach starting down a run.
Second video showing the second half of Zach skiing down the run.
We moved yesterday into our new home…one block from the old home. Not a great distance but it feels like a world of difference. Both boys have their own rooms and they love it. The weather has been beautiful so we gotten to enjoy our view from the deck each evening…views of the Puget Sound and Olympic mountains (photos below). We’ve settled in well…still plenty to unbox but basically our place is very usable.
Sitting on the back patio smoking a cigar.
Sunset over the olympics.
As for the old home…most things accept for a few car loads and my garden stuff are moved. Steph spent time today cleaning and vacuuming so it should be ready to show.
Did I mention the view from our deck? Sitting outside now at 9:10pm enjoying dusk with a beer – it doesn’t get any better.
I’m not sure a blog entry can do this justice. The short summary…
We closed on our new house on July 7th. I moved 30 boxes of stuff over on July 8th. We flew to Kauai for our big summer vacation on July 9th. Flew back on July 16th. Moved stuff all day today. Packing and moving small stuff after work this week. Going to the Seattle/ManU game on Wednesday night and our big moving day is Friday. Oh, and we still haven’t sold our current home, thus our stress levels are tad high. The Kauai vacation helped that a lot.
First, our new house…very excited to finally have the keys. Good thing it has a roomy basements cuz we are filling it. Fortunately, we are probably 2/3s done with moving all non-furniture stuff – so we’ve made really good progress. We need to box and move things all week so the movers can quickly get our furniture over there. Since the house closed, the last owners obviously didn’t do much work in the yard so I’ll have plenty of weeding and clean-up to do once we move…just realized I’ll have to do this at two homes…guess I’ll be walking our lawn mower back and forth.
Now for the Kauai trip…one of the most relaxing vacations I’ve ever had. Now that the boys are older it is easier to hang with them as they are pretty self sufficient when they play. Our routine was get up, some mornings I went for a run, walk down to Poipu Beach, swim in the water and snorkel, get back by lunchtime, eat, the boys would take naps, then we’d go to the pool for a few hours, then have dinner, and the boys would generally go to sleep early. On two days we did excursions – one day to the north side of the island where we spent a couple of hours at Tunnels Reef/Beach. I got to snorkel with sea turtles – one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. We had a good lunch in Hanalei Bay. Another day we took a drive up Waimea Canyon and to a viewpoint on the Napali Coast (think Jurassic Park).
We stayed at the Villas at Poipu Kai - awesome place. We had a 4 bedroom 3.5 bath penthouse poolside villa with it’s own elevator. Very luxurious – probably the nicest placed I’ve stayed in. The pool was a good size (not resort huge which was good) – roomy enough to play around but easy enough to keep an eye on the boys. Nate and Zach are getting better at swimming. Zach depends on the floaties but he isn’t afraid to jump in the water or go under water. Nate didn’t like the floaties – he preferred the inflatable tube and he didn’t like going under water.
On the beach the boys loved sitting in the shallow water and letting the little waves run them over – they thought that was the coolest thing ever. They also enjoyed riding the boogie board on the little waves. For me, the coolest thing was the snorkeling – I couldn’t get enough of it. Next time we are bringing more than one snorkel set so we can go out in pairs.
For the photos – all of them are located here. Below are some of my favorites.
Nice shot of Steph, Jan, and their mom.
Tunnels Reef/Beach where the snorkeling was awesome.
The boys acting out Lord of the Flies. Nate used cheetos to paint his face!
Looking south from Princeville.
Our cool pool area.
I have lots of these photos…the beach and pool seriously tired them out…it was awesome.
Poipu Beach – this is where we played most of the time (and ran into my parents neighbor’s daughter and family)
We are in escrow for a new home that is a block away (yeah, big move). The sold sign is up, now we are just waiting for close which is July 7th. During the inspection I took a lot of photos and they are now online. You can see all photos here.
A few are shown below if you don’t have time to look at the rest.
We took the rpod out to Deception Pass State Park Saturday/Sunday for a one night trial run. I’m happy to say that all systems worked great…I believe we tried everything including the microwave. The only negative was lots of rains but we had no leaks!
Steph not so happy about the rain but loving our awning.
Great picture of Steph and the kids.
The boys playing with the surf. First time they’ve experience any form of a wave.
Non-camping photo…Nate crashing one afternoon – he fell asleep sitting at the computer desk.
Our next trip is the American Heritage Campground south of Olympia for two nights over Memorial Day weekend.
We drove down to Eugene on Friday so we could pickup our travel trailer, a RPod 172 by Forest River, on Saturday. We left early on Friday so we were able to enjoy Friday evening in Eugene vs on the road. We had burgers, dogs, potato salad, and beans…oh, and rum and pineapples.
Saturday morning we had an 8am appt to pickup the RPod at Sutton RV in Eugene (highly recommend them). We finished off our paperwork and then headed across the street to the service department where they had already installed the brake controller and weight distributing hitch.
Next began our walk through of all systems. Since Steph and I have absolutely no towing experience, we were definitely taking our time. Steph was taking notes while I attempted to absorb everything. Mainly I focused on the key things that would get in trouble. There is nothing complicated, but there are probably 30 things you need to do upon arrival or departure so it’s pretty easy (I would think) to forget something. Most things would just result in a draining the battery or something irritating but not harmful. After getting a full review of external and internal switches/levers/buttons, we focused on hitching up. Nothing terribly complex, but you don’t want to forget any particular step here – that could be disastrous.
We drove around Eugene over to a large empty parking lot where we practiced backing up. We used the method where you put your hand at the bottom of the steering wheel and turn in the direction you want the trailer to go. This was tougher than I thought…the key thing I learned during practice is to make very subtle changes to the steering – don’t crank it. And go slow. Once I did that, the trailer seemed to behave better. The ultimate test will come when I have to back it in our driveway – that could be a disaster.
Driving home today was pretty easy. I noticed more tugging/pushing on city streets where the roads are bumpy and less level. Once on the highway, things smoothed out, except when passing semis…I noticed a little wobble/sway at these points, but in the end I got used to it. I kept my speed in the 60 to 65 mph range (I hit 70 once or twice) and we got around 10.5 MPG.
Showing off our new pod.
Back-up practice in an empty parking lot.
Parking at lunch…a little large for a normal spot.
The main reason for picking the 172 – xtra large bunks – about 50% wider than a normal twin.
Storage under the bottom bunk. Not deep but sizable otherwise.
Kitchen and dinette area.
Wet bath…shower and toilet in one.
Over sink storage and the tv/dvd mounted underneath.
More storage.
It’s home when not travelling.
Now for the most important piece – the name of the R-Pod.
I just returned from a work trip to Dublin and Bangalore, India (with a short layover in Paris). Definitely hit the max for number of days to be away for both myself and Steph. This trip was just over 12 days.
Before getting into the trip, here is a video of the boys playing at home yesterday.
A quick game of air hockey.
The trip started with my flight through Atlanta to Dublin. Pretty uneventful. Dublin had nice weather – even went running in short sleeves one evening in Phoenix Park. We had some nice dinners at The Pig’s Ear and L’Gueuleton.
A foggy morning view from the hotel in Dublin.
After Dublin I flew over to Paris for a short weekend layover. I met up with coworkers who were visiting one of our offices in Germany. I’ve never been to Paris but thoroughly enjoyed the architecture, natural beauty along the river, and historical sites. I even got an 8 mile run along the Champ Elysees, Seine River, around Notre Dame and back.
Notre Dame is beautiful…doesn’t hurt that it was a great mid-70 degree day.
And at night…
The Arc de Triumph at night.
Eiffel Tower at night across the River Seine
One token picture of me.
Then we flew to Bangalore for the second week. Here are some stories about visiting India…
You’ll often see 3 to 4 people on a single motorcycle, and I did see a family of 5 on one motorcycle. 2 kids seated in front, then dad who was driving, and the mom on the back holding an infant on her hip…no helmets and all on a small honda motorcycle. Yes, the infant could have just fallen to the pavement.
Outside of the city, many people have cows as pets. They line the streets tied to trees, and you see people walking them around town. Sometimes the cows are just meandering on their own. Photos below.
There are speedbumps everywhere…on highways and on roads that don’t really need them. And not just one speed bump but 6 to 8 bumps in a row. Plus there are police checkpoint barricades up all over the place – some are manned by police, but others are just there apparently to slow people down.
Crossing the streets were interesting…between buses, cars, tuck-tucks, and motorcyles – it is pretty dangerous. One night while carrying a 12 pack of beer across the street I got caught in the middle for a solid minute with all types of vehicles zooming around me at 25mph…all within inches and some heading right for me but swerving around at the last minute. Probably my most frightening moment.
People honk and flash their high beams as the approach other cars. There is no “minding of the lanes” in India either…just drive and go around people and try not to hit pedestrians.
As for food, I only ate at 5 star hotels – including where we stayed at the Taj West End. This hotel was built in 1887 and people like Winston Churchill had stayed there. Very old colonial feel – very elegant with beautiful grounds.
I was staying in a room on the second floor of this building.
Excellent Indian food dinner on first night. And yes, I ate it all with my fingers.
Dinner with coworkers in India.
Cows. Pets or food?
This cow was either shopping or heading to temple.
Mysore Palace – about 3 hours south of Bangalore. There are many palaces throughout India.
Glad that wasn’t my ride around town. Look closely, there are people in the truck behind the ropes.
The grounds in front of the summer palace for Tipu Sultan.
At these palaces I was often asked where I was from. People wanted to shake my hand and say “Welcome to India”. They didn’t want anything except to meet the foreigner. One dad actually shoved his 8 month old daughter into my arms so he could take a picture of me holding his daughter. He was excited to show his parents and relatives a photo of his daughter with a foreigner. This was a little freaky but according to our driver it is very normal.
Bunny toilet? Nope, it’s a trash can.
Monkey thief. This little guy was opening the bag on the bike looking for food.
Cute, but I wouldn’t get near them.
Coconuts are sold all over in shacks like these. They hack off the top and you drink the juice through a straw. I didn’t try it – fear of getting sick.
We ordered it this weekend at Sutton RV in Eugene. Mark Henrich helped us and he was awesome – highly recommend this dealer and saleperson if you are in the area. You can see images of our specific model at
Steph chose the model – mainly due to the large bunk beds – they are almost double beds. So each adult can easily sleep with a kid. This will allow us to leave the dinette alone at night (ie, don’t convert it into a bed). We also got the R-dome awning so we got a large, covered outdoor room attached the r-pod.
I’ve been looking at travel trailers for 5 years and I’ve been very close to picking one but the R-pod is the first to come as close to my likes as anything before. Ok, I’ll admit – I really wanted the Airstream but at 3 times the cost I couldn’t justify it.
We returned last evening from our 5 day trip to Schweitzer Resort in Northern Idaho. Overall, a wonderful trip. Tuesday and Wednesday were excellent powder days with temps in upper teens and lots of fresh snow (over a foot). Then the blizzard hit on Wednesday night/Thursday morning…for only the 3rd time in 10 years, Schweitzer closed on Thursday due to high winds (close to 50mph), blizzard conditions, and cold weather (5 below zero).
Friday was a bluebird day with temps around 9 below zero – so it was mighty cold. Steph lasted two hours. I was able to ski all day but I needed a few more warming breaks than normal. As for the snow, not all that good. The high winds blew most of the powder into drifts leaving a crusty surface with dense powder underneath – it was interesting. On Saturday, Steph did a spa day. I skiid and really didn’t have much fun…temps around 0, cloudy and a wind chill of -30. I could get my feet/boots warm so I had to stop after every 3rd run to defrost the toes.
Zach took two lessons every day – he loved it and is doing awesome (see video below). I skiid with him for a few hours on Saturday – we had a blast. Can’t wait to take him up to Snoqualmie in the coming weekends.
We stayed at a nice condo about 3/4 of a mile from the village. The condo owner had a front row parking pass so we were able to park right at the village each day. The condo was huge and very kid friendly – I will definitely stay there again.
-9 day with views of Lake Pend Oreille and Sandpoint, ID.
Almost lost my finger taking this photo…seriously, the wind was howling on this ridge and I had my bare hand out. My pinky finger was solidly number for 10 minutes and even felt funny the next day. It’s back to normal now.
Up through Saturday we were forecasted to get heavy snow starting tonight lasting through the week. Unfortunately, the low pressures have decided to scoot farther north…We are getting snow tonight, but this will turn to rain before morning followed by many days of rain and above normal temperatures. Oh well, at least I got a snowball fight in with Nate and Zach.
Update @ midnight 31 degrees, still snowing and 4″ down so far. But it’s starting to warm up and will turn to rain in the middle of the night.
Looking out from our doorstep.
Makes everything look beautiful and peaceful.
Zach started ski lessons last Saturday. He’s still not wanting to stop or stay with the class. Unfortunately, Snoqualmie is VERY crowded on Saturdays with 100s of kids taking lessons. So I will not ski this Saturday and make sure he doesn’t run off. I’m starting to contemplate a few private lessons – at least get him stopping.
The last few days I’ve been solo with Nate and Zach and we’ve had a great time. The first day we went bowling at West Seattle Bowl. We were able to share one lane – the bumpers would rise automatically when it was Nate or Zach’s turn and drop automatically when it was my turn. Both boys appeared to have a great time and I’m sure we’ll be back soon.
Yesterday we spent the morning at the zoo despite at 32 degree temperature. We immediately followed that up with seeing Tangled at the Lincoln Square Cinemas in Bellevue (nice movie theater). Zach was both scared and sad and he actually cried a bit – I think the evil pretend mother bothered him.
Today we went to Kidz Bounce in Preston. 2 large rooms each with 4 to 5 bounce houses – I mean really big bounce houses. Some were obstacle style course, some slides and some traditional bounce houses. We were there for 90 minutes and they were definitely tired. We followed that up with lunch at Sunset Alehouse in Issaquah (run by owners of Jak’s Grill). Good place.
Christmas is winding down. Lots of gifts at the Arthur household. Zach has been playing with his Lionel Polar Express train all day. Nate has played with his Nintendo DSi and our new iMac. Dad gots lots of cool Smartwool and Steph got some handy money and gift certificates. We had lots of good food this week – ham, one night at Jak’s, NY Strip roast, and now leftovers.
Hope everyone had a good holiday.
Zach opening his first Santa gift.
Nate opening his first gift from Santa with Zach giving him encouragement.
A lot has been going on in December – setting up for Christmas, a trip to Victoria, BC, date nights, illnesses, and seeing Santa.
Earlier in the month we took a trip to Victoria aboard the Victoria Clipper and we stayed at the Fairmont Empress Hotel (think very old chateau-style hotel). The Victoria Clipper is a fast catamaran that travels at 30 knots. The trip was fun and the boys were basically good. Our weekend started off well until Steph got hit by food poisoning at around 5pm and went down for the night. Zach stayed with her at the hotel while Nate and I took a bus ride to Butchart Gardens to check out the holiday lights. I liked them – Nate could care less.
Other illnesses – I ended up with Strep throat this last week putting a wrench into my holiday partying plans. Once I got penicillin, all was much better. Zach subsequently came down with Impetigo (similar bacteria to Strep but on the skin) – so he has sores on his face.
Today, grandma arrived in town and we all went and saw Santa Claus. The boys were generally good and took some very nice photos. Aside from that, the boys have been a big pain in the butt! Fortunately they are now taking a much needed nap.
Tomorrow both boys will be in school, I’m skiing, and Steph and her boy are wrapping presents.
Santa and the boys.
Boys at Zoolights last night at Point Defiance Zoo/Aquarium. This was a lot of fun.
Yes, apparently Zach likes performing in front of an audience. Wednesday night was and Kindergarten and First Grade show. Every K class paired up with a 1st grade class and sang a song. Zach’s class was first. They marched out in a single file – the Kindergarteners standing on the first step and the 1st graders standing on the second step.
They sang the ole classic “Sing a Song”. We (Steph and I) know that Zach has my vocal capabilities – he’s tone deaf. But he has clearly inherited his mother’s presence when on the stage. Once the singing started Zach was very animated with his arms – looking like a young Pavaroti or any other great classic vocalist (have no idea how he sounded).
Apologies for the blurry photos – low light and some auto-focus craziness.
Zach was totally excited about this. He had a huge, cute smile when he got in front of the crowd – clearly he loved it.
A shot of the whole class…Zach with his arms in motion. You would think he had a solo part here.
There he is! Again, looks like he is in solo part. The girl to his left is Natalie (from our PEPS group), the second girl to his left is Jessamine (his girlfriend).
is still going on. Yesterday I chaperoned Zach on a field trip to the zoo. Many parents went so I only needed to watch Zach and Jessamine (his girlfriend). We basically checked out all animals and spent time in the Zoomaseum. Both kids had a blast.
Jan and Mike came up yesterday. Last night we went to Jak’s for drinks and dinner – we had a lot of fun (and drank a lot). Today we went to the brewpub for lunch and then participated in the Junction Trick or Treat event in the pouring rain.
CCTV tower (Beijing version of the Seattle Space Needle).
Beijing Airport when I left. Sure there was a low cloud deck but that aint ground fog. That is good ole fashioned Beijing smog.
I did run one morning – not to tough on the lungs, but I would not want to run their regularly. It was a busy two days but I’m pretty messed up sleep-wise now. The flight is over 11 hours each way. Funny we had almost 200 mph head winds there and we still had a small head wind coming back – the winds were not in my favor on this trip.
I flew Delta – direct to Beijing. However Delta is using much older 767s on this route. No TVs in the headrest, small over head bins (yes, small). These are the flip up door style vs having the bin sag lower when opened. On the trip out they never even put a movie on the main screens – I guess they forgot. I had an aisle seat going out and an exit row window seat coming back. Happy to be home.
My flight arrived at 5:30am this morning so it was odd coming home to sleeping kids who were about to wake up. I got them ready for school, dropped them off and then took a 2.5 hour nap. The rest of the day went well, but now I’m starting to get tired. But I wouldn’t be the first one in the house to fall asleep – Zach conked out at 6pm.
