Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Filed under: vacation

The Family Cabin

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This cabin near Port Townsend, WA has been a part of our family for about 65 years. It was built by my great Grandfather when he was in his 70s! I've stayed there many times with my family on holidays like Father's Day, family reunions, or spreading of a departed loved one's ashes.

It has a long history and we always write in the cabin journal after each visit. The journal is quite old and has entries written by many who are long since gone, a sort of family record of comings and goings, fun and adventure at the cabin.

I typically experience technology withdrawal since cell phones and the Internet don't work there. One thing I don't miss out on: listening to inspirational music through my old studio quality Sony MDR-V6 headphones while sitting on the dock gazing out into the sea and snow capped Olympic mountains. ^_^

The weather is typically cloudy, but occassionally sunny with a cool breeze. The waves are calming and the sunsets are amazing! I hope you enjoy the photos from our latest trip on Father's Day weekend.

Carnival cruise

This was my first time on a boat in the ocean! It was so big I couldn’t really feel the motion and didn’t end up needing my motion sickness pills, which is good because they make me sleepy.

The ship was huge! It had about 10 different levels and took a long time to walk from bow to stern. It was a cross between a floating mall/casino/all-you-can-eat buffet!

The food was pretty good and available everywhere you go. There were three big dining halls plus many little places serving more food with lots of variety to suit everyone’s tastes.

We left from Long Beach, and the second day was spent at Catalina Island. It was nice and sunny there and the people get around town on golf carts instead of cars. We spent the day walking all over Avalon, visiting the tourist shops and walking through the non-tourist part of town too.

The rest of the trip was spent on the boat. I really enjoyed the Las Vegas style shows with dancers and a live band. The highlight in my opinion were the evening comedy shows. They put on a show for kids and then a late show for adults only. It was hilarious and very entertaining.

Watch out for alcohol and the casino while onboard or you’ll end up with a huge bill at the end of the cruise. I avoided them both like the plague and was probably the only person onboard they had to write a check to in the end. (They gave us a credit for not stopping in Mexico due to H1N1 and I never fully used it up.)

Photos: http://bit.ly/19Rodx

San Diego day 4

We had a lunchtime get together at Megan's house the morning after the wedding.

Toured Balboa Park again, this time with my parents. It’s an incredible place. I can’t believe the variety of flora and fauna. Some of the trees remind me of Dr. Seuss.

Also toured Old Town and had dinner at an authentic Mexican restaurant with a mariachi band! The weather was even colder and more wet today, however, there is so much to see and do we still had a blast.

Cold, wet San Diego

Drove from Sacramento to San Diego today. After two days of straight driving, I’ve got a major case of TB…tired butt!

Northern California was scorching hot and dry, but when we got to San Diego it was cold (in the low 60s) and wet. Apparently it hasn’t rained for months until the day we arrived! Go figure.

Hopefully the weather will clear up for the wedding tomorrow which will be mostly outdoors at Point Loma.


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We plan to tour Balboa Park tomorrow morning, walk around and get some exercise!


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Long day of driving finally over but...

Drove from Portland to Sacramento today! Got about 50 mpg in our Honda Civic hybrid, nice. It was a beautiful drive with lots of sunshine, scenic mountains, and also ran into a swarm of bugs that covered the whole windshield with bug guts near the rice fields North of Sacramento. Yuck!

One more day of driving in store for tomorrow. Driving straight through to San Diego. We hope to get through LA by 1 pm before the traffic hits.