Oh Deer!

Today we saw a deer right by our house! I just had to share a couple pictures. We also have a little bunny visitor who hops around from time to time. I tried to go up to the deer, but he/she wasn't having any of that. I couldn't believe how close it was! I was probably only 20 feet away from it. I get really excited whenever I see wildlife in person without any cages separating me from the animal. Unfortunately, my pictures aren't very good because I was a little too excited to focus on taking a good picture.

More Lake Crescent

While we were driving from Port Angeles to Forks we stopped at Lake Crescent. There were too many good pictures from here not to share.We took a good twenty minute break here and stretched our legs and just took in all the beautiful sights. I think tree lined beaches are so cool!Rally got really excited once he realized that he was around water and he started pulling on the leash so he could get in the water. This part of the road turnoff was a little too steep to get down to the water.We made our way around another side of the beach where we were all able to navigate safely to the incredibly rocky shore. Of course Rally had no problem, but the flip flops made it a little difficult for me.Before I let Rally in the water I wanted to take a picture with him in this spot that was extraordinarily beautiful. There was a flat rock nestled in among the trees and foliage that was perfect for just looking out over the water.
Without hesitation, Rally splashed right into the water. I can't imagine how cold it must have been, but since he was shivering in the car a little later, I think it's safe to assume it was REALLY cold.I just thought this picture was funny because when Rally got out of the water and his short hair was all slicked back and shiny, I thought he looked like some weird mutated seal with deer legs. He didn't last too long in the water, only about 20 seconds.After all that cold water we took Rally up to a grassy hill to dry off and get some sun. He rolled around and ran around for a few minutes before he started stretching out as far as he could to absorb all the sun. He looked like a happy puppy. After that, we were back on our way towards Forks.

Nerd Alert!

In case you have been living under a rock for a while and haven't heard about the Twilight Phenomenon, here's the short story: A girl (Bella Swan) moves to Forks, WA where she falls in love with a vampire (Edward Cullen) and trouble ensues. There's also a minor complication of a childhood friend (Jacob Black) who gets reacquainted with Bella and subsequently falls for her just like all the other boys in town. I tell you all this so you can understand why on earth I'm sharing these photos. Once this book series caught on, females everywhere have fallen in love with the story and have become kind of obsessed with everything to do with the books, including visits to the itty bitty town of Forks. I was not immune to all of this and of course I couldn't pass up a trip to Forks when we were only a few hours away. According to Google, the entire trip was a total length of 333 miles and should take about 6 hours and 38 minutes to drive. Our first stop was going to be Port Angeles, followed by Forks, and then we would make a final stop in La Push. We brought Rally along with us so he wouldn't be stuck at home by himself.In the book, Bella goes with her two friends Angela and Jessica to go shopping for dresses in Port Angeles. This is the department store that they would have gone to.After a while, Bella gets bored and decides to look for a particular book store to find out about local legends. This is where she would have gone but she thought that it looked too weird inside so she didn't actually go in.After a close run in with a group of boys who were up to no good, Edward came to Bella's rescue and took her to dinner at Bella Italia. She ordered Mushroom Ravioli and you can still order that dish here.That marks the end of the Port Angeles leg of our trip so we were off to Forks, a little over an hour away. This is the Welcome Sign that all Twilight fans have become very familiar with. The town of Forks even decided to build a nice little ramp for all of us geeks to climb up so we can take pictures with the sign.Here is where Bella lives with her Police Officer father, Charlie. It's one of the very few two story homes in the town.This house is where Edward and the rest of the Cullen family live. His entire family includes Carlisle and Esme (the "adoptive" parents), Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, and Emmett (his "adopted" brothers and sisters). This is another one of the few two story homes.While the family is out, a bed and breakfast is run out of the home. Esme uses a whiteboard in the front of the house to let Twilight fans know what everyone is up to. This is what the sign said on this day.Bella and Edward, along with his siblings all attend Forks High School. Jacob doesn't go to school here because he attends classes on the reservation.As a homecoming present from her father, Bella received this big clunker to help her get around town. It's not usually this clean.While standing outside of her car one day a classmate of Bella's nearly crushed her with his car. Bella went to the hospital where she was introduced to Edward's father, Dr. Cullen. He must be a pretty popular staff member because he gets his very own parking spot at the hospital.Bella's father Charlie works for the town of Forks as a dutiful police officer. Not too long after Bella arrived in town there was a great deal of crime Charlie had to attend to. Looks like they weren't too busy today.When she's not busy hanging out with vampires, Bella works a part time job at the Newton's Outfitters shop. One of her classmates, Mike Newton, also works there with her as well.After we finished exploring the small town we made our way over to the Indian Reservation of La Push. The Quilieute Nation inhabits this beautiful area and this is where Jacob Black lives. The Quilieutes don't take too kindly to vampires.Finally, we have First Beach. Bella and a bunch of her friends took a trip out to First Beach to spend the day. While they were there, Bella met up with Jacob where they sat on a fallen tree and Jacob told Bella what Edward really was, sort of. Rally and I tried to recreate the scene.

Forks

The Forks sign.

-Glenn

Lake Crescent

A stop at Lake Crescent on our way to Forks. Rally took a swim.

-Glenn

Port Angeles

The main street (1st St) of Port Angeles.

-Glenn

A Rainy Day Activity

It was actually raining this morning and I was really excited because I thought I would be able to wear my ridiculous see through plastic rain coat, but it was only a super fine drizzle that faded out within minutes. We didn't have a plan for today but then we decided that it would be a good idea to go and check out the wolf haven that I had spotted a sign for when we were driving. We grabbed our 2 dollar off coupon that I picked up in Tacoma and we were on our way to Tenino, WA which is only about 20 minutes from the house.Wolf Haven is a large preserve that has rescued over 100 different wolves from various circumstances including idiot private owners, zoos without adequate resources, research, and even accidents that resulted in injury. They have many wolves in their care but only a handful are able to be on the tour. The tour was about an hour long and during that hour we were given information about wolves and their lifestyle as well as stories from our guide about her own personal experiences with wolves.I thought this was a really cool place and I appreciated the respect that the workers here have for these beautiful animals and for animals in general. At one point during the tour, our guide explained to us that Seattle has been having a problem with geese and because of that, Wolf Haven had been "gifted" a bunch of geese that in turn became treats for the wolves. She just wanted us to be warned so we weren't startled when we saw a wolf playing with or carrying around his goose. It was actually really funny the way that the wolves seemed to be showing off their new acquisitions just by carrying them around for everyone to see. Thankfully we didn't see anything too nasty up close and personal. The picture above shows the wolf literally unhinging his jaw to pick up his massive goose. I thought it was pretty funny.They also had a couple of Coyotes on exhibit here and they were pretty funny. They are surprisingly playful and they were curious little guys. There were two of them in this enclosure and they were running around chasing each other and pretty much just showing off. I thought they were pretty cute. They were too quick for me to get a good picture of them.On our way home we saw a couple of cop cars with their lights flashing on the corner. Upon closer inspection, I noticed there was a kid there in cuffs. The funny thing is, he was on a bike. Who gets arrested on a bike?!?! Idiot. I just thought it was funny and that I would share.

Tacoma Rainiers

This is Tony Clark up to bat for the Reno Aces (the Dbacks' AAA affiliate). He was playing with Reno on a 7 day rehab assignment after coming off the DL.
Cheney Stadium has been renovates since Nick Lachey bought the team. That HD scoreboard in center was pretty impressive. It was dollar night with $1 hotdogs, soda, & ice cream. I actually had a (Callix Crabbe) crab cake burger thing that was pretty good (not $1).
No idea who won. We left in the 7th because all 3 of us were freezing. Good game though.

-Glenn

It's A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood

On Tuesday, Rally was being rather mopey and he was giving us these pitiful puppy dog eyes all morning. Every time I opened the gate to our yard he would dash out and run up next to the car and sit, just waiting for me to open the door. He hasn't gotten to spend a whole lot of time enjoying car rides since the big trip so we decided it would be a good idea to take a special trip up to Point Defiance to let him play for a while.
We were pretty hungry on our way up so we stopped at this place called Tatanka Take-Out. They specialize in bison. We grabbed a couple things to eat at the beach, I got a burger and Glenn got a burrito, and we were on our way. Once we got to the beach we laid out the Dodger towel and ate our food. Rally was just itchin' to get in the water. As we were eating, we noticed how beautiful Mt. Rainier was looking. Most days it's a little too cloudy to see it, but Tuesday was a particularly nice day.

Rally enjoyed his time on the beach and for the first time I tested the waters. Yikes! The water is way too cold for me. I guess that's what happens when you are in such close proximity to Alaska. Later Rally had a playdate with Glenn's friend Jozie and her dogs at Fort Steilacoom Park. The park was really beautiful and so BIG! They have a really long trail that you can follow along the border of the park and I am pretty sure it was at least a mile long. Rally was absolutely wiped out at the end of the day and he laid down for most of the car ride home.

Wolf Sanctuary

CamPhone pix of one of the wolves @ the Wolf Sanctuary. These things sure were impressive.

Eeek!!!!!!

The other night, Glenn and I were lying in bed watching a show we had downloaded when all the sudden I saw something skitter across the box we were using to prop the laptop up. Of course I had to investigate further and much to my dismay, it was a rather large and unfriendly looking spider! I started freaking out and I struggled to get up and out of the bed, away from the little critter. Glenn only freaked out a teeny bit, but only after he saw that this guy was a little bigger than the usual spider. He grabbed our little flashlight and started looking for the little bugger. Of course, the spider didn't want to be found. We had to completely dismantle everything on the bed. We looked through the box, we shook all the sheets and blankets and finally we got to the pillows. The spider had decided to cozy on up in MY pillow! Ewwww. We (well Glenn, I just held the flashlight) trapped the spider in a styrofoam cup, threw him in the sink so I could take a picture, and then we took him outside where he belonged. Phew. After a few deep breaths we were able to relax again and settle back in for the night.

Enjoying the sun

Rally made a b-line for the sunny spot in the yard. He's enjoying it greatly. Later on he has a play-date in Steilacoom with my friend Jozie's puppy.

-Glenn

PLU

So on the Monday before Father's Day we were on our way back from
Renton when we had to take the back roads to avoid I-5.  Rush hour was
terrible through Tacoma & WA-7 is the only alternate route.  Bri had
reminded me that she needed to get something for her dad & that I had
mentioned going to PLU.  Since it is right off Pacific Ave (WA-7) we
were going right by it.

So we got over to Pacific Lutheran University (arch rivals to the UPS
Loggers) & wandered around trying to find their bookstore.  After many
wrong turns and some unintelligible directions from an otherwise
helpful African PLU employee we finally found the bookstore.

For those who don't know, PLU's mascot/nickname is the "Lutes" which
also happens to be Bri's maiden name.  I had wanted to take Bri here
the previous couple times that we had been to WA but never found time.
 Now, with Father's Day right around the corner & Craig (Bri's father)
the bearer of the Lutes surname, this was a perfect opportunity.

Two stories of monogrammed & screen printed Lutes wares greeted us
inside the campus bookstore.  While there was ample "PLU" merchandise,
the selection of items with just "Lutes" on it was slim.  After a long
unsuccessful search for a "Lutes Dad" shirt to match the "Lutes Mom"
shirt we had in hand, we came across a set of men's socks that were
perfect for Craig.  There was also a die cut car sticker & a car
emblem with the Lutes name that we purchased as a nice accompaniment.
Craig was set.

Then, as we were leaving, I spotted a shirt with the phrase "I'm with
the Lutes" on it.  It was a woman's shirt & came in green so we knew
it would be perfect for Luraine.  Comical & intelligent, we knew she'd
get a kick out of just walking around town with the shirt on.  We were
all set with our package.

Tuesday morning featured a trip to FedEx for package & delivery and by
Friday, they had received the gift.

Obviously Luraine likes the shirt.

-Glenn

Happy Father's Day!!!

Happy Father's Day Dad!!! I hope that you are enjoying your day with the family and having the relaxing day you deserve. I hope you know how much everyone appreciates you and all that you do. Your kindness never goes unnoticed. You have been and still are the greatest dad ever! Glenn and I really hope that you enjoy your gifts from us. I love you so much!

A Little Piece of Heaven On Earth

We went to Point Defiance for the second time today. The first time we went was earlier last week and we took Rally with us. Point Defiance is actually a 702 acre park with beaches, beautiful forests, a rhododendron garden, rose gardens, a zoo, and an aquarium. This beautiful place is literally at the edge of a bustling city. It's really strange to be driving amidst all the hustle and bustle of city life only to come to a screeching halt and find yourself face to face with a huge forest. It really is a neat place to go.
I had lots of fun in the rose garden because flowers are one of my favorite photography subjects. They're naturally beautifully and come in the most vivid colors you can imagine. Some of these roses I had never seen before and some of them were seriously the size of your face! I recognized some of them back from when Dad used to have rose bushes in our backyard, at least the ones the dogs didn't gnaw to death. I won't bore you with too many pictures of the roses.After we wandered around the rose gardens for a while we decided to head over to the beach. Unlike California, where dogs are not welcome everywhere especially on beaches, Point Defiance is extremely dog friendly. They only ask that you keep your dog leashed and clean up after them. Simple enough. The second Rally saw the water he started pulling on his leash. When we got close enough to the shore we let him loose and he took off into the water. He happily swam for a few minutes until another dog caught his attention and he got out. While he was swimming around Glenn pointed out an enormous starfish to me! It was amazing! I'm pretty sure I had never seen one just out in the real ocean before and not in captivity. I don't even remember seeing one in Hawaii! Anyway, it was really cool and it was huge! If you put both arms in front of you and form a circle with them, that's about the size of the starfish. Crazy huh?Since Janke is in town for his final, we hope, job interview, fingers crossed, we decided to show him around Tacoma after we had checked out the Art Museum. We drove around Point Defiance for a while when Janke suddenly noticed a raccoon! I was super excited and I literally squealed with delight. The little guy was so cute!We drove no more than 15 seconds down the road when Glenn spotted another raccoon! This time we decided to snap some pictures. The raccoons were pretty bold and came right up next to the car and started performing for us. I'm pretty sure they wanted some food. It was so cute when they stood up on their hind legs and held their arms out as if to say, "Look, how can you not feed me!? I'm the cutest thing you've ever seen!" Then another little raccoon popped out to join in on the fun. They ran across the street and Janke followed them. He got some really awesome pictures of them, as you can see.After all that driving, we decided it would be fun to catch a Triple A baseball game. It was the Tacoma Rainiers vs. the Reno Aces. It was a fun game, and the crowd was really into it. We even recognized a couple former Dbacks players, Tony Clark and Yusmiero Petit. We had plenty of fun and we left after the seventh inning stretch. Today was a fun and busy day for all of us.Haha, a Bed of Flowers... literally!