Category Archives: Travel

Seeds of Friendship ~

Today I’m heading North to La Conner and I’m meeting up with 5 of the Mennonite Girls from Mennonite Girls Can Cook! We’re going to have lunch together at Seeds. I am so looking forward to meeting these blogging friends in person. My camera is all packed and ready to go!

 

Seeds of Friendship

I planted some seeds of friendship
All nice and neatly in a row
I tended to them with love and care
Then watched them sprout and grow

I’ll be sharing more about our meeting later in the week. Happy Tuesday to you all!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

 

We Highly Recommend…

The Wild Iris Inn in La Conner, Washington for a great getaway.

 

Dear and I had an overnight there for my birthday last weekend.

 

First we had lunch at Seeds-A Bistro & Bar. They have a great menu. After lunch and a little walk about town I checked in for my 90 minute massage at Salon Rouge while Dear checked into our Bed and Breakfast Inn. Later we would have dinner at the restaurant in the bottom right photo.

Before dinner we strolled through the La Conner Quilt and Textile Museum which is housed in the National Historical Victorian Gaches Mansion. It’s the white house on the left…

 

All of the food we ate was wonderful. Top left is my lunch at Seeds, Borsch and a 1/2 meatloaf sandwich. That amazing appetizer of fried polenta smothered in a fabulous sauce and the lamb shank was my meal at Nell Thorn Pub and Restaurant. It was an exceptional place to eat with a great staff and ambiance. Our two course breakfast at the Wild Iris was very tasty and filling.  Good thing it was a lovely weekend to walk around town and burn a few of the calories we ate.

 

Some of the shops about town. In 1869 John S. Conner purchased the trading post on the Swinomish Channel and named the area in honor of his wife Louisa Ann Conner and that’s how La Conner got its name.

 

The waterfront and the Rainbow Bridge crossing the Swinomish Channel. The Swinomish Indians are La Conner’s First Nation.

 

It was fun to come upon the wild turkeys that made La Conner their home in 2005 and that the city has declared the official town mascot.

 

Some sites just outside of the city center. The acres of fertile farmland around La Conner were first planted mostly with oats. The Tulip industry emerged in the Skagit Valley in the 1920’s when there were restrictions on importing Dutch Tulip bulbs. After WWII, Dutch immigrants began farming tulip bulbs. Since 1982, the annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is held the month of April and has been attracting visitors from around the world to view between 400 and 500 acres of tulips in bloom. I’m going to try to get back up to this area when the tulips bloom…

On the way home on my birthday we also saw the Snow Geese which I posted about earlier in the week. La Conner was a delightful overnight getaway for Dear and ellen b.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

The Rose Hotel in Pleasanton ~

At the end of the first day of our roadtrip last Saturday we stayed overnight at The Rose Hotel in Pleasanton.

It’s a European Boutique Hotel with lots of nice amenities. Located right on Main Street in downtown Pleasanton we had easy access to several restaurants, shops and fun sights. It was nice to walk after our long drive.

 

Our room was spacious with every creature comfort we would need.

 

We loved the fact that they had good coffee and spring water and a french press to make it with!

 

We recommend this lovely hotel especially if someone else if picking up the tab! :0)

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Finding Beauty ~ Pleasanton, California

Click on the badge above to join in the beauty with Claudia at Dipity Road.

We traveled 1200 miles over 3 days last weekend and we found lots of beauty along the way. We traveled from Camarillo, California north along Highway 101 stopping in Santa Barbara, Paso Robles, Gilroy, and then for our first overnight in Pleasanton, California.

 

Main Street in Pleasanton was a nice street with lots of great shops, wine tasting rooms and restaurants. The rain that fell on us for much of our journey subsided when we arrived in Pleasanton so we had a very nice walk before dinner. Our hotel was located on Main Street and I’ll publish a post about it soon.

 

This Veterans Memorial Building really stood out against the blue sky and clouds.

 

 

They changed the original verse from the Bible to read “for his country” instead of  “for his friends”. I’m including more of the context of this passage with the verses that follow. These are from the King James Version of the Bible.

John 15: 13-17

13Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

14Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

15Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

16Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

17These things I command you, that ye love one another.

Thank you to Claudia for hosting “Finding Beauty” and I do hope you all have a beautiful Friday!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Where’s the Garlic?

Gilroy, California…The Garlic Capital of the World!

After breakfast in Santa Barbara we continued north on Highway 101 till we got to Gilroy. We wanted to stop here specifically because we had made a stop here way back in December of 1974 on our Honeymoon.

On one of my Goodwill outings I found The Garlic Lovers’ Cookbook Volume II from Gilroy. This is where I found this information.

“The first annual Gilroy Garlic Festival was held in August 1979 and drew over 30,000 people. Now the crowds exceed 120,000 each year for the three-day event with many people returning again and again for the food and fun of a fair dedicated to the enjoyment of garlic.”

“The big doings- guaranteed to take your breath away – will include a Grand Garlic Cook-off…”

While in Gilroy last Saturday we decided on lunch at the Garlic City Cafe. It was a good choice. We were determined to have garlic in the garlic city.

We started with the Cream of Garlic Soup and I was tempted to lick the bowl.

Then we split the Garlic Chicken Sandwich special of the day.  It really was a wonderful taste treat. We felt sorry for anyone we would come in contact with the rest of the day because I’m sure we took the essence of Gilroy with us for miles north…

Thank you Gilroy for the trip down Memory Lane…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Day One ~ Highway 101 North…

I’m slowly getting organized here in Washington. Emphasis on slowly. It’s good to remind myself this is not one of my short trips here but I’m here for the long haul so I have time to get things in order at a slower pace. Today I’m going back to our first day on the road with two full cars headed North on Highway 101.

 

Traveling this route we were able to see rough surf which we think was caused partly by the earthquake in Chili. We stopped at The Boathouse Restaurant in Santa Barbara and were amazed at the force of the waves. Everything was brown from the force of the water stirring up the sand. If you are ever in Santa Barbara we would recommend The Boathouse at Hendry’s Beach for a meal and a nice view of the Pacific.

 

The rain stopped for a while after breakfast and I was able to get a couple shots of the area.

 

This river feeds into the Pacific at Hendry’s Beach.

Photo upload at the Homestead here in Washington is pretty dismal so my posts will be slow and easy till I get all caught up from our trip. My computer is slow and I am slow. I’ve had to double check to see what day of the week it is, too. So moving along in the slow theme I’ve got something cooking in the slow cooker for dinner! Hope your Wednesday is going well…yes, it’s Wednesday.

Oh I guess I’ll link up with Outdoor Wednesday at Susan The Southern DayDreamer since it’s Wednesday….all day…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

She’s Flying the Coop!

Flying north to spend some time with my mijas and mijos! I’ll be here, there, and everywhere so I don’t know how much time I’ll have to be on the computer. We’re having an Open House/Party for our son Dan on Friday night that I’ll be spending time preparing for. Dan departs on Saturday and then we’re having an out of town guest arrive on Saturday for a few days. We might have a Superbowl party at our house on Sunday. I’m looking forward to seeing that controversial commercial. Just be assured I haven’t disappeared off the face of the blogisphere. I’ll be back soon with lots of news to share.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Back From Sun Country…

where it snowed on us and I didn’t use my sunglasses once until this morning at the Albuquerque Sunport!

 

It was good to be with my sons and see them enjoy each other! Hey, Willow, if you look closely you’ll see I’m wearing the scarf you knitted for me. Josh and I stood out like foreigners in New Mexico with our scarves on!

 

Josh and Dan at the Carlsbad Caverns

 

On our way up to the caverns Dan spotted a herd of these great looking Big Horn Critters. I’m going to be looking them up to see what they are.

I have so much to post but will need some time recuperating from my travels…Hope to see you all soon.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Up, Up, and Away…

 

UP

 

UP

 

AND AWAY!

Have a great Saturday everyone and you’ll be hearing from me from the Great Northwest soon!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Round Robin Photo Challenge ~ In Motion

It’s time for another Round Robin Photo Challenge and this time around the theme is “in Motion”.  Click on the Robin above to get to the Round Robin Photo Challenge blog and see the participants for this challenge..

 

My daughter and I headed up to Canada this past Tuesday. We visited the Aquarium in Stanley Park and all my motion shots are from the Aquarium and of my daughter walking along the break wall in Stanley Park.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great Saturday!!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.