Chocolatespoon: Emily’s Musings

Had a week off from work so we all went to Westport for a few days to see family and friends.  Clara had a fantastic time and I took a million photos of her playing with her cousin, her grandparents, 2 uncles, 3 aunts, a great-great aunt and some good friends.  We went to the beach, Stepping Stones children museum, the Maritime Center (aquarium), out on a boat, and did a lot of back yard playing.

Here are a couple of my favorite photos from the trip:

More photos on Flickr.

After Betty’s very short visit, S and I drove Mom back down to Pebble Beach where she and Bill are visiting friends and attending the big Concours D’Elegance there. Here are a couple of photos from our visit:

My traveling little brother (apparently going by Aaron these days, but its hard to break old habits) is en route for a month-long program in Sikkim in Northern India.

They’re posting occasional updates on their web site so maybe we’ll learn more along the way. Apparently they’ve safely arrived in Bangkok and fly to Kolkata (aka Calcutta) late this evening.

Sounds like an amazing adventure! Can’t wait to hear all about it when he’s back!

We’re back from our quick trip up to Seattle and Vancouver. We got there in time for dinner at Dad and Jane’s Friday night and got to catch up with them and Brian and Laurel. Saturday morning we were up and on the road towards Vancouver by 9am. A little drama at the border when the border guard chewed out Jane for not bringing along her passport, but otherwise an uneventful trip. We found Yehuda’s cool artist studio apartment and ate and ate a fantastic spread of food, looked at his portfolio of paintings, and just hung out. Then we all went to visit the fantastic Vancouver Library (surprise) and drove around Stanley Park.

According to the architect’s web site (Moshe Safdie, an Israeli), “the library volume is a seven-story rectangular box containing book stacks and services, surrounded by a free-standing, elliptical, colonnaded wall featuring reading and study areas that are accessed by bridges spanning skylit light wells. The library’s internal glass facade overlooks an enclosed concourse formed by a second elliptical wall that defines the east side of the site. This generous, glass-roofed concourse serves as an entry foyer to the library and the more lively pedestrian activities at ground level.” It’s really a spectacular and very well-utilized space.

We dropped Dad and Jane off at their hotel and spent the afternoon with Yehuda (I napped, he and Shachar played backgammon) and then we went out to play pool in Yaletown, a trendy neighborhood, and then went out for coffee and dessert.

Saturday morning we met Yehuda for breakfast, drove around the city (including Gas Town) and then went to the wonderful VanDusen Botanical Gardens and then to the public market on Granville Island for lunch and browsing. When we were parked at the market, S noticed that the front tire of our rental car looked a bit low. After lunch we checked again and it had definitely lost a lot of air. Since it was Sunday, we ended up heading to the Vancouver airport to the only open Hertz office in town and switching for another car (rather than trying to find an open tire shop on Sunday in the two hours we had left in town). We picked Dad and Jane up at their hotel and headed back to Seattle (leaving ourselves extra time in case the border turned into a hassle).

We had dinner at a restaurant walking distance from Dad and Jane’s (there are a million to choose from since they live in the middle of all the action) and then hung out at their place and watched a DVD of Night in the Museum before crashing.

This morning we had breakfast at Brian and Laurel’s apartment and then headed off to the airport.

There are a ton of photos (including many of the Vancouver Library and of flowers in the botanical garden) to see if you’re interested.