Back to School and a return visit

It's that time of year again when the American summer public amenities shut down as the hoards of teenagers who have been lifeguards, theme park attendants and the like either head back to school or off to college. I always wondered why the American summer holidays were so long and now I know, it's because they are required to staff all of the seasonal events.

For our kids too it is time to either find those things that have been buried for 3 months (in Dan's case) or in Becky's case to collect everything required for day 1 of school. Dan is now a second grader at Normandale French Immersion and Becky starts pre-school at Golden years Montessori. Here they are on the first day of school.




We were a little worried about Becky as she had been so happy at her last nursery and we were moving her to full time in a new place. As it turned out we needn't have worried as she loved it and wanted to stay longer. She pretty much skips into school and out of school every day.

We also had a return visit from Claire Greenfield - she knows the drill by now so here she is helping Andy with her chocolates
And a return visit to to Taylor's Falls on the St Croix river

Hurricane Ridge

Last full day of the holiday today, we headed into the Olympic National Forest to Hurricane Ridge which was a great walk


Then on to a walk with a 'beware of the goat' warning on it, and we were told to pick up stones to throw if it attacked. As per typical I was all nonchalant about it and Andy was a little worried, Dan and Becky were collecting rocks to throw at it. We didn't see the goat but I just saw this in the news - about the very goat we were joking about.

Hiker Killed By Mountain Goat

Pretty grim - anyway, here are some pictures from our 'more dangerous than we thought' walk.




In the afternoon we headed for a last stint on the beach

Big Trees - Dead or Alive

Long drive today from Long Beach to Port Angeles, the weather turned a little overcast as well which was fine for a driving and forest day. Stopped at Lake Quinault for a while.

One of the rainiest places in the US


Then explored a small forest with big trees near the lake, this one is 500 years old

Here are the 4 major types of trees in the forest we were in (max ages in brackets), from left to right we have Western Hemlock (400-500), Douglas Firs (1,000), Western Red Cedar(1,000) and Sirka Spruce (800)

Trying to capture the full size of one is tricky but this gives some idea.
And when they fall they make a mess
This also gives some idea of their size, see Becky at the far end of this fallen one
On a bit further and we stopped at Kalaloch where there were lots of washed up trees



Then on to Lake Crescent

Spot the stick that Becky's throwing
And a little late evening sun to round off an unexpectedly pleasant day.



ddddddd

San Diego and Miramar

In a case of great timing I had a conference in San Diego just a week after Denise and Bill moved over there, which meant I got to see their new abode and spend a sunny Sunday afternoon on the beach with them and the boys.
The next day I had to head to the conference but not before having a wander around downtown San Diego and the Gas Lamp district which is the spot to hang around in on a Summery evening. The conference was for the Best Buy Mobile Area Sales Managers, which basically means all of the people who run the stores which we have 3 times a year so you get to know everyone really well. As things are going really well we got a visit to the Miramar air force base too (the one they used for Top Gun) for an awards dinner.






Not all play though, I also had to give the same 15 minute presentation 13 times in 4 hours. The system I've been working on for ages now is called Beast, so we had a whole load of Beast logo chocolates to give people.
And here I am with Hitesh and Travis as we're ready for the wave of attendees.
Then after a pretty hard afternoon's work it was party time and a chance to let my blue hair down

Late after the party we walked back to the hotel but stopped in a duelling pianos bar. These are bars where they have a couple of pianos and the piano players take requests from the audience to play songs for tips. One of the guys put in a request for a Rush song with a big tip on the condition that Travis got to play the drums.