Lombard Street

Lombard Street, the crookedest street in America, is full of 5 mph switchbacks and absolutely crazy tourists

The landscaping is simply beautiful...

And the residents are very friendly and inviting...even when we are taking photos of their neat dog gate. "John Smith" welcomed us into his courtyard for this close-up.

Seriously steep hills in this part of the city. This is from two blocks away from Lombard Street...

...no switchbacks here.

SF Fun

I met up with my favorite sister this past weekend in San Francisco in part to celebrate our early birthday. We met up with Vince & Secret Baby Chan, Nicci & Glen, and Aunt Ruth & Marisa flew down too. It was fantastic to see everyone and spend some time in a totally beautiful and intersting city.

At the Palace of Fine Arts. From far away it looks like this magical golden dome...




...but when you get right up to it, there are all these sleeping people, lol.

Felix Bobblehead Night

When you are 13 years old, the rules say you can not show your entire face in any one photo.

We had a fantastic time at the M's vs. Padres interleague game on Friday (a.k.a. Felix Bobblehead Night). Even though the M's dropped the game and the roof was closed, still a great night for hanging out with friend and family and big pink hands.




Matt and Emily were such great sports with all the pink hand harassment :)





Jacob making the game saving catch just like Ichiro

OSU Baseball

In support of my alma mater (and love of live sporting events) we went to see Oregon State play the University of Washington at Safeco Field. Although OSU did not run away with a victory, it was fantastic to see such a great showing of orange and black in Huskie territory. GO BEAVERS!!!!!!

Ichiro Bobblehead Night

I love the excitement of baseball season...the crack of the bat, base stealing, homeruns...it is the sign of spring here in the SODO district of Seattle.

And I especially love Mariners promotion nights and April brought the first of four bobbleheads nights...ICHIRO BOBBLEHEAD night. Yes, that's correct, I am 1/4 of my way to owning the 2007 super bobblehead of four fine looking and interlocking bobbleheads :)

Marlin

It has been raining like it will never rain another day here in Washington...flooding and landslides all over the place. And Vince, bless him, asked for the old marlin fishing trip pictures. These are from about four years ago when we all still lived in Hawaii. We did not catch much this trip, but did get this fantastic marlin.

Vince the Ninja

The ninja, the marlin, and the captain

Fisherman of the Day

Cousin Cy reeled the big guy in

Painted House

We have been wanting to paint our house since before we even moved in but, being slow as we are, we just now got it done. We hired the work out, thank goodness, and I think it is a vast improvement from the previous condition. Here is the new paint scheme...green/grey with white trim.

The old painting scheme...light yellow with a pale mauve trim.

More House Painting

We also aiming to replace the door and sidelight before old man winter comes this year and then possibly adding trim around the windows next spring (not likely to to happen this year).

Another photo with the old colors. This was taken shortly after we bought the house...can't even see furniture in the windows. Looking very much alive in this picture, we are still working on erradicating the ivy off the front yard trees.

Rear View

A narrow look at the back of the house from the treehouse perspective.

An older look from the treehouse.

Pinned

And in Navy news...Tory was selected to advance to the rank of chief this year. After six weeks of "transition" the pinning ceremony was on Friday. See how centered and even the anchors are pinned to his collar?? Jacob and I do good work ;)

The New Uniform

Here is the full view of the new uniform. It certianly took me a little bit by surprise the first time I saw the new color...I have gotten so used to seeing the dungarees after all this time. I guess the monochrome look works...

They guys

When long time friends get married, it bring the guys back together once again. Phil flew all the way from Florida for the wedding and his brother Mark drove up from Eugene. It was awesome for the guys to catch up, drink beer, and speak pirate, arrrrrgh. By the way, has anyone seen Chris' pants?

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Ryan/Michael/Rychael and Caitlin. They had an absolutely beautiful wedding on the Oregon Coast a few weeks ago and will be headed on their honeymoon to Ireland shortly.