It is close to Christmas and we have made our way to the mecca of entertainment that is Vancouver, WA.
On a side note I have learned quite a few interesting facts about my immediate family that I wasn't aware of before this trip. Some are not proper to share and when you think about it will not be interesting to anyone but my very immediate family.
But on another note, we are watching the movie 'Ratatouille' on Blu-Ray DVD and let me tell you that the Blu-Ray technology is the bomb! And this show is all about cooking in Paris with a rat. Super cool, especially as Che Tobin is chef extraordinary! (OK, I try)
On another note as we are talking about Paris it turns out that my sister Natalie is that one person in the world that has been to the Louvre, but didn't see the Mona Lisa. Upon further review it turns out that she didn't miss the Mona Lisa because of some weird maintenance effort by the French, but because she was busy shopping in the Louvre's version of a French mini mall. As Natalie is an equal opportunity art disparage patron, she also missed the Venus de Milo.
The things you learn while hanging out with the family.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Our Cruise
Greetings from the Caribbean. This is post #1 of what is sure to be many entertaining (hopefully) posts about Paty and my first cruise. (edit: this also might also be our last cruise depending on how we mesh with these 'cruise people')
In order to keep some semblance of order about these posts, I wanted to let you know how I am planning on organizing the cruise posts. Here is my idea for posts (obviously subject to change as per my mood that day, let’s call it whimsy):
First Impression (this post)
Samana, Dominican Republic
Tortola, British Virgin Islands
Antigua, St. John’s
Bridgetown, Barbados
Castries, St. Lucia
Final Cruise Thoughts
I am actually going to post the post in reverse order. So instead of reading from the bottom up, you will get the first post last and then be able to scroll down. Since the price of the internet is prohibitively expensive on board ship I won't be able to post until either the Hilton in Miami or back in Casa de Tobin.
So, on with the first thoughts. Oh and at the end of each or some posts, I’ll put the ‘in case you go segment’. For reasons that are really only funny and applicable to me and a certain elemental Shaman, we’ll call this the ‘Tuha Segment‘.
First impression starts now:
DAMN, the boat is BIG. Mental note, stop calling the ship a boat.
The room is nice, the balcony is great. As expected the room is small, but you are not noticeably cramped or anything. Each room has it’s own flat screen TV, and there are not one but TWO espn channels. Very good news. Also there are two movie channels showing relatively new movies (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Ocean’s Thirteen were on when we walked in) plus a Turner station also showing movies commercial free. On an ironic note, Titanic was the first movie we saw on this station. Foreshadowing? I hope not.
We checked in at 1 PM, and what seemed to be an interminable line actually moved fairly well. It took us about an hour from the time the taxi dropped us off from South Beach (where we went to kill 5 hours since our flight arrived at 7 AM from Seattle) to get into our cabin.
We are sailing on the Norwegian Cruise Line Pearl. It is supposed to be ‘freestyle cruising’, thus no set times on dinner, no eating with the same people every night, you do as you want. The ship has about 12 different restaurants, of which the largest two by far are buffet style. As Paty hates buffets, our goal for the trip is to never eat in the buffet. Also there are a plethora of bars scattered throughout the ship. While the food is free, a few restaurants have a premium surcharge, the drinks are not. The first bar we came to had a nice selection of beers on tap, including my personal favorite Stella Artois. Great news for me! So I ordered a pint glass of Stella, to my chagrin the bill came and the beer was $5.50, plus all drinks they added a mandatory 15% service fee. Thus one beer cost $6.33. And it all gets charged to your room, you pay at the end. I quickly realized that the bill at the end is going be extremely painful.
First Tuha note: Make dinner reservations as soon as you get to your room if you are planning on doing any of the premium restaurants for dinner. We did Tepin Yaki ($20 surcharge, entirely worth it) the first night, it was great.
Official day 1 was a sea day as we made our way to the Dominican Republic. The weather was nice, it was a tad windy on deck, but I think that might be because the ship was cutting through the seas at 22 knots (about 25 mph). Paty and I went to the gym in the morning, I actually ran 5 km on the treadmill, there was a soccer game on TV that made it bearable to run on the treadmill.
So far so good, the ship is actually much nicer than we thought it would be. Dinner #2 was at the Italian restaurant, no surcharge. Not necessarily ‘Casa de Tobin West Seattle’ but good nonetheless.
In order to keep some semblance of order about these posts, I wanted to let you know how I am planning on organizing the cruise posts. Here is my idea for posts (obviously subject to change as per my mood that day, let’s call it whimsy):
First Impression (this post)
Samana, Dominican Republic
Tortola, British Virgin Islands
Antigua, St. John’s
Bridgetown, Barbados
Castries, St. Lucia
Final Cruise Thoughts
I am actually going to post the post in reverse order. So instead of reading from the bottom up, you will get the first post last and then be able to scroll down. Since the price of the internet is prohibitively expensive on board ship I won't be able to post until either the Hilton in Miami or back in Casa de Tobin.
So, on with the first thoughts. Oh and at the end of each or some posts, I’ll put the ‘in case you go segment’. For reasons that are really only funny and applicable to me and a certain elemental Shaman, we’ll call this the ‘Tuha Segment‘.
First impression starts now:
DAMN, the boat is BIG. Mental note, stop calling the ship a boat.
The room is nice, the balcony is great. As expected the room is small, but you are not noticeably cramped or anything. Each room has it’s own flat screen TV, and there are not one but TWO espn channels. Very good news. Also there are two movie channels showing relatively new movies (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Ocean’s Thirteen were on when we walked in) plus a Turner station also showing movies commercial free. On an ironic note, Titanic was the first movie we saw on this station. Foreshadowing? I hope not.
We checked in at 1 PM, and what seemed to be an interminable line actually moved fairly well. It took us about an hour from the time the taxi dropped us off from South Beach (where we went to kill 5 hours since our flight arrived at 7 AM from Seattle) to get into our cabin.
We are sailing on the Norwegian Cruise Line Pearl. It is supposed to be ‘freestyle cruising’, thus no set times on dinner, no eating with the same people every night, you do as you want. The ship has about 12 different restaurants, of which the largest two by far are buffet style. As Paty hates buffets, our goal for the trip is to never eat in the buffet. Also there are a plethora of bars scattered throughout the ship. While the food is free, a few restaurants have a premium surcharge, the drinks are not. The first bar we came to had a nice selection of beers on tap, including my personal favorite Stella Artois. Great news for me! So I ordered a pint glass of Stella, to my chagrin the bill came and the beer was $5.50, plus all drinks they added a mandatory 15% service fee. Thus one beer cost $6.33. And it all gets charged to your room, you pay at the end. I quickly realized that the bill at the end is going be extremely painful.
First Tuha note: Make dinner reservations as soon as you get to your room if you are planning on doing any of the premium restaurants for dinner. We did Tepin Yaki ($20 surcharge, entirely worth it) the first night, it was great.
Official day 1 was a sea day as we made our way to the Dominican Republic. The weather was nice, it was a tad windy on deck, but I think that might be because the ship was cutting through the seas at 22 knots (about 25 mph). Paty and I went to the gym in the morning, I actually ran 5 km on the treadmill, there was a soccer game on TV that made it bearable to run on the treadmill.
So far so good, the ship is actually much nicer than we thought it would be. Dinner #2 was at the Italian restaurant, no surcharge. Not necessarily ‘Casa de Tobin West Seattle’ but good nonetheless.
Tortola, BVI
Second stop, Tortola in the British Virgin Islands or BVI.
Today we had plans to do a mountain hike and then to go snorkeling on the beach afterwards. But upon waking up we were informed that the tour was canceled. The path was too muddy because of all the rain. As it was too late to get another excursion planned we were winging it again.
We docked at the pier in Tortola, thus no tender today. Tortola is the name of the island and the city you dock in is called Road Town. There are only 16,000 people in Tortola. They are part of the British Commonwealth and as such the town seemed much more organized than Samana.
We decided to take a ferry from Boat Town to Virgin Gorda. This is another island in the BVI that is about 35 minutes on the ferry from Road Town. Virgin Gorda has a really nice national park called the Baths. The view of our ship and Road Town from the ferry:
As you can see it is still raining, day two with our rain jackets being paramount.
But the beauty of the Caribbean is that the weather changes in a heartbeat. This picture is from the restaurant above the baths:
The baths, started raining again.
As you can see, the baths is basically this really cool beach with these huge rock formations. It is quite scenic, but because of the rocks the undertow and currents created by all the waves make this a relatively dangerous place to swim. Paty with the large rocks:
We then took the ferry back to Road Town and stopped for the second time at an authentic English Caribbean pub called Pusser’s. They actually exported rum from this pub to England and the US. So it’s a kind of Micro distillery. A very cool place, in fact in retrospect the best pub we found on the trip. Here's the website in case you are interested:
Pusser's
Dinner this night was again the Italian restaurant.
Tuha note:
The best thing about this port is the pub. Too maximize your use of the day here, either plan an excursion or else take the ferry to Virgin Gorda on your own and hang out in the baths. The package will cost $30 each for the ferry from Road Town to Virgin Gorda and transfer to Baths National Park. But if you want to get some cool pub gear from the Caribbean, Pusser’s was the only such place we found on the entire cruise and it was really nice stuff. Plus, what’s better than random bar paraphernalia to start conversations for the next few years?
Today we had plans to do a mountain hike and then to go snorkeling on the beach afterwards. But upon waking up we were informed that the tour was canceled. The path was too muddy because of all the rain. As it was too late to get another excursion planned we were winging it again.
We docked at the pier in Tortola, thus no tender today. Tortola is the name of the island and the city you dock in is called Road Town. There are only 16,000 people in Tortola. They are part of the British Commonwealth and as such the town seemed much more organized than Samana.
We decided to take a ferry from Boat Town to Virgin Gorda. This is another island in the BVI that is about 35 minutes on the ferry from Road Town. Virgin Gorda has a really nice national park called the Baths. The view of our ship and Road Town from the ferry:
As you can see it is still raining, day two with our rain jackets being paramount.
But the beauty of the Caribbean is that the weather changes in a heartbeat. This picture is from the restaurant above the baths:
The baths, started raining again.
As you can see, the baths is basically this really cool beach with these huge rock formations. It is quite scenic, but because of the rocks the undertow and currents created by all the waves make this a relatively dangerous place to swim. Paty with the large rocks:
We then took the ferry back to Road Town and stopped for the second time at an authentic English Caribbean pub called Pusser’s. They actually exported rum from this pub to England and the US. So it’s a kind of Micro distillery. A very cool place, in fact in retrospect the best pub we found on the trip. Here's the website in case you are interested:
Pusser's
Dinner this night was again the Italian restaurant.
Tuha note:
The best thing about this port is the pub. Too maximize your use of the day here, either plan an excursion or else take the ferry to Virgin Gorda on your own and hang out in the baths. The package will cost $30 each for the ferry from Road Town to Virgin Gorda and transfer to Baths National Park. But if you want to get some cool pub gear from the Caribbean, Pusser’s was the only such place we found on the entire cruise and it was really nice stuff. Plus, what’s better than random bar paraphernalia to start conversations for the next few years?
Antigua
Stop number three, Antigua. Now we are really getting into rhythm of the cruise. Today again no excursion planned. We were on the wait list for a Catamaran cruise and snorkel package. But we never got the call. We again docked at the pier in Antigua. This town was obviously set up to cater to the cruise ships. As you get off the dock, you have a relatively nice shopping area and a pretty cool restaurant. There were two other cruise ships also docked that day, but the area was not overwhelmed.
The native language in Antigua is also English, same as Tortola. Antigua has been an independent country only since 1981. They claim that there are 365 beaches in Antigua and while I do agree that there are a lot of Antiguan beaches, 365 seems like an awfully suspicious number created by the tourist board.
We got a group taxi to one of the beaches in the area, Turner beach. The weather had been postcard nice all day, we had seemed to put the rain behind us. Here is a picture of me at the beach holding a Wadadli, the local beer.
I had to take this picture just to make sure I got the name right:
The Wadadli really was not that good, but here is the photo I'm sending into the Wadadli promotions department in my attempt to be their new Seattle spokesman:
After our time at Turner beach, we took the taxi bus back to the city. We still had some time before all aboard. Paty continued her crusade to 'Shop Through The Caribbean' in town. Afterwards we had time for a rum punch at the Rum Shack with the Norwegian Pearl in the background:
Apparently the Presidente beer already has a better spokesman than me.
Dinner that night was at Cagney's the steakhouse. There was a $20 surcharge for this restaurant, but it was entirely worth it. Paty had a whole lobster. She was messing around trying to crack the claws (they gave her three claws) until the waiter came over and cracked the lobster and pulled out all the meat for her. It was fabulous. The steakhouse experience would compare favorably to the nicest steakhouse in Seattle.
Tuha Note:
Antigua was a really nice stop. Whatever excursion you choose, you should make sure that it includes some beach time. Antigua is famous for it's beaches for a reason. I heard some good things in retrospect about the Catamaran cruises. Also, try the steakhouse. This is a stop that is very easy to do on your own if you are looking for a day off from the planned excursions. The town is right off the pier and taxis can take you to any beach you want.
The native language in Antigua is also English, same as Tortola. Antigua has been an independent country only since 1981. They claim that there are 365 beaches in Antigua and while I do agree that there are a lot of Antiguan beaches, 365 seems like an awfully suspicious number created by the tourist board.
We got a group taxi to one of the beaches in the area, Turner beach. The weather had been postcard nice all day, we had seemed to put the rain behind us. Here is a picture of me at the beach holding a Wadadli, the local beer.
I had to take this picture just to make sure I got the name right:
The Wadadli really was not that good, but here is the photo I'm sending into the Wadadli promotions department in my attempt to be their new Seattle spokesman:
After our time at Turner beach, we took the taxi bus back to the city. We still had some time before all aboard. Paty continued her crusade to 'Shop Through The Caribbean' in town. Afterwards we had time for a rum punch at the Rum Shack with the Norwegian Pearl in the background:
Apparently the Presidente beer already has a better spokesman than me.
Dinner that night was at Cagney's the steakhouse. There was a $20 surcharge for this restaurant, but it was entirely worth it. Paty had a whole lobster. She was messing around trying to crack the claws (they gave her three claws) until the waiter came over and cracked the lobster and pulled out all the meat for her. It was fabulous. The steakhouse experience would compare favorably to the nicest steakhouse in Seattle.
Tuha Note:
Antigua was a really nice stop. Whatever excursion you choose, you should make sure that it includes some beach time. Antigua is famous for it's beaches for a reason. I heard some good things in retrospect about the Catamaran cruises. Also, try the steakhouse. This is a stop that is very easy to do on your own if you are looking for a day off from the planned excursions. The town is right off the pier and taxis can take you to any beach you want.
Barbados
On a side note before I get going on the Barbados post, tonight is my indoor soccer team's fall season championship game. This would be championship #5 in a row, good luck guys. I most likely will not be thinking of you, but I'll be there in spirit.
Today is Barbados. Again we docked, along with five other cruise ships. Unfortunately the pier is about 1 mile outside of downtown Bridgetown. Bridgetown being the largest city on Barbados. Barbados is actually a lot larger island with a population of 260,000 avid cricket fans. On a strange side note, we were reminded a minimum of 8 times that you could not wear any type of camouflaged clothing outside of the boat. Apparently this is a privilege reserved only for the military and they take it very seriously.
Today we booked an excursion to Malibu beach. It is the beach located and operated by the Malibu Rum Company. As we had a little time to kill before the excursion we were able to take a quick tour of a local cigar factory. We saw the entire cigar process, pretty interesting actually. This is where it all happens, myself pictured with my new pack of stogies:
Malibu beach was another great Caribbean beach. It had more waves, but that made swimming fun. We actually rented a waverunner from one of the 'beach guys' for 30 minutes today. It was fun to ride in the ocean out in the waves. We went up the coast for 15 minutes looking for turtles in the water and then turned back. We 'might' have seen a turtle once. I'm going with yes.
No beer picture today, instead here is me with a Malibu Rum punch. In the background are all the cruise ships.
This is the first thing you see as you pull up to the factory:
I did have the local beer, it was nothing special. One of the reasons why there is no picture. That and the fact that we did go to the Malibu beach it seemed a little dumb to order a beer.
View from our cabin as we were getting ready to depart. You think that this cruise line would plan their itinerary better so as not to have two ships in the same port?
Tonight we went back to teppanyaki again. We met an English couple from London at dinner.
Tuha note:
The Malibu beach is pretty fun but it does not need to be an entire day commitment. Our London friends did a bike adventure that we considered. We didn't do it as the itinerary mentioned a mountain, and Paty + Mountain + Bike = Bad day for Chris. It turns out you start at the top of the mountain and have little if any uphill climbs and during the tour you stop at the Malibu factory. Double Bonus.
Today is Barbados. Again we docked, along with five other cruise ships. Unfortunately the pier is about 1 mile outside of downtown Bridgetown. Bridgetown being the largest city on Barbados. Barbados is actually a lot larger island with a population of 260,000 avid cricket fans. On a strange side note, we were reminded a minimum of 8 times that you could not wear any type of camouflaged clothing outside of the boat. Apparently this is a privilege reserved only for the military and they take it very seriously.
Today we booked an excursion to Malibu beach. It is the beach located and operated by the Malibu Rum Company. As we had a little time to kill before the excursion we were able to take a quick tour of a local cigar factory. We saw the entire cigar process, pretty interesting actually. This is where it all happens, myself pictured with my new pack of stogies:
Malibu beach was another great Caribbean beach. It had more waves, but that made swimming fun. We actually rented a waverunner from one of the 'beach guys' for 30 minutes today. It was fun to ride in the ocean out in the waves. We went up the coast for 15 minutes looking for turtles in the water and then turned back. We 'might' have seen a turtle once. I'm going with yes.
No beer picture today, instead here is me with a Malibu Rum punch. In the background are all the cruise ships.
This is the first thing you see as you pull up to the factory:
I did have the local beer, it was nothing special. One of the reasons why there is no picture. That and the fact that we did go to the Malibu beach it seemed a little dumb to order a beer.
View from our cabin as we were getting ready to depart. You think that this cruise line would plan their itinerary better so as not to have two ships in the same port?
Tonight we went back to teppanyaki again. We met an English couple from London at dinner.
Tuha note:
The Malibu beach is pretty fun but it does not need to be an entire day commitment. Our London friends did a bike adventure that we considered. We didn't do it as the itinerary mentioned a mountain, and Paty + Mountain + Bike = Bad day for Chris. It turns out you start at the top of the mountain and have little if any uphill climbs and during the tour you stop at the Malibu factory. Double Bonus.
Saint Lucia, Thanksgiving 2007
Our last stop was Saint Lucia, an independent nation in the British Commonwealth. But at times in it's history St. Lucia was ruled by both the French and the British. As a result, the official language is English but all the locals also speak a type of Creole dialect that is more and more common in the West Indies. The weather was again fabulous.
Saint Lucia looked like a really nice island, the main city of Castries was built right on the hillside. It was quite impressive. The island actually has two large volcanoes that dominate the entire landscape called the Pitons. Both are over 2,000 feet above sea level, pretty impressive for such a small island and a reason that it was one of the first islands in the West Indies 'discovered' by Columbus. Population 140,000 or so.
But today's outing was our most anticipated of the trip:
That's right, ZIP LINES through the rain forest. We took a thirty minute van ride from the pier up into the mountains where we caught an aerial tram up through the rain forest canopy to where the zip lines started.
The ride up the tram took a little over 30 minutes, not exactly your high speed quad, but it was really scenic. The world's largest species of fern is pictured here, hard to get the scale right.
For those of you that might be worried, the people that ran the zip lines were very safety conscious. Yes, Paty is sporting a stylish hair net.
Cool tree that is part of the hike from the tram to the zip lines. All told we 'zipped' across 11 total chasms.
On the tram ride up, we went through the mid canopy. While on the ride down we rode through and above the upper canopy, which provided some great vistas of Saint Lucia.
I did like the vibe and the feel of Saint Lucia, but the zip tour took most of our day. We did have time to stop and get a quick bite to eat at a restaurant directly next to the pier where we were tendering. It was actually quite a good restaurant. Paty bought some banana ketchup (surprisingly good actually) and I was able to sample the local brew, Piton:
The Piton was pretty good, but unfortunately another lager.
Today was also Thanksgiving day, Happy Turkey Day all. For those of you keeping track at home, our last Thanksgivings have been quite varied:
2007 Caribbean Cruise
2006 Galway, Ireland. Surprisingly good pub dinner for charity that night.
2005 Paris, France. Typical snobby waiter, great champagne.
2004 Berlin. I can't remember anything about dinner here. Rest assured it involved beer and Gluhwein. We were probably still depressed at this point that we had to leave Prague for Berlin.
We branched out for dinner this night and went to Shabu Shabu, some type of Mongolian hot pots. Where I can see that the style of cooking, and I use the term loosely, could have some potential it was horrible. I'll save you the details, but just know that we had smoke coming out of our hot pot.
Tuha Note:
Don't go to Shabu Shabu on ship. As for the excursions, the zip lines were great. The only downfall is you really don't have any time to see much of what seemed to be a really nice stop. Have a snack or late lunch/early dinner at the restaurant right off where you tender. You can't miss it. Try the banana ketchup and the jerk fish. Our English friends did the five star lunch tour. To the resort where Bill Gates, Oprah and Beckham go to. They loved it. But it is quite expensive.
Saint Lucia looked like a really nice island, the main city of Castries was built right on the hillside. It was quite impressive. The island actually has two large volcanoes that dominate the entire landscape called the Pitons. Both are over 2,000 feet above sea level, pretty impressive for such a small island and a reason that it was one of the first islands in the West Indies 'discovered' by Columbus. Population 140,000 or so.
But today's outing was our most anticipated of the trip:
That's right, ZIP LINES through the rain forest. We took a thirty minute van ride from the pier up into the mountains where we caught an aerial tram up through the rain forest canopy to where the zip lines started.
The ride up the tram took a little over 30 minutes, not exactly your high speed quad, but it was really scenic. The world's largest species of fern is pictured here, hard to get the scale right.
For those of you that might be worried, the people that ran the zip lines were very safety conscious. Yes, Paty is sporting a stylish hair net.
Cool tree that is part of the hike from the tram to the zip lines. All told we 'zipped' across 11 total chasms.
On the tram ride up, we went through the mid canopy. While on the ride down we rode through and above the upper canopy, which provided some great vistas of Saint Lucia.
I did like the vibe and the feel of Saint Lucia, but the zip tour took most of our day. We did have time to stop and get a quick bite to eat at a restaurant directly next to the pier where we were tendering. It was actually quite a good restaurant. Paty bought some banana ketchup (surprisingly good actually) and I was able to sample the local brew, Piton:
The Piton was pretty good, but unfortunately another lager.Today was also Thanksgiving day, Happy Turkey Day all. For those of you keeping track at home, our last Thanksgivings have been quite varied:
2007 Caribbean Cruise
2006 Galway, Ireland. Surprisingly good pub dinner for charity that night.
2005 Paris, France. Typical snobby waiter, great champagne.
2004 Berlin. I can't remember anything about dinner here. Rest assured it involved beer and Gluhwein. We were probably still depressed at this point that we had to leave Prague for Berlin.
We branched out for dinner this night and went to Shabu Shabu, some type of Mongolian hot pots. Where I can see that the style of cooking, and I use the term loosely, could have some potential it was horrible. I'll save you the details, but just know that we had smoke coming out of our hot pot.
Tuha Note:
Don't go to Shabu Shabu on ship. As for the excursions, the zip lines were great. The only downfall is you really don't have any time to see much of what seemed to be a really nice stop. Have a snack or late lunch/early dinner at the restaurant right off where you tender. You can't miss it. Try the banana ketchup and the jerk fish. Our English friends did the five star lunch tour. To the resort where Bill Gates, Oprah and Beckham go to. They loved it. But it is quite expensive.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
MLS in Seattle
Long rumored but coveted and encouraged for even longer:
SEATTLE WILL BE GRANTED AN MLS TEAM THIS WEEK!
For those footy crazed fans in Seattle like myself, this is super good news.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=480678&cc=5901
Now the question is, what tickets do I give up?
Seahawks
Husky Basketball
Sonics
Thanks to a Mr Clayton Bennett, it seems like that decision has been made for me. More of my thoughts on that situation to follow.
Reid and I are going to get four tickets as soon as they are announced, anyone else in?
SEATTLE WILL BE GRANTED AN MLS TEAM THIS WEEK!
For those footy crazed fans in Seattle like myself, this is super good news.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=480678&cc=5901
Now the question is, what tickets do I give up?
Seahawks
Husky Basketball
Sonics
Thanks to a Mr Clayton Bennett, it seems like that decision has been made for me. More of my thoughts on that situation to follow.
Reid and I are going to get four tickets as soon as they are announced, anyone else in?
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Blogs Are Cool!
Okay, maybe that is an ubiquitous title. But my point is that I like using this space to keep everyone that has even the slightest interest in keeping track of the West Seattle Tobin's activities updated via the blog.
The blog does a few things for me:
A- I don't have to tell fourteen family members and friends the same thing. With this space I only have to post it here and tell Natalie (as she calls me more than the rest of the family combined).
B- It has served as the best 'scrapbook' I would ever put effort forth to create.
C- Third it keeps me in touch with people that sometimes through space, distance, kids and work you just drift away from. You know who you are, thanks for reading!
On a further note, keep track of this space over the next few weeks. We have the Caribbean trip coming up and since the boat doesn't have internet I might not be able to post in real time, but I will most likely get a few post queued up and catch up on some things I have been procrastinating on.
So, happy reading!
The blog does a few things for me:
A- I don't have to tell fourteen family members and friends the same thing. With this space I only have to post it here and tell Natalie (as she calls me more than the rest of the family combined).
B- It has served as the best 'scrapbook' I would ever put effort forth to create.
C- Third it keeps me in touch with people that sometimes through space, distance, kids and work you just drift away from. You know who you are, thanks for reading!
On a further note, keep track of this space over the next few weeks. We have the Caribbean trip coming up and since the boat doesn't have internet I might not be able to post in real time, but I will most likely get a few post queued up and catch up on some things I have been procrastinating on.
So, happy reading!
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Turkey Trip
That's right, in grand West Seattle Tobin's fashion we have booked a Thanksgiving trip. Over the last few years we have done Prague/Berlin; Paris/London and last year: Weird Thanksgiving in Galway.
Well this year we have decided to change gears a little and abandon Europe for........COSTA RICA! Woo Hoo, zip lines in the rain forest here we come.
But we wanted to utilize some of our almost 400,000 airline miles for this trip. Now in case you haven't read a business section in the last six years, the airline industry isn't doing to well. And it seems that the first thing they have cut is award travel. Now don't get me wrong, you can still accrue miles it's just really hard to use them for actual travel.
So our new trip: Miles flight to Miami, then a Caribbean Cruise.
Not only will this trip be unique for use, it'll also provide content for this space! /cheer
Currently we are looking for someone to watch Porfi whilst we are away..........volunteers?
Well this year we have decided to change gears a little and abandon Europe for........COSTA RICA! Woo Hoo, zip lines in the rain forest here we come.
But we wanted to utilize some of our almost 400,000 airline miles for this trip. Now in case you haven't read a business section in the last six years, the airline industry isn't doing to well. And it seems that the first thing they have cut is award travel. Now don't get me wrong, you can still accrue miles it's just really hard to use them for actual travel.
So our new trip: Miles flight to Miami, then a Caribbean Cruise.
Not only will this trip be unique for use, it'll also provide content for this space! /cheer
Currently we are looking for someone to watch Porfi whilst we are away..........volunteers?
Turkey Trip
That's right, in grand West Seattle Tobin's fashion we have booked a Thanksgiving trip. Over the last few years we have done Prague/Berlin; Paris/London and last year: Weird Thanksgiving in Galway.
Well this year we have decided to change gears a little and abandon Europe for........COSTA RICA! Woo Hoo, zip lines in the rain forest here we come.
But we wanted to utilize some of our almost 400,000 airline miles for this trip. Now in case you haven't read a business section in the last six years, the airline industry isn't doing to well. And it seems that the first thing they have cut is award travel. Now don't get me wrong, you can still accrue miles it's just really hard to use them for actual travel.
So our new trip: Miles flight to Miami, then a Caribbean Cruise.
Not only will this trip be unique for use, it'll also provide content for this space! /cheer
Now we are looking for someone to watch Porfi whilst we are away..........volunteers?
Well this year we have decided to change gears a little and abandon Europe for........COSTA RICA! Woo Hoo, zip lines in the rain forest here we come.
But we wanted to utilize some of our almost 400,000 airline miles for this trip. Now in case you haven't read a business section in the last six years, the airline industry isn't doing to well. And it seems that the first thing they have cut is award travel. Now don't get me wrong, you can still accrue miles it's just really hard to use them for actual travel.
So our new trip: Miles flight to Miami, then a Caribbean Cruise.
Not only will this trip be unique for use, it'll also provide content for this space! /cheer
Now we are looking for someone to watch Porfi whilst we are away..........volunteers?
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Eight Years
That's right today is Paty and my Eight Year Anniversary!
This is normally the place where I would put a picture of us from the wedding. But since that was like eight years ago, all the pictures are on that film stuff that we all used to use. Weird.
Anyways, here is the new (and extremely vital) addition to the Tobin household:
And for all of you that remembered and sent an e-mail or called, thanks. By the way, the Spokane Tobin's anniversary should be two days out. Maybe you could remember theirs?
It's El Gaucho for dinner tonight, maybe we'll act the tourist and take the camera with us. Right now the big debate is if I can wear my 'cool' old man Irish guy hat to dinner. It is raining and the hat would signify the last year of our lives. Or at least that is what I'm telling Paty. Maybe I'll just wear the 'cool' hat tomorrow to indoor soccer.
This is normally the place where I would put a picture of us from the wedding. But since that was like eight years ago, all the pictures are on that film stuff that we all used to use. Weird.
Anyways, here is the new (and extremely vital) addition to the Tobin household:
And for all of you that remembered and sent an e-mail or called, thanks. By the way, the Spokane Tobin's anniversary should be two days out. Maybe you could remember theirs?
It's El Gaucho for dinner tonight, maybe we'll act the tourist and take the camera with us. Right now the big debate is if I can wear my 'cool' old man Irish guy hat to dinner. It is raining and the hat would signify the last year of our lives. Or at least that is what I'm telling Paty. Maybe I'll just wear the 'cool' hat tomorrow to indoor soccer.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Marriage
Back in mid summer, my sister Natalie got married. She married her 'high school sweetheart' after dating for almost 8 years.
There are many many pictures of the wedding done very professionally by an actual photographer of the event. You will find nothing of the sort on this site. This is the man (or woman depending on who held the camera) view from the action. Enjoy!
Rehearsal dinner at the park. All the flower girls got cool Gucci sunglasses:
Natalie's bride's maids plus a flower girl lurking below.
The next day was the wedding, standard protocol the day after the rehearsal dinner. The wedding party was 'encouraged' to arrive about 16 hours prior to the ceremony for pictures.
Here's me with the only girls not married to me that really still like me:
Everyone wants to see the cake:
Me and my best friend:
The dirty little secret as to how we were able to convince Natalie not to bolt during the wedding:
Yes, there was a bagpiper.
Yes, said bagpiper came equipped with a kilt.
No, we are not Scottish.
No, Aaron's family is not from a highland sheep herding culture either.
Overheard just before this picture: "Just in case, my car is right outside the gate and the keys are in it."
All decorations, arrangements, issues, coordination, assimilation and beyond was made much easier by Shannon. I honestly believe we would have seen how the weather was in Vegas the third weekend of July if it wasn't for Shannon. The Tobin family dermatologist sends his thanks.
Way to go Aaron! Closing your eyes while kissing is only for when you are courting.
Natalie laughing at something funny our dad said.
Okay, maybe the champagne made it funnier but it's my blog and I'll post my version of the event as I see fit.
Speaking of my blog this was also my champagne, err sparkling wine of the champagne method:
Some people were ushers, some people set up tables, some people help with catering, everyone had their role. My official job was 'enabler':
Jump Jump
I had to borrow a one year old (Molly Sobo) just to fit in for this picture. Also feel free to leave any thoughts on Mike's hair in the comment section of the blog. I'll make sure he gets them:
This was the only picture I could find to prove that Patrick was actually at the wedding, thus it's inclusion:
Grace during the 'money dance':
Aaron wasn't nearly as popular during the money dance, thus I felt the need to step in and fill the gap.
You wonder where else Natalie had money stashed from the dance:
That was pretty much the synopsis of the night. We had a great time and I think everyone else did as well. Big congrats to Natalie and Aaron or as they are now known, the Coiteux's. You will now be cursed by mangled pronunciations and misspellings for the remainder of your days! As the night wrapped down, I think we all would have liked to do as Lexi and just have a binky:
There are many many pictures of the wedding done very professionally by an actual photographer of the event. You will find nothing of the sort on this site. This is the man (or woman depending on who held the camera) view from the action. Enjoy!
Rehearsal dinner at the park. All the flower girls got cool Gucci sunglasses:
Natalie's bride's maids plus a flower girl lurking below.
The next day was the wedding, standard protocol the day after the rehearsal dinner. The wedding party was 'encouraged' to arrive about 16 hours prior to the ceremony for pictures.
Here's me with the only girls not married to me that really still like me:
Everyone wants to see the cake:
Me and my best friend:
The dirty little secret as to how we were able to convince Natalie not to bolt during the wedding:
Yes, there was a bagpiper.
Yes, said bagpiper came equipped with a kilt.
No, we are not Scottish.
No, Aaron's family is not from a highland sheep herding culture either.
Overheard just before this picture: "Just in case, my car is right outside the gate and the keys are in it."
All decorations, arrangements, issues, coordination, assimilation and beyond was made much easier by Shannon. I honestly believe we would have seen how the weather was in Vegas the third weekend of July if it wasn't for Shannon. The Tobin family dermatologist sends his thanks.
Way to go Aaron! Closing your eyes while kissing is only for when you are courting.
Natalie laughing at something funny our dad said.
Okay, maybe the champagne made it funnier but it's my blog and I'll post my version of the event as I see fit.Speaking of my blog this was also my champagne, err sparkling wine of the champagne method:
Some people were ushers, some people set up tables, some people help with catering, everyone had their role. My official job was 'enabler':
Jump Jump
I had to borrow a one year old (Molly Sobo) just to fit in for this picture. Also feel free to leave any thoughts on Mike's hair in the comment section of the blog. I'll make sure he gets them:
This was the only picture I could find to prove that Patrick was actually at the wedding, thus it's inclusion:
Grace during the 'money dance':
Aaron wasn't nearly as popular during the money dance, thus I felt the need to step in and fill the gap.
You wonder where else Natalie had money stashed from the dance:
That was pretty much the synopsis of the night. We had a great time and I think everyone else did as well. Big congrats to Natalie and Aaron or as they are now known, the Coiteux's. You will now be cursed by mangled pronunciations and misspellings for the remainder of your days! As the night wrapped down, I think we all would have liked to do as Lexi and just have a binky:
Friday, September 21, 2007
It's a small world after all........
From the 'it's a small world after all' portion of the blog we had house guests last night. This is not a rare occurrence in and of itself as we still like to entertain at Casa de Tobin.
But last night was very special as we entertained two 'professional athletes':
Yes, loyal readers of this space will recognize the tall girls we met on a ferry boat on the way to Dubrovnik in Croatia. It turns out they weren't lying and do actually live in Seattle.
We had a great time and hope to do something in the future with our new friends. But basketball season in England starts in a few weeks and one or both (as the eight ball says 'answer unclear, ask again later') are leaving for England and the glamorous life of a US professional athlete in Manchester. You know, hanging with Wayne Rooney, Christian Ronaldo and the ever suave and oft injured Frenchman Luis Saha is just part of the daily life as an American basketball 'star' in Manchester.
Here are a few archive photos just because I liked the pics and have a semi good excuse to tie them to this post.
It sure looks like she might have been pushed off that ledge.......?
Rest assured that while we had a good time last night, we were not tempted to jump off the back deck of the house or anything.
And in very late breaking news, many congrats go out to Dawn and Steve Piacitelli. Samuel David Piacitelli was born around 4 PM today (Friday the 21st) weighing in at a robust 6 lbs 15 ounces and 20 inches long. Mother and son are doing fine and father is still planning on attending the Seahawks game Sunday. That's a dedicated fan right there!
Congrats Dawn and Steve.
But last night was very special as we entertained two 'professional athletes':
Yes, loyal readers of this space will recognize the tall girls we met on a ferry boat on the way to Dubrovnik in Croatia. It turns out they weren't lying and do actually live in Seattle.
We had a great time and hope to do something in the future with our new friends. But basketball season in England starts in a few weeks and one or both (as the eight ball says 'answer unclear, ask again later') are leaving for England and the glamorous life of a US professional athlete in Manchester. You know, hanging with Wayne Rooney, Christian Ronaldo and the ever suave and oft injured Frenchman Luis Saha is just part of the daily life as an American basketball 'star' in Manchester.
Here are a few archive photos just because I liked the pics and have a semi good excuse to tie them to this post.
It sure looks like she might have been pushed off that ledge.......?
Rest assured that while we had a good time last night, we were not tempted to jump off the back deck of the house or anything.
And in very late breaking news, many congrats go out to Dawn and Steve Piacitelli. Samuel David Piacitelli was born around 4 PM today (Friday the 21st) weighing in at a robust 6 lbs 15 ounces and 20 inches long. Mother and son are doing fine and father is still planning on attending the Seahawks game Sunday. That's a dedicated fan right there!
Congrats Dawn and Steve.
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