When one of your friends mentions what she wants to do on her Stagette, it usually doesn’t involve extreme sports. Well, that’s not the case for Elise. She is extremely active and adventurous, and even though I scoffed when she first mentioned going River Rafting, I knew it was right up her alley and something that would fit the day perfectly.

I wasn’t too worried about the whole thing. I guess everyone just assumed that I am exactly the same as my Mother and would be terrified over the whole thing, but I really wasn’t. I was excited for the adventure, a little apprehensive as to what to expect, but I really was excited over the whole idea.

We booked our trip through Chilliwack River Rafting and the whole experience was awesome. The staff was super helpful in setting up the stagette and their website had a lot of good information.

We got there at about 11:30 in the morning, signed in and paid our dues, then sat down for a buffet style lunch. After that we all got our gear on and were organized into two groups – Canyon Tour and Classic Tour.

I was surprised as to how many people were up there for the afternoon slot of rafting. 3 stags, 1 stagette, boy scouts and many more groups.

Our of the 12 of us that were up there 9 decided to go the Canyon Tour – which is the more difficult and experienced one – and 3 of the girls decided to do the Classic, more beginners style tour.

I’ve never been rafting before, but I figured if I was going to do it, I might as well go all out!

We were the ONLY girls who chose the Canyon tour!

The whole experience was amazing. Our tour guide was a little weary of having a raft full of girls but we pulled through and did better then some of the guys.

The safety talk we all had scared the crap out of me, but once we were on the river and got a feel for how everything worked, we were all quite relaxed.

One of Elises friends did fall out of the raft, but she was quickly saved by our guide and all was good. At least 1 person fell out of every raft that we were with (4 rafts in total).

We stopped half way down the river and had oranges as a snack. The water was freezing cold and your hands get quite sore from gripping the paddle so hard.

We made fun of Elise the most for her lack of paddling.

This is an actual action shot of our raft going through on of the tougher rapids. What I thought was really great about the whole experience is that all the rafters doing the same section of the river go down together, each raft has an experienced guide, and one guide follows everyone in a kayak to make sure everyone is safe and to point out any unusual hazards. He also acted as a great action photographer. For some reason I just thought it was going to be our little lonely raft floating down the river all by itself. It was nice to have the company of everyone else.

Our guide is  the one standing up with the blue helmet. I am right in front of him in the white helmet.

After rafting for 2 hours, we were dead tired. Not surprising at all really. When Elise mentioned going to Roosters after River Rafting I thought she was joking. I expressed the idea of how tired we would be and her reply to  me was ‘What, are you 80!?’ Yes, yes I am 80.

I wasn’t the ONLY one who was tired.

Some random kept shoving playing cards with naked men down everyone’s shirt. Liz didn’t realize what was on them until we got back to the table and she took a look. PRICELESS!

Elise spent the ENTIRE night dancing! Clearly she is NOT 80!

It was a good night, even though my cousins and I had to drag Elise off the dance floor at 1:30 because WE were all dying. She could have been their all night!

The next day was obviously a write off, but I wasn’t as sore as I thought I would be.

The whole experience was great and I’m really glad I got the chance to do it!

Holy Balls, what is up with this weather? It is getting on my nerves big time.

I’m tired of going outside and freezing my butt off while getting down poured on. IT IS ALMOST JUNE PEOPLE.

Watch all my plants get flooded to death too. Next time I see a cloud I’m going to punch it in the face.

That was the disaster that was my deck a few weeks ago. Chads Mom had bought me some Pansy’s as a pre flower season gift. I sort of just plopped them in my big planter with out any sort of rime or reason, but they grew like weeds. I guess they really liked the deck. I wish I could have kept them, but I had to make room for my Birthday plants. I tried transporting the Pansy’s to another pot, but it just didn’t work out.

Two trays of plants and flowers. I think we over bought. Actually, I know we over bought, but it’s hard when certain flowers come in a tray of 6 and you really only need 4. This year, however, I am going to keep track of everything we bought and how well it grew so that I know for next year.

The planters are done!

Took me a while to figure out where to put everything. I had to squish a bunch in there, but I think it worked. The large pot is mostly made up of greens with white flowers. The small pot is probably going to turn out to be an assortment of fuchsias and purples. It’s going to be a bit of an experiment.

When I told Chads Mom my vision of flowers in tea cups, I explained to her that I needed a really small, delicate flower. She knew exactly when I needed and it worked out so well.

They are so so adorable! Unfortunately the weather has somewhat killed the purple ones, but I think I see new buds forming so I have hope.

My little Ikea Palm really grew last year, and keeping indoors for the winter seemed to work out well. I think I’m going to keep the Ivy I bought last year inside since it seems to like it’s spot and with all the plants now outside, I don’t want it to be too much.

Elise got me all the flowers for the hanging basket. There were three different flowers in there but I just added a forth. Those white flowers took off right away and are partially taking over the whole planter.

Giant Herb Garden #1!

Rosemary and Basil. The weather has also started to kill some of the basil plants so I will most likely have to replace those. Damn weather!

Herb Garden #2!

Sage, Oregano, Thyme, Chives, Tarragon. I’ve already started to use them and I love having them so readily available.

I had this conversation with Chads mom while we were out plant shopping, about how I think of my plants as my kids. Every morning I go out and see how they are doing. Every night when I get home from work I go out and see how they are doing. When it rains too much I go and pull the little ones in, and when it’s nice and sunny I try to arrange them for optimum growth. I think about them all the time, and I worry about them when the weather gets bad. I really want them to do well and grow. It’s really like these plants are my kids. I think that’s partially why I am freaking out about this weather so much.

The other night I cracked the bedroom window open a bit to get some fresh air. I woke up at 3am to the sound of a down pour and all I could think about was my poor little herb garden because it is the only thing that’s not under a cover, so it gets the most abuse. It was the worst sleep ever because I kept waking up to see if it was still raining and I was so worried that everything was going to be ruined.

Forget being a crazy cat lady. I’ve turned into a crazy plant lady!

I just really hope the sun decided to come out some time soon!

• Matt and I are going out for sushi tonight. Birthday dinner of sorts. With Matt and I, it’s either Japanese, Italian, or Nothing. We would actually probably have the most amazing dinners ever if we lived together. That is my one complaint about Mr. Ciavarro, his lack of love for Japanese and things from the Sea.
• Shazzi B made Alicia and I hand made necklaces of awesomeness and I am so excited to pick them up. Hopefully I can get them this weekend. Shes got pictures up on her Flickr page but I’m not going to post them, because its a surprise. Haha. Not really but still. I want to wait until I have it in my hand!
• Finally organized Elises Stagette. We are going river rafting in the afternoon and then to Roosters in the evening. Two things I have never done before, but two things that are very much ELISE. The boys are going camping for Ryans Stag as well that weekend, so it will be much like Chad and mine was.
• Chads mom got me flowers for my birthday again this year. I love when we go out and buy flowers. I want to buy way more then I have room for, and this year we actually did. I have to go out and buy an extra pot just to fit everything. I planted it all Monday afternoon, just before all the rain came.  At least they are under the cover a bit, unlike my herb gardens. I may have to move those when I get home. They have drainage holes, but they just worry me.
• Chads mom also got me some Pandora Beads. They are so beautiful! I got a silver one and glass one. I want to go back and buy so many more. OBSESSED.
• My 2nd work trip to LA is booked. We will be going right in the middle ish of Summer – June 23 -27. So looking forward to it. I just hope the heat doens’t kill me. 
• Almost 2 weeks until we go camping and I get to see PATZ again!!!
• The storm has arrived and I’m not dressed for it. Damn.

Last day in America!

We didn’t spend a lot of time in the USofA as there were things to do back in Canada!

We headed off in the morning to visit St. James Cathedral, which was amazingly beautiful.

Cab Cab Cab

We stayed for mass and it was so cool. The choir was amazing and there was all these different things going on. It was a very  neat experience.

Hey there!

All the pictures don’t do it justice. It was so beautiful.

I found Forget Me Nots outside.

After visiting the Cathedral we headed back to the hotel, packed up and took off. We made a quick detour to Pike Place just so that I could pick up some Mothers Day flowers from the market for our Moms. Then it was off to Costco to buy some Ciavarro Cheese and then back to Canada.

We got to the Ciavarros at about 3 in the afternoon and spend some time there visiting before we headed off to my uncles for my family birthday dinner / mothers day dinner.

It was a lot of driving.

Zoey did all the pre washing of the dishes. I hope Pat explodes when he sees these.

Yea. Pretty un eventful day compared to the other ones. But we did lots of family visiting which was nice.

It was good to be back home but it’s always hard going from a King size bed back to a Queen especially when someone likes to sprawl (CHAD).

Even though I’ve been to Seattle twice now, I wouldn’t hesitate to go back down again. There are so many things to check out that we never had the chance to do.

So whens our next weekend away!?

Day 2!

I never realized until this moment how time consuming these giant photo posts are when you are trying to finish a pile of work.

Do you see the dedication!?

Chad having a traditional toast and Peanut Butter breakfast.

Morning View

What a beauty photo!

The first order of business was to check out the Space Needle. Now, while looking at the tourist map of Seattle, I did notice the Monorail, but honestly thought it did a loop of the city (even though the Map said otherwise). Chad and I were both surprised to find out that the monorail only does two things. It picks you up at the Mall and takes you to the Space Needle. Then it picks you up at the Space Needle and drops you off at the Mall. Handy, but how useful is it if you aren’t going to any of those two place. Weird if you ask me!

Even though we have a Skytrain, I still get excited going on Monorails. I loved how much you could see when riding in this one.

Hobble, hobble, hobble.

I CAN’T SEE IT, I CAN’T SEE IT!

Oh! There it is.

Up at the top enjoying a relaxing view.

How is Chad not a super model?

Komo 4 news had by far the best Hella Pad. Sorry King, & Kiro. (Am I missing one?)

I love these photos.

We hung out at the top of the Space Needle for a while. Played wiht all their interactive games and stuff. The view was obviously amazing, but damn it was cold up there!

I really felt the need to lay in the grass.

HOT

We found a little garden beside all the Carney games.

Spot the Cripple!

We took the Monorail back to the Mall and then walked down to Pike Place.

Chad made friends.

The Ocean!

Apparently Alleys are fun in Seattle!

Chad was starving, so we stopped in at the little French bakery that Alicia, Claudia, and I went to the last time I was here.

Veggie and Cheese. SO GOOD. Everything looks amazing in this place.

GIANT HEAD.

We had to do a lot of stop and start and stop and go with Chads foot. We ended up buying a huge thing of oils for my Mom and ourselves. The thing weighed a ton and Chad had to carry it all day. Not smart :(

Crazy Dairy Farm place.

For Patrick.

Shhhh, he’s sleeping!

Most offensive T-shirt ever!?

This was suppose to be a seated rest area. There were 3 chairs. Nice.

We hopped into this place for a quick beer. Quite possibly could have been the place Sleepless in Seattle was filmed.

FIRE BOAT! Apparently the Tugboat races were going on. We ended up checking them out.

Down to the pier we go!

Poses.

We couldn’t really tell what was going on, but Magnum PI kept flying buy.

Oh yea! And I got my picture taken with a clam!

We took a cab back to 5th street to check out a few shops. There was no way Chad could have walked it even though it wasn’t that far.

Ze Hotel!

After our adventure we hit the hot tub, showered, napped. The usual. I organized all the stuff we had bought into nice piles so packing Sunday morning would be easy.

Chad slept for a while and I drank wine.

We went to a really nice Italian restaurant for dinner, and I felt too weird about taking photos. Then the wine and martini and more wine went to my head and I felt totally paranoid that I was going to make a fool out of myself. The pasta was amazing though.

After dinner I needed to sleep cause I just felt out of sorts (*cough*drunk*cough*) so Chad hit up the Lobby Bar and I snuggled into bed which was the best feeling ever.

Once I got into bed I felt so much better. I think my stomach wasn’t too happy with the left overs I ate before dinner, coupled with the wine and the martinis. I knew that was going to happen. I never listen to myself. Ah well.

One more day in Seattle left!

OK, photos of Birthday Day in Seattle Road trip Alert NOW.

On Thursday morning I saw a lady carrying a bouquet of flowers walk past my window at work. The first thought that came to my head was ‘oh God I hope those aren’t for me’. I waited to hear the door bell, but nothing. Sweet, I was safe! Then I heard the door bell. ”I have flowers here for a Dan Yell See A Varro” Sweet Mother of Mercy.

My obvious reaction was to think they were from Chad, considering how I had just recently bugged him about not getting me flowers, following Adam surprising Alicia at work with a bouquet. But, at the same time, I knew Chad would probably never send me flowers at work, so I had no idea who they were from.

Alicia and I laughed about them as I reached for the card. The envelope was sort of see thru so I could see that who ever had sent them had a name that started with an A. “Is it from Chad?” she asked me. I could tell by the look on her face, she had no idea who they were from, so the fact that all I could see was a letter A surprised me.

Well, I opened the card and saw it was from Alicia and Adam! The best part was that Alicia had no clue Adam had done this, so it was a surprise to her as well!

It was so sweat of them! Emberassing for me, because I hate having all the attention placed on myself, but it was definitly very special!

Friday morning we left the house at 8:30am. It was sunny and bright and beautiful.

Peace Arch Crossing didn’t have a long wait time, which was good. Boarder crossings scare the crap out of me. It has to do with my fear of authority and even though I never do anything wrong, I feel like I am going to get in trouble anyways. Fortunately for me, the boarder guard was very nice once he found out it was my Birthday!

We did some shopping at Target in Bellis Fair. That was basically the extent of my purchases for the weekend.

We tried to buy a McMini from McDonalds, but they don’t exist in America. 

We had many stops on the way down, which is one of the reasons why we didn’t get to Seattle until late. While it sucked because it meant we had less time at our destination, the stops were very much needed.

Like this stop for gas. Muchly needed.

And this stop at the Seattle Premium Outlets. If we didn’t stop here, Chad would have nothing to wear.

Chad saw these Herringbone Vans at Bellis Fair but they didn’t have his size. He was on an obsessed mission to find them. Luckily The Outlets had them in stock!

“Look! Jesus is on sale!”

YES, it’s TRUE. Marketing does work. I have been needing new runners for…oh…3 years now, but have been too lazy to spend the money. One commercial and I was sold.

I haven’t taken them out for a stroll yet, but they feel soooo cool on. You need to go try a pair! $108 inclusive at Seattle Premium Outlets!

The Outlets is where Hobble Along did all his shopping. I get so excited when it comes to shopping for Chad because it’s like I get to dress up my own live Ken Doll. Yes, I just said that.

Oh too Seattle!

So, remember when I mentioned trying to check out some of the Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives in Seattle? Well, we made it to one of them!

A very late lunch (3pm to be exact) at Georgia’s Greek Deli proved to be the best idea ever, as the food was AMAZING. I think this will have to be a traditional stop every time we go down south now.

Jesus and Mary joined us for some foodz.

We knew eating at 3pm was pretty random. Too late for lunch and too early for dinner, but there were actually 2 other groups of people eating as well, so, we weren’t the only strange ones.

This is where they set the Saganaki on fire. I missed taking a picture of it :(

Greek Beers!

Saganaki, the love of my life.

Say Hello to Chicken Gyros with Greek Garlic Fries. Ugh, I want to go back and eat more food NOW!

So I started to look around the restaurant because I read that Guy Fieri leaves a little special something on all the DDDs he goes to. Just as I say this to Chad he points at the wall.

!!!

It was like meeting a Celebrity. Yes, I am that sad.

Photos from the taping of the episode!

Signed Poster!!!

The thing with Me & Guy is, when I was sick from my first Thyroid surgery, I would lay in bed all day long and watch the Food Network for 12 hours straight. This meant I saw a lot of episodes of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. At first I thought he was the most annoying person on the planet, (as I’m sure most people do). I hated when his show came on, and I just found the whole thing so over done. But I watched, and I watched, and then they went to a diner that made pulled pork (gets me every time), and I watched more, and then I became OBSESSED.

I went from hate to LOVE. We had spent a lot of time bonding.

After my second surgery, I would lay in bed watching the Food Network and I looked forward to Triple D coming on. I loved watching all the different places he would visit. I was totally hooked!

Getting to go to this Deli/Dive, was like a small dream come true for me.

Oh, onto the hotel.

We didn’t really have the rest of the day planned, and we were pretty tried from our drive in. Not to mention all the shopping.

The view from our window at the Westin.

There is a lot of WHITE in this photo.

We decided to spend some time in the hot tub relaxing and then we went for a nap / obsessively watch The Food Network.

Chad went out and bought some wine while I had a shower, and tried to figure out a place for dinner, but it was 9pm at that point and the hotel front desk was a little clueless as to where all the action was downtown. Since we had got in so ‘late’ and had not explored the city at all, we really didn’t know where the happening places were.

We ended up just eating at the hotel restaurant. It was nice, but I was way over dressed. I had pick out this outfit before I knew where we were going. Oh well. At least I looked hot. HA.

After dinner we wanted to go out for a drink, but Seattle has this stupid law where they won’t give you a table if you aren’t ordering food, so we had to awkwardly sit at this window bar where we were served by the worst waitress ever.

I guess dinner and drinks wasn’t enough for Chad since a full glass of wine was in order while laying in bed. He stayed up to watch all the late night shows, but I passed right out. I was soo tired, plus I’m 85 years old.

Plus, I needed to rest up for all of the next days adventures!

The weekend was very busy. We really didn’t have a lot of time to relax, but I guess that is ok. It was fun, and sunny, and I ate a lot of scallops, so I was happy.

I’m pretty sure we shared an elevtor ride with the guy who use to host Evening Magazine, but Chad doesn’t think it was actually him.

We watch the tug boat races and I got my picture taken with a Clam.

Chad bought 3 pairs of shoes.

I was passed out by 11 both nights.

I saw Guy Fieris signature on a wall.

I wish I had my photos already uploaded. Tonight, my friends, tonight.

Thankfully, none of my plants died.