Blackberries and Lunch at the Park!

Today started out a little chilly. So, I left home with a sweat shirt and jacket and Christo with a tee shirt and jacket. His was the better choice by early afternoon...ha. We rode through West Van and I returned the friendly "wave" to a bunch of folks that we passed going by....

 We saw a beautiful flower bed on the way and I had to stop and get some shots of it.  I'm not the best photographer, but I still wanted to get what I could.

Unfortunately, sometimes the shutter opens and closes in the middle of "auto" challenges.

So, we decided to stop along the way and see about getting some blackberries since my last blackberry adventure only yielded a small, sweet one  and very sour one....:-(.  Christo decided he knew the perfect place and he picked some for me.....:-)

Yay Me!!  Thanks Christo......xoxo

 The temperature was really starting to change and I was getting hungry.  So, we stopped and got lunch to take to the park.....

Christo went ahead of me to snag the picnic table just ahead of us.... There was some kind of a kid's camp going on near by, but they were far enough away that we could still enjoy the quiet of the park...Which I counted a small blessings since I suffered most of the night with a toothe ache from a root canal and just wanted .....well, food and quiet!

We spread out our food and started downt the road of NO RETURN!  IT WAS DOOMED!  I had never had "clam miso soup" before, but I was going in for the kill! haha

Scootard (Chris) ate his food like he had been mad at it all his life!  Notice the glare in his eye! hahaha  It was a fixed fight I tell ya!

After rolling away from the table we spent some time sitting by the water for a short while...

And then Scootard got "antsy" and decided he wanted to find the perfect piece of drift wood....AGAIN....:-)

I on the other hand was sitting their enjoying the view and wishing I had worn somthing else other than this stupid sweat shirt!

ok, sweating now.....

ok, time to go!  The sun is bleaching my hair....I'm starting to look grey around the edges....hehehe

So, we started heading back toward home.... I can't believe the one question that came to my mind was "what am I going to do about dinner?"....REALLY????

ok, here is a nice distraction from more food......:-)

and of course, there is always that cute little art gallery.....:-).    ahhhhhh......:-).

But that didn't last long.......we got home and I was still thinking about dinner....  you know being friday and all... you want to keep it simple....  I'm thinking Peanut Butter and Jelly!  Yay!!  

Saddlesbags, Stickers, Afternoon Ride---Oh my!

The weather seems to be changing quite quickly here in BC. Just last week it was in the 90's (30's celcius) and everyone thought they were going to either cook in the gear or cook on the beach somewhere. So, the last couple of days have been a bit tricky trying to figure out what to where and when. Today, I decided to take the plunge and take a short ride on "Ms Vickey".  But not before we got those saddlebags turned around the right way!  AGAIN....

Scootard was just getting in from work and wanted to go on a ride with me.  Since I don't ride alone...that worked out just fine....:-).  

The stickers that we had been waiting for came in the mail today and we were able to pt them on our bikes.  "ADV" stands for Adventure Rider! 

 Now, we are ready to go!  We are off the store to find some matching nail polish to cover the scratches that Ms Vickey recently encountered.....Hopefully, they will have the right color!   

But unfortunately, our searched landed us with nothing from the local Wal-Mart store.....:-(.  Ms Vickey will have to bare the marks of her "dirt nap" for now.  We will check again when we get on the road during our next adventure.  I know that somebody, somewhere has the right color for her! They are small scratches and thankfully not extremely deep.  Hey, it's cheaper than a paint job!  So, for now, it's back home to some slow cooking dinner.

I love getting fresh veggies and fruits from the vendors on the side of the road whenever I can.  But these ingredients came from the local grocery store, but "appeared" to be in decent shape.  But we know how that can go, right?  I wanted to dig into my big roasting pan of slow cooked Ox tails with carrots, potatoes, red, yellow, and orange bell peppers, celery, onions, and my "secret spices" topped off with a little peanut butter to add some richness to the dish.....:-)

And I hit a home run!  A slam dunk! a touch down! and whatever else you say when your really deliver the goods.....haha.  Very tender and very rich!  ahhhhh, now for some icecream to end a very long, but fullfilling day....:-).

good night! 

Day of Relaxation and New Duds for "Ms Vicky"

I'm the kind of girl that loves to be by the water, but not necessarily "in" the water.  So, I enjoy going to the beach and watching others enjoy all sorts of water sports such as wind surfing and kite surfing....:-). 

It really is much harder than what it appears to be as you have to use all of your core muscles just to steer those things.  Plus, you are battling the wind!

 And at some times, they get the rear ends handed to them on a silver platter by mother nature...haha.  this guys comes out of the water saying...."I can't take it any more.  The winds are just to rough"....ha.  I on the other hand was enjoying the whole scene!

 Next on the agenda after a good day and some rest, was to finally after 4 years of being in Canada, pick some wild blackberries that were growing outside our Condo.  Others (including the bears) had beat me to the punch and there wasn't much left.  I did manage to grab a couple.  One was sour and the other was mildly sweet....:-).

 After snacking on the sweet and sour snack, it was time to surprise Ms Vicky with her new "duds" in preparation to our upcoming trip!  Ms Vicky is sporting new saddle bags that we picked up in Seattle for a very reasonable price.  Yay!
 I (of course) didn't know that there was a "wrong way" to put them on....:-(.  So, Scootard had to fix it for me.....:-).  He pulled up right when I was smiling over my "well done job"....ha.  When he .....uh....chuckled and smiled....I knew something was wrong...haha 

 Sooooo, he took them off and repositioned them properly and secured them to Ms Vicky....:-)

 Now, she is ready to go on her next big adventure!  I will have to get used to feeling extra weight on the sides of the bike like this.  Hopefully, I won't drop her again....:-(.

 After thinking about the neighbors "not my cat"...cat ran out from under the cover when I first started my project, I decided I would pull the rain covers over both saddle bags...maybe if she decideds to scratch her nails on them, the cover will provide some needed protection.

 And so, there she is.....Ms Vicky with her new duds on.  Looking sharp and getting covered up to protect her from wind and rain.....:-).  Looking forward to the next big adventure!

 We have just a few more days and we will be hitting the road again!  Already got our trip tickets, travel and medical insurance, and the "things to do" and things to pace lists are all organized......:-).

Ride To Vancouver and Back

We decided that we needed to get to town today to run a couple of errands.  I was thinking "Infinity! What a great car!"   Hubby was thinking "Scooooooterrrrssss!"  So, we rode.

 After having breakfast at Denny's which was not that great today, we headed back toward home.  On the way back, I developed a hankering for some coffee.  We stopped at a popular biker's stop on the highway.  I was glad to give my rear end a rest as I had not ridden but once since we returned from our last two trips last week.

It was good to be able to rest for a few minutes before heading back home.  For some reason though, it seemed like a very LONG RIDE......So, I just wanted to sit "out of the saddle" for a few more minutes and enjoy the scenery. I think we both had a case of "monkey butt" because we had not been on our bikes in a couple of days....sooooo, we were going to pay for that.....very shortly! ha

The view from our table......:-)

Scootard was enjoying the rest too.  .....:-).

Well, our little break had to come to an end as we were needing to get back to our own town.  So, we geared back up and headed out with still another errand to run.

After picking up an auto part from a local store.....we headed home where we called it a day.....or at least I did.  Scootard had to put the part on.....ha. 

It was a short trip that lasted from 8:30am to 1:45pm.......I have no idea what took us so long.  Unless it was that WRONG TURN I took into Stanely Park instead of to the highway.........ha.....ooopppss.  Oh well.  home now and happy about it!  

See you somewhere out "there"!

DAY 4 -Paulsbo - The Scandanavian Town

After spending sone relaxing time with some great folks...they treated us to a Ferry ride to the Scandenavian themed town of Paulsbo!  My husband is Norwegian, so it was particularly interesting to me....:-).  The ferry ride was less than an hour, but it was very beautiful.  The ship was called "Tecoma".

I had only been on a boat ride once in my life before marrying my Chris.  Now, I've been several times, but this was the first time on the Tecoma going in this direction!  I'm  always amazed at how many people and vehicles they can pack on to these things!

We set "sail" so to speak and the harbor was beautiful with Seattle's new Ferris Wheel looming large in the backdrop....:-)

I've thought of living in one of those top floor apartments and then thought again when I found out the estimated price of doing so....ha

My husband, the "point and shoot" king!

He was leaning over the rail so far at one point until our friend was holding his shirt tail!

 When we finally arrived, the first order of business was lunch!  I spotted all of these flags representing Scandanavian countries with a splash of Canada and the US in the mix....:-) 

The Norwegian flag was standing alone in front of a building that housed the fraternal organization called "The Sons Of Norway".

This statue was decicated to the mayor of the city of Paulsbo.  He was a long serving mayor and apparently a "Scandahoovian"....

Chris commanding his Viking ship...."The AchristoPat".....haha

A view from the docks....

As you know from some of my other posts, I like things that speak of "passage" and "transition".  I'm sorry I couldn't get a better shot, but the people sitting at the other end of the alley were weirded out by staring at them....ha.  I was only trying to get my camera angle right.....:-(.

And THEN, we saw this!  ha....uh oh....

I took a particular interest in these little things called "Viking Cups"..The are the dough of a cinammon roll but stuff with some kind of a cream cheese frosting....I could only eat part of one as I found it a little too rich for my liking.

We walked around a bit more and decided that we needed to get back to the landing docks to catch the next ferry.  It was really warm outside.

Since I was the warmest, I waited on a Viking bench...

We headed back toward the docks and started the trip back to Seattle.

And here we are, at the place of beginnings!

Thanks for coming along!