Washington and Wakey-Wakey

We'll see you in a week, Pops!

Tomorrow the kids and I head up to Washington for a week of family and friends: Great Wolf Lodge with my friend Michelle and two of her kids, overnights with my parents, overnights with Mick's parents, and a Mariners game with Karen. (Somewhere in there I get an overnight hike with my pal Maureen into the alpine.)

Mick'll fly up to meet us in Seattle on the 31st, where he'll spend his birthday week with us and various good friends. Dinner with some amigos in Bellingham, and, weather-permitting, some wakey-wakey with the Lanes on Lake Sammamish.

Can't wait!

College Pal Weekend

So, in 2003 we started getting together every summer for a Chicks in the Mountains backpacking and camping trip. We'd shoot for a couple days in the mountains outside Bellingham, hiking among the lupine, swimming in alpine lakes and cooking tinfoil meals over a mini-camp stove. The last couple of years had to be scaled back a bit, though, due to pregnancies, babies, and dental school graduations.

Considering that, I'm not sure what our excuse is this year. But I DO know that I'm flying to Seattle tomorrow to meet up with my old college roomies from Western, 1991-1993, and I'm taking a ferry to Anderson Island in the Puget Sound to spend two kid/spouse-free days with my girls at someone's generous uncle's house.

We've got Chara-Chachi, Maureen-Mo-Mims, Shelby-Bug-Bugger, Michaela-DJMik-Mitchella, Jenny-Fiffer-Farquar, and, yours truly, Anjie-Zhay-Netty.

I wish I had more pictures on my laptop of all of us, but, alas, I don't. Nonetheless, here are a couple photos of me with Shelby and Maureen in Skagway -- when we wore our eyebrows thick, our shirts big, and our pants too high.

Vive le nineties!

THREE DAYS IN THE CITY

Shelby and Maureen came down from Bellingham last Friday. I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to get away much to join them -- with Mick's job search, possible interviews, and general end-of-dental-school obligations -- but I ended up with my pals after work on Friday through Sunday afternoon.

We stayed downtown at SF's Galleria, a sweet swank hotel.

Took a streetcar to North Point/Little Italy for dinner. (I think Maureen's going for the cheesy photo look here. I'm not, but I probably still managed to achieve it.)

(above) Mick took the chicks to the airport and stopped off for some Blue Bottle coffee with Shelby.

More of Blue Bottle's finest.

Wine tasting at Ravenswood Winery in Sonoma. (Shelby with what she'll claim is just a prop.)

Someone missed her mommy.