Couple of amusing sidelights.....

from our eagle watching trip. We've stopped at the restaurant a couple of times and every time we enter we have to chuckle over this sign. We finally had a camera with us to capture it.

Hmmmmm.....

The reason for this photo, is the name of the Honey Bucket company. It is the "Wizard of Ooze" We had a couple of chuckles over this.

We went to Skagit County to.......

see the eagles that migrate there every year. We saw about 15 in two different locations. There is one in the tree in the picture below. After this we drove over to a spot in LaConnor were the snow geese congregate each year at this time. That is a spectacular sight. There are thousands of them and the sound is quite loud. They all have something to say, I guess. When something startles them they all will take off at the same time. When the sun hits their wings, it looks like a sky full of confetti. We didn't take pictures as it is very hard to capture just how awesome this is, unless you have a powerful camera. Some things you have to commit to memory.

Dad goes snow shoeing

Dad and his friend Frank, went up to Snoqualamie Pass on Saturday to test out their snow shoes for the first time this season. They had a beautiful day and were very excited to be going. They went with several people and had a great time. Beautiful weather for the first time in quite a while.

Very Pretty

The Rose Parade

On New Year's day we journeyed to Pasadena to view the Rose Parade. Something I have always wanted to do. It was a lot of fun and every bit a beautiful as I thought it would be. The Grand Marshall was Cloris Leachman, not that you can necessarily tell from this photo.

A couple of floats.

This train was spectacular.

Esmee

This is Martha's niece. She really enjoyed the parade, lots of giggles, clapping and cheering. Nice hat huh? Kept the sun off her little face.

New Year's Eve evening

After having dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant called Mulberry Street, we went back home and proceeded to celebrate Zach and Martha's 1 year anniversary. Zach's mom had saved and frozen the top of their cake just for this event. It tasted very good, but was sort of crumb-ly as you can see by the photo below. We all went to bed pretty early, as we had to get up at 4:45am to head to Pasadena for the Rose Parade in the morning. More on that soon.

Aunt Karen

After Karen's surgery she rented this little scooter and scoot around she does. With those hardwood floors she really gets around.

A little breather from So. Cal.

Last evening we went to Aunt Karen and Uncle Ken's for dinner. She has had some surgery on her foot and isn't able to put any weight on it. So we brought dinner and sat and talked and had a great time. Here she's lighting candles.

Nixon Library and Museum

One of the things we did while in So. Cal. was to visit the Richard Nixon library. This is the 3rd presidential library we have visited and we find them extremely interesting and always wind up spending more time than we had planned. There are 9 more presidential libraries and I'm hopeful that we can visit a few more. Muf and I are standing among some world dignitaries, can you tell who they are?

Nixon's home

Dad, Muf and I are standing in front of the house Nixon was born in. The house stands on the original site. I found it interesting that they were able to acquire enough land around this house to create the library/museum. A lot of the furniture inside is original.

Dad and I are standing in front of what seems to be a long reflecting pond. The gardens all around are lovely. It was warm and sunny, a great respite from Seattle's snow and cold

Our host and hostess.

This is Bill and Sandi our wonderful hosts for our 4 day stay. Thank you!

Before we left Club 33, Martha stepped into this phone booth. It is really lovely with all that glass.

Fireworks

We stayed in the park until the fireworks were all displayed. It made it close to a 12 hour day for us, but it was all worth it. The fireworks are spectacular with Cinderella's castle all in lights behind them. It's hard to get a photo of both that is decent, this will have to do.

One of the highlights....

of the day, was dinner at Club 33. Here we are waiting to get in. It is a lovely restaurant located in New Orleans Square. We were celebrating Zach and Martha's 1st wedding anniversary. Dinner was excellent!

Place Setting

Muf and Zach

Looking good, after a year of wedded bliss!

Trip to So. Cal.

We flew to So. Cal. right after Christmas for a few fun packed days. Our first stop, right out of the airport, was Disneyland. This is the Penn State band. They were very good and there are certainly a lot of them.

Muf and I getting ready to take on Main St.

Martha and the Poppy's on Main Street