Stop 4: Sequim, WA

Truth be told, we didn't go straight to stop four.  We took a couple of days to find our cars, start the house hunting process, and get our lives started in Washington state.  Yes, yes, we'll get to that... soon enough.  First a recap of our recent trip to Sequim (pronounced Squ-im), Washington.  We packed our bags one more time, belted the dogs into the car, and headed to Sequim to see Kent, Tritia, Kai, and Sophia Grubbs at Kent's parent's house.  

We know the Grubbs from Okinawa, so it was great to see them again since their summer departure in June.  Every summer they travel out to Washington to visit Kent's folks, who so graciously let us stay - pups in tow - at their house.  We had such a good time visiting with the whole Grubbs troupe and exploring this new part of the country, which is surprisingly close (45 - 60 min, depending on traffic) from where we'll be living.

The first order of business was visiting a brewery in Port Townsend and trying some of the local brews.  We had fun tasting all the flavors on the sample tray.  I'd recommend the Chet's Gold Golden Ale, Reel Amber, Port Townsend Brown Porter, or Green Tea Ale (seasonal) if you find yourself in this area.

Oh, and while we were sippin' away, the brewery provided live acoustic guitar music.  Nice!

Here's the gang!

The next day brought some more exploring.  Our first stop was Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, or the Dungeness spit.  I found out that the Dungeness spit is the world's longest natural sand spit (basically a long sand bar attached to the land), which is about 4 1/2 miles long and leads to a lighthouse at the end.  

 Here's a view of the expansive spit from a lookout area in the forest.

Kent and Sophia check out the view.

We really only spent a little time in this area, since it's right on the water and it was COLD!  Sophia kept trying to stay warm by hiding in nearby driftwood.

Meanwhile, Kai became the king of rock-throwing.

Check out this shot of the Grubbs family...I think it might be Christmas card worthy!

After lunch our next stop was Hurricane Ridge, in Olympic National Park.  The views were just stunning. I had to keep from breaking out into song.  The hills are alive, with the sound of music...

We hiked a few short trails and enjoyed the views, the animals (all the deer!), and the company. The kiddos enjoyed a small patch of snow that they discovered on the trail.  Unfortunately the snow patch was small and dirty, but that didn't stop them from playing in it.  It was Sophia's first time seeing snow after all, and she wasn't about to let it pass by.

Here's Team Juloa at the top of the ridge!

Oh no - another Christmas card contender!  Oh, the choices!

On the way down, we saw the strangest tree with this lime green and black "moss" on it.  I've never seen anything like it.

This picture was actually taken near the visitors center.  Apparently the deer are not too intimidated by people.  

Meanwhile, back in Sequim, the dogs enjoyed having some new playmates and the kids enjoyed giving them treats and having them cuddle up.  I love this photo of Gunnar and Kai.  Look how happy both boys are!

Tritia got some lovin' too!

Our visit ended with an early morning kayak trip near Diamond Point.  At first, the water was covered in fog and reminded me of good ol'days spent on an Alagash River canoeing trip from my middle school days.  The fog was dark and creepy, but the water was calm.  Here is a picture of me and Tritia in the midst of it:

It was pretty amazing to watch the clouds dissipate over the land and the sun start to peak through.

But the best part of the kayaking was the up-close-and-personal view of some bald eagles.  Amazing!

Here's the kayaking crew...with a little head peeping through!

We are so excited that we'll get to see the Grubbs every summer and reunite in Sequim!  Fun times!  Thanks guys! 

Stop 3: Colorado

Next up, the reunion of "Hampostle" or the Hammers and the Apostles, who are familiar faces around this blog.  Our first stop in FoCo, CO was to a tapas and wine bar.  I've been there once before, but it was Noa's first visit and our first visit all together.  Not only was the food AMAZING, but the day was absolutely beautiful!

Mmmm...bacon wrapped dates!  Delish!  Bacon always makes things yummy.

Hampostles!  Oh, and Mike's shirt reads: "Good enough to eat!!"  It's from one of our favorite burger joints in Okinawa called Seaside Jet City Burgers.

Mike and Jess know all the good hikes and took us to a great one at Seaman's Reservoir.  It was a perfect day for hiking.

Look how beautiful!

Mike and Noa got to spend some quality time on the golf course.  While they were out playing 18 holes, we were out shopping, of course  But, it just wouldn't be a Hampostle visit without snapping a picture before of our golf guys.

Oh, and I always love to visit them in Colorado and spent time with my favorite rottie, Sarge.  Yes, his name might sound intimidating, but he is such a lover and his little rump wouldn't stop wagging.

As always, we had a lovely visit and it ended much too fast.  Thanks, guys for making us feel so at home  and Jess, thanks for sharing your pics!  You will always be my favorite photographer.

Stop 2: California

Our second stop was to the bay area of California to see two wonderful groups of people: Noa's parents, who relocated there this year, and Herman, Traci, and their daughter, Emilia.  This was our first time meeting Emilia, as she joined their family in December of last year, and we were just smitten with her.  One night after dinner, she enjoyed dancing in the street to a local band at a street festival near the restaurant.  Traci took some cute shots of her that night.

Isn't she just ADORABLE?!

I got to spend lots of time with Traci, which is great since living overseas has kept it difficult for me to stay in touch with her.  I've known her for about 10 years now!

Traci, Emilia, and I got to go to the Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco.  We dubbed this fair as having the best of the best of Etsy and most of the goods were amazing (there were a few strange tables that we chose to ignore).  I came away with a few goodies including this print...I'm sure you are shocked.  You know I can't resist a good "animal-themed" print.

Noa and Herman got to reunite with a friend who works for Google, so we got to visit the Google campus.  We had a lot of fun exploring this campus that reminded me of my college days, with all the buildings, bikes all over, and a huge cafeteria with various food stations. 

Team Juloa enjoyed trying the community bikes that are available for everyone to use.

We also spent some time with Noa's parents, Jack and Carol.  Since we've never had a Booher-Hammer-only hang out time, we took advantage of the opportunity and took off for a little get-away.  Noa's parents planned the whole thing and it started out with a visit to a local farmers market, which I loved!  The colors!  The variety!  The fragrant smells!  I just can't wait to start going to the farmer's markets in Washington! We picked up few items, drove down the Pacific Coast Highway, with the top down on the convertible of course, to a state park for an afternoon picnic.

Then they surprised us with a 2 1/2 hour trail ride!  It's been a few years since I've been on a horse and I've definitely never been on a horse that long before (I think we were all feeling it the next day).  But, I loved it!  My horse was named Melody and Noa rode Snickers.  The trail ride took us throughout forests, hills, waterways, and the beach.  We had several river crossings, like this one.

Check out the size of this tree!

Noa with Snickers, the tailgater (he really liked Melody in front of him).

Riding the horses on the beach was the best!

At the end of the day, we relaxed at a lovely sea-side hotel.  The next day led us to Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California.  Both Noa and I did not know much about the history of Hearst Castle, but the tour was extremely informative, as was the visitor's center (click on the link for more info).  

The castle was breathtaking.  My favorite part was probably the outdoor pool, with the bright blue bottom.

The castle itself is like a museum with artifacts from all over the world both inside the castle and on the castle grounds.  Here you can see one of the oldest pieces on the property, from Egypt, with one of the castle buildings in the background.

I'm so glad we were able to spend this time with Noa's parents....it was a wonderful trip!

Stop 1: Michigan

Before settling into our new life in the US, we decided to take a couple of weeks to visit family and friends in various states.  Our first stop was near Flint, Michigan to visit our dear friends, Jason, Emily, and their adorable kiddos, Jackson and Grace.  The Scherdens used to live in Okinawa, but just spent their first year living in Germany!  Needless to say, we had a lot to catch up on.

First, Noa and Jason reunited!

At a local park, we listened to some live jazz, had a picnic, and just enjoyed each other's company.  But, boys will be boys and soon Jackson became the human burrito, thanks to Noa's skillful blanket rolling technique.

On another night, we got to go to a Train and John Mayer concert!  Train opened the show with all their greatest hits, including my favorite, "Hey Soul Sister."  The only problem was I was just grabbing a stall in the bathrooms when the opening notes started to play.  Talk about bad timing!

John Mayer's performance followed.  I thought that I didn't really know many John Mayer songs, but surprisingly I did!  He's a fun entertainer and seems to really enjoy being onstage.  Sorry for the crappy picture, but I only had my little point-and-shoot.

The best part of the concert was the picnic part.  The concert venue is right by a ski area, so there's a hill facing the stage.  To watch the concert, you can be up close in the seats or in the back on the hill.  We sat on the hill with a picnic dinner....fine cheeses, crackers, breads, olives, salomi, fresh fruit, spreads, and chocolate were eagerly consumed as we enjoyed the music and each other's company.

Me and Emily

One of our last days in Michigan was spent in Frankenmuth, Michigan, a German-themed town.  We dined in a German-themed restaurant of course (Noa ordered the snitzel), walked the streets to the sounds of Oom-pah tunes, and visited a few of the shops.  Aren't we a happy bunch?! 

There were flowers everywhere!  It was so lovely!  I had to get a Team Juloa pic.

Ha ha - the boys: Noa and Jason

And the girls: Emily and Julie

Me, Noa, and Emily posing by the fountain.  It was a perfect day for sightseeing.

We even went to the world's largest Christmas store, Bronner's Christmas Wonderland.  Look at the excitement!

And we had lots of fun hanging out with the whole fam, including Jason's parents, who so graciously let us stay in their home.  Here's part of the gang shucking some Michigan corn (it was DELICIOUS by the way!).

Enjoying dinner on the porch with Jackson and Gracie.

We got to ride the neighbor's Segways!  Noa tried it out with Jason before I had the guts to jump on and give it a whirl.

Apparently Jason made my first Segway lesson hilarious.  

We enjoyed making and eating lots of smores by the backyard campfire.  The kids were too cute!

Oh, and I loved Murray, the family dog.  Murray has a quirky affinity for two things in life: frisbees and "Papa" (Jason's dad).  He nearly ran away when Papa went on a quick bike ride.  Thankfully the word, "frisbee" brought him right back home.  Isn't he cute??

We had such a fun time with the whole family.  The trip, as most trips are, ended much too soon.  Thank you to the Scherden family for being such wonderful hosts.  Also, thank you to Emily for sharing your beautiful pictures!

Here's the gang: Noa, Julie, Jason, and Emily.

Last Days

Our last days in Okinawa were spent finishing up final to-dos and enjoying our favorite things on the island.  During the last night in our apartment, there was a large fireworks display outside our window.  We have watched many of these over the years, but this display had some new designs, like this one that exploded near the surface of the water.  It was pretty amazing.

We ate at Sams-by-the-Sea, complete with fruity drinks and paper bibs.

And, the oh-so-good curry soup with garlic croutons.

And then there was the last pedicure at Cocoks....I chose a black color with colorful flowers and yellow butterflies. I wanted something tropical to remind me of the island.

During our last days on the island we lived in the WestPac, a hotel on base.  It was an extremely busy week with Noa tying up lose ends at work, getting the Capa sold, saying good-bye to friends, and checking out of our apartment.  On travel day, July 24, we loaded up a couple cars with suitcases and dog crates and headed to the airport.  The dogs were pretty anxious at the airport, but I think I was worse.  I was very nervous about flying the dogs since they had to be in separate crates and fly in the cargo area of the plane.  It didn't help that we had to wait in a massive line that seemed to move at a snail's pace.

Gunnar kept nervously licking the inside of his crate while we waited in line.

We landed in Seattle-Tacoma airport on the same day, after about 16 hours of travel, we grabbed our bags and headed to the opposite area of the baggage claim to pick up our pups and see how they fared.  Although they were crying a little, they looked like they were in good shape and ready to get out of the crates.

They weren't covered in filth, which I was afraid would happen, so we didn't have to worry about cleaning them up right away, but I knew they were crossing their legs.  So, we whisked the crates outta there and headed outside to give them a much needed bathroom break.  After that, we got in line for a rental car and prepared for our next adventure in Washington!