Kirkland to Portland

 We had our morning breakfast and then did all the things we needed to do to check out of the apartment.  We were supposed to be out of there by 10 am.  It was a nice Airbnb but it did have some problems.  I would not be against staying there again if we find the need.  It was a great location.  

Just as we were leaving the apartment to head over to Madeline and Roman's place, it started snowing.  

We thought it would be good to go on a morning walk in the snow.  We got all bundled up.  We thought that maybe Ivan would want to play in the snow but he preferred to stay in the stroller.  

Not much snow but Nathan found enough to make a snowman.

We walked along the Kirkland Corridor,  It is a 5.75 mile trail.  We only walked a short portion of it.  We were a little chilly.  It was pretty.

We had some nice hot chocolate when we got back and then played a game of 10, 9, 8. Dorothy liked both 10, 9, 8 and Swoop.  

We walked to George's Restaurant in Kirkland.  We picked it because of the name. It had good reviews. We had seen it yesterday when we walked back from the lake.

Nathan had the Salmon Benedict

I had the California Benedict. yummy!!

Ivan wanted what Roman had.

They did not give us any discount.

After we got back from lunch we said our good-byes and headed out to drive home. It was 1:30 pm

Nathan's snowman did not last long.  

It was sprinkling most of the drive south.  Miserable driving weather but at least it wasn't icy or snowing.

We got home about 5:15 pm.  Nathan collected all of his stuff and headed back to his apartment.  I think that he had probably had enough family time.  

It was great to see so many of the family.  

A Day in Kirkland, WA

Nice array of Starbuck mugs.  I have been to all of these places.  

Nathan took over the living room.  Odd decorations above the fireplace.  Apparently they are fishing rod cases.

The patio.  I am sure that it will be too cold to enjoy it.

 

What a day today has been.  Definitely different than what was planned. We were going to head over to Madeline and Roman's around 8 am-ish and then head off to the zoo.  We were ready to head out at 8:30 am and went to go get our car, only to find out that the car fob to open the garage door also is needed to get into the garage.  We had left the fob in the car since we would only need it to open the garage door (we thought).  ARGH!!!!  When we left the car last night if we would have used the elevator we would have realized that we needed the fob but we had used the stairs.  George spent a lot of time on the phone trying to track down a way to get a fob or someone ... anyone who could let us into the garage.  We even stood by the elevator looking pitiful but the one person going down said that it was against the rules.  Finally, we decided just to walk over to M & R's.  Once there we came up with a new plan.  They had had a bad night with Ivan being sick.  Everyone else was fine.  

New plan:  We bundled up and walked to the the Kirkland library

Google

A lot of sculptures around

Christmas "ornaments"

The Gossips

Kirkland has a very nice library

Madeline picked out some books for Ivan.

Then we walked on down to the lake.  I think that it is called Lake Washington.

We passed an art gallery which had a showing of the Art of Dr Seuss.  We went in. 

That was fun.

Lake Washington

The ducks let me get pretty close.

I did not bring quite enough warm clothes or our morning outing, so I was glad to stop for lunch.  We went to Homegrown for lunch.  It is a place where you order at a computer and then they call out when the order is ready. It took us a while to figure that out.  Saying, Bonjour, didn't seem to get the staff's attention.  Though they did point us to the computer.

I had the ham, pear and brie sandwich and tomato bisque.  That hit the spot.

On the way back to Madeline and Roman's place we stopped at a PCC Community Market (Puget's Consumer Coop).  We bought some cashews so that we could make rosemary roasted cashews.  

Once back the apartment, George finally got a fob response.  The house cleaner would meet us at our apartment to get us into the garage so that we could get our fob.  So we had a little time.  We made the rosemary cashews.  They were a hit.  Then we played a few rounds of Swoop.  Then we walked to our apartment to wait for the housecleaner.  

 

At 3:30 we got a text from the housecleaner saying to meet her out front.  She got a key fob and let George get into the elevator, so that he could go get the fob from our car. Actually that is not quite true, she went into one of her client's apartments and borrowed a fob.  Whatever.  At least it worked. Whew!!

We drove over to M & R's.  I brought an extra layer this time because we were going to go to the Garden of Lights at the Botanical Gardens.  We headed out for our 5:30 pm reservation. 

Ivan is bundled up

Very nice light show.  It is a small botanical garden.  

Madeline order pizza while we were driving home.  

Another new birthday gift for Ivan. They spaced out his birthday gifts so he could enjoy each one.  We all enjoyed the trains.

Pizza arrived.  Pesto Vegetarian and Hawaiian.  Plus we had salad and bread sticks and added toppings.  It was all very good.

We headed back to our place.

Mount Vernon to Kirkland

 We had a nice breakfast of cereal, showers, conversation, a neighborhood walk, a rabble rousing game of 10 9, 8 and by then it was time for lunch. 

Birds on Debbie & Joe's bird feeder 

Morning clouds

The lake

Snow goose feather in the water.

A house is going to be built behind D & J's house. We went up to look at the property.

Debbie & Joe's swing

The view from behind D & J's place.

We had salad and other delicious left-overs for lunch. I had a turkey sandwich. We had aimed to leave around 12:30 pm but didn't manage to get packed up to leave until 12:45 pm.  Not too bad.  

We had all kinds of weather.

We drove to our Airbnb to drop off our luggage so that we would have room for Dorothy & Ed's luggage.

Our apartment art work 

Collection of Picasso pictures.

 It was very complicated getting into to it with a variety of codes.  It reminded me of the process of getting into our Chicago place. It is a very nice apartment and it is about 1/2 mile away from Madeline and Roman's place.  

We got to the airport to pick up Dorothy and Ed.  The timing worked out perfectly.  We drove them to Madeline and Roman's.  Ivan was napping so we just visited until he woke up.

Dorothy and Ed

Roman and Ivan

Ivan was opening the gift we brought.

Nathan was playing with the gift we gave Ivan.

We went out to dinner at Tanoor, a Lebanese restaurant.

Cool lights

Nathan's attempts at a selfie with the group.  He and Dorothy did not make it in. Me, George, Roman, Ivan, Madeline, and Ed.

The food was very good, but I did not get any pictures.  

We headed back to Madeline and Roman's for while, before heading back to our place. On the way we stopped at Safeway  for a few groceries.  We had not planned ahead about what we would do for our breakfasts. We had to figure out the parking codes, which was another challenge. We tried to get Nathan set up with the air mattress that they provided.  Unfortunately it leaked so he had to come up with another creative solution. The owners offered to bring another air matress over. Nathan said to not bother. He might change his mind after tonight.