Sunday, March 17, 2024

Little Fox assisting Sandy in PCT

 Hiya Gang,

Little Fox, Cocoa and Navy Beanie here.  We have been busy hiking and walking around to assist Sandy in his adventure along the PCT.  As of this writing we are still in Southern California. 

Recently we passed Aztec Falls.
Other notable places Team West Coast Stuffies have visited is the Cabazon Dinosaurs near Palm Springs. A couple of years ago the roommate took me on a trip to Joshua Tree and we drove by the dinosaurs on the way to Joshua Tree.  Not enough time to stop but definitely going to next time.
Today, my little gang (me, Navy, Cocoa, Sequoia) are hiking in forest park. It's a tad muddy today but that doesn't stop these virtual explorers.

"Enough chit chat" said Navy Beanie.  He is certainly ready to explore.  
And we're off! 








Saturday, March 16, 2024

A quick jaunt to wine country

 One of the great things about living where I live is how close I'm to wine country.

Today, I took Navy and Cocoa to Scotch Church Road Winery.  Yep, it's on Scotch Church Road by the old Scotch Church (founded by people from Scotland).

A cool old church and a cool little winery in a cold (yes, cold for March) barn. 

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

One last Seattle adventure....

 Sigh, it's our last day in Seattle and we have to drive back home today.  However, that won't stop us from exploring with another Volksmarch. Little Fox took us on a a Volksmarch that spends a lot of time in Lincoln Park in West Seattle.  As you might be able to see from the views it's pretty darn scenic. The Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains in the background made this a prime walk. 

An iconic view of the West Seattle Ferry. Unfortunately, no time today to see where the ferry would take us.  



A nice little Volksmarch through the park and the neighborhoods.  Plus it also allowed Little Fox to add some mileage to the virtual PCT hike Sandy and him are doing. 
Adios Seattle, see you next time. 



Saturday, March 9, 2024

Off to the market (Pikes Place that is).

After our exploration of the international district I knew I  had to take the mice down to the Pike Place Market.   The plan was to visit the Paris Madrid Store and get some Spanish meats and cheeses for dinner.  Unfortunately the market was closed (new owners).   That's okay, the market was calling and we must go. 
Pike Place Market is always busy.  They top floor has the iconic vendors (fish throwers, spices, tea merchants, flowers, and the like) and the lower floors have different mall shops (luggage, tattoo artists, comics etc). 
Being that Paris Madid store was closed we knew we could find some nice meats and cheeses for dinner. The mice told me they would take care of the cheese (thanks) and I would take care of the other stuff.  First up, we saw this paint can of potato chips in a specialty store.  

Now, these chips were in the same store, I Little Fox, was at last year.  Either they sell a ton or these are last years chips.  We best skip these and go with some fresh bread instead. 

Finding a bottle or three of wine was definitely a group decision.  The only thing we agreed on was to keep the price under $15.00 a bottle (that limited our decisions but we certainly found lots of choices).

Cocoa was checking out the different pate options and found us a nice liver pate. 

Of course we visited the cheesebox cheese store at the market  but the mice and I were stuffing ourselves with samples (trying to find the perfect cheese) that the roommates didn't get any pictures so we rely on some stock photos.   

Now that we got our dinner it was time to explore a little more.  They had a nice amount of public art around the market.  We think this one is a sea creature of sorts. 

After our adventure we were thankful for the comfy seats on the bus back home. 

It was finally dinner time, the roommates did put on a good spread.  Meats, cheeses, wines, and lots of goodies from the market.  It was brutal waiting for the roommates to get the perfect picture, but all three of us are polite and waited. 

Finally, time to dine. Navy is showing lots of restraint while Cocoa and I are about to dive in. 


 

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Xīnnián kuàilè, dàjí dàlì (Happy Lunar New Year.)

Day two in Seattle leads us on a little adventure downtown.  An easy way to get around (and cheap) is Metro, the bus system. 


Navy is super excited to be on the bus and making our way to China town.

We made it!

Seattle has a vibrant international district and we knew this was the place to go to celebrate Lunar New Year.  The international district has little pockets of "towns" so there is a little Saigon, a Japan town, and in our case China town. 

Little Fox took us on a walking tour of the district.  This park was pretty cool and in the center of the international district.  Can you see the lanterns hanging in the trees? 
We had a mission to go dine at a dim sum restaurant.  LF and crew found this restaurant a few years ago, it's off the main drag, and had vibes of a hole in the wall but it was darn delicious.  First, we warmed up with some hot tea. 

Then the food came.  Shumai, pork dumplings, fried tofu, and some shrimp buns, and stuffed eggplant. Little Fox wanted the chicken feet, but us mice vetoed that idea. 
Little Fox is a good host.  He's handling the chop sticks to serve us.  
After dim sum we knew we wanted to explore and we came across a celebration for the new year.  

Dragons.
Parades.


Firecrackers. 
Drums.
More firecrackers (to scare away the evil spirits) 
Of course, being in the international district knows it's a short walk to the waterfront and pike place market. 

 

Saturday, March 2, 2024

Seattle adventures day 1

 Hiya Gang,

Little Fox here.  Navy, Cocoa and I went off to Seattle for President's day.  **cough cough** the ummm roommates are a tad late on their post.  Me saying "tad" is me being nice.  Anyway, I digress. 


The Air B and B we stayed was super awesome, the gang and I really like this little plant.    
Before our first adventure, Cocoa wanted to get an overview of the city.
It was beautiful weather for mid February so the gang and I decided to hit up a local coffee shop. Being that Seattle was where Starbucks started, it kind of counts as a local's place.  This Starbucks has been in the Madison Park neighborhood since the early 90s. 
Today's Volksmarch was  around some uber fancy neighborhoods (sorry readers, they had gates and guards) and the Washington Park Arboretum.  

The arboretum was really cool.  Lot's of trees, open spaces, and areas to wander.  It was great seeing everyone enjoy the weather and be outside.  The Volksmarch took up around some amazing homes with fancy lake views of Lake Washington.

Madison Park provides a sliver of lake access between a couple of condos.  The water looks so peaceful. 

The same view from Madison Park, do you see Mt. Rainier in the background?
After our Volksmarch the roommates took us out to a taproom in the neighborhood near out BnB.  I'll drink almost anything.
Navy seems to like the lighter beers. 
Cocoa really likes the berry flavored ciders. 
After a few drinks we started back to the place.  Then we ran across some cool dudes near a store.  Nope, your seeing things dinosaurs are alive and well in Seattle. 




Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Off to the beach!

Howdy folks, Little Fox, Navy and Beanie here.  We are off to Rockaway Beach on the Coast.  An amazing day for early February. 
First we started heading south trying to see the Twin Rocks.  You can see them in the way back of the picture. 
This is as close as we got due to an outlet that was way too hard to cross.

Onward....heading north, Cocoa is trying to wave to Sandy.   "Hiya Sandy, having a great time down here".

Trying to stay dry.  Navy is really taking well to the water. I worried my guests would be traumatized by the Mouse Island Tsunami of year ago. 

These stairs were found randomly on the beach.  Gotta use them just for fun. 


Time for lunch.  Cheese, turkey, avocado (ok on a sandwich) then a few slices of string cheese and apple. The humans are really upping their lunch game with Navy and Cocoa here. 


Just a few more minutes at the beach, it's so nice today (53 degrees) that we don't quite want to head home yet.