Easter Mini-trip (complete with bunny)

Anita and Jim are buying this house. We went to go take a look with them and give them our moral support.

As some of you know, whenever Nile is around people feel comfortable spending lots of money. This is the view from their breakfast nook. (Nile in the foreground.)

The house has a fabulous kitchen where 4 people can work comfortably. We are jealous.

Here is the front of the house. Anita has grand plans about redoing the landscaping. There is a 3 car garage in the back with a workshop where Jim looks forward to spending time.

We went to check out the beach clubhouse that the community owns. If you park there, it has to be for 72 hours. (That's what the sign says.) We parked for 5 minutes.

There is a nice little hike through a forested area near the water. We found a great big yellow slug there. We wanted to pickle it for Romney, but we didn't have a jar.

Tulip festival starts next week in the area, so we went to check out the tulips.

There were fields and fields of tulips. Here are some especially impressive ones with double petals.

It was raining lightly which made the tulips look fresh.



There was a bus parked in the middle of the tulip field.



Between the tulip fields were Jersey cows which Matt liked.

Yay cows!

Entering La Conner we found a fire hydrant. We wonder what the firemen think about this.

A bunny greeted us as we entered La Conner. Happy Easter!

Anita took us out for a yummy lunch. Matt topped off his lunch with a little slice of cake.



Driving out of La Conner we saw daffodils.

We got off the freeway because it was moving slowly, only to be stopped by the draw bridge in action.

Here's the little boat we stopped for.

Green light, off we go!

Hanami

We went on a hanami picnic this Sunday. Hanami is a traditional Japanese picnic under a blossoming cherry tree. The weather has been fantastic recently and we were especially lucky this day.

We spent all morning cooking various dishes. We made about seven different dishes ranging from umeboshi onigiri, to ocha dango. It was all really tasty. Our friend Kirsten was able to join us too. Matt was lame about getting the details out to his work friends in time, so they wern't able to make it.

Matt's team took today off. They went out for brunch and then rock climbing. Left to right, Joe (on the wall), Russell, Mike, Ari, Matt, Radha.

Here's Matt scaling an overhang. He was only able to do two climbs because he's so out of shape. He had a lot of fun though and helped Russell with the belaying.

Masi Mara in our house?

Matt has been really into origami. He has a page-a-day calendar with a new pattern each day. We went to Uwagimaya (Japanese import and grocery store) and got hundreds of sheets of paper for Matt. Clockwise from the top left are: dik-dik couple, topi, zebra, elephant, nile crocodile.

Beautiful Seattle

It's been beautiful here in Seattle. The headline reads, "Seattle bloom, L.A. gloom." It's usually the other way around this time of year, so we're pretty happy with the weather.

We're not trying to rub it in. Really. ;-)

The trees are all blosoming here. We want to go hanami one of these days. Hanami is a picnic under a cherry tree when it is blosoming and watching the flowers and petals fall.

The blosoms are really beautiful.

The bulbs we've been trying to force this winter are starting to flower out. This is a hyacinth. It doesn't really understand that it's supposed to have a long stem, despite pengi's encouragement.

We came across this sculpture downtown this last weekend. It's called "pi in the sky." Kenneth, Victor, and Jesse, we'd love to get you in a picture with it. :-)

Spring is here!

Spring is here! Hello, Spring!













This week has been beatiful all week. When sunny, Seattle is a really pretty place.






Bainbridge is also pretty, too.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! We made yummy cake together to celebrate.

Matt also got roses for Nile. :-)

More animal photos

Renna told us that she wanted to see more animal pictures so here are some assorted animal photos.

Worthogs were our favorate.

Topi with their biker shorts.

Worthogs running with thier tail up.

Lions. The one on the left is a teenage male.

Giraffe.



Lions after thier breakfast. Some on the left are still eating.

There were not much of breakfast left, but there were jackals, hyenas and vultures waiting for the small amount of leftovers.

Hippo.



Ostrich.

Flamings (at peaktime, there are ten times more of them).

White rhino.

Zebra.

This little (size of a cat) rock hylax's closest living relative is the elephant.

Baboon with a volunteer spirit.

We love hippos.



Grant's gazelle.

Hello!

bird nests.





Ostriches.