Food in Canada

We went up to Canada for the weekend to see Jennie again. It will be a while before we can visit again because soon Matt will be in Boston to do some interviews and then we'll be in San Francisco for a wedding.

We went out for pancakes one morning. Not the usual thing:
It's called the "Dutch Wooden Shoe Cafe". It reminded us of our favorite ice cream place in Toronto called "Dutch Dreams."



Ham, cheese, tomato, mushroom, red onion.



Cheese and apple.


Juevos Rancheros


Pineapple, bannana and cheese on vegitarian chilli with a side of salad and ice cream.


Pineapple, banana, and nasi oreng.




We also went to our favorite waffle store and got some filled waffles. Here are caramel and pinapple and cream:


Though we didn't buy any, we had to take a picture. These are the most beautiful goat cheeses we've ever seen. They were for sale at the Granville Island market.

Sayulita Pinata ピンヤータ

The day before leaving to come back to the rain country of Seattle, we celebrated with a pinata. Our efforts to surprise the grand kids were successful. Nonetheless, the kids didn't know what it was, so they didn't know how to react.
雨国シアトルに帰る前日メキシコ風にピンヤータ（お菓子が中に入ったくす玉のような物でスイカ割りみたいに割って楽しむ）を用意して孫娘をびっくりさせるのに成功しました。でもピンヤータを知らない四人は始めは戸惑ってました。したの写真はまだ壊れてないピンヤータ。

After the explanation, the kids started attacking it with a broomstick. The four of them worked as a team, but the broom lost.
説明の後は箒の棒で割るために4人は力をあわせて努力したにもかかわらず箒の棒が折れて大変。

An authentic pinata has a clay pot inside that doesn't break easily. We upgraded to a frying pan.
本物のピンヤータは中につぼみたいな物が入っていて中々割れなくて最後はフライパンを使い始めました。

After breaking through, the girls wore the limbs of the beast triumphantly on their heads.
やっと割れて中のお菓子を集めた後のピンヤータをかぶった記念撮影。

Sayulita Sand Castle 砂の城

Matt entertained the grand-daughters one afternoon by building a sand castle with them. Nile warned him that he was building it too close to the waves.
砂遊びが大好きなマットはジムの孫娘達と砂のお城を作る事に。ナイルの海に近すぎるよってコメントを無視するから

It turned out, she was right.
第一号は大波に飲まれました。

They resumed building about three feet up the shore.
1メータほど移動をして作り直し。

The new castle withstood many attacks from the waves and was decorated with mother of pearl, limpet shells, and a mangrove sprout.
完成された城は貝やマングローブのデコレーション付き。

Sayulita Food サユリタの食べ物

We found a Popsicle shop (paleparia) on the first day, and every day we had Popsicles (palepas). The store we frequented had Mexican flavors like spicy mango (Matt's flavor below), passion fruit, guava (Nile's flavor below), hibiscus, and cinnamon chocolate. It was very difficult to choose one every time out of the 25 flavors.

ついた日に見つけてから 毎日アイス・キャンディーを楽しみました。通い続けた店はメキシコならではの唐辛子入りマンゴー（写真下マットのアイス・キャンディー）、ハイビスカス、グアヴァ（写真下ナイルのアイス・キャンディー）、パッションフルーツ、シナモン・チョコなど色々有って全部25種類の中から選ぶのが大変でした。

　　　


Right next door is Burrito Revolution where we had the biggest burritos. Though the guy never smiled, the burritos he made were excellent.

もう一軒通った店はアイスキャンディー屋さんの隣の革命ブリトーという意味の名前のブリトー屋さん。オバマ氏のシャツを着たお兄さんの作るブリトーは絶品でした。

Big Snow 大雪

It kept on snowing for several days after our first dusting. There was more than a foot of snow stuck on the ground.
雪は何日も降り続きました。30センチ以上積もってなかなか融けませんでした。

Elmo eventually learned to have fun in the snow.
その内エルモは雪の中で遊ぶようになりました。

At one point, there was four inches of soft snow, a layer of thin ice, and then another few inches of soft snow. The ice would hold about 45% of Elmo's weight, so she would take a step forward, and then come crashing down to her chin as soon as she put her weight on it.
積もった雪の上に氷雨が降ってその上に雪が積もり、エルモが歩くと体重を乗せた時点で氷の層がエルモを支えられなくなってあごの所まで雪に浸かってちょっとかわいそうだねとか言いながらかなり笑えました。

This got snow all over her front.
あごまで雪がついたエルモ。

First Snow 初雪

Elmo's first snow. エルモの初雪。

...not quite sure about this.... 困ってます。

Elmo's foot prints. エルモの足跡。

Cupcake Decorating

Matt took a class on cupcake decorating. His instructor has one of the books that he got recently: Hello, Cupcake!

The penguin took a dive on the way home and cracked his head open. The feet are part of the cupcake cup, something that Nile got for her birthday.

Matt learned how to make a wreath, Santa, a cat, and a dog. Matt tried to make the dog and cat look like Elmo.

Cookie Decorating クッキー・デコレーション

Matt got into the holiday spirit today and took a cookie decorating class. Next week is cupcake decorating!
今日マットは年末に向けてのクッキー・デコレーションのクラスに行ってきました。来週はカップケーのデコレーションだから来週も楽しみです。

Moving the tree 木の大移動

Matt moved our little tree to the front of the house to take the place of the huge tree that Chad took out.

家の前の木を取り除いたからマットが裏庭の木を家の前に植え替えてくれました。ありがとう！

Elmo in Doggles! エルモの犬グラス

Elmo gave her doggles a test run on the way to the dog park.

早速新しい犬メガネを公園に行く途中にエルモに試してもらいました。

Doggles!

Check out Elmo's new shades!


Why? So she can do this without squinting:

Imakoko Party 今ここシアトル

Takashi and Imakoko hosted an event and our friend and restaurant owner, Sussy came over with his family.
今ここシアトルに友達のスッシー家族が来てくれました。

The amazing meal started with "hydrangea" a beautiful dish using agar, hibiscus tea, and gobo.
第一品目はアジサイ。牛蒡とハイビスカス茶が入ってます。


This was followed by blueberries in a tofu paste with gruyer cheese chips and almonds.
ブルーベリーのしらえにアーモンドとグリエールチーズ。（ちなみにブルーベリーが苦手なジョンもお代わりしました）

Fried lotus root, fish, shiso, spanich, and bean sprouts. (Imaculately cleaned!)
もやし、魚、ほうれん草、しそ、蓮根。

Albacore with okra
白マグロとオクラ。

Salmon with mango and white vanilla sauce
鮭のマンゴ・バニラ・クリーム・ソース。

Traditional rice sandwitches (onigiri)
おにぎり

The main course, barbequed pork and vegetables at the table
This was followed by dessert that was so good we didn't get any pictures. In all, about 8 coures. Wow.
メインはラオスなべ。
デザートも入れてその日は８コースでした。
ご馳走様でした。

Marilyn's Birthday マリリンの誕生日

Matt's parents take an annual trip around the country. They usually stop by Seattle on their way home to see us. This time it happened to correspond with Matt's mom's birthday. We had one day together before they boarded a boat to Alaska. Matt baked a cake that we had after lunch.
マットの両親は毎年アメリカ旅行をします、その一部としてシアトルに寄ってくれます。今回はマットのお母さんの誕生日によってくれました。次の日アラスカ行きのクルーズに乗るため一日しか一緒に過ごせませんでした。それでも親孝行マットはお母さんのためにケーキを焼いて昼ごはんの後でみんなで食べました。

We got her a kite for her birthday and the weather cooperated to provide some fantastic flying conditions. The whole day was scattered showers, so it was very fortunate that the 90 minutes we had between lunch and our next activity were beautiful skies and a light breeze.
誕生日のプレゼントに私達は凧を買いました。天気が協力しくれて昼ご飯の後、次の予定の前の９０分凧揚げにちょうどいい風が吹いた快晴でした。

Nile helped launch the kite. 　ナイルが協力して凧が揚がりました。

Hers was definately the cutest of the many flying that day.
マリリンの凧がその日の凧の中で一番可愛かったです。

Nile's mother, step father, step grandmother joined us and Nile's dad, his wife, and their sous chef, a friend of theirs from Japan and her daughter on a trip to the chocolate factory with us and Matt's parents.
ナイルの母、継父、継祖母、そしてTK、善枝ちゃん、奈津美さんと２０年ぶりに再会した重松さんとマナちゃんとみんなでチョコレート工場見学に行きました。

That night we had dinner with a slightly different collection of people. Russell and John stopped by just to say hello, but we forced them to sit down and eat dinner with us.
その夜、メンバーは少し変わってラッセルとジョンを含めた９人で晩御飯を食べました。ラセッルとジョンはちょっと寄るつもりだけだったけど、ご飯を一緒にしてもらいました。

Matt's mom really enjoyed everything, including the donut trifle she's eating here.
マットのお母さんはみんな美味しいといって食べてくれました。この写真ではドーナッツ・トライフルを食べてます。

After eating and relaxing a little, Matt joined his parents in a set of bluegrass music.
ご飯の後は毎年恒例のマット・ファミリーバンドのコンサートで一日の締めくくり。