Category: travel

Marination

I hope you guys aren’t too sick of my vacation posts yet. Don’t worry, this is the last of them.

One day when I was in WA I took E and we drove up to Seattle to hang out with my sister-in-law Mindy and my brother-in-law Ken, two of my favorite people. They know how much I like Korean food and how I adore street food so we headed downtown to catch the Marination Mobile, a food truck that specializes in Korean/Hawaiian fusion food. It was AWESOME.

I had a kimchi quesadilla, a SPAM slider, AND a kalbi taco. (Hey, I’m pregnant–so not a word!) Ken and Mindy tried the pork sliders which are also in the above picture. The quesadilla was incredibly (and surprisingly) delicious and the slider was super tasty (Yum, SPAM!) but I thought the kalbi taco was a little too salty.

We took our food and walked down to the sculpture park and then down to a little beach where the kids had fun throwing rocks and sticks in the water.

E gets his sunglasses at the same place Bono does.


It was a lot of fun. I had a great time chatting with Mindy and Ken and E had fun with his cousins. One of the worst things about living in Utah is that we only get to see these guys a few times a year. (And that there are no awesome Korean fusion food trucks.)

At the beach, WA-style

My sister and her boys came up to WA to visit while E and I were there. As usual, E got a kick out of following his cousins around. One day we all decided to drive out to the coast but unfortunately we also all neglected to check the weather at the coast. It was 80 degrees+ in Olympia but at the shore the temperature dropped to 50-something degrees with a biting wind.

But after two hours of being stuck in the car the boys were not to be denied so they played in the sand using the van as a wind break.




Even with the uncooperative weather it was still fun.

Portland Japanese Garden

When I was up in WA we drove down to Portland for the day. It was a last-minute trip and we didn’t have a set itinerary planned but it was still really nice. We visited the lovely Japanese Garden which a photographer’s dream and then spent some time wandering around Powell’s books which was both awe-inspiring and mildly disorienting.




My mom and brother were really nice about hanging on to E so I could snap pictures to my heart’s content–thanks, guys!

Home Again

I love visiting my family in WA but home is where N is and it’s really lovely to be home. Never mind that it’s already after noon and I still haven’t showered and I have a pile of laundry to do and a kitchen in sore need of restocking. E and I had a lazy morning but now we’ve got to going.

When I was in Olympia my mom and I took E to a local playground. It’s in a great park and we like to go every time we’re in town. E remembered it from last time and immediately ran to the swings, his favorite. He had a blast.



Well, this weekend will probably be pretty low-key for us which sounds wonderful right now. We’ll be playing a bit of catch-up around the house and enjoying being together as a family again (and watching a bunch of shows saved on our DVR). After a busy week it sounds heavenly.

I hope you have a great weekend!

We made it!

By the time we got on the plane yesterday E was pretty tired. I thought he would sack out but he didn’t. Fortunately he was still a trooper and entertained himself for a long time by looking out the window. When he started getting cranky I broke out his portable DVD player and a super engrossing/annoying Wow, Wow Wubby DVD bought especially for the occasion and all was well.

On flights to Seattle I like to sit on the left side of the plane because if the weather’s nice you get a pretty amazing view of Mt. Rainier in all its glory.

Locked In

After some waffling over dates and such we finally bought airline tickets for our trip to Korea this fall. We’re going to visit N’s parents and my aunt and cousins in Pusan. It will be our first overseas trip as a family (yes, we’re bringing E) and even though it’s over 80 days away I’m already getting excited/a little nervous.

As a bonus, N’s brother Ken and Ken’s son are going to join us for part of the trip. It’s going to be awesome. Pusan Fall 2010–w00t, w00t!

Holgas Pics of Gwyn’s House

I took my Holga camera with me on our drive to Oregon and have a couple of shots that I’ll be posting over the next little while.

On our drive we pulled over at a rest stop somewhere in the middle of Nevada to take a quick break and stretch our legs. This abandoned house was next to the road and I couldn’t resist snapping some shots.


At this point poor E was so sick of being in the car that he repeatedly insisted that this building was “GWYN’S HOUSE!” because we had been telling him all day that we had to stay in the car until we got to Gwyn’s.

So E was pretty disappointed when this shack turned out not to be Gwyn’s and we still had a good 5 hours left in the car. But on the upside when we got to Gwyn’s real house it had glass windows, warm beds, and fun cousins to play with so E got over his disappointment pretty quickly.

More photos of the salt flats than you ever wanted to see

I’ve been enchanted by the salt flats ever since I first saw them so getting up close and walking around on them was definitely the highlight of the (13 hour!) drive to Oregon. E had a lot of fun running around and sampling the salt.





We were just there but I’m already trying to come up with an excuse to drive the 100 miles from my house back out to the salt flats. They are awesome.

Home Sweet Home

Last week N and I decided on the spur of the moment to take E and drive up to southwest Oregon to visit N’s sister Gwyn and her family over the weekend. The drive was about 13 1/2 hours each way but E was for the most part a trooper in the car.

On the drive up we stopped by the salt flats, one of my favorite places ever. I know it’s a bit weird but I think they’re so cool looking and have been wanting to stop and walk out on them forever. It was fun, especially when E tried to taste the salt.

Visiting Gwyn and her family was great. E had a blast running around with his cousins and was (mostly) well behaved. (The most notable exception to this statement occurred when E threw a huge screaming tantrum while we were placing our order at a fancy burger joint. And just to make sure he was making his point clear he threw in a couple of smacks aimed at N’s face. Yeah, the dirty looks from the other patrons were plentiful and pointed.)

It was a great visit but it’s nice to be back. I wish we had an extra day to just kick around but we have to jump right back into things. I have a lot of work (and laundry!) to catch up on now but I’ll get more photos from our trip up soon.