OUR NEW HOME in SEATTLE

After a research of few days we have finally found our new home in Seattle! And we love it! It is just perfect for us and not top of that ... we couldn't stand anymore the "community" where we were living in Redmond, WA. Everything was just so quiet there, and you really had the feeling to be a chicken in a cage. The place that we have found is nothing like that. It is a 1 bedroom apartment wih hardwood floor and with a lot of character. It is actually in Seattle itself. The area is called Capitol Hill. And it is really super cool. Movie Theatre, Coffee Shops, Restaurants, Grocery stores are just few steps away. And you don't really need the car to go anywhere in the city. You feel like living in a small NYC. If you are curious here is where our new home in Seattle is ... it is the green arrow in the middle of the GoogleMap ...

SEATTLE SURVIVAL KIT

Yes, Seattle is definitely a rainy city. That doesn't really bother me, even if I lived my last 5 years in Southen California, where it probably rains 10 days per year. Most of the time here in Seattle the rain is just a light drizzle. You don't really need nothing but a hood in your jacket. But that is enough to make Seattle the center of the universe when people think about rain. Today while I was browsing in one of these kid's store with a lot of funny stuff, I found this interesting "Seattle Survival Kit". I loved it! Unfortunately they didn't have my size, otherwise I would have bought it ... ahahahaha ... :D

RAINY DAYS IN SEATTLE

How many rainy days a year in Seattle? Can you guess? I will help you ... almost 50% of the days are raining. Yep, something like 150 days per year! Depressing? You can think so. An other way to see it, is to think about how much water is important in our everyday life. I found this UNICEF billboard pretty interesting ...... I think they are right! We should realize how lucky we are. It is true that sometimes it is pretty boring to get all this rain. On the other side, though, what would be our life without any rain? Yes, we are lucky up here in Seattle ... :D

LANDING in SEATTLE

Landing in my home town is always exciting, I can recognize the freeways that I drive, and the main landmarks of the city. This is especially true for Seattle. We have justed moved here, so I know the city more and more every day. And these are some of the pictures that I took just before landing, while we were flying over the city. These are the Seattle airport and downtown on the waterfront of the Puget Sound...And this is the 520 freeway floating bridge over the Lake Washington looking from West to East. And in the background the Cascades mountain, Really beautiful to drive thru it and even better to look at it from the sky. OK, time to buckle up and land in the Seattle airport ... yyyeeeeeaaaaahhhhh ... Seattle is our beatiful new home town ... :D

ABOVE Mt. RAINIER

Here some other pictures from my flight Phoenix to Seattle. These pictures are of Mt. Rainier, the highest mountain in the Pacific North West. It is actually a volcano, and one of the mountains that Nene and I would like to climb. It is definitely easier to have a look at it from the warm seat of an airplane ...

PHOENIX to SEATTLE

Phoenix to Seattle by air is a new flight for me. I was used to fly back home to LA, but now my new hone is up there, in the Pacific North West. And of course the scenery from the window of the plane is very very different than the one flying to Southern California. You fly over Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington states ...I was seated in a window seat, and there were not many clouds so I took some pictures. Here they are. I hope you will enjoy them. The winter view, with all that snow down there, is pretty interesting ...... and now I am just curious, what is your favorite one? I personally really like the last one ...

SAGUARO National Park

Planning this trip to Phoenix, we thought to go visit again Grand Canyon NP. But now that we are here and we have realized that up north in Grand Canyon it is freezing temperature (don't ask me why I didn't check the weather before I left Seattle) ... we have decide to go and visit a new NP. Saguaro NP. Saguaro are these huge cactus growing all over the south part of Arizona, but in particular in the area close to Tucson, where the Saguaro NP is ...The park is pretty nice, although we didn't really have a lot of time to go around. We just visited the Visitor Center, drove around and took some pictures. Not really the way that I like to visit a park, but we didn't really have a lot of time for much more than this. So these are some pictures for your enjoyment ...So now you will wonder how big are these cactus, right? So look at that funny small guy at the bottom of the cactus. That is me! Amazing, isn't it? Yes, they are. Completely! Totally! Like most of the National Parks here in US. They are really amazing. I love love love them ... if you have some vacation ... come here to US and visit them. They will never disappoint you. Promised.

PHOENIX is COOOOLD

While we are trying to find a new apartment in our new hometown, Seattle ... my boss has decided to send me to Phoenix, AZ for few days. Tina is coming with me as well. We want to relax a little bit together and leave behind all the boxes on our new apartment. The weather in Phoenix is not as warm as I expected. It is pretty cold down here, especially in the evening after the sun sets. In a way would like that he sun would never set, but in the other way, it is really nice every time there is a sunset here in the desert. This is a picture that I took from our office window ...

TRYING TO COOK ...

Cooking is an other hard thing to do when you have just moved into a temporary apartment like we just did. There is always some ingredient missing. And we don't know where to buy stuff. And we are always late. A mess! But a nice one. And at the end what we end up cooking most of the time pasta every single day ...... but it is lovely. We love it, love it and love it!

BOXES EVERYWHERE

We though that unload the truck was the hard part. But it wasn't. The truck is finally unloaded, and now we have a bigger problem. We have our new apartment completely full of boxes. At the begin, of course, they were all closed. But of course we started looking for that special shirt or pair of pants or the plates. Where did we put the plates? And the silverware? And the insurance documents? And the waterproof shoes? In two days half of our boxes were open. A complete mess. In a way we don't really care. We knew it was going to be like this. But more the days are passing and more the mess is growing ...... but the real problem is that the apartment where we are staying is a temporary situation. It is a corporate type of apartment in a community. Although it is convenient because it is close to my office, we are looking for something with more personality. We hope to get something soon in Seattle itself ... Xing our fingers ...

THANK YOU Sir HILLARY

Edmund Hillary was the first one to conquer, with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, the Everest ... the highest peak in the World ...That day was May 29th 1953. Edmund was 33. Today January 11th 2008 Sir Hillary died. During my trip to Nepal and to the Everest Base Camp last year I had the chance to appreciate what Sir Hillary did. And to my surprise the summit of the Everest back in 1953 isn't to me, the highest peak of his. Yes, Sir Hillary did something much more important than that. After the 1953 expedition, he came back to Nepal and he built schools and hospitals in the Himalaya region where the Sherpa people is living. That made me think a lot. I realized that all we do in our life should have as core value the happiness of our self and of the people around us. If this is not the core value of everything we are do every single moment, we are doing something wrong. Edmund Hillary became "Sir Hillary" after the conquer of the Everest summit he could have easily forgotten the people of Nepal, but he didn't. And that made of him a special person ... a model for all of us. Bye bye Edmund. Thank you for teaching us, not how to climb a stupid mountain, but how to put the happiness of our brothers in front of every single choice we take every day ...

UNLOAD the TRUCK!

And now it comes the fun part. After the 1,100+ miles of drive from LA to Seattle ... we need to unload all this wonderful yellow PENSKE truck! It is a heavy work. Especially because I need to be in the office and the poor Nene is home alone to take care of this hard task. But it is also fun. Think that all our stuff can fit in a small yellow truck, makes us proud. We dream to continue to be this light. So we will be able to move everywhere. But again, for now let's not think about what will come after Seattle. Let's unload this truck and hopefully we will even figure out where our sweatshirts are ... we will need them soon ... it is pretty cold up here ... :D

FINALLY in SEATTLE

After a preparation of months, and a trip of 1,100+ miles we are finally in Seattle, WA. This will be our new home for years to come, hopefully. Although the weather is not as dry as in Southern California, I am sure that also my Nene will love this wonderful city. Wish us good luck, although we have a temporary place to live, we will have to figure out pretty soon where will go to live. The short list is Seattle itself, Bellevue and Kirkland ... but maybe Seattle itself is the one that i like the most ... I like to live in the city. And the city of Seattle has really a lot to offer. Anyways time to open the truck now and check if everything is still there ... :D

XING PORTLAND, OR

When we were almost seeing Seattle there just few hours in front of us ... we got stuck in the 4PM Portland, OR traffic ...... and we didn't manage to get in Seattle on time to go into our new apartment. So we had to spend the first night in Seattle in an hotel room ... :D

WELCOME to OREGON

Bye bye California. Here we come Oregon. Welcome to Oregon. This is the way we celebrated the border crossing between the two states ...But I guess we didn't expect such a dramatic change in the weather. After just 5 miles inside Oregon a thick layer of fog was waiting for us. I guess sunny California is really our past ...

VOLCANOES on the way ...

Still in California. Almost in Oregon. Our driving to Seattle is nothing but boring. Although we didn't manage to make any major stop along the way, the views from the truck are really stunning and full of surprises. These are two of the mountains that we saw along the way. Mt. Shasta and Marys peak. Mt. Shasta is the snow capped ...Both of them are volcanoes. Actually most of the Pacific North West mountains are actually volcanoes ... Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Elen, Mt. Olympus. I think we will have fun up in Seattle. Tina and I have this secret dream to start climbing. And Mt. Rainier is one of the mountains that we would like to climb ... but who knows, maybe we will come back here to California to climb also Mt. Shasta and Marys Peak ... :D

AMERICANA

I took this picture in a gas station just north of Redding, CA. And for some reason I really love it. It really gives an idea of the blue sky that we have found so far. And the gas station itself is really the symbol of the road trip. And the size of the gas station is something is giving an idea of the immense spaces that you can find here in the West. And of course our little yellow yellow truck to complete this Americana ...

NORTHERNMOST IN-N-OUT

We are in Redding, CA and after 560 miles on the road we are less than half of our way to Seattle. But it is dark and we are really tired of driving. Looking at the map, north of us there is really nothing that looks like a city so and we have decided to stop, get something to eat and a bed to sleep. And there the nicest surprise. In little Redding, CA there is the northern most IN-N-OUT of the World! Ehehehe. The fact that IN-N-OUT is only in California, Nevada and Arizona doesn't really diminish our feelings. We really feel we are in a special place. And we are craving for IN-N-OUT burgers. So we park our truck & trolley and we go to enjoy not one, not two, but three double double! This may be be the last IN-N-OUT burger we will have in a long time. This driving is really a funny adventure. A pity that we are so loaded and that we can't take side streets and we can't go and visit the National Parks that are on the way between LA ans Seattle. We will have to do it an other time. For now we just enjoy our double doubles ...

SHADOWS to SEATTLE

We are still driving on the I-5. Still in California. We just passed the intersection to San Francisco. The sun is setting. LA is our happy past and Seattle is hopefully equally happy future. We would like to look forward, but we continue think about the past. And in the middle of the drive, we notice our shadow. A wonderful California sunset shadow ...

GAAAAAAAS ... :P

There is no such a thing as a free meal, right? And there is no such a thing like a road trip with a truck without gas stops! And believe me this fully loaded PENSKE truck, pulling a trailer is really crazy about gas. This is one of the multiple stops we had today ...

SNOOOOW ... :D

The driving trip has finally started. We are driving northbound on the I-5 and now LA is finally behind us. And few hours into the trip we have the first surprise. Apparently it did snow here in the last days. Very nice landscape. Here are some pictures that I like to share with you ...... but hopefully we won't find a snowy path all the way to Seattle. It won't be too much fun to drive this truck pulling the car in the snow ...

BYE BYE LA ...

And this is the time to attach the trailer with the car to the yellow yellow truck and leave the so well know LA freeways. It is nice to leave LA driving out ...

THE REAL FAREWELL

This is it. This is the time to leave. The time when my room is completely empty. The time when I have to leave my keys to someone else. The time when I have to close the door behind me. I lived here more than 4 years now. I still remember when I came here for the first time to see a "room for rent with shared bathroom". It was October 2003, and Jake was waiting for me. And after few months Leif came. And Jake left. And Leif left as well. Today Aaron is not even here to say goodbye. Jason is here. He didn't go to the gym, just to give me the final hug. It is time to leave. But I am not sad. I am actually happy for the wonderful time that I have spent here. I have learn a lot in these years. And I have shared a lot of love with these places and my friends. And I just hope that I will be able to be as happy as this also in Seattle ...

A YELLOW YELLOW TRUCK

At the end it had to happen and it did happen. The I-5 did reopen. And now we don't have an excuse anymore. We really have to leave California, LA, Hermosa, the surf, the pier, the beach and all our friends. The boxes have been ready from a while now. And after 1 week that PENSKE kept on hold our truck, now we really have to go and pick it up. A new adventure is starting. We are moving to Seattle! And we have decided to rent this bright yellow yellow truck. We parked in front the "244 Monterey Blvd Surf Club" and we started loading it ...and after 3 hours we were done. All our was in that truck, but the cloths for the 2 - 3 days trip that is awaiting us and for the gifts that Nene has prepared for our friends ...... the room is now empty and this will be our last night here in Hermosa. We will sleep on the couch.

THEY DID IT AGAIN

Our friends did it again. They organized an other farewell party for us. This was the 4th farewell party. And this time it was at Loy's place. A pizza party. And probably it will be the last one. Sad, to think that we have to leave. But tonight we have really enjoyed the friends that we have here in LA. And those are some of the pictures that we took that night. Lovely memories. Amazing friends. I love them ... nothing less and nothing more ...

AND NOW BABY SHOWER

I think we will never be able to leave LA. An other party and here it is, an other party. This is the baby shower for Sheila, Nene's sister. First time for me in a baby shower. It is a funny concept of party. More like a 5th grade party. Of course no alcohol and no lsmoke and no oud music is allowed. And there are those funny games all about how life will be once the baby will pop out. But I really liked it. it was fun. And here a picture of how the baby will most likely look like ... eheheh ...

99CENTS? IMPOSSIBLE!!!

I have been living here for 5 years, and I always managed to miss all the 99cents stores that are spotting every single community in LA. I am not sure why I missed them. I guess I just thought I didn't need anything over there. And I guess, I was wrong. Today Nene bring me to one of them and there, I realize what I have missed ...... funny picture. It is really amazing how things can be cheap here ... everything 99cents. Anything you can think about that could cost between $1 and $20 in a normal store is here for just 99cents! Anything! Totally amazing! If you will go to LA, don't do my mistake ... before anything else ... go shopping in one of the 99cents store .. :)

WE DID IT AGAIN

The I-5 is still flooded. And the sun is still warm here in LA. Why should we leave? No reason. Especially when you have lined up an other party with your friends. Today is the time to go to visit Christina in her bar. Drinking a beer at the Redondo Beach pier with your friends. Nothing more perfect than this. This time are Christina, Justin, Dan, Emily, Mae and Jill ... and those are some of the pictures that we took ...

THE SECOND FAREWELL PARTY

So here we are. Still in California. We were supposed to leave 2 days ago, but the flood of the Interstate 5 just south of Seattle, didn't help us our plans. We should drive 300miles more through a wingding mountain road in order to get to Seattle. And we don't like that. So we decided to wait here until the I-5 will re-open. And because we have wonderful friends, they decided to continue to celebrate us. One farewell party per day, until we will leave. So this is still our California. And this is an other farewell party. At Mae's place with Jill, Geline, Mae, Christina, Emily and Dan ...And those are Emily and Dan playing with Tina's glasses ...
... nice memories our friends. We will miss them!

IT HAS BEEN A WHILE ...

It has been a while since I wrote in the blog. Not because nothing happened. Actually a lot of things did happen. Even if I didn't write about it. But not everything is lost. I still remember most of it, and I have also some pictures. So, I have decided to make a fast replay of those beautiful months. I hope you will enjoy the ride ...