Astoria....

Hey, aren't these Sea Lions just wonderful!! We thought so! They are big, shiny, scarred, beautiful, whiskered, barking beasts. They are so noisy. We heard them in the distance and began to make our way towards them. We found them on this abandoned jetty, petty fighting with each other. There was quite a few in the water as well. they also went up onto the other jetties, where the fishermen and yachties had their boats. The men would just walk toward them, and they would peel off into the water. I thought that they might get a bit aggressive if people disturbed them, but they didn't seem to. We were told that these were all males and that they come up from Southern California, and then go back for the mating season. Apparently, the females stay down there. This photo was taken at Astoria, in Northern Oregon on the West Coast. We are now travelling down the West Coast towards California and Mexico. The weather has got warmer, and the winter clothes may be relegated to the bottom of the suitcase, until more camping in the National Parks. There is so much to do and not quite enough time. Choosing the most interesting spots for us now is the hardest decision we have to make. (Ah, life is tough). Samara is now getting her hit of unnatural things, as we have been window shopping and we all had some fun racing in Go Carts. (I got lapped by Mal and Samara......oh dear!) Luv Wendy.

Samara...

This is another pic but this is me doing an aerial.....hehe I like this one too because I'm uspside down. The other one I like because it is a good split and everything is straight...k bye

Samara.........

hi :)
its samara...this is a bit old because this was in Canada, Ucluelet. Dad took photos of me on the beach doing aerials and split leaps and this was a good one so i asked dad to put it up. We are in Florence at the moment and the motel that we are staying in has a nice lobby with a computer and board games. Mum and I played Giant Drafts but it got boring and mum wouldn't let me stop. I was winning but I was bored so I just set it up so mum could win so we could finish.

Mount Rainier Campsite...

This is the beautiful Mt. Rainier. This mountain looms on the horizon at Seattle. We travelled about 2 hours to get to the Mt. Rainier National Park and it sure was worth it. The first day we arrived it was raining and cloudy so instead of finding a campground we went back to the nearest town (Enumclaw) and stayed there the night, in a motel. The next day was beautiful and we travelled up to the National Park and stayed in a lovely campsite at "White River". This shot shows the river in the foreground. Our campsite was just a few feet away from where this photo was taken. We did a lovely hike up to the "Glacial Basin". It was a picturesque hike which went through a variety of landscapes. Everything from pine needled covered forest floors, rock hopping over river crossings, steep ascents to wild flowered meadows. Samara and I stopped when the trail was marked as being unmaintained from a certain point, which was at the glacial basin, but Mal decided to go on, as he wanted to actually get to the glacier and touch it. Of course, that is another story and I will leave that to him. Samara's love of hiking hasn't improved and she is longing to get back to the coast and the bigger cities. (she loved Seattle). The scenery around here is spectacular. There is 25 glaciers on Mt. Rainier. Today, we drove around the National Park but due to a particularly bad flood in November, 2006, the road that we would of taken had been washed out in 4 places and we had to do a 3 hour detour. Luckily, it was a very scenic route and well worth it.
Luv from Wendy.

Seattle...

The "Experience Music Project".......a must do for all music lovers right under the Needle.........this was taken the day after we went to "Bumbershoot"...... we had all just finished a tour of the Seattle Underground which was really interesting.
Wendy and Samara went their own way shopping etc,etc, while I walked back over to this end of town to go to this exhibition (which is permanant)................this was where the festival was on the weekend, but we did'nt make it in there as we were too busy at the bands.

I love the architecture of this place, it reminds me of Federation Square in Melbourne.

Inside I saw a lot of what you would expect...........Jimmy Hendrix' old guitars, (smashed of course).......... hand written sheet music, movies, etc, etc,.............Pete Townsend and the Who stuff,.......... Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, and so on ..........even "Heart" and their song "Barrucuda".......a great little sojourn if your into your music history, I loved it, and at times while watching one of the Hendrix movies, I got the goose bumps as they were interviewing a lot of the current days stars mixed in with old original clips of Hendrix ( at Woodstock and various gigs ) who were all saying what a huge influence Hendrix was, and still is on them all..........an outright genius gone before his time that will never be eclipsed.....it was good without a doubt.

Anyway..........we have just made it to Mount Rainier, a bit south east of Seattle tonight and are hanging here for a bit ( weather permitting, you have to remember that this is the "Festival Of Rain" area)..........if there's rain tomorrow, we will probably head straight to Mount St. Helens , and if it's still raining there , it will be off to the coast and start heading down towards Oregan, as I reckon I am just about "mountained, glaciered,forested and rivered out" after the beauty of Canada, and we need a good hit of the Pacific Ocean and the waves again before we go stir crazy.
Samara commented today on the way here that she will have forgotten how to swim if we dont hit the surf again soon, and I am getting a bit twitchy for the same reason I think also.........the trip from here on down the Pacific Coast Highway is a spectacular thing in it's own right, and we are really looking foward to that.

KD.............good to hear that you are following us on the blog, I was talking to Derek tonight and he mentioned that you were keeping an eye on us, I'm guessing that a few of the Canadian shots may have been getting close to familiar for you and Maureen...........punch in a few words sometime if you feel the need, and I will get back to you when I can.

Cheers to all,
Mal.

ps............And if anyone is wondering...........Yes, that is the reflection of the Space Needle that is visible in this photo.

pps.............well, its the next morning and we are greeted with a blazing blue sky and a positively throbbing Mount Rainier, soooo, it looks like I've got to go and climb another monster mountain again.......will post some pics of it as soon as I get a chance. Bye for now.

Seattle...

Hey everyone, Wendy here. Love the mermaid pig. Around the city of Seattle there is many artistic pigs....all about the same size but with a different theme. There was one which was half salmon half pig, another was covered in one cent coins, another with wings and the list goes on. Seattle is a lovely city: many harbours surrounding it plus mountains and especially the magnificent snow capped Mt. Rainier (14,400 ft).....it looms higher than anything in the area. Downtown is near the harbour and has many hills which make it interesting and gives views. The Pike Place Market is known for the fish throwing and singing from the vendors...quite a theatre. There is many interesting and quirky little stalls which were fun for all of us to look through....even Mal enjoyed it. While we have been in Seattle we have had the joy of staying at the Sheraton. From camping to 5 star, it makes a luxurious change. (Mal has been able to get a good price by going on the Net). Until next time. Luv Wendy.

Seattle.........Bumbershoot Festival.

Dusk over the Space Needle from the festival...(Starbucks Stage) 2-09-2007

Seattle.........Bumbershoot Festival.

Wendy and Samara at the Bumbershoot music and arts festival with "Black Rebel Motorcycle Club" playing on stage behind them. Seattle, Washington. This festival is held right under the Seattle Space Needle.

What can I say about this place, I love it. We arrived in town on the 1st September totally oblivious to the fact that this festival was on. That day we just wandered around the city checking it out, enjoying ourselves, relaxing and taking it all in.

On the next day, the 2nd, we decided to get on the monorail and go over to the music district...Seattle Central. When we got there we found this festival just kicking off for the second day of the three days it runs for.......we checked out the lineup for the day and that was it...........bought three tickets @ $35 each and in we went .......approx 40 bands for the day and numerous comedy and stage acts also, quite a bargain compared to prices for the same calibre show at home.
This was Samara's first big rock concert, and first major live band.... and she had a ball, it was great for Wendy and I to share it with her. We arrived at the show at 10.30am and left at 11.30pm.....(13 hours, not a bad effort).

I will probably come back to this post a bit later tonight and add more to it, at the moment it is 11am the next morning and it's time to hit town again.

its samara now :)

the festival was really fun and we saw Fergie at the very end of the nite but there was only limited tickets to see her...they were free but we got some...she finished at 11pm and dad got me a blue singlet with her on it.....first i wanted a white t-shirt but they only had a XXL in mens so it may have been a teenie bit big... :)

today we went on an underground tour of some old buildings in seattle....when they first built them they were at street level but now they are underground....you can see windows and stuff that are still there..
k im going now.....
bye