Zoe’s Journal

DAY TWO

DAY THREE

Follow this link to view pictures from day one of our Bahamas ‘08 vacation!

It’s as awesome as ever, as you can see, and it’s still only Sunday! We need to go through the photos from today - when they’re up, I’ll let you know!

Gee, it’s great to be on vacation - I haven’t looked at a single working clock since we got here late Friday night!

The LotR and I both got a little burnt already, too. Yay!

2008 is determined to be the year in which I do things which I have never done before! A couple of things happened just this last week, which I didn’t post online because it was meant to be kept a secret from a creepy stalker guy who just happens to be my former brother-in-law. So, I had to go to court last week to testify against him in my sister’s child custody suit, which, as it happens didn’t even get a hearing because of scheduling issues. So they got a settlement for a couple of years. So, going to court was one thing I hadn’t done before. Another was even worse. I missed my connecting flight home in Chicago. Yeah.

See, I woke up at 5:15 in NC (3:15 PHX time) in order to catch a flight that morning from the Charlotte airport. I got there on time, and we all boarded the plane on time. Then, on the runway, they found some kind of problem with the cockpit door. So, off we went to the mechanics gate, and sat there for at least 45 minutes. My layover in Chicago was only for one hour, so I held onto hope that I would be able to make it. NOT SO. My flight arrived in a completely different terminal, and I had to run through the airport, up and down escalators, through the crowds of people on those moving sidewalks, and when I finally reached the correct gate, it was exactly 12:00… the exact time my plane was taking off. No delay or other such luck. The next flight wasn’t until 6:00 that evening.

I got home around 10:00 saturday night.

And I was freaking tired. But anyway, here are the pictures. I forgot I had the camera until the day I left my mom’s house. So, no pictures of Valerie. Or of Elvis, but you didn’t want to see those anyway, right?

Sarah and Cody (and Bethany on the floor)

Heather

Sarah

Bethany

My mom at their house.

Sarah reading my Reader, which, by the way, didn’t get charged at all, while I was gone, and lasted through 2 over-1k-page books, one 600-page book, and 300 pages of another one. And the battery is still only half-way gone.

Now, THIS is a real shake. From Steak-n-Shake, baby.

Ashley!

It rained. But it SNOWED! But it rained. Here are the photos:

The LotR drove his swede-mobile.

This rainbow literally ended in a stubbly field. I wanted to run over and stand in the rainbow’s end.

There were some really dark clouds, with really bright sunlight between.

Shadows and Light

Red Rocks of Sedona! If you look closely, you might see snowflakes…

Very cool photo, I think. And covered in SNOW!!!

IT’S SNOWING!!!

Our suite/cottage/cabin was really small, but really nice, with lots of windows.

The LotR looking all grown up on the phone with our weekend roommates.

Lots of pretty rocks - like we don’t have these in Phoenix!

We went to a fancy diner - Cucina Rustica. Good food!

Group Shot.

The guys.

Crystal and Matthew being cold.

The LotR and I - he’s kind of uncomfortable…

The modular homes just made this resort seem a glorified trailer park.

haha cute

nice rock mountains, again.

We visited Tlaquepaque - lots of high-end, high-priced shops. But, OH, the sculptures!

And the chocolate shop…

Tlaquepaque had a nice ambience.

The LotR (I think he was kind of bored)

Monday morning was extremely cold and dreary… the clouds were creeping down the mountain like the mist from the movie ‘Mist’… yeah. So we left one day early… and waddya know?! It’s raining and cold here in Phoenix, too.

**This is going to be one extraordinarily long post, so I shall divide it up into as many sections as needed.**

Let’s start with our get-away to Seattle. Now, I know that this format of the site sometimes has a few problems showing pictures and their tags properly, so the ones I upload today will be smaller than usual - don’t fret, you can see any larger image simply by clicking on the small one, okay?

———————-1st Night in Seattle ————————–

First Impression - Snowy Mountains!

Second Impressions? Colored leaves and tall buildings!

That night, we went to see the Seattle Symphony perform Mozart’s Requiem. While it was all sung in Latin, I would have enjoyed it a bit more had they not deigned to translate the text on the program into its uber-religious words. I can’t believe some that stuff came out of Mozart!

———————– 1st Day in Seattle—————————

The next morning, we walked down to the Pike Place Market and meandered through several shops.

Then we walked further toward the coast, heading for the aquarium. It was so pretty!

The aquarium was nice too - they had lots of sea & river otters, but, while they were amazingly cute, they don’t sit still long enough for good photos.

This guy looks like a fish-version of Sponge-Bob Squarepants (Argh! I HATE that cartoon show!)

And this guy looks like the shellfish from Futurama!

This was the only otter sitting still long enough for a picture.

All hail an emaciated Christopher Columbus.

But really, there were a lot of cool structures.

After the aquarium, we walked into Pioneer Square. Apparently there was a football game going on down the road.

Vine covered building and totem poles in Pioneer Square.

We saw some pretty weird buildings. We also went to the Seattle Art Museum, but had only an hour before closing, so didn’t buy tickets.

——————– 2nd Night ———————

Not much to tell here - we were dead tired! and stopped to have some dinner at the Palomino.

Oh! I almost forgot (how could I forget!), we also stopped by a Barnes and Nobles. I admit I splurged and bought two entire bags of books. I will go into greater detail about those in a later post.

—————— 3rd Day (Monday) ———————–

We slept until noon, and then went to go see my friend from Vancouver (who sometimes posts comments on here in strange little names). We hung out at a coffee shop for a while, then he had to leave. The LotR and I went to go see the Space Needle. There’s a lot more stuff down there! Things like the Experience Music Project, a science fiction museum, and the international fountain. It was also kind of rainy, so we got to see the ‘real Seattle’.

This is the International Fountain when it’s quiet. It looks like a…a… jellyfish?!

We got caught in the rain again…

I might be happy in this photo.

—————- 3rd Night ———————

That night, we went to the popular Purple wine bar for dinner, along with one of the LotR’s old friends from NASA. The huge pillar went up to the 2-story ceiling, filled with wine bottles. The spiral staircase nearly reached the top.

Indian chieftain is my father.

—————– 4th & Final Day ——————-

The LotR knew some game developer folks in town, so we went to visit before heading back to the airport. While they talked codes and dropships, I played with the two dogs - the pug’s name was Zoe!

She lovered me.

Then, alas, we had to head back to Phoenix. But we did catch an awesome sunset!