Before we get to our lunch, I have to do some catch-up. Just a couple things . . . Hahahaha, it's tough to keep track of our fast-paced life and all the many adventures we have.
So, let's get started.
First up is the end-of-the-year-counting-of-the-coins ritual.
At the end of the year, I take all the coins I've collected and count them out. I usually empty my pockets each day and I've taken to dumping the loose change into my coin jar every day. It adds up. I was pleasantly surprised by this year's haul.
How much?
Hahaha, I'll give you a moment to guess after you've studied the picture below. I'll let you know how much I saved later on.
Well, let's get out of the house and move around a little. I forget why, but we were out and about yesterday, maybe just to be out and about, I don't honestly remember. Regardless, we stopped by the Cedar River and walked along its banks for a while.
OK, how much did I save? Have you got your guess?
It was $238.72
Not bad, eh?
But, let's get back to the walk. This sculpture sits just off from the bridge and in front of the Senior Citizen's Center.
It's titled "We Are All In This Boat Together". I sorta get it. I admit, I haven't worked too hard at understanding it because, well, you draw your own conclusions.
I guess it's artwork.
What do you think?
A tranquil scene along the river.
Lines, shadows and patterns . . . again.
I like these and, unfortunately for you, I will keep playing with them. Someday I might get something good.
Hahahaha, a boy can hope, eh?!?!
As we were driving home, Carol spotted this guy in what is becoming the #2 Eagle Tree. That's it. It will be The #2 Eagle Tree. The first one is the one near our park. This one is along Rainier Ave where it runs along the lake shore.
There wasn't a lot of good light and so when you push the lens out with low light, the effect is sorta grainy. Still, there he was.
We waited until my patience ran out so we weren't there too long. Carol can wait a lot longer than I can. We hung around hoping he'd fly off and I could get a clean shot at him flying but, no.
So we got into the mini and as I was driving away, just pulling onto the road, I glanced up at the #2 Eagle Tree just in time to see this Eagle's partner flying up to the tree.
Ratz!! Foiled again!!
OK, now to today.
We had driven up to Everett to Bob's Burgers to meet with Carol's cousins. We'd arrived a bit early . . . I learned a long time ago as a young Marine and then as a Soldier that if you aren't early, you're late. So, as much as I can, I try and get anywhere just a bit early.
And early we were. Which was great because it gave us time to checkout the Walmart just next to Bob's.
And it gave us time to play one of our favorite games . . . find the SpongeBob!! Carol's daughter, Gretchen, worked on the upcoming movie, SpongeBob SquarePants, A Sponge Out of Water. So we've taken to looking for SBs while we're out and then getting a picture of whatever it is. Then we send them onto her daughter.
We've actually become quite good at finding all the SB merchandise out there. And believe me, folks, there's a lot!!
We're always struck by the differences in the Walmarts. Ours is always busy and a lot of the time there's merchandise strewn about on the floor and in the aisles. It's noisy and the checkout lines can be exasperatingly slooooooow. Very, very, very slow. In fact, we've identified one definite and one possible Register Ladies to avoid.
The one, USHA, sets a new land speed record for moving stuff across the scanner. She's a veritable snail. She's slower than a snail.
Hahahaha, and we're always pleasantly surprised by the other Walmarts we stop by. Like this one, today. Pretty clean and the checkout line wasn't all that bad.
And they had this . . .
. . . isn't it cool!?!
The Space Needle . . . in Walmart!!
And the Christmas displays. I know it's simple, but I just enjoy walking around and looking at the things on display.
Just some tags. But a nice display.
I do love me some Christmas.
So, let's get back to the reason we were way out there in Everett, Washington, having lunch with a trio of Wild 'N Crazy Canadians.
Fun Facts: Everett, which lies 28 miles to the north of Seattle, is the county seat of and the largest city in Snohomish County, Washington. It's named for Everett Colby, son of founder Charles L. Colby. Those crazy founders and their silly names. The city had a total population of 103,019 at the 2010 census, making it the 7th largest in the state and fifth-largest in the Puget Sound area. It received an All-America City Award in 2002.
Everett is home to the largest public marina on the west coast and is the western terminus of the western segment of U.S. Route 2. It's also home to Boeing's assembly plant for the 747, 767, 777 and the new 787. Boeing's Everett facility is known for being the largest building in the world by volume at 116.5 million cubic feet. And, I'm told by those Crazy Canucks, they have a kick-butt bunch of Outlet Stores, too.
Fun Facts: Though many come close, no other cross-country route takes in the variety and extremity of landscape that US-2 does. Dubbed The Great Northern in memory of the pioneer railroad that parallels the western half of the route, US-2 is truly the most stunning and unforgettable, not to mention longest, of all the great transcontinental road trips.
When Carol was researching her family, she discovered a cousin, Adrienne, who lived in Athabasca, Alberta, Canada.
It was like two old friends getting back together again when they first met. They instantly liked each other. Carol visited her in Canada and had several adventures with Adrienne including a couple that involved a buffalo or two.
And Adrienne visited her in New Orleans.
These two became BFFs.
Carol's kept in touch with her even after Adrienne moved to Ecuador and built herself a home there. I mean she, literally, built a home. Adrienne unexpectedly passed away earlier this year.
Carol has kept in touch with her brother, Brian and his wife, Lorraine and they invited us to meet them in Everett for lunch with them today. Adrienne and Brian's father, Lloyd, was visiting and they all wanted to get together with us.
So, off we went!!
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| I borrowed this picture from Bob's homepage. |
We were to meet at Bob's Burgers & Brew.
Bob is a local boy done good. He started out flipping burgers and found he liked it so he bought a burger stand and the rest is Northwest history. Ol' Bob's got 12 restaurants now but, doggone it, none in Renton or South Seattle.
But he does give a nod to his Seattle Icons.
And, like every other restauranteur, he features the local boutique beers. I mean, c'mon, it's like a Nerdy Northwest badge of honor to these guys to have as many off-the-wall goofy sounding beers as possible. I mean, I'm all for something like Lone Star Beer but here in The Great Pacific Northwest, they go Cah-Ray-Zee for their special brews.
But I digress.
Did I mention that the Brett's are from Canada, eh?
Fun Facts: The usage of eh? exclusive to Canada is for 'ascertaining the comprehension, continued interest, agreement, etc., of the person or persons addressed' as in, 'It's 4 kilometers away, eh, so I have to go by snowmobile.' In this case, eh? is used to confirm the attention of the listener and to invite a supportive noise such as 'Mm' or 'Oh' or 'Okay'. This may be paraphrased as "I'm checking to see that you're [listening/following/in agreement] so I can continue.' Grammatically, this usage constitutes an interjection; functionally, it is an implicit request for back-channel communication, eh?
They also use it at the end of a declarative sentence to turn it into a question. For Example: 'It sure is cold?' becomes 'It sure is cold, eh?' This same phrase could also be taken as, "It sure is cold, don't you agree?" In this usage, it is virtually identical to the Dutch, "he?", the Japanese "ne?" or the Mandarin "ba". This usage differs from the French usage of 'n'est-ce pas?' ("Is it not?") in that it does not use a (technically double or emphatic) negative.
The usage of 'eh' in Canada is occasionally mocked in the U.S., where some see its use - along with aboot, an approximation of a Canadian raising-affected pronunciation of about - as a stereotypical Canadianism.
It's often joked about by Canadians as well and is sometimes even a part of the national identity. A classic joke about this is, 'How did they name Canada? The letters were thrown in a bag and the first one to be picked was 'C' eh? Then 'N' eh? and finally 'D' eh?'
Hahaha, did you get it, eh?
We were there for just a short while when Brian, Lorraine and Lloyd arrived. Hahaha, Lorraine caught me trying to get a candid.
It was an enjoyable lunch with plenty of warm talk and even warmer remembrances. Plus, Carol and I had a couple good sandwiches. Carol had her predictable Classic Burger and I, hahahaha, true to form went for the Patty Melt.
Ga-ood!!
Afterwards we had some laughs and learned about the Outlet Malls nearby. Seems the Brett's sometimes drive down just to visit the Malls and, occasionally, stop by to see Lorraine's niece.
Here they are, Bryan and Lorraine.
Now, just for fair warning, we went through the whole gamut of pictures.
Ready?
Let's go.
Here's Lloyd, Carol, Lorraine and Brian.
And then Lorraine graciously offered to take a picture so I could get in one.
We had a great time and on the drive home made our plans to head up north to Vancouver and visit the Brett's on their home turf. It was really fun meeting up with them.
Plus, they even gave us a Christmas Present.
A Pinot Grigio.
Fun Facts: Pinot gris is a white wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera. Thought to be a mutant clone of the Pinot noir variety, it normally has a grayish-blue fruit, accounting for its name (gris meaning gray in French) but the grapes can have a brownish pink to black and even white appearance. The word pinot, which comes from the word meaning 'pine cone' in French, could have been given to it because the grapes grow in small pine cone-shaped clusters. The wines produced from the grape also vary in color from a deep golden yellow to copper and even a light shade of pink and it is one of the more popular grapes for orange wine. The clone of Pinot gris grown in Italy is known as Pinot grigio.
Pinot gris has been around since the Middle Ages arriving in Switzerland from Burgundy around 1300.
We had a good time and had some good food. It was fun meeting the Brett's and watching the mini-family reunion. We had some good laughs and they shared some good stories.
We're looking forward to going north and visiting them . . . especially since the dollar is doing so well against the Loonie. Hahaha, it was funny hearing Lorraine complain because all our paper money is the same color. It seems so natural and easy to me . . . I remember the confusion I felt in Germany dealing with Marks of different color and size.
Fun Facts: Those Crazy Canadians, they stopped making one dollar bills and issued, instead, dollar coins called, because of the common loon depicted on its back, Loonies. When they issued a two-dollar coin, it was called a Toonie.
Hahaha, see what I mean about those Crazy Canucks!?!
The coins are produced by the Royal Canadian Mint in Winnipeg, Manitoba and currently issue in denominations of a nickel, dime, quarter and a fifty-cent piece. They sent the penny the same way as the one-dollar bill. The last penny to be minted in Canada was struck on Friday, May 4, 2012 and ceased distribution on February 4, 2013. Ever since the price for a cash transaction may be rounded to the nearest nickel, though the penny continues to be legal tender.
Let's do this again sometime real soon, eh?
Because life is good.
Hooah!!
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