M.J. Fredrick's Blog, page 41

My Honeymoon 25 Years Late–Washington

We ate a meh breakfast at the hotel, then drove over a bridge and were in Washington within 15 minutes of leaving the hotel. We stopped for gas and snacks, then headed for Seattle, 3 hours away. It rained on us a bit, the first time on the trip. We drove past the turn-off for Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helen’s but decided we didn’t have time

We called for a hotel on the way, and just randomly found the one most centrally located, Best Western Loyal Inn. The girl there was amazingly helpful, too. We checked in, put down our luggage, and headed for Pike’s Place on foot because the girl said parking would be a PITA.

Guess what? More hills! But only about 6 blocks away. We walked down to the Public Market, bought the boy a cool handmade Seattle shirt, walked past tons of cool stuff we couldn’t bring back, past the fish market and the first Starbucks. We got some cash, I bought a long-sleeved Seattle shirt because it’d been chilly on the walk down and I left my jacket in the car. I also bought a little owl made of ash from Mt. St. Helen’s. We walked down a kazillion stairs to the waterfront, where they were making a big hullaballoo about the Great Wheel, a giant ferris wheel with enclosed cars, that looks like the one in London. We watched for a bit, then ate at Elliott’s on the water. We stopped at a couple more shops, including an antique shop, before standing in line at the first Starbuck’s. I got some souvenirs there as well as a coffee. I’d had a beer and a coffee, so they balanced out.

View from lunch

The Great Wheel–they were having the grand opening. Thankfully Fred did NOT want to ride.

In line at the very first Starbucks

Inside the very first Starbucks

We walked back to the hotel, stashed our loot, rested a bit, then walked to the Space Needle.

That was even closer, and no hills. Honestly, even though we have the Tower of the Americas in San Antonio (and they’re designed almost identically), the Space Needle has the more awesome view. We stayed up there a long time until it was getting cold. We couldn’t see Mt. Rainier, but saw the Olympia mountain range, and it was stunning.

Fred happened to mention Seattle Grace and so I googled. The internet said the exteriors of SG are the Fisher Plaza, which we’d walked right by. So when we walked back I took a bunch of pictures.

I wasn’t particularly hungry, but Fred was so we stopped at Zeek’s Pizza and split a medium pizza and breadsticks. We ended up taking most of it back to the room, and I fell asleep.

The hotel was nice but at 3:30 in the morning the people above us started having a wrestling match or something (not a euphemism!). It went on for about 45 minutes and I couldn’t go back to sleep, of course. I got my phone and checked mail, etc, before Fred told me to turn it off. I did manage to go back to sleep, and slept until 8! We went down to breakfast, which was the worst of the week. We checked out and drove around Seattle a bit before returning the car and going to the airport. We breezed through security because we just happened to line up with people who were coming from a cruise. Once we got through, we realized what had happened when we saw the other security areas–huge huge security areas!

 

Fred had paid for priority seating so we could sit together on the flight home, and we checked our bags at the gate so we didn’t have to worry about them. We ate fish and chips in the food court, then waited.

 

The first flight to Phoenix was AWFUL. Behind us were three tweens arguing loudly while their parents sat in first class. I get not wanting to pay for your kids to be in first class, but to sit them in the back so other people can suffer? I was grateful when they went to get their iPads and quieted down.

 

In front of Fred was a guy who had a condition. Not sure what it was, but he could NOT sit still. For THREE HOURS he twitched and fidgeted. I felt so sorry for the soldier boy who was sitting next to him. Fred stopped the soldier after the flight and thanked him for being so patient, because it was clear the guy couldn’t help it.

 

We landed in Phoenix with enough time to get dinner, then headed home. We sat across the aisle from each other so I read almost all of the second Lucky Harbor novel, and alternately laughed and cried.

 

That reminds me, I didn’t see a lot of e-readers on this trip. The boy next to me had a Kindle Fire, and those bratty kids had an iPad, and another girl flying from Phoenix to SA had an iPad, but I didn’t see a lot.

 The boy picked us up and we came home and unpacked and made nice with the kitties. Luna was apparently upset because we found poop in the closet (on Fred’s dress shoes) and on the guest bed. She’s at peace with us now, though.

My Honeymoon–25 Years Late–Oregon

Another great breakfast, then headed north on 101. We had completely underestimated our travel time, unaware of the winding roads and low speed limits. We did have great views on this part of the drive, including redwoods and ocean. We saw a sign about Elk Meadow, and pulled off. We walked around a bit looking for a view, then saw them as we were driving out. The people in the RV behind us climbed up on top of the RV and said they saw a lot. I only saw 2, and from a safe distance.

 

A gorgeous rest stop north of Eureka, complete with redwoods!

We saw 2 elk about a quarter mile from this sign.

Again we had lunch at McD’s, this time at lunch, and drove and drove and drove, finally crossing into Oregon around 1 PM.

The speed limit was quite a lot lower in Oregon, but the road was straight for a long time, until we started climbing up into the mountains. And what gorgeous mountains they were, but Fred was exhausted driving up and down, and was glad to get to Willamette Valley, which looked a lot like the drive into Houston.

 

The plan was to stay in Portland, then do some shopping in the morning before heading to Seattle, but by the time we reached the restaurant, we were too unimpressed. We ate dinner at Shari’s (really sweet little waitress) and went to bed.

My Honeymoon–25 Years Late–Wednesday, a Long and Winding Road

Wednesday morning woke early, checked out, got a cab to take us to a rental car place. We’d rented the car via the web, and they didn’t have one in stock, so we had to get them to take us to another place to pick up a car in Oakland.  So that cost us about an hour, but we were autonomous! Fred set up the GPS with the intention of going to Muir Woods and we were off.

On the most circuitous route imaginable. We arrived at Muir Woods at about half past noon, and could not find a place to park closer than 3 miles away. After all the walking we’d done the day before we decided to skip it and went to Muir Beach instead.

Those crazy people were in the freezing water! Plus, the sand was really thick and hard to walk in, and it completely messed up my toenail polish, not to mention my Crocs. It was too hot to walk barefoot, though. We hung around for a bit, dipping our toes in, sitting on the overlook, watching puppies play, before we hit the road.

The plan was to take Highway 1 up to Oregon, then cut across to Portland.

The plan lasted 3 hours before we surrendered. Too windy, too often away from the water, and low speed limits. When we finally surrendered and cut across to Highway 101, we were only an hour from San Francisco, though we’d traveled 3 hours!  We were starving so we pulled over at the first McD’s we saw and had a late (4 PM) lunch.

 

New plan–up Highway 101 so we could see redwoods and what-all. We made some good time, then hit mountains. Like, mountains. Big trees. Winding roads. Signs that said “Elk Crossing.” Elk River. It was kinda cool and kinda creepy and once more slowed us down. Fred had hoped we’d get to Portland that night. I’d hoped the border of California. We made it to Eureka.

 

BUT we got the coolest room at the Best Western Plus. It had a view of the water, a balcony, and a jacuzzi tub and was just gorgeous. Too bad we only stayed about 12 hours. Still, lovely honeymoon-type room. We went to the steakhouse behind it and I got a salad (not too hungry after eating at 4). We went back to the room and watched the sunset.

Hot tub!

fireplace!

My Honeymoon–25 Years Late–Tuesday in Chinatown

We woke up early and had breakfast in the hotel (a nice amenity), then walked to a corner store to buy a brush, which we forgot to pack. We also got conditioner since the hotel didn’t provide any. Then we decided to walk to Chinatown.

 

Now, for anyone familiar with San Fran–we stayed on Van Ness and Lombard. Chinatown was WAY far. Worse, we had to climb this giant hill to get there. I was sure Fred was trying to kill me, but he said he was just trying to make me hungry enough to eat anything in Chinatown.

 

It was torture, walking uphill, but walking downhill in my new stretchy Crocs was just as bad. Of course Fred got mad at me for only bringing one pair of shoes, but I was trying to pack light, and they’re usually pretty versatile. Anyway, we walked far, but not long, and ended up in Chinatown, where the fresh fish and produce was laid out, and we were the only tourists. We finally got to the tourist part of Chinatown and took lots of pictures, did some shopping and ate dim sum at a restaurant where the President ate. It was so good! My favorite was this deep-fried taro thing stuffed with beef. We also had spring rolls, bbq pork, green beans and dumplings. SO good! The cool thing was that it seemed to have a lot of regulars, and everything needed chopsticks. I was mostly glad to sit down.

 

At the top of the hill

Then we walked FARTHER to the financial district with the intention of catching a cable car. We walked down to the park by the Port of San Francisco, then back to the cable cars.

No line, so we jumped on as soon as one pulled up, and paid for a day pass. It would work on buses, too. The plan was, go back to the hotel, rest a bit, then go back to the wharf and take a harbor tour. We rode the cable car up to Hyde St., with the intention of catching another cable car on Hyde and taking it to Lombard, then walking 3 blocks to the hotel.

Fred on the cable car

 

Guess what? The cable car running that direction wasn’t running, and we couldn’t find a bus. (Remember, we’re from San Antonio, where the public transportation is lacking. We drive everywhere.)  So we walked. I was in tears. Everything hurt, especially my hips. We staggered into the hotel and collapsed for a couple of hours, then walked back to the wharf to take a harbor tour.

I definitely recommend the harbor tour, and get there early for the best spot up top, though be aware there may be pushy people trying to nudge you free. We took the Red and White line, got up top in the front, and rode out beneath the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz. It was a little scary because the water by the bridge was choppy, and when the tour guide said it was over 300 ft deep, I was white-knuckling the rail. But it was a lot of fun, though pretty cold.

Fred on the harbor tour

 

A picture of the picture we bought

Afterwards we decided to have a cheap dinner so went to In and Out Burger, then tried to catch the cable car up the hill.

 

You should have seen the line. 200 people, maybe, and no cars running. So we decided to…you guessed it…walk. We walked through Ghiradelli Square, and got free candy (2 pieces of which we forgot about and they melted), plus avoided the worst hill going up because the square has steps. Honestly, I would have spent a lot more time on the waterfront if we didn’t have those danged hills to climb. Again, we were asleep before the sun went down.

Tomorrow, a long and winding road.

My Honeymoon–25 Years Late–Monday

DISCLAIMER: To any friends and family, please forgive us for not contacting you when we were on the West Coast. This was our first trip by ourselves, and we didn’t have a schedule.

To celebrate our 25th anniversary, Fred and I decided to take our honeymoon. See, when we married, we were young, stupid and broke. I remember we went to the coast one day in his Dasher, but it was January, and we didn’t have money to stay the night, so no honeymoon.

This January we celebrated our 25th anniversary and decided to go on a trip. The original plan was to go to the Grand Canyon and stay at El Tovar on the rim, but I went back to school on Jan. 2, and would have had to take too many days off for that to happen. So we decided to wait until summer.

We toyed with the idea of Hawaii, but Fred has really wanted to go back to San Francisco since we spent an afternoon there 16 years ago on the way to my cousin’s wedding. I let him plan the trip, which started in San Fran and ended in Seattle.

We flew into San Francisco on Monday afternoon, arriving at the hotel by cab just after 1. We’d decided not to rent a car right away since Fred didn’t want to drive in San Fran and we didn’t want to pay extra for parking. We stayed at the Comfort Inn by the Bay, the most affordable closest to the Fisherman’s Wharf. It was too early to check in, so we left our bags there and walked down to the Wharf. It was gorgeous that day, and people were playing in the water. We walked past them to the crazy busy wharf, which was kind of like the Tower of Babel, So many people from so many places. We took it all in, and ate at Boudin’s because I wanted a view of the Bay and I wanted clam chowder in a bread bowl. I also had a mojito that was so strong I almost fell asleep at the table. We walked down to Pier 39, full of shops, and bought some salt water taffy and some souvenirs, then walked back to the hotel to check in.

Okay, the hotel was maybe 6 blocks, but uphill! I’m from Texas, we don’t have hills. By the time we got back to the hotel, we were so tired, and still on Texas time. The hotel room was NOT pretty. It was old and small, but it had a view of the Golden Gate Bridge through a dirty window. We’d paid extra for the view, so looked out as much as possible

We didn’t even eat supper, but fell asleep around 8.

Tomorrow–Chinatown

Goals for the Week of Fourth of July

My traveling is over for the summer. While it was fun and I saw lots of new things and missed the worst of the heat wave,I’m so happy to have the next 7 weeks home.

Main goal: Clean guest room

Pinterest goal: necklaces/magnets

1) My main goal is to write. A lot. Every day. I signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo in June and totally tanked. So I want this book done by my son’s 21st birthday. Let’s make the goal 12K for the week.

2) Next big one: get the house in order. It is in post-vacation, leave son on his own disaster mode. I will take one room a day.

3) Third big one: EXERCISE. Nothing like walking all over the west to find how out of shape you are.

4) Big grocery trip

5) Cook every day except 4th of July, including one bread from scratch and one dessert from scratch.

6) Breakfast with BB before he leaves on HIS travels.

7) winery tour with teacher friends? They may be changing the date.

Okay, I declare that plenty

Frustrated

Remember me? The disciplined one? I don’t know what’s happened to me. I wrote a short story the first two days of summer vacation and since then….less than 20,000 words! I signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo, even knowing I’d be going on 2 trips, and I just can’t focus. The story hasn’t pulled me in, and I’ve gone days–DAYS–without working on it. This is a story I’ve had plotted for over a year but didn’t have time to write. I’m wondering should I set it aside and work on a novella or something, but…that seems like quitting even if I intend to get back to it. And I need another book done. I don’t have anything coming out.

I’m trying to figure out what I’ve done this past year–2 Bluestone novels and 4 novellas. Not terrific, considering my job has become significantly less stressful this year.

I did a lot of sewing last year and still managed to write. I don’t know why I’m having trouble this year.

Who wants to give me a kick in the pants?

And how could I NOT be inspired?

More Pinterest

You may be wondering where I’ve been….went to Minnesota over the weekend with the guys and it was not as relaxing as usual. Plus I’m having a hard time getting in the swing of things, I have a sick cat (YaYa) and all this nervous energy. I’m not writing, my house is a mess…but I’ve spent today doing projects while waiting for the vet.

First, I finished my “batik” shirt. You start with a white shirt, draw a design with blue Elmer’s glue (not sure why blue, but the directions were specific and neither Walmart nor Walgreens had it. Found it at JoAnn’s.) You let the design dry completely (I drew it yesterday morning and dyed it this morning, so just about 20 hours.) Then you dye it. Since I have a front-loader, I dyed it in the sink with about half a bottle. And I got this!

Then I printed out some silhouettes from the internet, traced them on freezer paper (probably could have printed straight on the freezer paper), cut it out. Then you IRON it, shiny side down, onto a t-shirt.

Then you place a piece of cardboard inside the shirt, protect the work area (I went outside) and fill a spray bottle with a bleach solution (70% bleach and 30% water). Let it sit for 20 minutes and….I thought the purple would work faster, but the gray showed up RIGHT away. I already had both shirts, so no risk here.

The tree didn’t come out well–I think I didn’t iron it firmly enough, because I didn’t have the same problem with the dragonfly, which also has narrow pieces. So I traced it. Not sure if I’ll fill it in or not.

THEN the other day I’d made these shorts. I mean, I had the shorts, the spray fabric dye was on sale, I thought, what the heck. Okay, NEVER NEVER NEVER buy that damned Simply Spray. Okay, when it works, it’s GREAT. When it doesn’t work, which the red didn’t and I had to take it back, it is awful.

So I made the shorts before my trip (need to hem them), then decided to try this:

Not gorgeous, but cute.

 

THEN I decided, since I bought a roll of 150 ft of freezer paper, to try to print on burlap. I’d seen it on Pinterest, so I ironed freezer paper on the burlap, cut it to 8×11 and ran it through.

It didn’t work with my ink jet, but it did with my laser printer. Yay! Now, what to do with them?

 

Goals for the Week of Father’s Day

 

Big project: Format Bluestone Song for print

Pinterest project: painted t-shirts

So I’m up in Minnesota at the lake, celebrating Father’s Day with my dad. It’s in the 60s, gorgeous weather, but the mosquitos are TERRIBLE. CLOUDS of them on the path between here and the lake.

Get ready for anniversary trip
Day with Mom
1/2 way through new book (SO far behind, y’all. It’s stressing me out.)
Celebrate hubby’s birthday
Keep up house
Maybe, MAYBE try to exercise.

 

Pinterest Recipes

The boy is on his vegetarian thing still so I’m very grateful to Pinterest for all the great veggie recipes. Here are some of our favorites.

I’ve made this frittata twice. SO GOOD. Eggs, cheese, basil, tomatoes.

I made this cheddar soup when he had his wisdom teeth out. Pretty easy and so good.

This corn salad was super easy and super tasty. No leftovers! I used canned corn though.

I made this cucumber salad to eat for lunch this summer. It’s supposed to last two months. I halved the recipe. It’s sweet, like pickles.

I made this mock potato salad but chopped up the cauliflower too much so it was more like a cold soup. Tasty, though, and lasted several days.

We made these wraps last Monday. They were a hit!

I made this recipe for strawberry lemonade concentrate and it is GOOD. A lot of steps though. And three glasses in one sitting is too much.

And last, these yummy yummy biscuits–the secret ingredient is 7-UP!

The boy will be away for the next 2 weeks so I can try some more recipes with MEAT!