Al provides stability

 

We drove through Bakersfield in December and bought a stabilizer gimcrack from the guy who invented it.  It looked lovely in its cardboard box, snuggled against the fireplace for a couple of months, then beside the dining table.  This week it was allowed to see the light of day for a few minutes before it got installed under Homer and will be there forevermore.  What a difference!  We could probably hold a square dance in here now and none of the neighbors would notice any rocking.  And I have one less thing to whine about.
Wine?  Maybe just a little to celebrate.

My hero!

 

Gardens of Glass

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glory in Glass

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Words escape me.  Just enjoy the beauty without my rambling.
Next time I'll show you the garden.

Sleeping in Seattle

We had a bunch of hotel points that were accrued on the Euroadventure so went to the big city for a couple of nights.  Doesn't everybody need a vacation from retirement?
Pike Place Market offers a big mess o' fish, some exotic, some very strange. 

How many varieties of tulips are there?

 

 

Well, we had to stop for lunch, didn't we?  How many pictures of fish 'n' chips can I show you? 

 

Appropriate public art in Seattle.

 

 

Wave good-bye from the ferry.

Victoria

Gary and Helen came all the way from San Francisco to inspect Sequim.  Thursday we took the ferry to Canada for a bit of international travel.  Victoria was established as a trading depot in 1843. The summer of 1858 brought thousands of people to or through the town for the Fraser River Gold Rush and it was incorporated as a city in 1862. The second largest metro area in British Columbia, it has a population of 344,615.  Parks make up 7.7% of the city land.

The Parliament Building, where 85 members of the British Columbia  Assembly meet.
The 12.5-acre site has been a seat of government since 1859.   

 

The Empress Hotel was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway as a luxury resort on a global transportation route and became a fashionable destination. In 1999, Canadian Pacific Hotels & Resorts purchased Fairmont Hotels, so now it is the Fairmont Empress.

 

 

 

It wouldn't be a proper visit to Victoria without high-falutin' tea at the Empress.
  Senior discount is a good thing. 

Not much to see on a rainy day, but it was fun.

Still catching up on Warsaw

Doesn't this just seem wrong?

 

We wandered for an entire afternoon at the Wilanow Palace (Vilanof), which was built for the Polish king Jan Sobieski.  Among other things, he was most famous for the victory over the Turks in the 1683 Battle of Vienna.  You'll have to look him up because there is way too much for me to type here. It has been enlarged, remodeled and well maintained through the years.
 Not bad for a summer home.  

 

The back yard.

 

 

 

 

 

ps  We're still in Sequim and will be until the end of May.