Portland - New Year's Eve

From Seattle, we drove to Portland and stayed in our digs at the Embassy Suites downtown. On the way in, we grabbed lunch at Slappy Cakes which was features on one of the cable channels as one of the top 10 restaurants in the US. Not sure if it warrants billing with the French Laundry, but the lines were definitely long, and the novelty of making your own pancakes on special Japanese griddles in the middle of your table was worth the wait (and putting up with the non-PG shapes at the adjacent table). Our gluttony tour continued with a stop at Voodoo Donuts (Nate and I did the honors, see the photo of the hotel above with Julie visible in the window), and with an hour-wait in freezing cold to do New Year's Eve dinner at the Screen Door. 

Seattle

We originally set plans to head from Edmonds to Portland on Monday, but changed our plans to spend an extra in town to see the sights. We slept in, then drove down to Seattle to take the Great Wheel, then hightailed it the Space Needle and finally found (after three tries) an open parking garage so we could watch the Pacific Science Center's showing of the Hobbit - Battle of the Five Armies. Later we caught up with Grandmom and Grandpa to do dinner in Edmonds for our last night in town.

Dawson Family Get-Together

Another enjoyable Dawson family get-together in Edmonds! The kids were spoiled with so much good food, an open/private movie theater (despite the Seahawks game), and more presents than anyone deserves. Thanks Mom & Dad for all the hard work and plans to make it happen.

Christmas morning

Tea Lunch and Cirque du Soleil in SF

Gina planned this year's holiday foray into San Francisco: a tea lunch at LoveJoy Tea room in the Noe Valley neighborhood, and then tickets to see the Cirque du Soleil show "Kurios" in the tents set outside the Giant's AT & T ballpark. Fun show! Everyone in the family had their favorite act, but mine was the guy building a tower of chairs on a dining room table to reach a chandelier hanging mid-way down the ceiling, and then seeing the exact opposite tower being built down from top of the tent by an identical mirror group. 

Holiday Concerts

The kids know it's close to Christmas when all the parents come to listen to the school holiday concerts, and this year was no different. As usual for Burton Valley, Julie's 5th grade sang "Jingle Bell Rock" complete with sunglasses and hats, and in the second half of the concert, the strings band performed a couple of songs. Gina was all tears knowing this was her last elementary concert. For Nate's middle school, only the kids enrolled in the music program performed, and they sounded great (Nate did need to work off a little energy by juggling at home). Nate's a little hard to see in the video -- he's behind the blond kid in the back, left.

Grace and Julie

Here's a video of Grace and her younger cousin Julie trying to recreate the theme from the movie "UP" on our piano.

This picture had to be taken

The kids wanted to mark the occasion of 9:10pm (and eleven seconds) on Dec 13 (12/13/2014).

Biking to School

On December 11th, we were forecast for the "Storm of the Decade", a Pineapple Express torrent of rain that eventually hit and dropped the equivalent of ten Mississippi Rivers in 24 hours and winds up to 70 miles an hour. Gina and I cancelled our dentist cleaning trip in Foster City, and most schools (and businesses) in the bay area closed. Nate and Julie were hopefully that Lafayette would close as well, but as it turned out, school was on. Not only did they go to school, Nate insisted on riding his bike as he does every day. Tough boy!

The Bird

Caspian continues to become more tame with every passing week. He greets people who approach him with an single outstretched wing and then heart-shaped shrug of his shoulders, and now hops on fingers when he wants to be let out of the cage. He walks around the floor, lowers his head to be scratched, and apparently likes kisses on his head, which Julie is more than willing to provide. He is also clear when he doesn't want to be held by mildly nipping, and he cries out when the house alarm starts beeping or Gina's teapot starts whistling.

Dosa

A couple of weeks ago I drove some neighbors at SFO, and I promised Nate a good lunch in the Mission if he joined me. He wanted to try something Indian related, so we went to Dosa on Valencia Street and ordered their paper crepe. I didn't believe the waiter when he said it was probably big enough for us to share, but he was right. It was crispy & chewy and came with great potato stuffing and dipping sauces. We made a pact that we're coming back & ordering the white truffle crepe next (which Gina said isn't true Indian food, but we don't care.)