Another year older

Whew! It's been a while since we posted! We've had a busy few weeks that we'll have to catch everyone up on, but for now, I'll share some pics from my birthday weekend.

On Friday, my actual birthday, I picked hotpot (surprise!) at Hai Di Lao - a hotpot chain from China that opened up in Bellevue a few years back that we had not gone to yet. They're famous for their sauce bar, free ice cream and the "dancing noodle man" who indeed does do quite the fancy dance while pulling fresh noodles tableside. We ordered way too much food and went home stuffed to the brim and armed with more than a few doggie bags.

On Sat, we headed out bright and early to the Hood Canal for Nora's lacrosse game (more on that later), and decided to spend the day over there checking out a state park and then walking around Gig Harbor. On Sunday, I forced the family on a hike, indulged Scott with some fishing time and then enjoyed some homemade pasta and a nice bottle of wine at home.

All-in-all, a nice relaxing weekend with the family. I just can't believe another year around the sun is complete!

Hai Di Lao celebrates birthdays big time!

Look at all those fancy table decorations.

It was fun having 4 different broths.

Reading amongst the trees in Seabeck.

Unfortunately, it got really windy. This is our trooper Nora, trying to shield herself from the wind.

We hiked up to Garfield Ledges. It was short but rewarding. No one else but us!

Having a few snacks along the river while Scott went fishing.

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Happy new year!!

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Salmon

The other weekend, Scott arranged for us to get a private tour of the Salmon hatchery on Orcas Island. It's surprising that we've been going to Orcas for over 10 years now and never noticed this place before! The tour started down by the waters along Eastsound where Mike, the facilities manager, showed us where the Salmon come in from the ocean ever year. There is a fish ladder down there and a little dock that lets them catch the spawning salmon and they can quickly fertilize the eggs. Then we drove up to the main hatchery where he walked us through where the eggs incubate until they are little hatchlings before being moved to larger swimming pools. It was an interesting little tour to learn all about the life of the salmon. This hatchery focuses on Chinook (King) salmon, and out of the 800,000 baby salmon they release back to the water, about 800-900 come back to spawn. The rest are eaten up by whales in the Pacific ocean or caught by commercial fisherman out in the open w...

Simpsons in Seattle

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