Where Were You - September 11th, 2001

This morning on my drive into work which quickly went from a nice 35 minute drive to a 1 hour and 35 minute drive due to traffic and accidents I ran across a few flags...

It being September 11th, a day that I hate to have to remember... All things September 11th seriously make me cringe.  I actually watched Extremely Close and Incredibly Loud this weekend and balled my eyes out.  I just hate to remember that tragic day... but we have to.  We must remember!  We must share the stories of the past to enable us to move on and to enable us to get stronger and move forward and remember.

This man stands at this bridge every year for 12 hours on this day.  It's amazing to me.  He waves his flag proudly.  Today I saw people walking up to him and shaking his hand.  Cars from underneath were honking over and over...It was very emotional.  I couldn't believe it.  This is a well travelled road that is always congested which meant that people were parking to then walk up to him to I assume thank him for what he is doing today and what he has done.

I was a senior in high school.

I knew nothing of this sort of things... we didn't know bombings or terror attacks, my generation. 

We were innocent and living with no worries.

Then during my morning Latin class, the Spanish teacher came in and told the teacher to turn on the TV. 

Doc Shorter did just that.

And we saw the burning building.

ISTEP testing was in progress so not all classes could see these images. 

It was sickening.

It was confusing.

It was mesmerizing and terrifying all at the same time.

We weren't sure what we were witnessing at the moment.

We were naive.

This couldn't happen here.  It just couldn't.

Had to have been an accident.

But how?! 

No one said anything.  Even the halls were quiet when changing periods.

Eerie quiet in the halls of a high school which should be erupting with sound.

But that's how I remember.

I was glued to the TV all afternoon and evening.

I can't do it anymore though... I hate to watch the coverage.  I hate to see the buildings fall and the sadness on every one's faces.  It makes me so sad. 

But we can't forget...

The lives lost...

The heroes...

The survivors...

The widowed...

The motherless...

 The fatherless...

We can't forget that day and all that it was.

Moments like this make me smile and tear up. 

Another bridge...Another Soldier(s)

Waving our flag proudly.

All gave some, but some gave all.

We remember.

09.11.01

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The Stevie necklace is a Steal!

Oh Washington

Ok... Can I first just say that it is so amazing out west!  I love the trees, the hills, the mountains, the snow covered mountaintops, the ocean, the animals, the fresh(er) air!  It's gorgeous, beautiful, wonderful... every beautiful word you can think of, it is. 

I went up there a week or two ago for work... which was one of the reason for my absence (other than my inability to get it together!).  For my full time job, I work on programs that are used at the Ports of Entry.  Very Exciting.  Not. Really.  But on this occasion, I was able to work in a fantastic area with fantastic people and get to experience SO MANY things! 

For work purposes we were located at Blaine, WA - right on the border.  Literally.  Most of the places we were working on were right there, but there were a few that needed drives... This was our view while driving back and forth and most of the time! 


Wherever we went, we had a mountain or ocean view.  It was crazy.  I didn't know that they had a volcano (saw my first - haha), Mount Baker which apparently occasionally steams.  That's the one thing that I did not get to see.  We had to drive 5 hours to a port and 5 hours back... on that trip we saw two little black bear cubs that were tumbling down a hill.  They ran across the road right in front of us. We thought we missed them, but while going through my pictures on the camera we got one of them!  Still on camera... see, still can't get act fully together.

We left on a Sunday and we worked long days for the first 3-4 days that we were there.  Then it chilled out.  A little.  Not that much.  We were able to go home one day early and we even ended up working a little that weekend, but one of our new work friends offered to take us out on their boat while we were there.  We couldn't have picked a better day because it was A-Maze-Balls! 


We had wanted to go on a whale watching trip, but everyone was saying that there were no fish this year therefore no whales... boo... So we went out anyways, and Captain Doug and Diana just looking to have a fun day on the water!  We set out, dropped our crab catchers, and then went to a spot to try to fish... no bites.  Then we had lunch at Roach Harbor which was gorgeous - I had a Salmon Wrap that was wonderful - then toured an open house on a 6 million dollar yatch!  Wow! That was cool... If I ever open my laptop again, I'll share more pictures! 


Then we were ready to head home so we hopped on the boat and drove by a little island that I can't remember the name of and saw some exotic animals that apparently were moved there by some billionaire and now I guess Bill Gates has a home on this island as well... but anyways saw some goat like animals and BALD EAGLES! 

Then we kept floating and we saw this...

Umm... it was kind of amazing!  Like really amazing!  Like kind of really amazing!  They are so gorgeous and beautiful and were so peaceful to just watch swimming through the ocean!  I could have watched them for hours!  It was unreal.. but it was real!  We got so lucky!  And we were so grateful! 

Then as we were {still} driving back because it was about 3 hours out, this little guy was just chillin' in the water as we passed...

When we picked up our crab catchers this is what we found! 

Captain Doug could only keep 10 because you can only keep 5 per licensed person on the boat and Stacey and I were not.  boo.  Sorry Captain Doug...we failed you.

The next day we secretly swept ourselves away to go to Seattle.  We had to visit Starbucks and the Space Needle since we were there so we made a quick trip down to Seattle

And then back home... well, to our home at the Holiday Inn Bellingham.

We had one more day of work to do and then we drove back to Seattle where we flew out of.  This was our view while driving...

And we ended our trip with a nice hotel dinner and some vino! 

 

I don't ever think you can go wrong with wine and crab cakes!  Mmmm...

And maybe if I really get my act together I'll have more pictures tomorrow!

Ashamed...

I'm so ashamed of my recent inactivity...
I can't say that I'm suprised as my life just got "flipped turned upside down.."
Well, not really that bad, but it's been a crazy couple of weeks...

Firstly, I'm sorry. 
I'm sorry to my followers because I really do have so many things to share but I just can't seem to get my act together enough.  Time management is on my to do list.  Let's see where that falls...

Secondly, I've been across the US for 2 weeks and just found myself with no time to even chill by myself for enough time to blog.  I have tons of pictures to share... I had a once in a lifetime experience out there... well, hopefully it's not a once in a lifetime experience because it was awesome!  Will share tomorrow!  I promise!  No really, I do!

Thirdly, my life is just going bananas over here.  With travel and grandparents and babies and great grandparents and holidays and sitters and life, I'm starting to feel like I'm losing my mind!  I'm hoping to get it back in gear today... since I have 2 weeks before I go out again.  Ugh...

So my sincerest apologies...
Until tomorrow (or maybe tonight if I get my stuff straight!)

I've missed you blog hogs!