A new year, a new blog

I started writing this blog... because all the cool kids were doing it! Little did I know how much I would enjoy sharing my crafts, our cats and our travels. I've also loved meeting new friends and sharing our joy of crafting. However, this past year was not a shining moment in my creative output. Well, sometimes change is what I need to get a little more inspiration. So I'm moving blogs! Hopefully, all of my four remaining readers (all family members, of course! Hi Mama!) will join me over at...

marirob.squarespace.com

Upcoming entries will include:

My Christmas present! (it's a brand new craft for me!)
Sweater(s)! (I've finished one fairly recently)
Cats! (because Unki demands it!)

Here's hoping that you and your families will have a wonderful 2009. See you at the new blog!

Day 7 - Victoria - Fish and chips... finally!

One of the places I wanted to see while in Victoria was Butchart Gardens. I was worried that with us going so late in the fall was the flowers would be sad. :(

We got there early enough so there were barely any other people. Rob loved the old style maps.


I shouldn't have been worried - from our first view of the sunken gardens, we were amazed by the color and variety of all the plants.


The bush behind me looked like a alien being to me.


The fall colors were definitely in full force!


Beautiful view across the pond.


There were some fountains that we called, "Bellagio - Canada"!


Love the red color.


Although the roses weren't in bloom, the chrysanthemums were out in full force. They were amazing!




They had a Japanese garden too, which wasn't as authentic as the Nitobe Gardens, but, again, the colors were just beautiful.




After the gardens, we went in search of a fish and chip place recommended to us by Huay, but it was closed! Blast! So we went into town, found my museum...

(I think the sign is really pointing to the Maritime museum!)

saw Chinatown...


... and ended up back at Red Fish Blue Fish, where we had the yummiest halibut and chowder. If you're ever in Victoria, please eat here! It's yummy!


Our final visit of the day was to Government house, which has a nice hike through an oak forest and various vistas of the city.


There were little terraced gardens to enjoy the plants and view.


Relaxing is nice!


We also enjoyed seeing all of the ducks in the ponds - we love duck butt!


This wasn't our last day on the trip, we had one more day but it was a total travel day from Victoria back to Seattle. Nothing notable happened except...

...we flew the plane home! No, the nice pilot let us sit up front during a layover.

All in all, a wonderful trip, with great food and great nature. Definitely a fantastic destination without leaving our time zone!

Day 6 - Tofino to Victoria - From nature to man-made wonders

This was a big travel day for us - a 5 hour drive from Tofino to Victoria. We stopped at the other side of Cathedral Grove


Look at the big tree!


I love this photo - doesn't the forest look primeval? (I said that word probably 30 times on this trip!)


A teeny tiny mushroom.


We got to Victoria in under 5 hours, and we walked immediately to the middle of town. Here's the famous Empress Hotel.


While we were in Vancouver, a fellow B&B guest recommended a fish and chips place called "Red Fish Blue Fish". It's a converted shipping container on the harbor.


We decided to get sandwiches, as we were supposed to go to a local fish joint recommended by our friend Huay the next day. It was fun to watch the whale watching boats while we were waiting for our food.


Side note - did you know that in Canada, Canada Dry is the "champagne of ginger ales"?


The sandwiches were so tasty, I got oysters and Rob got scallops. One of the condiments was a deep fried pickle chip, which tasted way better than it sounds.


Afterward, we went to the Royal BC museum, which was one of the best museums I've ever been to. Great exhibits about the history of British Columbia, including the First Nations cultures - these tomtem poles were very impressive.


They also had crazy recreations of different time periods in British Columbia. Rob says they are "full-size occupiable dioramas". Here we are next to the HMS Discovery (in my Klaralund!)


After checking in our B&B, we headed back into town for a movie. It was fun to watch a movie with the locals.

Our favorite highlight? Our lunch (it always comes back to food!)


Day 7 - our final full day of vacation...

Day 5 - Tofino - Hiking and recharging

We were worried about the weather on Day 5, because rain was in the forecast. But we awoke to no rain that morning! Here's the view from the windows of our room.

The B&B owner told us that there are usually bears back here, but we didn't see any during our stay.

I am so excited to eat breakfast in my pajamas!


We went back to Chesterman Beach, where we got drenched the night before. It was so incredibly beautiful!


A sand dollar with some "fuzz" still left on it.


The sun peeking through the clouds.


The beach is very long, and there were only about 10 other people enjoying the morning.


We walked out to an island that's only accessible during low tide.



A lone paddle surfer.


After our walk on the beach, we went and hiked in the Pacific Rim National Park. There are a bunch of easy hikes that each had their own personalities. During the summer, the crowds are enormous, but we pretty much had each hike to ourselves.

This hike was through a lovely forest that ended going down lots of stairs next to a waterfall to a beach.


One of my favorite hikes was through this bog - it reminded me of the scene in Lord of the Rings in the Dead Marshes, but happily there were no dead bodies! The walkway is just sitting on top of the moss, so it was nice and springy.


Even slugs are beautiful in Tofino!


We took some more hikes to several beaches, each with its own personality. This was the first time I understood the appeal of beachcombing, because each beach had so much beach "debris" to look at!


Rob thought this would be a good before/after shot of some driftwood.


So happy that my ears are protected by my Chevron Scarf.


The last hikes we did were through some rainforests, which had walkways that took you through the canopies of of the trees. None of the photos did justice to the incredible landscape and scale of the trees.


This bridge is made from a fallen log.


Rob can barely fit under this tree!


The entire day was just what I had hoped for - great but easy hiking, beautiful scenery and a chance to be with nature. It was definitely worth the trip just to make it here!

Day 4 - Vancouver to Tofino - Surfing in the rain?!?!?

We woke early, sad to leave Vancouver but excited to head to Vancouver Island. We were headed to Tofino, which we kept hearing from everyone was beautiful. So we were definitely looking forward to this leg of the trip!

The trip would entail a 90 minute ferry ride, as well as a 4 hour drive across the island.


It was cold on the ferry ride!


But very beautiful too!

We landed in Nanaimo and immediately found a place to get some tasty seafood chowder - topped with cheese, yum.


As usual, we took one of our customary camera-on-dashboard photos.


The photos don't do justice to the landscape - the fall colors were just beginning to show.


We stopped at a place called Cathedral Grove, which had some huge old growth trees and felt like we were back in the age of the dinosaurs.


More fungi!


I loved all of the moss hanging from the trees.


We checked into our B&B, the Harvey House, which was perfect for our stay.


We took a quick walk to the beach (in the rain) where we were SHOCKED to see about 15 people surfing! We didn't get any good photos because it was cold and RAINING!


As we walked the beach, we got really wet but still enjoyed ourselves.





Afterwards, we headed into the town of Tofino for a lovely dinner. It was too dark to take photos!

Our highlight? The surreal landscape of Cathedral Grove.


Day 5? It stops raining! Yay!

Day 3 - Vancouver - Meeting a Blogging Legend!

We started our third day by taking in some beautiful flora at the University of British Columbia's botanical garden.


We had the entire garden to ourselves (or, so it felt!) I loved all of the dampness and the mushrooms...


...and the fall berries.


Hey! Who are those people?


You can kind of see the blurry people in this photo - there was a class on tree climbing while we were there.


Oooo - pink berries!


An attempt at an artsy shot.


We went to the Nitobe Japanese Garden down the road, where we felt like we were in Japan when we saw the Japanese school group leaving right before us.


This garden is described as one of the most authentic Japanese gardens outside of Japane, and it really is.


The views are very well situated (I'm channeling my inner Austen - tee hee!)


After the gardens, we drove across town to meet... Felicia from SweetGeorgia yarns! She was so sweet to meet up with us and we went to lunch together. Her blog was one of the first ones I started reading when I first started knitting. I was so excited to meet her!

She is so pretty and super nice!

We went to her studio and saw her lovely yarn and her looms.



It was so much fun meeting her (and of course I bought some yarn!) Her restaurant/travel advice really made our trip so much more memorable.

After we left Felicia's studio, we headed to Granville Island and went to the public market. It was great to walk around the area, but Rob only took one photo.

Sometimes his love of all things industrial goes too far!

For dinner, we were slightly embarrassed to admit that we went back to the Foundation Eatery to get more nachos! We ordered the large, and the waitress said, "Have you ever ordered the large before?" Of course we hadn't, and it was even bigger than we had imagined! It was the perfect end to our short jaunt to Vancouver.


Highlights of the day? For Rob, it was the nachos!

They looked bigger in person.

For me, it was definitely meeting Felicia!

I took a blurry photo of the yarn I bought.

Thank you again Felicia! We'll have to return the favor if you ever visit good ol' So Cal!

Day 4 - we go to one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to!

Day 2 - Vancouver - Biking and... eating!

We were really lucky to enjoy great weather during our trip. Cool, in the 50's and 60's, and it really only rained on our travel days. The first thing we did was to grab the mountain bikes from our B&B and ride to Stanley park.


For some reason, we woefully mispacked for this trip. I forgot a hat and proper gloves, Rob forgot good hiking shoes. Luckily I remembered my newly finished Chevron scarf and it gots lots of play during this trip!


There were lots of totem poles during our trip. I love looking at them and seeing the different personalities of the animals and artists in each piece.


Hey! That's how I hold Unki!


Rob's friend Ryan told him to look out for the big sulfur piles across the water - Rob took many, many photos of them (don't ask me why!)


There were some beautiful fall colors along the ride.


Our bike ride took a couple of hours - it was just amazing to be able to get such beautiful views along the way.


Our B&B (the West End Guest House) was a great find! There were such beautiful flowers in the front yard.


Lunch took us to another of Felicia's restaurant recommendations - Finch's Tea and Coffee House. Super fresh, super tasty baguette sandwiches right near Gastown.


Yummy prosciutto sandwich.


We walked around Gastown and Chinatown - Rob swore he took a photo next to this statue from over 20 years ago!


We are such dorks! We got so excited to see posters advertising the Canadian version of our favorite summer tv show!

For dinner, we went to number 3 of Felicia's recommendations - Chambar, a belgium restaurant specializing in mussels. This was such an amazingly tasty meal - we really, really loved this restaurant!

We had to take a photo of Rob's beer so he could remember what brand it was.


I had a beet and crabapple salad - it was so delicious.


Rob had the moroccan style lamb with couscous. Again, super yummy!

Of course we had mussels, which were the best mussels I've had in a long time. They just didn't photograph well...

So, the highlight of the day for both of us? Dinner!

And they had the best frites!

Tomorrow? Do we actually get to meet the person who is made sure we ate so well? Wait and see!

Day 1 - Seattle to Vancouver - Mexi Fries, anyone?

A couple of weeks ago Rob and I went on a trip to Vancouver and Vancouver Island. It's been a while since we took a vacation so we were both very excited! So... you'll notice that the theme of the trip was FOOD! We ate lots and ate well.

We flew into Sea-Tac and drove across the border to Vancouver. We had to stop in Seattle at Hole in the Wall BBQ for some delicious BBQ pork sandwiches.


We went here on our last trip to Seattle and luckily I remembered the name of the place!


My boss Jen told me once about the Mexi Fries at Taco Time so we had to stop and get some to sustain us on our drive.


The tastiest tater tots in town!


It didn't take us too long to get to Vancouver, where we checked into our B&B and took a walk to Stanley Park and our neighborhood (in the rain...)



Even the pigeons looked a little cold and damp.


Before we left, I had asked Felicia from Sweetgeorgia yarns for some restaurant recommendations. She gave us a list of super tasty places. That day just happened to be Canada's Thanksgiving, so we were a little worried if anyplace would be opened. Luckily, we went to the Foundation Eatery, a vegetarian place where they had the best nachos ever! We also had great entrees.


I thought I'd list the highlight of each day of our trip... and for this day? The nachos for both of us!

Rob's big run!

It's always a surprise to see how fast time goes by. My brother-in-law says, "The minutes go by slow, but the years go by so fast". I have to be honest, this hasn't been a good year for marirob. When times are hard, blogging kind of takes a back seat. But I just had to share Rob's huge accomplishment from a couple of weeks ago.

You may remember from this post that Rob and I ran in a 5k/10k back in May. Rob's goal was to run the Long Beach half-marathon in October. Well, even with a couple of injuries and busy times at work, he managed to do it, and I had a blast cheering Rob, my sister Mina, and my brother-in-law Steve onto victory!


The beginning of the race.


Go Mina!


You can do it Rob!


Steve at the end of the race.


The triumphant trio after the end of the race.

Mina and Steve had awesome times (2:07 and 1:50 respectively) and Rob's goal was to run the entire race, which he did! I am so proud of the three of them - they did a great job! I know that I'll be rooting them on next year too!

nani iro dresses

I've left my camera charger in Toronto and, for some reason, I am unable to get myself to buy a new one, so I haven't had any photos for a little bit. But I did do a post for the purl bee about some dresses I made. I really made them for myself!




I love these dresses, I've worn them out and about already. The fabric is different from regular fabric, if you've never felt it before. I think it's a way to have a lightweight fabric that isn't sheer, and it's perfect for a humid climate.

I've been knitting a little, also planning to make a dress for a wedding later in the month. My serger hadn't been working and I was so angry at it when it discovered it was... USER ERROR! Gasp! Maybe I can finally work on all of those knits I've been planning to make!

a travelling fool!

...is what I've been. I went to Toronto last week to visit my good friend Anna. I didn't do many touristy things, I mainly hung out with her and her two adorable children and just followed her around. The highlights were...

- seeing Anna's son sing at his music class
- going to several of Toronto's parks
- experiencing a CRAZY thunderstorm one night
- meeting the deputy mayor of Toronto and getting a Toronto lapel pin from him!
- going to a Filipino Independence day picnic
- bouncing a super cute baby a million times


See? Isn't she cute?

The one touristy thing we did do was to take the ferry out to Centre Island, which was great fun.


I got back Sunday afternoon and then Rob had to go to Las Vegas for an overnight trip for work, so I tagged along! The highlight was that we stayed at the Bellagio with a view of the dancing fountains.


I've done a little crafting, which includes -
a pair of socks
almost finished with my chevron scarf
demolishing my first attempt at making a t-shirt with the serger

But I leave you with the cutest baby feet in our house.


Hopefully I'll craft some more next week - I have so many projects in my head I'm going to burst!

Taking a break... cruising!

I wanted to thank everyone for the thoughtful comments you left on our last post. It's always such a comfort to hear from fellow bloggers, even when I've only met two of you! It definitely is appreciated by Rob and his family. :)

We felt like we needed a little emotional break after coming back from the east coast. So, I started researching, and a couple hours later, we were booked on a four day cruise to Cabo San Lucas! Neither of us had ever been on a cruise before, and we had a great time! It's not the... well, we'll say "classiest" way to travel, but we were thoroughly entertained by everything we saw and experienced.


The main pool and slide.


Looking down into the main atrium.


Wow! It's windy!


Relaxing next to the ocean.


Look! We won the scavenger hunt! Next stop, Amazing Race!


During our snorkeling trip in Cabo.

Our favorite part was meeting different people that you would never meet anywhere else. Our favorite people were Ted and Terese, who live in Idaho on a dairy farm. I also thought a lot about how hard it must be to work on a cruise ship. There were so many employees it was mind boggling. Rob's favorite entertainer was a guitar player that sang at the "Drama Bar". He was truly not very good. Here's a video to show you:


Rob's parents both loved to travel so I think they both would have appreciated the trip. :) So, we are refreshed and ready for summer! Rob is going to have half day Fridays at work so we're hoping to do lots of sightseeing in our own backyard.