Green Flamingobecause I said so

I have to say, usually from a vacation, I am glad to be back home again, to a normal life, and not worrying about much. But not this time sadly. I still wish I was in Washington, and not in Pennsylvania. I came back to a messy house and a lot of work.

The flight yesterday was ok, watched a movie and did have something to eat. We got in late local time, about 11:30. Though it was only 8:30 Washington time, I was still very tired.

It took me a while to get used to the humidity here in Pennsylvania and live it, but now is it horrible. My bike is too small and there aren’t that many great places to ride, so it will be a little different outdoors.

Anyway, if I look on the bright side, I can STILL blog about cars, and also places I would like to be and travel too. Though my time is cut down a little I will still be able to manage.

So I will start with the cars here in PA compared to Washington.

Pennsylvania – Not many people here have what I would call a good car. In autoblogging terms you might almost call them clunkers. Since there are no supercars here or anything, you may wonder if there are a lot of hybrids, and everyone here is very environmental. The answer to that is NO. There are a lot of  Toyotas, but not prius.There are a few decent cars here, an occasional Audi A8 maybe, BMW, and next door they have two Mustang GTs, but overall not that great.

Washington – In Washington I would say there is a variety of cars. There are a lot of hybrids, people are environmental there, and there are many good cars there too. I had a few listed in previous posts but to sum it up I saw a lot of good Audi’s, BMW’s, Mercedes Benz, Porsche’s, etc.

Well that about does it for me tonight, I am a bit tired still from my flight, But I’ll be back again soon, and this post also sums up my vacation pretty much.

This is my last full day in Bellingham. I will miss it here, the outdoors, the beach, water, trails, the town, but I know I can come back.

Tonight I watched the sunset on the Taylor street dock and boardwalk, sat on the bench and listened to the light water. I heard the splash of the people jumping off the entrance of the boardwalk to swim to the floating dock, watched the ripples and waves in the water as a yacht went by, and felt the train shaking the ground behind me. And I thought about this place, and I decided, I really like it here. Maybe I want to live here. Because in this area you can really enjoy life, and not feel all the complications of other places. As far as I’d say, Bellingham is a very nice place to visit to calm down, and step into the flow of your life.

Well I bring you days 6 and 7 of my vacation in Washington. Also it turns out the trip will be extended until Wednesday, for our flight is overbooked for tomorrow and the chances of getting on standby  are smaller than we hoped.

Day 6 of Washington State:

Yesterday we had a bit of a mellow day, staying at home nice and warm and not going out in the cold. We were a bit tired out after the the steep Fragrance Lake trail climb.

I took a few bike rides though, once along the Interurban trail until I got up into the Chuckanut ridge, and in the evening just casually down to the Taylor Street Dock and Boulevard park again, for it is always nice there in the evening I think.

Day 7 of Washington State:

This morning we drove to Anacortes and boarded the ferry to Orcas island. AT the lookout point we saw some of the other San Juan islands and looked into Bellingham and the bay. After that we rested for a while along the beach until we boarded the next ferry back to the mainland.

The past few days I have really slacked off on the car blogging part, and also getting my blog in shape. I do still have a list of a few cars in mind, so here we go.

Mazda Miata – a few of those

Audi S8 – I like this car

Corvette z06 – At least two, and I saw a red one twice but I think it might have been the same one

Toyota Prius – not a supercar, but it was a third generation, and so far those are rare so I figured I should mention it

Can Am Spyder – cool little motorcycle/ATV type thing we saw by the ferry

Day 4 of Washington State:

Blueberry picking! 18 pounds for 2 hours, it seems like a good deal to me. We have a lot of blueberries now!

We went for another walk along the Interurban trail, and came out by Marine park and the railroad tracks. The beach there is great, especially in the evening near sunset.

Day 5 of Washington State:

Today we went for along hike in the Chuckanut Ridge, up to fragrance lake. And the the hiking guide informed us there were some slight slopes, we found it to be quite steep all the way up. We walked around the mountain lake and also walked a little father to see the viewpoint out over the ocean and the San Juan Islands.

Day 3 of Bellingham, Washington:

Hiking in the Stimson Family Nature Reserve is a wonderful experience. It is a magical forest – many ferns, tall trees, deep ravines, the quiet and peace of nature, and the refreshing smell of pine and cedar. After an easy first quarter mile you start the main loop trail, and the real adventure begins. I took the left path today to curve into the valley first, and eventually we rose to at least 2 summits on the loop, and back at the trail head path we saw the swamp again. The forest is so deep and quiet you can concentrate on yourself, and the outdoors around you.

It has been a long time since I have gone on a good bike ride. This evening I once again had the fulfilling experience. I rode from Fair haven on the boardwalk over the bay into Bellingham, a good five miles. The trail was very nice, and I got to see some of downtown Bellingham as well.

Bellingham Boardwalk

Image credit: www.pbase.com

Day 2 of Washington:

I am now getting a hold of the normal time here, and I am adjusting better to the day. We have been outside a lot from the evening yesterday and today which helped me from the lighting and the feel it has.

The Wii is quite a fun video game! And you can actually get some exercise from it too, especially in tennis. I guess since in some the the games that you are performing real life activities you are inspired to carry out the full motion of your body, even though the wii remote probably would activate with a flick of the wrist.

There is a fair amount of diversity in Bellingham, and in this part of the country, and the close parts of Canada too like in Vancouver. At the oriental food store we got a lot of Chinese “junk food” though I guess to me because it is different I don’t notice and it tastes very good.

We took another walk today along the Unuburban trail and did some running and jogging too.

Good Car sightings:

Many Audi’s – A8, A4, TT, R8

Mustang GT

No supercars , R8 is the closest

Day 1 of Washington today:

Woke at 4:30 am eastern time, and boarded a 7:45 flight out of Newark on Alaskan Airlines. I arrived at 11:45 local pacific time – a six hour flight, long for cross country.

After a quick stop for food at North Gate mall, we drove into Fairhaven, part of Bellingham. The view was great there, along the bike trails and by the beach, and the little boardwalk.

Now I am taking time to rest and recuperate from my flight, we’ll see what goes on tomorrow!

Well I am heading to Seattle on Sunday, hopefully the weather will be nice there for the week ahead, but I have heard currently it is not looking so good. I am still working together the kinks of this site, fixing the ads and rss of course. With no internet it can be hard too, my internet keeps disappearing except in the morning and at night. But hopefully everything will be in order on Green Flamingo for Sunday and I can start the line of posts on the traveling.

In December, when I was not really blogging, then there were some holidays this blog skipped hearing about, but I will mention them now because today is a holiday for me and our family. The first of those holidays was my birthday, which means now I am 13, and of course my “about” page is incorrect (new edition coming soon: under construction). To give a quick recap, I had a great time. I got a haircut, (for my hair was getting long), I saw the movie “Yes Man” with my friend, and I got some great presents. I was sick during that week however, but I felt better then, plus school was canceled due to snow on my birthday which I felt happy about.

The second holiday was Christmas, which I also enjoyed. Though I thought we might not have such a great time as a family, we did anyway.

I did cover New Years briefly, and on New Years day we traveled to Washington DC.

So I think that says it all! Happy belated holidays!

In this world many things revolve around style, no matter where, when, and how it takes place. At the moment I am talking about cities that have style. Last week, I went on a little vacation…

To Washington DC, capitol of the United States. We were only a few hours away, and on New Years Day we set out on our journey.

What appears to be the style that stands out the most is the authenticity of the city, as a capitol, with grand buildings, though the “style” of those buildings seems old. But really, the city is quite modernized.

So our first day there we saw the Smithsonian museums, and later resided for the night at Andrews airforce base. The day we visited the zoo, the natural history museum, and then we went back to our now upgraded sweet at the base. And Saturday was our day of walking around, looking at monuments and memorials, before heading back home.

Now, even with all of that combined, I think the real reason we went was for the food, and the style. I will talk of our dining experience.

The first night we ate at a quaint little french restaurant in  george town, called La Madeline, which you may have heard of, and I had a very good chicken crepe, which was topped off with a sacher torte. The next morning we ate at IHOP, but for that chain they did well. In the evening we visited Union Station’s Pizzeria Uno, and enjoyed some of their deepdish pizza specialty. And Saturday night we ate at cracker barrel, and I had some spicy grilled catfish.

Now, the restaurants may not sound too exotic, and they were not, but the setting some restaurants had was great.

So really the style of food and dining is important everyone, and if you are in a place that distinguishes that style you are in good shape.