Seattle, Man U and Pies

There is nothing like an impromptu road trip.  Last Monday Max was telling us that the English soccer team, Manchester United, was coming to Seattle. And being a soccer family it was just too good to resist.  So on the spur of the moment we got online, bought tickets to the game and headed off on a road trip to Seattle on Friday afternoon. Matt and I both left work early so we could hit the road just after lunchtime and I am so glad we did.  We thought we would have plenty of time if we left at 1:00pm.  The five hour drive would get us in there just around 6:00pm and give us time to grab a bite to eat before the game started at 8:00pm.

We did have a few hiccups along the way that didn't quite go to plan.

A hay fire burning out of control along the interstate slowed traffic down, ( it was still burning on our way back from seattle)

Once we hit Seattle we encountered the inevitable peak hour city traffic which slowed us down as well.  Apparently traffic jams don't apply to international soccer teams because they had a police escort that pushed us all out of they way so they could get through. That was pretty exciting seeing the Man U buses come roaring up behind us.

We finally made it to our hotel about 6:40pm.  I highly recommend The Edgewater Hotel by the way.  Right on the water in the heart of downtown, fireplaces in every room, walking distance to everywhere. From there we hot footed it to Centurylink Stadium...home of our champion NFL team the Seattle Seahawks. 

Our first international soccer and it was SO. MUCH. FUN.

The stadium is awesome...really you could have any seat and still get a good view of the game.  We were up pretty high but stil had a great view of the action. Me thinks a Seahawks game maybe in our future. 

Man U were playing Club America, a team from Mexico City so we were entertained by the CA fans drumming and letting off smoke bombs all through the game.

We were kept completely entertained for 2 hours. Man U won which we were excited about and we didn't realize we missed getting something to eat until we were back at our hotel room around 11:00pm.

Luckily Matt made up for it by finding the Aussie Pie Shop in Burien the next day.  Proper Australian made pies, sausage rolls and lamingtons. It doesn't get too much better than that.

Lake Time

Thanks to record high temperatures we have been spending quite a lot of time at the lake and in the boat. 

Last weekend instead of taking our own boat out on the lake we hired some canoes and a sailing boat with friends.

 

Oh, how I ❤️ summer.

Summer Round Up

Images of our summer so far;

Lollies from our aussie peeps

Home grown cherries and zucchinis

Homemade pizzas with said homegrown veggies. 

Puppies, of course

Loads of blooming things in the garden

And desperate measures taken thanks to weeks of 100 F degree weather. A pop up pool for some heat relief. 

Girls Road Trip to Bozeman

Ciara and I headed off to Montana at the end of June for her College orientation. A 4 day girls trip...we left the boys to fend for themselves and hit the road.  The drive to Bozeman is beautiful; 6 hours of breathtaking scenery, 4 Mountain passes,  Big Sky country, Rocky Mountains, snowy peaks in the middle of summer.  Beautiful.

Ciara stayed in a dorm on campus and I stayed in a nearby hotel and we had 3 intensive days of speakers, discussions, Q&A, tours....you name it.  We only saw each other for a few minutes here and there but we managed to catch each other for dinner one night.

Separately we both got to talk to her professors and the Dean of her department. Our days started at 7:00am and finished up around 8:00pm...later for Ciara. 

We toured the grounds which we incredibly well maintained....it was like walking around a park....manicured gardens everywhere.

Their gym is bigger than our city's YMCA

And I got to see the actual room she will be living in this year. Her is her building....

And this is her room...

It may be small but she has a killer view...that's the Rocky Mountains in the background

She is pretty happy with her room.  She is on the Honors floor and right across the road from this.....

Happy Place for Ciara...the marching band digs are right outside the front door of her dorm.

By the time it was over we were exhausted.  We drove 6 hours home and  slept for about 12 hours.  Now we start the slow accumulation of all the things she will need to spend the next 9 months living away from home