The Allan Clan

HELLLLLLLLLOOOOOO Everyone!
Wowzers, it has been well over a year since I've posted. There has been so many things happening here all the time, we have so many pictures to share...

James & I went on a most-excellent road trip during August. We drove up the west coast and visited James' aunt and uncle and some friends of ours, camped, and made our way in our sweet Toyota Van (AKA Space Beetle, AKA Steph) to Friday Harbor, Washinton. We went from the lowest point in California to the tippety of Washington and it was fantastic! Great friend Jean Shearer lives on Friday Harbor island with her mate Eric, two dogs, some chickens and a rooster, two goats, and very soon, a baby! We spent about 5 days at their place (sleeping in the van under the stars) and lived life real good. Lost track of time, picking blackberries, making food, reading books, talking, swimming, exploring, going in to town, la di da, it was great.

Our road trips are increasingly fabulous. [FYI our first was in my dad's little red sports car all over the states of New England, October 2006; second was last summer, June 2008, getting married and driving around the midwest + west! and then this is our third big one] We have our routine down. We built a bed for the van last summer before our wedding trip. It takes up the entire back of the van and is a storage bed. The two sides flip up, and we keep all our food, camping supplies, chairs, tent, suitcases, everything down there. During this trip, James drove the entire way, and he was a champion! It works out well because I'd rather have the freedom of being the passenger, so he drives while I navigate, fetch objects, make sandwiches.

Our diet on our trips is hilarious and delicious. We go gourmet for the fireside (grilled asparagus with chopped garlic, olive oil, squeezed lime juice and salt OH YEAH, beany nachos with cheese, fresh salsa and grilled vegetables, granola and french press coffee in the morning), and we often stop for naughty treats like swirl soft serve cones from Dairy Queen. Indeed, we have a grand old time.

Here are some pics!

us with Bob & Cheryl Padalino, San José California
Bob gave us some fruits from his backyard including apples, rosemary and tomatoes. We tasted fresh almonds off the tree! Those tomatoes were fabuloso, deep red juicy sweet savory goodness

us with Elsbeth Villa & Justin Gould, Arcata California (Arcata is awesome! a smaller Northampton)

James' wisdom tooth is coming in and it was in trouble when we left for our trip. This is a mixture of water and tinctures of goldenseal (natural antibiotic) and kava kava (natural pain reliever). He was diligent about drinking this and swishing with salt water and it is ok now! It still needs to get taken out, but it's not infected. It's fun to play doctor!

dinner at Secret Campground, Willametter National Forest near Eugene Oregon
split pea soup (rehydrated), our asparagus! and grilled cheese sandwiches, with beers

me cleaning up in the Willemetter River. soooo coooold. popsicle status! plus our soap is peppermint so it was extra cool. felt so amazingly good once we got dressed and in the sun though, like medicine

Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington

crushed velvet rock

mmmm, charred red pepper and onion ohhh

us on the ferry to Friday Harbor. wow, what a machine... so many cars on that boat!

Jean!

Jean and Eric work at a farm (across the street from where they live) through the WWOOF program
James and I helped on Harvest Day, to harvest the vegetables and get them ready for market

at the water hole

blackberries grow everywhere!

me feeding the goats and turks one evening

Eric milking Teale. Jean's lactose intolerant, so they borrowed two goats from a neighbor while she is pregnant. Teale needs to be milked twice a day and there is a lot of milk coming out of there! Jean makes goat cheese with it too.

Right before we got back on the ferry.

It was a wonderful trip. We were so glad to be with Jean and Eric before the babe comes. They are so great and I'm excited to be this kid's friend. Speaking of which, CONGRATS JAY & DAPHNE! I can't wait to meet Dash!

The trip home was quicker... we enjoyed ourselves camping and poking around weird towns, but we were ready to get back to things that were waiting for us. Our last day, we drove straight from the Oregon border down to San Diego in one day... about 14 hours.

We had a lot of driving time to think and talk, which was perfect because life has been busy lately, especially with the band and with Growing Places, which will be included in later posts.

Glad to be back on the blog!

I really want to hear from everyone else... see pics, see how life is.

Love