Food, Fun and Fresh Wheels

Some of you faithful readers may know that I purchased a new bike "Thing 2" in June, and have been riding it since. I thought it best to upgrade my Driver's Licence" , since I have a licence for any displacement scooter, up to and including 

Ridley's 738cc, and Thing 2 had a clutch and gearbox and 175cc.

Accordingly I enquired about the licence upgrade and found out to my horror, that I could not test on Thing 2 because the displacement was less than 200cc. In any case, I would have to retest, and accept a learner's permit in the meantime, with it's restrictions ( no night driving, no driving over 40mph and only riding with another licensed motorcyclist over 25!). Yeah...right!  Keeping in mind I have been riding motorcycles for 45 years without serious accident, the ridiculousity of the regulations gave me cause for a little think. 

Sometimes it's best to sit by the water to think, and while thinking sometimes an idea will come to one. If and when the idea does come, sometimes acting upon it can take one's  mind off one's troubles. The result was a curiosity, which Scooterchick promptly proclaimed " a Viking, yep it's a Viking!"

Well all things having been considered, a phone call made, Thing 2 loaded and a drive to the dealership was undertaken. The dealer had a look at Thing 2 and the mechanics rushed out and drooled and oooohed and aaaaahed over the XL 175.

A reasonable replacement was tested, sans clutch or gears. it was as ugly as the backside of sin, and had 3200km. on it. All in all a worthy candidate. When we discussed terms, the dealer allowed as we could go straight across, no money changing hands and he would throw in 2 Honda baseball caps.....................done Cap'n sez I!

The new scooter was loaded and we were ready to roll. Where to I wonder. We arrived at the dealership at about 3:30 in the afternoon and rolled out with my plate and insurance on the new ride before 5:00

On the way to the Shore ScooterChick suggested we call the new scoot Rascal.
Well, I thought L'il Rascal it shall be, since I have been accused of being a big rascal on more than one occasion. She rejected my suggestion of Chitlin' out of hand. So our stable now includes Ruby, Rascal and Raspberry!

We stopped in West Vancouver at an Indian restaurant we like. Here we have some Paneer Pakora and Onion Bhajia.....yum. Patsy had Spinach and Potato Curry and rice and we had some Chicken Naan.

After a short intermission, and the obligatory ride on the new scoot, we returned to the beach the following day. We both love being by the water, and we watched a couple cruise ships leaving for Alaska.
They look like floating hotels from water level.

It seems that they take a while to arrive, they whoosh past and sail into the sunset in no time flat, heading for the high seas.

Another one came out from under the Lion's Gate Bridge. This one is a Holland American line boat. They are easily recognizable by their blue hulls and the
plethora of blue hairs on board. I'm not even sure you can board one of these if you can't prove that you're a Senior Citizen.

In no time this one was gliding by as well. They are so quiet and well behaved as they steam past at probably 1/4 ahead.

We had been on the lookout for a Hibachi Grill. We had to order one and we brought it along with a few delicacies. After lighting the briquettes, yours truly started to burn some beast. Let's see....what do we have here.

There is marinated Chicken Breast, together with some Fresh Picked Corn on the Cob from our garden. Things are going well. The sizzle means we're on the right track.

There were a few  HOT PEPPERS !!!! My tongue is recovering nicely thank you.

The corn was delicious. Lovely roasted and steaming. Hot, hot, hot. It had to cool for about 5 minutes before I could eat it.

A picture of yours truly enjoying the fruits of my labors. I wasn't the only one enjoying it either. ScooterChick was enjoying the the fresh burnt beast as well!

We almost finished the chicken when it was time to throw on the Prawns. Yes, roast Prawns as well. How good is that.

Did I forget the Green Beans. Also fresh picked from the garden. as a matter of fact we're getting a little tired of beans, and there are many many more in the refrigerator and more ready to pick.....aaaargh!

The number of people who walked by and grinned and nodded at us with our Hibachi was astounding. ScooterChick wondered  "what's up with that?" It turns out that everyone can remember the Hibachi from "back in the day". One girl named Carol, stopped by and chatted with us for about 1/2hr. I just sat back and let my swollen tummy rest.

We ended up adding some more coals to the Hibachi as the evening cooled. Enjoying the evening we sat until full dark around 9:15pm then made our way back to the ranch. All in all a very satisfying time spent by the sea....

Thank you for joining us, we'll let you know the next time we fire up the Hibachi.

Slo Mo Snohomish

We left out of Seattle yesterday at around 1 in the afternoon. For a change we decided to go up Hwy 9 from Woodinville, just past the top of  Lake Washington off 405. The last time we were on 9 was when we took our scooter trip to Portland. If you missed that little adventure you can find it here.
 Squampton to the Rose City  This is the bridge we rode over before turning off 9 to enter Snohomish.

We were in dire need of some sustenance and BBQ sounded good. Hey, truth be told....BBQ always sounds good! The place was small.

Here's a picture from the streetside. Did I mention the place was small?
The food was good, the employees quirky and the price reasonable.

Did I mention the place was small? Here's another streetside shot. Yeah that's the whole building. When we arrived there was one car in the parking lot. While we were there about another 12 people came in to eat. When you only have about 16 seats the place crowds out quickly.....

After we ate, we took a tour along 1st St. to see what was what. The first thing you see after a fish restaurant is this mural. It is BIG.

This is the view looking down the street. It is that small sleepy little district full of small antique stores, eateries and bars. "Eclectic" kind of sums it up.

This is the view along the other way on the street. The place was packed out. I eventually found a parking spot so I could get these pictures.

There was a mixture of old and new. The majority of the buildings were "fin de siecle" as they say, built around the turn of the century when the logging business was booming, and there are some infill buildings of modern construction.

This is the view looking east along the Snohomish River. Snohomish evidently means "wet snow" in the Luhootseed language of the local Snohomish tribe of the Tulalip Nation. This attribution was given by a Snohomish Chief, but the attribution is in dispute.

This is Kla Ha Ya park. In the Chinook language Klahowya commonly means "greetings". Some say it means "it will rain tomorrow".

Regardless of the proper definition, I will take it to mean nice view eh?

We drove around a little admiring the town and then carried on up 9. Our next stop was the little town of Arlington. If Snohomish was a sneeze, Arlington was no more than a hiccup.

ScooterChick was amazed when I just sopped in the middle of the street to take a picture of this Firehouse. I liked the look though and thought you might too.

We breezed up 9 and finally go to Sumas where we filled up with some more of that good cheap American gas before crossing the border.

At our current prices this fillup would be $57.32. Yeah....I prefer the $37.82 if it's all the same to you. $20 saved is like $20 you don't have to spend!

Due to our slow roll up the backroad, we got home right around midnight, and after lugging our stuff into the house we fell into a deep sleep.....

Thanks for riding along, see you next time.