We had a wonderful time in Disneyland last weekend.   The parks are very manageable (compared to the size of Disney World).   So, it was nice to be able to do everything we wanted to do in just two days (including riding a lot of rides twice: space mountain, big thunder mountain, the matterhorn, haunted mansion, and buzz lightyear).

The lines were ok.  Saturday early evening was a little crazy, but other than that it was ok.   We saw the Fireworks both nights (9:25, but the park was open until midnight).   And then Sunday morning, the park wasn’t supposed to open until 10am, but it was open early…  So we went in and knocked out a few rides early.

Also, on Saturday, we had 6 free Fastpasses (Disney’s system that lets you head to the front of the line).   This helped a lot!   We were able to avoid a lot of line waiting.

Fun time! great weather.   All pictures are here -> http://picasaweb.google.com/mike.helmick/Disneyland#

I should have posted this sooner – but last Saturday we drove up to Skagit county for the Tulip Festival.

It isn’t really a centralized thing – but rather a collection of farms that all grow tulips in this area.  Seeing flowers grown on that scale is quite impressive!   It takes place about an hour north of Seattle.   We drove around a bit, and then parked at one of the farms (they each charge their own admission/parking).   Then we walked around and snapped some pictures.   All of the pictures I took are online ( See above, or @ http://picasaweb.google.com/mike.helmick/TulipFestival ), but I’ve selected a few below.

On the way back we went to a very nice outlet mall…. and spent too much money.   As my mom would say, “I got some really great deals.”

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This week has been pretty busy with getting ready to move into our new house.   We signed all of the mortgage papers today, once the deed is filed with the county (tomorrow) we can start to move in.   Looks like we’ll get the keys around 7pm tomorrow night.    Then we have a full weekend of deliveries, unpacking, organizing.

I must say – we have had unbelievable weather here in Seattle the past few days.   It has been warm(ish), about 45 degrees, all week and we have had several days in a row of clear blue skies and bright shinning sun.    This morning, we walked into the park right at 7:30 and saw a full moon hanging over the Olympic mountains, all while peering out over Eliot bay.   There’s just no beating the scenery out here, we have mountains, forests, and water, everything you’d want in your natural landscape.   

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We’ve been so busy moving and talking about Seattle, that I haven’t really talked about our vacation.

In mid-December, we traveled to Italy – the boot shaped country in Europe.   In addition to Venice (pictured above) as also traveled to Florence and Rome (pictured to the side).

Italy was amazing.   There is so much history there, to go to Rome and see buildings that were built 2000 ago, and to see 1500+ year old buildings still in use!   And of course there is art – more paintings and sculptures than you could ever imagine.    As one of our guides said, “there are too many paintings in Italy.”

Now, while the art and architecture are impressive… the food is absolutely wonderful.  We did not go hungry and, in fact, put on some weight.

Our pictures are available online

• Venice
• Florence
• Rome