Monday, June 23, 2008

Best Places to Live

We are still trying to catch up on all of our photos and adventures but this article came out last week so I thought I would highlight it.

Boise was named the #4 place to live for Work & Play. It's hard to really disagree when you can look out the window and see the mountains and ski slopes and know that there isn't really any traffic on your way home from work.

Houston was ranked #1 and as a co-worker said "I've been to Houston . . ." I've never been on Omaha but I did 42 months in Raleigh and I think Boise has them beat as a community. Have a Happy Monday.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Photo Overload

I finally downloaded the photos from our trip to Puerto Vallarta, so sit back and pretend you're watching a slide show...



First, downtown PVR, as seen from the private beach club at our resort. Then, our view from the beach club. Much better.



Of course, the beach club itself was pretty fantastic... it had an infinity pool and cabanas both by the pool and on the beach.

Our hotel suite with it's private plunge pool was fantastic...but sadly, our little Vaio laptop died after we returned and those photos were lost with the hard drive.

What I can show you is the fabulous pool, which was blissfully empty of people and yet still had a fully staffed pool bar with cabana waitstaff! Yahoo!



Needless to say, we enjoyed our fair share of the all-inclusive amenities.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Wildlife on Vancouver Island

We have seen lots of cool wildlife up here. On Friday we went out on the Seaking whale watching. The area has three pods of Orcas that live in the waters. Unfortunatley the Orcas were closer to Vancouver on this day so we had to go over there. Captain Ron makes his living by getting people to the whales. Of all the boats that went out Friday morning only two of us saw whales. The Seaking is the only way to go.

On the trip over we saw a bald eagle and lots of seals, we also saw several purpoises. Because the water is so cold here (50-53 degrees) year round they make you wear these really sexy outfits that are both flotation and exposure suits.


Once out there we saw the J-Pod. The whales are tracked and studied by The Center for Whale Research. There are extenisve histories on all of them. I don't remember the numbers or names of these guys but they are big. Up to 26 feet and 10000 pounds.
The whales were very cool.

The wharf where we got on the boat has a seal who was playing in the water.

We also saw an otter playing in the Inner Harbor.


Today we are heading north out of the city to see what else there is to see.

Vancouver Island, British Columbia

It's been a long time since we blogged again. Sorry about that, I don't know where the time goes.

Joanie and I are currently in Victoria. I came up earlier this week for work. We have hired a vendor that is currently working at the North American Indigenous Games
in Cowichan August 3-10. We had really good meetings, and learned a lot of about how to incorporate our processes into their software. Joanie came up for the weekend.

Besides the island is beautiful, lush large green trees (not burnt green trees like Boise) and amazing views when the sun comes out. June is still a wet, cloudy month here.



Those are the Olympic Mountains in the background over on the mainland, 37 miles away.

Victoria is a town with two histories, one native and one British. The next two are perfect examples and are both downtown within 1/2 mile of each other.



We are having a good time and have more pictures to post.