Tulips...so many tulips!

First, an update on the car... everything is back to normal, my trunk is fixed and as good as new.  LM's research department was able to find a valid address for the guy and they should be able to put a flag on his account for when he goes to update his tabs with the DMV.  I don't ever expect to get my $100 deductible back but it would be a nice surprise!

Roozengaarde is one of the largest shippers of tulips in the world and has over 1000 acres of tulips.  They also sponsor the local Tulip Festival.  Today, Amanda and I ventured about an hour and half north to Mount Vernon to see the first batch of blooms.

 

We even found a few that were kind of scary!  Looks like Venus Flytraps, huh?

We weren't the only ones there, but it definitely wasn't as busy as it was last year when Rico and I went.  Last year, we drove up in mid-April and the blooms hadn't even begun to blossom yet. This year, the tulips started blooming about 1-2 weeks earlier than normal due to our spectacular winter weather. As you can tell in some of the photos, the weather held out and we had an awesome warm trek through the muddy fields.

Who knew ice cream grew out of the ground?!

Just Because

After a gorgeous day yesterday - sunny and around 60 - the rain and cooler temperatures returned today.  But these brightened my day!

Jess sent them to me at work "just because."  Thanks, Jess... you made my day!

Canada, eh?

So we left the country for the weekend (you know, since we're jet-setters like that). Rico, Shane, Amanda and I drove to Vancouver, BC for the weekend.  I was the Canada virgin - Shane is a native Canadian, Rico and Amanda have both been before.

Vancouver is only a 3 hour drive from home so it was a perfect short vacation.  We were interrogated at the border - the dude wanted to know everything from where we were staying to how much Shane and Amanda paid for hockey tickets to the game they were going to see and since Rico and I weren't going the game, what could we possibly be doing while Shane and Amanda were at the game (uh, duh, hello...we can entertain ourselves - you know there's a whole city to see in 24 hrs!).  And after all that, we didn't even get a stamp for our passports!

Anyway, we had relatively good weather - only sprinkled on us a few time, though true to form of the Northwest, it poured on us on the way out of town.  Saturday afternoon, we walked miles around the city with our tour guides, Carl and Stacy - Shane's friends.

We walked around the waterfront and saw the Olympic Cauldrons (for the unobstructed view - you know without the fence everyone was making a big deal about - we had to wait in line for about an hour - we chose not to do that).

Apparently, after the regular Olympics, all of the Mounties left the city.  But we did find one for Amanda to pose with...

On Sunday, we ventured around town on our own.  We ended up on in China Town for breakfast (no I did not order the chicken fingers - I didn't want anything that looked like chicken claws!) After China Town, we went over to Granville Island.

The Public Market was very much like Pike Place Market here in Seattle, with vendors galore and a multitude of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and cheeses.

The Peace Arch is at the border.  We didn't get out and see it because of the rain...

To be expected, I suppose...

I just got off the phone with UniTrin, the guy's insurance company...his insurance was canceled due to non-payment...greeeaaat! No wonder he wanted to settle in cash (yeah right, like I was going to do that) and was in a hurry to leave the scene. He admitted he was at fault, handed me his insurance paperwork and asked "are we good?" and hightailed it out of there. I was too shaken up to do more than get his phone #.

Liberty Mutual (our insurance) is being pretty good about it for now. They said once Liberty receives a formal statement from UniTrin stating the guy is uninsured and since we have Uninsured Motorist coverage (thank heavens!), my deductible will be lowered from $1000 to $100.

Good thing I went back to my old schedule with Wednesdays off - I'll have a full weekday to try to handle the estimates and get a rental car.

A little accident...

And it wasn't my fault! Don't worry...no one was hurt. I was sitting at a stop light, about 2 minutes from the house. The cars started moving ahead of me, I was still stopped, just about to go. And I get hit from behind. A big F-250 with a huge grill guard on the front - which explains the damage my trunk took, instead of my bumper.
It's still drivable and luckily it's supposed to be semi-nice for the rest of the week. Just a few scattered showers, so I don't have to worry as much about rainwater getting in my trunk. I have tomorrow off so I'll go get an estimate to fix it then. Hopefully, the driver's insurance will send out a damage estimator today and we can get this fixed soon.