June 2018 – Our Little Van, we love our vans and know you will too.

As I write this it is 11 minutes after the hour, June 27th. My oldest turned 17 on the 26th. Happiest Birthday to her. The 24th Almie and celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary in a church. We did a courthouse about 7 months before.

Kids finished off school Thursday 15th of June. They finished off as good as we expected. They were kept alive and ate well, haha. The oldest went on a road trip to Methow and the 3 of us headed to Bremerton to prep for Hawaii. I went to work on Friday to finish off some stuff. Had a dinner with Kevin at Tandoori bites and ended up drinking at Royal. Causing me to miss a ferry. I was convinced to stay at his house, so I got to drink more. Casino alcohol is always cheap for a reason.

Saturday we spent the day packing and cleaning out the food from the van. Sunday we headed out to Hawaii. Today is the travel day back home after 10 days. We were here for Regionals for Soccer. Unfortunately the girls didn’t get out of the group. But fortunately we turned it into a vacation. Eating, beaching, shopping, hiking, boating and eating were some of the things we did. We hooked up with Giji, Almie’s homegirl from San Diego. That was one of the highlights. She took us out on base and rented a pontoon. Then we headed out to Kaneohe bay to play on the sandbar. Oh my that was amazing. Then we go and do a little hike to a waterfall. Her little dude, 4 yr old, is basically leading us the whole way as she went to pick up her other kids. Then we go grab some food and go eat at a local school’s playground. The poke was pretty damn good, Tamura’s, which is a liquor store with a poke in the back.

As we head back home and while we are here thoughts about moving/living out here come and go. Could we van it? I’ll put it on the possible to do list. We are home for a few days and then a few days in Ferndale with the Wu’s for the 4th. Should be fun. We then get back and will house sit for some #vanlifers. Our buds Anne-gigi and Dan are doing a 2 month tour of Canada in newly bought Hymer Activ. Sucky part is our van will not go up their driveway due to its length so we will be without our “home” for that time. It will force me to get Zach ready for “camp” shape. We decided to road trip to San Diego for another soccer tournament since Tara is now a licensed driver.

Searching for sunrise on her birthday. Early…

purple!!

Almie getting a nose piercing, was going to get a tat but I got sunburns

Retiring Teren’s shoes, which were Tara’s hand me downs

Many Turtles had been spotted

lots of “Do Nots” one of these does not belong

hike with our guide “Captain Spike Likeke Falls”

croc life

That sandbar though….

I’ve been annoying her for a long time

Our island drive where we stopped off at any place we liked

Sandbar with China Man’s hat

Tourist with China Man’s hat

Incase you didn’t know the title comes from Beyoncé’s If I were a boy. Anyways… yesterday Kevin and I finally went out and got dinner. Good talking shit and sharing stories. Watched some NBA finals, haven’t done that in forever. Had fried foods and got an appetizer of mozzarella sticks, I got to get off that cheese. Messed up my stomach. Having thoughts of turning vegan. Well after that I go to Christie’s in Magnolia to pickup Tara’s clothes and luggage which Almie needed for her trip to LA. I head back to Fel’s where the rest of my family is with the van and it turns out there is an Outback party. Jeff, Glenn, Fel, and Vince-who I haven’t seen for like 25years? These dudes put together a reunion/house party/dance party like they did in high school at Kona Kitchen (I was in San Diego for a baptism) a few weeks ago. It was good seeing these guys and having a beer by myself, cause I came late. Good sharing stories and talking shit.

Last weekend Almie, Teren and I headed to Victoria Island to sherpa and support Almie in her 1/2 Ironman. Shout out to her for putting in a solid 5 months of training. Sacrificing. She didn’t do as good as she liked but she was there. We took Zac and stayed in a hotel. In hindsight we could have took Vanessa and camped it. Good seeing Rochelle, AJ, and Allen out there too. Seeing them almost made me want to do it, almost turns into no thanks. Tara stayed at Christie’s to go to school and prep for finals. School is almost done!!

So Almie is in LA at a conference to learn about her business. We all got up early to make it fit logistically with getting humans where they need to. Tonight we are at Tiffany’s. A little odd cause we haven’t been back here since we house sat. When we house sat we should of parked the van at my parents. A neighbor complained probably cause we were parked here for almost 3 weeks. So we are trying to only come here from time to time. I broke one of my own rules about not staying a place to long, which causes people to get anxious and what not.

Speaking of anxious and what nots. I love reading Seattle Times Facebook on articles about homelessness and RVs. Most of all I love the comments. Keyboard heroes abound.