Category Archives: Vacations

Christmas in Camas

Posted in Animals, Cats, Friends and Family, Me Me Me!, Non-cats, Travel, Vacations by

I flew up to Portland for Christmas this year to spend the holiday with my mom, brother, and sister-in-law. I stayed with Mom, who lives in a really cute house in Camas, Washington. Camas is home to a huge Georgia Pacific paper factory, or as it appeared to me, a tree crematorium. Paul and Anne live across the river in Portland, and they came over to open presents Christmas morning. Lots of presents. I think I like giving presents better than receiving them, especially when I get to give presents to the fetus that is nestled in Anne’s tummy right now. I gave the fetus a black one-piece outfit that says “ABCD: for those about to read we salute you”. Awesome. It snowed a little on Christmas day, but was otherwise gray, dark, rainy and cold. Huh – who would have thought that winter in the Pacific Northwest could be so dreary? I enjoyed sitting on the couch by the fireplace during most of my visit, staying warm and dry. Here are some pictures to enjoy!

Christmas Eve – yup, that’s a pink tree, and “A Christmas Story” on the TV behind it.

A very bad picture of me, but clearly Mom’s cat (Leo) and I bonded during my visit.

Below, Bailey savors the remains of his stuffed turkey, destroyed and eviscerated within 15 minutes of presentation.

Koski Reunion at Lake Tahoe

Posted in Entertainment, Friends and Family, Hobbies, Me Me Me!, Travel, Vacations by

A couple of weeks ago I took a few days off from work and flew to Lake Tahoe to meet up with most of the Koski clan. It was the first time I got to use my new camera (woo hoo!) and I’m sad to report that it appears that I, too, have been inflicted with a genetic disposition to take vast quantities of photos. This sickness has been further enabled by the fact that my new camera has a 2 GB storage card – you can only imagine how easy it was to snap off a few hundred pictures. At any rate, click here or on the picture below to see the top 50 photographs from this mini-holiday; just remember, there are plenty more where these came from, and if you don’t see a photo you were expecting to see, there may be good reason (i.e., future blackmail material, so stay on my good side, please). Enjoy!

Whirlwind trip to Portland and Back

Posted in Friends and Family, Me Me Me!, Travel, Vacations by

Well, it finally happened. Mom sold her house in Escondido and moved up to Portland. What an endeavor! Packing up her home took several weeks and it was very strange seeing the house completely empty. We started out on Friday and drove for about ten hours, stopping overnight just north of Sacramento. From there we drove about eleven hours all the way up to Portland. The second day was much prettier – we drove past Mount Shasta, and the landscape became rolling and green. I’m actually kind of jealous – I want to move up there now! Michael (the parrot) was very good the entire trip – she sat next to me the entire time and happily clucked throughout the drive. I think she rather enjoyed sitting in the car! Mom drove the white Durango (pictured below) with Leo and Bailey, and overall, the trip went very well. I flew back home on Sunday and called in sick on Monday to rest. It will be very weird being here without my mom, but things change, and I think she’ll be very happy in Portland. Here are some pictures of our adventure:

No Longer a Cruise Virgin!

Posted in Travel, Vacations by

After waiting months to go on my vacation, Mark and I are back from our week-long cruise to the Mexican Riviera. We left from San Diego and enjoyed seven days of relaxing at sea, during which time we stopped in Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta. There were many great things about the cruise – the food, the spa, the relaxing, the no Teddy Bear whining at me 24 hours a day, the swimming with dolphins – but to see all the pictures, please click here or on the collage of pictures below and view the slide show that I put together with captions (you have to click the slide show button). Enjoy!

Labor Day (Under the Tucson Sun)

Posted in Animals, Non-cats, Travel, Vacations by

Wow – you’re probably thinking to yourself, incredible! Two new blogs from Marci??? Amazing! Well, don’t get too used to it. Like I said earlier, I’m busy! Now bug off and continue reading about my fabulous weekend trip to Tucson.

I planned a four-day weekend so that Mark (the new boy in my life, in case you were wondering) and I could drive back to Tucson – I wanted to see his house, meet his mom, and experience the insanity of Tucson drivers for myself. It’s only a 6.5 hour trip if you average about 85 mph – it was a long trip going out Thursday after work, but nice that I could spend Friday just relaxing instead of driving. Most of Friday and Saturday Mark and I just hung out at his house – a very nice house indeed – watching movies and not doing too much. On Sunday, his mom drove out from Pierce and we went to the Sonora Desert Museum, which is kind of like a little Wild Animal Park full of all sorts of desert animals. Did you know that Javalinas are little pigs that run around the desert and snort and rub each others’ butts to mark their territories? And actually, they’re not pigs at all, but collared peccaries. The museum was really amazing – I had fun tracking down all these stamp stations that you got to stamp in a little book about animal tracks. Woo hoo! After that we drove back into town for dinner at P.F. Chang’s (I’d never been there before), and then a private viewing of Ronin back at Mark’s house. Today we drove back to San Diego, and well, there you have it. It was a good weekend!

Ah Portland – the Sister City I Never Had…

Posted in Friends and Family, Me Me Me!, Travel, Updates, Vacations by

I know it has been a very long time since I’ve posted anything on my blog. Well, I’ve been busy, ok??? I mean, I’ve got a real job now, an apartment, two cats and a dog to feed, you know – actual responsibilities. So, blogging, sadly, has gotten moved down on my priority list. But don’t worry – I haven’t completely forgotten that all you folks out there need a little Marci fix every once in a while. So, here’s the latest.

Mom and I flew up to Portland, Oregon, during the weekend of my brother Paul’s birthday – he turned 31 (shoot – I thought he was turning 15) on August 19. Anne is a power-house crafting dynamo, sewing and baking and being fit and all that crazy stuff that I can only dream of. Their cats are insane, but cute. And their house…ok, I must say I am a bit jealous. Well, sniff, I used to own a house, sniff, and maybe, sniff, if I work real hard, sniff sniff, some day I’ll, sniff, own one again. We went into Portland a couple of times for shopping dinner, and good times, good times. My Uncle Tom and Aunt Tje also stopped in – Paul and Anne’s one bathroom was working overtime, but managed the job well considering the circumstances. I had a great time – Portland is a cool little town, and it had been too long since seeing the bro. I’d like to get up there again soon (hee hee – look out, Bosco, watch your back!).

Dodging Hurricanes in Miami

Posted in Travel, Vacations by

Last week I went down to Miami to see Bob over Labor Day. It was hot, muggy, and hurricane season (as we all know)! Sunday night, after my flight got in, we went to Bongo’s (Gloria Estefan’s restaurant/dance club) where I had Cuban food for the first time. It was good, although not as spicy or saucy as I thought it would be. On Monday, we spent the afternoon at the Fairchild Botanical Garden – it was beautiful (see picture below), but the mosquitoes had a field day feasting on me – I think I had about 40 bites on me by the time I left! Bob had to work the rest of the week, so I spent the days on his boat with Brie (his kitty). We went to Coconut Grove every night where we shopped and saw a couple of movies. The Wedding Crashers was very funny, but Skeleton Key was somewhat disappointing (oh well, I didn’t really have high expectations of the movie anyway). And of course, the food was outstanding – we ate at the Cheesecake Factory, and the Green Street Cafe, which served up an awesome salad and goat cheese pizza. Yummy! I had a very relaxing trip, but I did pick up a nice little head cold from some sick person on one of my flights. Sniff sniff!

Look out New Orleans, I got my mojo workin’!

Posted in Friends and Family, Me Me Me!, Travel, Vacations by

My friend Jeremy sent me to New Orleans at the end of May to represent Freshwaters Illustrated at the NABS annual meeting in New Orleans. I picked up a nasty cold there, but met up with a lot of friends and explored the French Quarter and the Garden District. I had a good time, even though I wasn’t feeling my best. (This is a picture of Rue Royale, one of my favorite streets in the French Quarter.)

I got to spend some time with Toben and Brenda, two of my very best friends who now live in Minnesota. It was great seeing them, even though I was running a fever and wasn’t up for going out much.

Julie and I worked on our M.S. in Ecology together at Colorado State and it had been a long time since I’d seen her.

I set up the booth for and represented Freshwaters Illustrated at the NABS meeting in New Orleans. I thought it looked pretty good, and I got lots of really great feedback about the organization.

Bob flew out to meet me from Miami, and we stayed at the New Orleans guest house, which was awesome. The building was the color of Pepto Bismol, and the courtyard was guarded by a rather friendly (and ancient) orange kitty. We ate at many fine establishments, visited the St. Louis Cemetery #1, and the aquarium, but our favorite part of the trip was exploring the garden district and looking at all the beautiful old houses.

The New Orleans Guest House – we had the Red Room!