Beatles on Discovery Green

Gretchen enjoyed her first concert! Laura came and joined us at Discovery Green for a Beatles tribute band or orchestra really since they had a bout 60 people playing all different instruments. By the time we got there they had already run out of St Arnolds Lawnmower to Stuarts disappointment, so he had to make do with Heineken!

They were singing songs from all of Abbey Road Album and started with an Indian sounding version. What we quickly discovered was that they were all really out of tune! I think the set up being outside wasn't optimal as the entire night was out of tune, and I am pretty sure they are normally quite good.

Gretchen really enjoyed the attention – oh cute doggy!! She was very well behaved right up until the point she decided she no longer wanted to sit on the grass and preferred to jump on to one of laps and then precede to stand on our shoulders to see what was all going on around her!

Pool time with Gretchen is still interesting. She is prepared to go into the lilo but doesn't exactly sit down loving it, however Stuart is gently working on her.

Anchorage blooming

This trip was shorter with less play time, but that did stop us some fun – the good old concept of ‘work hard, play hard’!

I managed to get myself out of bed and go running every morning along the coastal path just down the hill from the hotel.  The weather was glorious – it was sunny with a chill in the air.  Every evening we went out to dinner and ate far too much hence the reason for running!

On our final evening just before getting on the flight at 12:30am we went back down to Girdwood to the Double Musky. The road down there takes you along Turnagain Arm and it was amazing to see how much snow had melted since our last visit, not to mention all the trees are in leaf and so the bottom of the mountains look vibrant green.

Once again I ate as much fish as possible and this trip managed a Copper River Salmon – the first of the salmon run and a very unusual White Salmon again it just started running. The White Salmon has white flesh apparently because it has a different diet to all the pink salmon. It has a milder flavour than pink salmon and it was incredibly moist and yummy!

On the Wednesday evening we went along to a Geophysical BBQ held at a local park, Kinnaird Park, just outside Anchorage.  They were boiling up 100lbs of King crab legs.  They were spectacular (better than I got at the restaurant on my previous visit), not to mention the bit of BBQ steak on the side I had my fill!

The only other excitement was a fire at the hotel – fortunately we were just heading out to dinner when the fire engines arrived.  Not sure what is was but there was a lot of smoke and the following few mornings the breakfast area downstairs was closed!  Mind you with the breakfast place closed it meant we got to try a cultural experience in Anchorage, the Snow City Cafe.  They did a fine eggs benedict!!

Now sitting on the overnight flight back to Houston and just about ready to doze off again.

Well I thought I had finished my blog only I wasn't anticipating the landing at Houston!  So I was fast asleep and was waken suddenly as we hit the runway really hard then bounced, then bounced again.  Next the engine thrusters were back on full and we were taking off again.  Silence from the cockpit until were on the ground for a second time – this time the way it was meant to be done!!  The air hostess came over the intercom ‘welcome to Houston - for a second time!’.

Long time no see

After over a year we finally get Di to come and stay.  In true tradition we head to La Hacienda for Mexican food and ultra strong margaritas!  The next morning I was running at 6am and my little head was pounding!
The plan for the weekend was a Greek Festival down the road followed by a pool party at Danny’s for Anne’s departure to Copenhagen and then on the Sunday meeting up with an old Aberdeen ex-colleague who happened to be in Houston, Joyce!

	Stuart and Di having the hair of the dog at the Greek Fest.  We were enjoying some gyros and Greek pastries (yummy!) It was a stunning day – sunny but not humid and the ladies got to wear their straw hats!

Danny’s pool party ended up quite doggy – 3 so Gretchen was in her element.  She never went near the pool even though it was quite warm.  Danny cooked up a fine BBQ and I absolutely loved the BBQ’d quesadillas with melted cheese and tomato inside (licking lips now!)

	Hello ladies!
	Danny I like those lights hanging from the tree! (note to self must buy some more inflatable toys for our pool!)
	Stuart attracted all the dogs as he ate the sausage.

Di was very sweet bringing gifts, I got a lovely necklace and Gretchen got horsey – her favourite toy now!!  I haven't got a photo of her playing with horsey yet but will do soon.
On Sunday morning the three of us and Gretchen headed to the dog park for woof woof fun.  As usual Gretchen was out mingling and only paying part attention to us although Stuart has been working hard at improving her obedience and she is definitely better than she was.  Later Stuart and Di went to pick up Joyce from her hotel, doing a bit of shopping (turned out a bit more than a bit!) and then came over for our second BBQ and dip in the pool of the weekend.  It was great to see Joyce as the last time was at our wedding.

Great to see you Di and Joyce – hope to see you in September if not before

Our new addition to the family

I would like you to meet Gretchen – the new addition to our family.  She is a bassoodle (part basset, part poodle) and came from Shaggy Dog Rescue.  We believe she is about two years old and was picked up in Brownsville, Texas and fortunately Shaggy Dogs Rescue in Houston saved her from certain death at the pound in Brownsville. 
She has a very sweet temperament and seems to be good with children and dogs.  The only thing that really gets her going is squirrels, so I think pussy cats may also be fair game to chase (don't know yet!).
Walking on a lead was interesting to being with, however, a month on and some good advice from Cecelia and Eric we have bought a lead with a muzzle snapper – if she pulls it tightens on her muzzle and since dogs don't like that they quickly learn not to pull. We don't think she had ever been outside her paws were very soft, the big outside world was weird and stimulating to her, her lack of knowledge of a lead supported our hypothesis.  She is still funny about walking on wet grass and she can't stand water (so no getting her in the pool) but the toilet training is coming on well (most of the time!).
She loves the dog park and walks were we meet other doggies to sniff.  Her routine in the morning is out for a pee when I get up for work and then she runs full pelt back to the bed room to jump on Stuart where I leave the two of them snoozing when I go off to work!!

	The afternoon Gretchen arrived home.  Already discovering the wood floor was nice and cool on her belly
	The life
	There is plenty of grass but Stuart’s lap is far better – even if it is a little small!
	Bath time outside with the hose – not her favourite time but the downside of being white!
	Life is not too bad they let me lie on the sofa
	Greets me coming home after 10 days away!

She loves to eat ice cubes after walks and lie flat out on the floor in the air conditioning!  She started to play with toys last week and even this morning was busy squeaking her toy beaver!

	No you wont go back to that computer!  I want you to pay attention to me!!!  Poor Stuart is finding days very distracted by someone wanting petting!!
	Gretchen we her new hair cut.  Poor pups was shaved by the groomers and in this photo she is still miffed and feeling naked. I hope it will grow back soon.

Anne and Robin in Texas

Anne and Robin came to Houston for their holidays – and you may say why? but I think they had a fun filled 2 weeks seeing more than just Houston.  We even managed a trip across the border to Louisiana.  The weather was glorious and after some convincing we managed to get them in the pool (still a little chilly as Mum and dad will remember from their March visit the previous year!)

Let’s just list some of the things we got up to!

	We went to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.  This was taken in the kiddies petting pen!  This was the event I forgot the tickets at home so I was not a very popular person as Stuart had to do an hour round trip to get them!
	trying to get back the Guinness book of world records attempt of the largest spin class at Lifetime Gym – however we failed not enough people turned up.  But it was a good two hours of exercise in matching tops!
	We had an Hawaiian themed pool party – costumes and decorations!  Note Robin looking splendid in the hat is drinking a pina colada from a coconut shell.
Went to New Orleans (will have to be a separate blog!)
	Night out downtown at a new club that opened called PBR (professional bull riding!) so they had a mechanical bull and for some reason gave us really rubbish looking straw cowboy hats to wear!
	but Anne managed to get in a bit of line dancing.
	Farewell to Anne and Robin!

A winter wonderland –Yellowstone NP

We could go all the way to Montana and not go to Yellowstone when we were literally just 40 minutes from the park entrance.  (To be honest I hadn't realised how close we were until we arrived at Big Sky and there were lots of brochures about the park!)
Again we used the local bus to get us to the park and we booked a tour with lone of the local companies all Alpen Tours (I know like the cereal!).  I didn't know who to go with but I looked the like of the vehicles they used to take you in the park.  In winter you have to go with a tour company because all the roads are covered in snow.  Only a tiny percentage of people who visit the park actually do so in winter because of this restricted access which means it felt empty (well I don’t really know but based on what the tour guide said about queues of traffic every time there is a bison or another bit of wildlife wandering around.
We could only book the Old Faithful tour but that still sounded great.  And what I didn't realise was the park was closing two days after are visit until all the snow melted in a month or so – so we were really lucky!  It was an all day trip and it couldn't have been better weather – blue skis and very crispy in the morning.

	our transport!  A bombardier with caterpillar tracks.  It was small inside but had a sun roof, actually two.  We were a group of eight and one person got to ride in the front with the guide.
	Elk in the river eating the ‘river weed’.  2 minutes into the park.
	Bison (or some people call them buffalo – but they're not!).  He was using the road as it was easier walking that through the deep snow either side
	more bison – the scenery was fantastic rivers, mountains and all white I cant even include enough to show you all of it
	Nice falls.  As you can see Stuart the true Scotsman is standing in a T-shirt – none of the rest of us were!!

We then went on to see the first of the hot springs.  You start to see a steaming landscape with bison normally collected near the steam grazing on the exposed bits of grass due the hot ground that melts the snow around vents.  The dead trees are petrified in place as they have been overcome by the geothermal activity and silica has replaced their trucks.

	Stuart standing next to the bubbling mud pool – bubble, bubble, burp, ploop!
	grazing bison

Our lunch stop was pretty cool at Old Faithful.  The tour company sorted us out a packed lunch for just $10 rather than paying for over priced restaurant food at Old Faithful and we ate it in one of their public yurt heated with a pellet stove.  Then we went out and wait for Old Faithful to do her thing.  There are boardwalks all the way around her for viewing and when we first arrived the bison were grazing on the inside of the boardwalks, but just before she was about to blow they all disappeared – I guess they have an internal clock as well?!  We were only there with a handful of others watching – however I can imaging in the summer it is hard to get a good viewing point.  Lucky for us this happened to be one of Old Faithful’s big blows and it was approximately 4 minutes long and she shot water in the air some 170ft.  I managed to capture her as she got more and more impressive.

	Happy campers After Old Faithful we took a quick walk around the rest of the hot springs – smaller but impressive all the same.
	This was an amazing blue colour and you could see bison bones in the bottom where one or two had unfortunately fallen in.

It was quite a day and our bones felt well rattled having sat in the bombardier for so many hours! The bus came and picked us up to go back to Bucks T4 and it was getting dark as we wound our way through the valley.  Then all of a sudden our bus drives pulls over in a lay-by and says he has gone engine trouble!   Where we were there was no mobile phone coverage so he said he was going to have to thumb a lift and get some phone coverage for us to be picked up.  So he left us with a movie playing but no heating.  It was fine to begin with sort of exciting and scary being left with about 5 others in a bus that was getting colder and colder!  Eventually an hour or so later the bus driver returns with a mini bus and we get taken away.  Finally we make it back and treat ourselves to elk and bison steaks – well we had seen some many of them through the day!