2014 America visit, part 3

My sister turned 40 on Halloween and her birthday wish to me was to go out riding. My friend Tami came through for us, although both her horses were not ridable at the time (you might remember her from last Summer, and her Morgan Topper?). A friend of hers was willing to give us a day on the trails with her two Arabs and one Paint. After wrestling with the security gate in their private neighborhood in Duvall.....we finally made it through.


Tami kept her smile the entire day, even though there were only 3 horses and 4 riders. That meant: Musical horses, which we played very well! We all, in fact, switched horses, so that we all had foot time and ride time. What was funny to me, was that I enjoyed the Paint the most, he was literally a walking couch. It's been a long time since I can claim such a thing about a horse.

The paint was not very nice and attacked my sister's horse while tied to the trailer, causing him to rear up fully vertical, with my sister between the two of them. She backed away and caught her breath, and the owner laughed it off.

All the while, the English Pleasure horse I was to ride, Image, was trying to untie himself and biting everything in sight. Tami kept yanking things out of his mouth. I was like "Oh boy."

Mounted up on Taz, my sister looked awesome. Note my friend Tami beaming: )

Me on the English Pleasure horse, not so awesome. He had  his giraffe neck going, and whites of his eyes showing, and ears fixed forward intently, body completely tense. I was like, "Hey....what the heck..." and my friend Tami, from the ground, said, "Oh don't worry, he's outwardly 'up' but inwardly 'down'." I said, "If this is true, I'll let you know." But strangely, it was. He was entrusted with kids, even on trails, and his demeanor was frantic, but he  never once twitched, at anything. Weird, huh?



I looooove this photo of my sister and me. Look how happy we are, riding together again, after....how many years? (Yah, my fault, I moved away, with our horse Baasha.)

I said, "Hey, MOSS!" (sigh) Note tiny rider (my sister) bottom right.

Finally the western saddle was killing my knees and I begged to get off, and made Tami get on the high headed one. She had fun up there too. He was awesome, really, once you realized that he was, truly, "inwardly" calm.

I'm like, "Becky, turn and let me get a photo! You look so great!" My sister says she wore her Ariats (in photo) with a skirt once, at church, and got compliments.

This was my view, chatting with my sister, walking behind her gorgeous horse. Look, sunshine. I told you. I should say that my sister later told me that Taz was very, very forward, and wouldn't stand still for a moment, when they left us and she had him alone.

I saw that later as my sister took her turn walking and the owner got on him and tried to get him to stand still long enough to type the code into the security gate. A lot of yelling ensued. That horse is awesome, but doesn't wan't to hang around for us to do stuff. My sister said, "Really, he's just like Baasha. I'm used to it."

Tami, your hands are in your pockets. What is that!? I love our mossy evergreens and impossibly thick underbrush.

What are those leather things between the bit and the rein? Oh...OK.

My English Pleasure horse, posing for photos.

Afterwards we spent a few minutes watching them roll the rider-ick off their backs, before we had to rush home. A big thank you to Ann, Tami's friend, for giving us this special day. Also, for providing me with a calm formula for my horse back home.

That there, showed itself more than normal, for October. Vanilla ice cream goodness.


***

Costco. Tukwila. My step dad humoring us, letting us buy on his membership. I was like, "OMGosh, Joel, I need a photo of this ginormous Nutella for the Germans who love that stuff!" I guess I made a mistake there, cuz Joel is 6'3" or so, so his figure behind does not adequately demonstrate the ludicrous size of this jar of Nutella. hrrmph. (I'm a peanut butter person, as you guessed.)

Oh, look, the e-piano section! J, PLAY!

I asked him to demonstrate his skills. No trouble at all, he loves Costco, and loves the piano section, since his first time there. This time, he played Skyfall (James Bond). It was gorgeous, and I'm sure, encouraged aggressive shopping, so I kept turning up the volume, but my humble man kept turning it back down. It was so pretty, the guys in the adjacent lounge chair section were truly feeling their lounge chairs.

Culture shock. This is MY bank. My bank...has....drive ...thru....cash machines??? What? I'm a BECU member!? This is not the Bank of America.  I'm a humble Boeing Employees member. Hm. Right, that's my man again, honing in on a geocache in the Burien Safeway parking lot...with the BECU drive-thrus! (If a single drive-thru anything existed in Germany, I'd celebrate. It's just...not a German thing.)

What the..

This one got my attention. It was taken at Highline High School in Burien. They like to exclude things. I like the ACK written below the GUN FREE ZONE sign.

I made a wrong turn by that high school, and pulled in to an apt complex to turn our rental car around. There we found this wind-up-VW.]

I deliberated over this sign, found in West Seattle. I imagine they don't have any park benches. That would be considered ....lazy? loitery? I wonder if they have people employed to move people in the park along. Yes, keep moving. To slow down is to loiter.

This I saw at Seward Park. Horsey!

Next, more from our trip, including my man's first Halloween.. His first time having someone say Trick or Treat at the door.