Here comes the sun...

Ok...so our weather is finally here somewhat... temperatures hit 90 finally and the sun is a welcome friend. It's going to take me a while to replenish what winter takes from me. We've been to our favorite summer sanctuary, Whidbey Island and had a wonderful time. Our son was found at the crabbing dock most days with a full bucket of smelt and two to three dungeness crab at any given time.

I wasn't able to get as many photos as I had the previous year but managed to spend the afternoon in Port Townsend and photograph their lovely city flower garden. They have an ice cream shop, Elevated Ice Cream, that makes the most wonderful hand made ice cream. The flavors scream coastal confection with flavors like Lavender Spearmint, Chocolate Orange and fresh Raspberry Sorbet. Awww what I would give to just be there right now.

Anyway on our side of the mountains it's hot by day, cool by morning and already getting dark earlier. Oh if we could just stretch our our summer sun. Fishing season for 2011 is quickly approaching and we will be at the Snake River for much of September and October. Wish the fishermen luck people!

Have a great week.

Where is our weather?

We are in June. June is usually a bustle of bees, flowers, heat and sunshine. This year has been quite a year for weather all over the map and Spokane is not without it's own mysterious weather. So far, we have had rain, wind, delayed pollen, later blooming flowers due to late snow and cold.

Normally, we are riding our bikes to work, to the lake and all over the city with the warm sunshine on our faces. The sunscreen companies have usually tapped our wallets. Not so much this year. I'm fighting fierce hay fever and sneezing. I haven't rode much because of the pollen and cold. And although we take our camper out almost each weekend, many times we have had to turn on the heat.

It's ok though; I'm happy. We seem to move through life at the speed of light and each day is a true blessing. I start each workday praying I won't become a bag of negativity. Let me be a goose honking in unison with my flock in support of their great feats! And Lord? an 80 degree day would be oh, so refreshing!

March 29th, 2010 Vespaddicts

Rain, Wind and cool temperatures are keeping the twin Vespa's inside for the day. This is a great time to introduce you to us and our Vespas. I'm Lyne and am a middle aged, somewhat anti social Vespa rider. I am married to Mike, a larger than life, optimistic bordering on hyper happy guy who also rides a Vespa. We've been married almost 30 years and have come to a place in life where we yearn for relaxation, comfortable adventure and warm climates.

We live in Northeast Washington State, where it's not warm in the winter, cool in autumn, and rainy in the spring. We have about 4 months of sunshine, give or take. We like to make the most of the sun and spend our days riding (previously owned a Honda Metropolitan 50 and a Piaggio Typhoon 50) floating Spokane's famous river, camping and bbq'ing. We rode our 50's for the past 3 years and enjoyed them so much. Why did we get Vespa's? We bought them so we could broaden the adventure. 49cc's on city roads are great; however, if you want to ride backroads, smaller highways and secondary roads 49cc's is much too small.

My mother said "well just pull over for traffic". She's trying to kill me. Pulling over on many of our roads lands you in gravel, ditches and unsafe shoulder areas. Her thought is they are small therefore they are safer. Not so ma! The Vespa's will afford us a way to get out of the way of people in cars who apparently got their license either from Cap'n Crunch or hefty bribes from the DMV officer and that is assuming they have a license. People don't see 2 wheelers. They can be looking right at you and see right through you. After tax time we had dug out of a great amount of cc debt and thought no better time.

We purchased a Vespa 150 S from the local dealer for me and a ( with minimal scratches, salvaged title) 250 GT for Mike. Yes, I know a salvaged title...but dang the bike was about $2500 cheaper and had just 600 miles. We were lucky on his bike. The bike not only checked out fine but was inspected and passed. Had we to do it over again we would probably wait for the right deal second hand rather than salvage. But as you will see the salvage title has made for great conversation at my expense and to Mike's delight.