Chatt's grab a new house - needs work!

Right before we went on our Alaska get-a-way we closed on our new house in Key Royale on Anna Maria Island. It was a great buy however needs about $100,000 of renovations. It is a 3 bedroom 2,800 square foot house with a 1,400 square foot garage. This is a far cry from the past 4-5 homes we have been in since Colorado. Just to recap - in Erie, Colorado we had our 2,200 square foot 2 bedroom, then moved to Rhode Island where we lived in about 1,000 square feet then our permanent house of about 1,800 square feet, on to Anna Maria Island, Fl where we grabbed our first house with 1,700 square feet and no garage. Then to our 900 square feet, then on to 1,700 square feet and soon to move into our nice big house with plenty of room.

We have begun the renovations to the home and have some help from an architect. We will be tearing out all the doors, garage doors, removing walls, tearing out the kitchen, all the floors, baths and some decks. We will be adding a nice big deck to the back of the property to look down the canal.

The Chatt family for the past few weeks have planned our lives around checking out kitchens, appliances, flooring, you name it. We should be moving in by November 1st and it will be a nice change and we should be able to live in this home longer than our average 2 or less years. Can't wait! Still lots of decisions to make but should be great when it is done. I will try and do a before and after blog.

Seattle, Vancouver and Alaska - oh my!

So,
The Chatt's went away for three weeks this past Summer 2010. It was a fabulous vacation and certainly the longest I have ever taken. 3 weeks together as a family every day was a great time. I never get to see Grayson and Jennifer that long so it was great to have so much fun together. I am sure it will be a vacation that we will remember always.

The Itinerary - We flew into Seattle and spent our first night on 6th in Downtown Seattle. We were pretty tired but we still managed to walk around the block with Audrey a friend that lives in Seattle and had some pretty expensive Italian food. I think Grayson's pizza was $20. Anyways, the next morning I woke up nice and early and did some research and found a ferry-train ride package and quickly went back to the room and woke up the Chatt's to see if they wanted to pack, shower and run to the pier to get on the vacation package. They were skeptical but with my encouragement we made a run for it - literally. We just made it to the Ferry and took the morning 9:30 AM ferry ride to Victoria. It was very nice. When we got to Victoria we were both pretty impressed. It was very nice, hilly, and lots of water. We walked around for the day and found bubble tea. A drink that Jennifer remembered vividly from her childhood. It is not bad and basically a milky drink with tapioca little balls in the drink that are chewy. We stayed in Victoria for a day and a half and loved walking around and enjoying the cool Canada air. I think this was one of our favorite parts of the 3 weeks. Two days later we took a ferry to Vancouver. Frankly Vancouver was not very impressive and we continued to walk alot. We then took a bus ride - train ride back to Seattle. The train ride was relaxing but about half the time was spent standing in lines to get on the bus and the train.

Seattle was great, we walked down to the piers, Pike fish market,just about everywhere in Seattle. By the time Monday came around we were ready to get on the cruise. The cruise was very relaxing. 14 days of being served 24 hours a day. Good stuff. We stopped at ALOT of ports, lets see what I can remember...Sitka, Juneau, Anchorage, Homer, Victoria, Ketchikan, and Skagway. I think that is all of them. Anchorage was a bit of a disappointment. Skagway was nice because we took the famous White pass train and Juneau was cool as we took a float plane to Taku Glacier.

Ketchikan was our first port of call and was nice because there was lots of shops and lots of places to walk to. Very interesting. Skagway was neat because of the White pass trail. We first took a bus for a few hours and the bus driver was very well versed in Alaskan history and the Yukon areas. Then we got on the White pass trail and took a narrow rail train back into Skagway. The White Pass trail had phenomenal views and the tracks in many places were precariously mounted on the edge of mountains.

Another interesting spot was Sitka where we grabbed a taxi to a bear refuge where there were two grizzly bears in a huge old pulp silo. It was this point when Grayson decided he wanted a bear claw necklace. We hitched a ride with a man and women from Tennessee in a taxi. His name was Al and quickly took a liking to Grayson. Of course Grayson made it a point to tell him he wanted a bear claw necklace. Nonetheless we looked for bear claw necklaces and they were a little expensive for a 7 year old...$800. Al said too bad he was not at home he had a bear claw there from an earlier "hunt" he went on.

The next memorable stop we made was in Juneau. It's funny, we woke up and looked out our cabin window and right down the way where a ton of shops right in front of us. We walked around quite a bit,then went on our tour package to Taku lodge. We got in a 8 passenger float plane. It was a 15 minute plane ride through the mountains of Juneau where we landed next to Toku lodge. We walked up to the Taku lodge where we saw a black bear in a tree about 10 feet in the tree watching the cooks preparing our fresh Salmon. We ate lunch and then took our float plane back to Juneau. Did I mention Grayson sat up in the front cockpit with the pilot. He loved every minute of it!

The vacation ended way too quickly. It was fun and we will always remember our three weeks together in Seattle, Vancouver and Alaska...What fun we had!