Loon Lake Vacation: A week of our family together and we didn’t kill each other!

~ K ~ 2 Comments

Loon Lake Vacation: A week of our family together and we didn’t kill each other!

This summer, instead of spending a week on the Oregon Coast, our family went to Loon Lake in Eastern Washington.  Sure, it isn’t Southern California with Disneyland but I wanted to go somewhere to read a book, play some board games, swim, canoe, and just plain relax.

Eagle on our lawn!

To be honest, I have never been to Loon Lake but with the handy dandy internet it appeared to be a good choice. 

Where the heck is Loon Lake?  Loon Lake is about 26 miles north of the city of Spokane and an easy drive north from the downtown Spokane area on U.S. Highway 395.  As I said before, we have never been to Loon Lake but I did do some research on the internet, asked a few friends (who where from the Spokane area), and it turned out to be a good choice.  We rented a house right on Loon Lake with the thought that we would have another family come with us.  As it turned out, no one else could make it (or maybe they just didn’t want to spend a week with me?).  Nevertheless, we had a nice family vacation with just the four of us.

The other bonus (of Loon Lake) was our mobile phones didn’t work (no cell signal) and we had no wi-fi/internet at the house we had rented.  We were disconnected and it was very nice to be out of the loop.  No Facebook, no Google searches, no email; just books to read, games to play, canoes to paddle, and a warm lake to swim in.

Our house was located on the east shore of Loon Lake so we had a sunset to admire every night.  The weather was a mix of sunshine, rain, and thunderstorms.  We had some awesome lightening storms a few nights while we were at Loon Lake.

The wildlife around Loon Lake is abundant.  We had a bald eagle that landed on our lawn with a huge fish one morning, lots of ducks, loons, etc.  The fishing is Loon Lake is supposed to be very good as well.  They stock it with silver salmon in the spring and our neighbor mentioned several other kinds of fish.  I’m not much of a fisherman, so I didn’t pay too much attention to the list of fish mentioned.

One drawback to our vacation house was the lake was a bit shallow off our beach and dock area.  You could swim but it took a while for you to get to a deep enough spot to swim.  It was only five feet deep 50-75 yards off our beach and it was very mucky (if you put your feet down and tried to touch the bottom).  If we come back to Loon Lake, I would like to have a vacation house with a beach with a steeper slope and less muck off the beach.Loon Lake house

We brought a canoe and this allowed us to paddle out to a swim dock (that one of our neighbors had anchored in deeper water).  We had a great time jumping off the float and swimming in the deeper water.  In August, the Loon Lake water is very clear and warm.  It was warm enough that I wish I had brought along my snorkel gear; I’m sure I would have enjoyed myself for a few hours swimming around.

Loon Lake is a fairly large lake at 1,100 acres.  It is about 2 miles long and 1 mile wide with a depth of 100 feet at its deepest point.  You will see jet skis and water ski boats driving around, but it wasn’t too busy during the week we stayed.  I wasn’t annoyed by the noise and most of the time; you can’t hear a ski boat on the other side of the lake.  I’m not sure that Loon Lake has a public boat launch or a public beach.  Perhaps the lack of a public boat launch keeps the crazy boaters off the lake?

loon Lake, Washington

If we come back to Loon Lake next summer, we will most likely come a week or two earlier in the month of August and look for a smaller cabin/house if it just the four of us again.  The house was too large for us.  We will look for a smaller house, maybe one with a hot tub.  We would also be nice to have a water ski boat (but I haven’t been waterskiing for about 18 years or longer).  Or some loud jet skis!  So if you have either, you are already invited for next summer’s Loon Lake vacation.

Boy Scout Camp: Camp Meriwether – The Camp of Broken Dreams, Tears, and Crybaby Hill

~ K ~ 2 Comments

Boy Scout Camp: Camp Meriwether

  In June, I took over as Scoutmaster for my son’s Boy Scout troop.  This was my first Boy Scout camp where I was in charge as the head Scoutmaster.  In year’s past, I have always been the Assistant Scoutmaster; not the guy in charge.  I’m happy to report that this year things went smoothly at summer camp.  No major issues to report.  The new First Year Scouts (that have recently joined our troop) weren’t too homesick and our older scouts weren’t too much of trouble makers this year.  No fires to report; no hazing; only one scout who wandered off in the middle of the night; and only one disrespectful scout (who won’t be coming back) because as I told him “There is a new sheriff in town.”

  We had 19 scouts and 6 adults attend Camp Meriwether (located on the Oregon Coast near Tillamook) this summer.  It was nice to go back to the same Boy Scout summer camp again this summer.  Again, we were luckily enough to have a great campsite with a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean.  It is quite a bonus to wake up and see the surf crashing on the beautiful sand beach each morning.

  Boy Scout summer camp is in no way a picnic.  It is fun but it isn’t a vacation.  A vacation would entail me actually relaxing, sleeping in a comfortable bed, drinking a nice bottle of beer (or scotch) and having some really good food.  In reality, Boy Scout camp is me having to walk at least five minutes to a flush toilet, ten minutes to a hot shower, and waking up every morning at 6 am.  Not exactly my ideal vacation.  I also have to supervise 19 Boy Scouts who are mostly teenagers or pre-teens.  Imagine herding cats and you now know what Boy Scout camp is like.

  Some of the Boy Scouts are good; some are misdirected.  They are typical teenagers.  They want to sleep in (but they can’t).  They stay up too late.  Their nerves on at their last shreds of working and they begin to annoy each other.  They don’t take enough showers.  Some scouts like to take two showers a day while others don’t shower for the whole week.  Throw four boys into a cabin and it looks like the room was tossed by some overzealous vice cops on a drug bust; the cabin is just plain awful.  God knows if they actually brush their teeth or not.  Wash their hands?  One can only hope.

  On the plus side, we had great weather with mostly sunshine and no rain.  The food isn’t bad but I wouldn’t eat it long term.  To be fair, Camp Meriwether has the best food I have experienced at a Boy Scout camp.  Overall, the Scouts (and the adults) had a positive experience. 

Another Awesome Day at the Gyro Cafe Seattle (only because I was there!)

~ K ~ 2 Comments

Yesterday, I was back at the Gyro Café Seattle to work my magic as the ultimate customer service/employee of the month. The last time I graced the restaurant was way back in February. This time was yet another triumph return for me (if I do say so myself). Clearly, my superior customer skills will shoot me straight to the top as July’s Employee of the Month. Who else should get the award? Certainly, not my teenage son or the other employee (whom I’ve never met) because who can compare to me? I put in a whole five hours of work today. Those hours were some of the best hours of my life.

You will also remember, I received a stellar review on Yelp! Here’s that link to refresh your memory.
https://khellriegel.com/2014/05/26/the-burden-of-brains-and-beauty-and-awesome-reviews-from-my-customers/
And here is my original post:
https://khellriegel.com/2014/02/04/i-dont-have-a-job-here-but-im-still-employee-of-the-month-because-i-rock-it/

Anyway, I’m not sure if my Yelp reviewer made it in yesterday or not. I just hope one of our customers was kind enough to log on and give me another 5 star review. Everyone knows I deserve it.
I did warn everyone that I was “new” and that I really haven’t used the cash register before (since February). Most people were understanding about my lack of cash register use and knowledge. Sure, I can use Photoshop but when it comes to ringing up a gyro, watch out! You might end up with 16 of them because of my excitement of printing up a credit card receipt.
Nevertheless, the day went well. No upset customers, great food, wonderful customer service provided by myself and my son.

Washington D.C. Trip – 2014 – Vacation Mode and Lost Time….

~ K ~ 6 Comments

As always, just hit the “like” button below. Boost my self-esteem while you can.

As you can tell from my posting pattern, I’ve taken the summer off. In Washington State, the kids don’t get out of school until June 19th or 20th so I’m usually still in a work mode when they get out of school. I’m usually trying to finish up a few jobs and I really don’t get my “vacation mode” on until July. This time, July did start and I was out of work mode but not into my “full vacation mode”. I’m in a limbo mode of where I think I can do a billion things, yet in reality my vacation mode will kill all hope of accomplishing any work.

This limbo mode of thought results in me having the misguided notion that I will accomplish more than is really possible. For example, I thought my office would be cleaned by now (it’s not), and my yard projects would be done (they aren’t). I have a whole summer to do things; yet I don’t.

What is a person to do when this happens? Clearly, take a vacation! You need to decompress (as least I do) and get into vacation mode.

This vacation, I took a trip to Washington DC with my 15 year old son Hayden and meet up with my cousin Stephen for four days. That was on the 4th of July and that was a fun way to spend the 4th of July. We did all the memorials; we ended up renting a car only because I had to take a side trip to Charlottesville, VA (home of UVA) to visit a friend and his family. I did notice that people on the East Coast don’t seem to know how to use their blinker on their car when they are going from one lane to another. As you know, my mind reading skills are poor to none. So when you don’t use a turn indictor (your blinker), I get annoyed to say the least.

The weather in DC wasn’t bad at all. Sure, it was hot 93 degrees but the humidity wasn’t bad. Nothing worse than Hawaii and I didn’t feel like I was overheating and about to die. The museums are great and it is easy to get around DC either by subway or walking. We stayed in the Georgetown area and had a Trader Joe’s right by our condo we stayed at. We were also a few blocks from Watergate. Lots of history right at our doorstep.

Watergate
Watergate

I’ve also just finished Netflix’s “House of Cards” with Kevin Spacey. It makes it a little more interesting watching the first season, visiting DC, and then watching the second season upon my return to Seattle.

Personally, I just love the architecture of the East Coast cities and countryside. Compare to Washington State, everything is old. As long as it isn’t falling down on me; I like it. I’m that tourist guy that takes photos of row houses and brownstones. I imagine being a famous novelist and living in them; soaking up the city around me. Then I trip over the uneven sidewalk and reality sets back in.

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Two things I regret is not researching (or remembering certain things about congress, our capital, general US history, etc.) and not going through my blogger/reading list to see who lived in the East Coast. I would have loved to meet some of the bloggers I follow. Oh well, maybe the next trip.

Other sarcastic observations: Women (teenage girls, overweight women, older ladies, sexy stripper types, moms, teenage daughters) seem to wear short “shorts”. In Washington State (where we don’t see the sun), we hardy see the short “shorts”. In fact, we have been having a heat wave for the past four weeks with gorgeous weather (except for two days last week full of rain) so I have been observing no short “shorts” on women like the East Coast.

I also may not hang out in a lot of tourist areas in Seattle. Well, to be honest, I hardy get out of my cul-de-sac and never visit the beaches of Seattle. Yes, we do have beaches here, and lakes, and rivers, and outdoor swimming pools. We just go swimming in the months of July, August, and September.

Anyway, I’ll post more (in a mad dash to get something posted in July 2014) for you in the next few days (or hours).

US Capitol Building
US Capitol Building

Giving back to the community by being a drunk!

~ K ~ 1 Comment

Today is one of those rainy wet days you’d expect living here in the Seattle region. Luckily, today I’m giving back to the community as an alcoholic drunk. As a volunteer, I’ll be hoisting multiple alcoholic beverages (whisky and scotch are my drinks of choice) and doing my civic duty in the “wet lab” at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission (WSCJTC) in Burien. Basically, I get to drink all day, eat lunch, hang out with other volunteers, and allow the trainees to give me some field sobriety field tests, etc.

I have to drink until I’m drunk or to a mutually agreeable upon level of being trashed. I couldn’t drive myself here and I can’t leave until I am at .03. In Washington State, DUI/DWI is .08. Now, I’m no expert at drinking or DWI/DUI law and I can’t even tell you which crime is worse: a DUI or a DWI. I just know I don’t want to get one!

Anyway, this is my first time doing this type of volunteering. Most of my other volunteering work is on the tamer side where I need to be sober 24/7. This definitely will be a change of pace and an interesting way to start the weekend.

Have a great Friday!

Oh man…it has been a month since I’ve been posted anything?

~ K ~ Leave a comment

I didn’t realize that is now about a month since I last posted.  I can honestly say, I’ve thought about writing a witty blog entry but those thoughts have quickly passed.  I’ve been busy with work.  I even convinced my wife to allow me to suspend the cable TV service for the summer so I refocus on family, friends, and blogging.  Sadly, this is Day 2 of no cable TV and my dear wife is going through severe withdraw shakes at the moment.  I’m afraid my great experiment is doomed.

Now, I know you are probably wondered what else I have been up to.  I’ve stepped up to the plate and took over the Scoutmaster position in my son’s troop.  I’m hoping that he will hurry up and get his Eagle Scout award in the next twelve months so I can “retire” from the job.  I’m also still my daughter’s Girl Scout troop leader.  We are bridging over into the next level: Cadettes.  New uniform and new challenges.  This summer we are planning to do a two night campout at the local state park…I hope they have Wifi!

We also managed to get our ghetto swimming pool set up for the summer.  In the Puget Sound area, we don’t get a lot of hot weather but my daughters and her friends think we live in Florida.  They are in the swimming pool all the time and the water temperature is only 65 degrees.

 

 

 

The Burden of Brains and Beauty (and Awesome Reviews from my Customers!)

~ K ~ 5 Comments

There are a lot of things I am good at: Photography, sleeping, swimming, aikido, to name a few.  There are other things I’m OK at doing: building decks, mowing lawns, blogging, walking and chewing gum at the same time.  And then are things that I have never done but I get thrown into (and thus have to rise to the challenge).  A clear example: Running the cash register at my cousin’s husband’s Gyro Café Seattle near Group Health on Capitol Hill. 

Allow me to jog your memory about my truly awesome performance.  Back on February 4, 2014, I worked at Gyro Café Seattle for a whole two hours.  As an excellent blogger, I wrote about my cashier experience here on my blog of worthless advice.  Here is the link:

As in any endeavor I partake in, I rocked it.  It was a little hard at first.  However, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t rise to the top and become the best employee he has ever seen.  I even awarded myself the Employee of the Month Award on my first day on the job (click here). 

So imagine to my surprise when I received the other day, a text from my cousin Kim (who monitors the Yelp! Reviews ) about a review she had from the time I worked there.  Dear cousin Kim was reading through the Yelp reviews and came across one from the day I worked the cash register. Keep in mind, I was there for a mere two hours at the Café Gyro Seattle and that was way back in February 2014.  As you can see below, I got an excellent review…5 out of 5 stars.  (Which is really no surprise, right?)

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And I’m planning to milk this thing forever!  I put it on my Facebook and now on my blog.

Here’s my reviewer…I’m sure this isn’t her real photo but she has the potential to be become the future Mrs. Kevin Hellriegel Number 2 (or it just Cyndi my imaginary stalker).

To be honest, this reviewer is actually probably one of my friends (or cousins) playing a trick on me.  At least, this is my train of thought because it was created on the day my blog post went up.  Or is this actually Cyndi, my imaginary stalker writing it?  We had a few friends over for dinner yesterday and they thought for sure I wrote it.  It would have been a big coup on my part but I didn’t write it. 

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So after this wonderful review….what is the next thing I plan to do?  Uh, work there every Monday and be the sarcastic older hunk with the dreamy eyes for this reviewer (if this reviewer actually were a real person).  What else would I do?  Sometimes you have to give the (imaginary customers) public what they want.  I will do anything to boost sales.  I am going to be the eye candy for to help increase sales.  I can accept that burden for my dear family.

 I hope you see you all there on Mondays for a wonderful lunch.  What could be better besides some sarcastic quips AND awesome food???

 Thanks for reading.  Have a great weekend.

These Yearbooks Will Be The Death of Me!

~ K ~ 6 Comments

Well, I’m sorry I haven’t been posting lately. I have been slammed at work and this has resulted in me becoming a little bit behind in my blog posting. My yearbook company’s website crashed and was offline for three weeks. Now, I don’t have to design and create the yearbooks. The design, corrections, etc. is left up to the yearbook PTA mom who got roped into the job at school. It is a volunteer job where everyone complains about the mistakes yet is strangely absent when help is needed.

Really? You have the gaull to complain about the yearbook but you can’t help out to create it?

I have three newbie moms putting together the yearbooks at their respective schools. I feel bad that they have been thrown into this job. I tell them that they must remember that this is their first year and that they are unpaid volunteers. Don’t panic and don’t stress is my advice. If parents complain about their yearbook, then they can help work on it next year!

Overall, it has been a huge time black hole for me. On top of putting together yearbooks, I have to stay on top of my own work projects.

It hasn’t been easy. I was putting in 14-16 hour work days last week in a futile attempt to catch up and get everything back on track.

Alas, it wasn’t all futile and I have caught up quite a bit. I’m stuck in the middle between the yearbook company and the yearbook folks working on their yearbooks. It wasn’t the school yearbook ladies’ fault that the yearbook website crashed and certainly wasn’t my fault. However, we are stuck because I don’t know any other yearbook programs to create a yearbook on. The learning curve is steep and I don’t have time to learn something new.

So now I am assisting the newbies and trying to crank out these yearbooks. Wish me luck!

Hold on? I’m rich beyond my wildest Dreams? A Bloggers Guide to Riches!

~ K ~ 2 Comments

I have some bad news and good news! 

Bad news, I didn’t win the lottery with my lucky $2 bill while I vacationed in Winthrop, WA over my birthday weekend.  Of course, this leads into my good news that I can now continue to blog and offer worthless advice to Cyndi (my imaginary stalker) and my three other readers (special shout out to my blogger friends on Vancouver Island and in the great state of Kansas).  I do appreciate your following my worthless advice blog!

With my lack of winning the lottery, my retirement plans include to continue to work and save money.  In the meantime, I will enjoy the sunshine.  If you haven’t heard, we have had a rash of good weather here in the Seattle area for the past few days.  If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook (if you don’t, you really should), you might have noticed that I have been posting photos of myself out on location as the awesome school photographer I am (and a modest one as well).  Today, we hit 81 degrees at the Sea-Tac Airport and I’m sure it was 84 here in Kent, WA.  I love this kind of weather: sunshine and a little heat.

Since my blogging career and online business income hasn’t exploded into a massive fortune, I am not moving any time soon to Kauai (as seen on the TV show “Hawaii Life”) or any other warm climate.  Sure, I have talked about moving but I most likely won’t be moving anytime soon.

I have considered Kauai since my parents still live there but I am apprehensive considering my past experience as a youth on Kauai.  And the larger question is: What would I do on Kauai?  I would probably avoid doing any work of any sort and that would be a bad thing.  I’d get fat and tan and lay on the beach like a Hawaiian Monk Seal and that wouldn’t be good, would it?

I would probably have a hard time blogging too because I couldn’t complain about the rainy Seattle weather or the awful traffic.  What would I blog about?

Nah, I think I’ll continue to complain about the rainy, cold weather of Seattle and give worthless advice about blogging, retirement, and how to make money online.  Since, I am the King of Worthless Advice, I should be perfect at it!

Thanks for not even bothering to read my blog today.  Just hit the “like” button!

 

 

Sunshine kills my work day…

~ K ~ 1 Comment

I’m out on location and we are experiencing some beautiful sunshine here in the Seattle area. Usually on days like these, I would blow off work. Instead, I embrace it with open arms. Why should I enjoy an awesome day like today?

I should stay inside and close the drapes.

In reality, I want the sun. Ah, sunshine come here my elusive lover. How you tease me!

I may complain a great deal about our rainy Northwest weather but today is not one of those days. I just wish I was caught up on my work so I could skip out of work. Instead, I’m playing catch up with digital images and I’m out on location (outside) for another 45 minutes.

I also hate writing and posting from my phone on WordPress. It is so cumbersome, I mess up on my tags, I get lost in the interface menu. I feel like an idiot. I blame it on the sun.

Have a great afternoon. Sorry, that I would be able to offer any worthless advice today….the sunshine had zapped my powers of sarcasm.

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