Home at last

We got home on Sunday, August 9. That is a long drive! But we did get to stop and see some beautiful sights on the way, and we listened to "The Invisible Man", "Small Steps", "The Screwtape Letters", "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", and "The Jungle Books". To be honest, we slept through most of the jungle books. Some of them are very dull. Mark didn't sleep through them. THat's why we're still alive.

When we got home, we did what we all wanted to do. We picked stuff that was ready in our yard. Mostly blackberries. YUM!

Twin Falls, Idaho

On our way home we stopped in Twin Falls, Idaho. Now stop laughing. Even Idaho has some pretty great scenery! This is the Shoshone River and it is really beautiful. Not too far up river from Twin Falls are the Shoshone Falls.

This is the Shoshone Falls. Really quite spectacular. The best time to view is in early spring, when ther eis a lot more water coming down the river, but it was really very impressive even in August.

The Enchanted Forest

Lynn Canyon in North Vancouver is really our favorite place to visit. We have always called it our "Enchanted Forest" because of all the ferns, moss and beauty. It really is an incredible place.

Tara has always wanted to be a fairie. Here she is giving it another try. Still didn't work.

The pool and big rocks. Usually we might attempt to swim, but this day was way too cold. Sad.

Spencer keeps asking me if I looked at the pictures before I posted them (I think he's suggesting that he doesn't look fantastic in all of them.) But he wouldn't let me take his picture EVER, so this is what I have of him from this trip. Sorry Spence. Smile next time.

Ambulance - on strike?

There were signs all over BC about the EMT strike. As we were driving down what the canadians call the freeway, this went by.

Kinda funny.

Stanley Park Beach, Vancouver, BC

Stanley Park is a 1000 acre park in downtown vancouver. It is on a peninsual that was heavily logged in the early 1800s, then replanted and turned into a park. It has a 5.5 mile trail that goes along the ocean called the seawall, and several very nice beaches near that trail. The kids and I used to take the skytrain to Stanley Park at least once a month in good weather to go to the free zoo, look at the aquarium or go to the beach and play. These pictures are taken on Third Beach. After QE park, we got some KFC (the KFC there gives you a McCains deep and delicious cake with your meal - that's really why we went there. YUMMY!) and had a picnic in the park. We fed most of our fries to the birds so they wouldn't attack us, and because the fries were pretty yucky, then we went crab hunting. Really we could spend all day doing this. SO MUCH FUN!!

Here are a few of the crabs we found. . .

And rocky areas like this are the best for crab hunting.

Queen Elizabeth Park

This is Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver. It's really very beautiful, and the boy who could fly flew here. When his neighbor (whom we believe was somewhat mentally lacking) tried to reach a flower that was too far away and fell off the bridge, that bridge is here in this park, and the boy flew and saved her. I know. We were puzzled, too. Still can't figure out why he saved her. I guess he wanted the movie to go on a little longer. Anyway, here's the park.

And here is the bridge she "fell" from.

And for all you "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" fans out there, this is a Monkey Puzzle tree. If you are ever stumped for a gift either for me or Spencer, here is the perfect idea. Either this or a black bat flower plant. SUPER COOL!

I love the beach AND Monkey Puzzle trees!

Birch Bay Beach

This is the beach that Mark went to as a kid. His uncle had a little house near the beach . They called it a cabin, but it really was just a shack. We did go looking for it, but it is gone now and another shack has been built in its place. The beach tradition is to build a sand castle at low tide, and a castle wall and mote around it, and stand inside the castle wall until the tide storms your castle wall, and cause a breech. It's really a lot more fun than you would think. Spencer and Tara really got into it. There was even a road up the castle hill to the top.

CASTLE #1

THE END OF CASTLE #1

CASTLE #2

White Rock Beach

We went to the beach on Monday and had fish and chips for lunch. With white vinegar! Very nice!

White Rock beach is just across the border in Canada, and is a pretty nice beach. It is usually quite crowded, but maybe not on a day that ihe temperature only gets up to 68.It was cold, and sprinkled a little bit, so we made a memory. There were all kinds of creatures about, and Spencer collected them. He likes the live creatures, Tara collected the shells they left behind.

Then these crazy people got in the water and swam. So cold! Mark likes to dig at the beach. I'm not sure what he was digging for, but he had fun doing it.

Boating on Lake Whatcom

For most of our trip, we stayed in Sudden Valley, Washington. Mark's brother has a little condominium there right on the lake. He just got this boat, and let us use it, although Spencer had to sneak around the gate to the dock because we didn't have the key to let us in. Yay for Spencer being super tall and skinny! It isn't a very large lake, but it is beautiful!

As we went around a bend, we saw this really cool tree house. The camera wasn't held crooked, the house really is tipped like this. I love it! Tara likes to sit in the front of the boat and let the wind blow her hair around. This is pretty much what she looked like the whole time we were on the boat. We only went out on the boat once because the weather turned pretty cold for most of the week. You'll notice in many of the beach pictures we have on long sleeves and jackets, but we were at the beach and that's what really matters.

International Fireworks Competition

On Saturday, August 1, we drove from Mindy's house to Vancouver, BC. The international fieworks competition was underway, and that night was the Chinese display. We checked in to our hotel and took the Sky Train downtown. We noticed that there were more gay couples in the city than we remembered being there. We found out later that night that Vancouver was hosting a gay pride parade that was very well attended. We did not attend. We were there for fireworks.

The fireworks were set off of a barge in English bay, so we went to a nearby beach and watched the sun set. It was just beautiful! And the fireworks show was really amazing. I don't remember ever seeing fireworks that were as impressive. I didn't take any pictures, because I was busy watching the show, so I guess you'll just have to imagine. They were way better than Springville's Art City Days fireworks, which are really very impressive, too.

I love the beach!

Mindy and Jason's house

We took a trip to Washington and Vancouver at the beginning of this month. On our way we stopped in Moscow and dropped Tiger off. We got his tank all set up, and tried to find food for him. Kate finally went outside and caught some grasshoppers that were very small and I believe he ate those. Mindy went later to the pet store and found him some meal worms that he really likes. He's cute. I hope Jonah has fun with him for a long time.

We stayed for only one day in Moscow, and went geocacheing for part of that day. Apparently our GPS was off a bit. Jonah, Dylan and I went one way into a very steep, very bushy creek bed and Mark and Megan went another way. When we were about to give up, Jonah found the cache right by the edge of the brush. We didn't even need to go down the creek bed. Yay Jonah! Everyone wanted to see what was in the box, and crowded around.Look carefully at Mindy (white t-shirt) in this picture. She is crooked! Really! Her back is in pretty bad shape and her torso is a bit off center to her hips and legs. She looked miserable! Well, really she looked beautiful as ever, but she looked like she felt miserable. I hope you're feeling better now, Mindy!
They have a pizza place in Moscow that sells huge pizzas. Here is Spencer withi one of his slices. It is so huge that they had to tip the box up to get it through the door when Jason and Mark brought it home! Yum!
Mark, Dylan and I wanted to find one more cache, and this was it. This is a marker placed by the Worthwhile Club in 1938 at the junction of 2 indian trails - the Nez Pierce Trail and the Stevens Trail. Who knew?