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