Seattle Here We Come?

We started out early Saturday morning, all packed up for a road trip. We realized we were only a couple hours away from Seattle. We enjoyed it so much when we were there two years ago, so we thought we'd go spend a few hours. We woke up to an overcast rainy day, so we took the one hour or so wet drive to the boarder. As we approached the boarder, there was a sign telling us there was a 90 minute delay to get through. We decided that we didn't want to go to Seattle that bad, so we turned around and came home.

We took a drive through Stanley Park to see what we were unable to see on foot. It's a wonderful huge place and there were a few spots along the way to stop and look. By that time it was lunch time and we all seemed tired, so we came home and spent the rest of the day napping and relaxing and both Rico and I got to run to the gym and have a nice work out.

We're spending the evening packing up our things. Our flight tomorrow leaves at 10:30 a.m., which is early for us these days, so we're getting everything together tonight.

So that's it for now. Tomorrow we go home, and we all seem to be ready. It's very tiring lugging around "all these kids" and all the things they need...

Family Portraits

Stanley Park Once More

Friday started out with another trip to the gym, what a treat. After about half an hour, Rico brought the kids down, while he worked out, Josh and I swam in the pool while Katie sat in her chair and watched, it worked out pretty good, we both got a bit of a work out that way.

After breakfast we decided to go back to Stanley Park and see a different section. It was a bright, warmish, sunny day, and it was just gorgeous, and many of the spring flowers are blooming. We found a section of the park, a lot like our Griffith Park, that had a choo choo train ride, a small petting zoo, a park, a lake, and also an aquarium, all sorts of things to do. The aquarium was too big and too busy, so we didn't do that, but we did lots of the fun little things. Josh loved the choo choo, and the swings, and throwing rocks into the lake. There were Easter characters out and about, an Easter bunny and chick, they had big colorful balls that they were playing with all the kids with, Josh had lots of fun doing that. We ate a little lunch while we were there, and we just took our time, strolling and enjoying the beautiful park on this beautiful day. We arrived back at our hotel around 4:30 or so, exhausted and happy. It was a really wonderful day.

Our View

More Sweet Pictures

Vancouver, B.C.

As what seemed like a special treat, I got to start my day down at the gym on the 4th floor of our hotel. It's been so long since I've been to a gym, it really seemed like a treat. I worked out, I swam, I sat in the steam room and sauna...ahhh, the small things in life.

After my workout, we had breakfast in the hotel, then set out on a walk around the city to see what we could find. It was cold, high 40's to mid 50's and rainy. We set out on a pathway that lead around the bay and just walked as far as we could. We walked around a place called Stanley Park, it's very large and we only scratched the surface. As we walked the rain stopped and it warmed up for us a bit, we were comfortable. Both Josh and Katie slept for quite awhile.

We turned back after quite some time and headed back to our hotel, we were getting hungry and need lunch. We found a wonderful store a block away from our hotel that is like a Whole Foods, we bought some chicken and veggies for lunch and a few snacks and a few items for our dinner. We got back to our room and ate our lunch. I laid down for just a minute to rest and an hour later, I woke up surprised that I had fallen asleep. I haven't had this much exercise in a long time! By the time I woke up, the sun was shining and it was beautiful outside, so we decided to take another walk into town where all the trendy shops were. We walked around there for awhile, lots of stores, restaurants, and mostly coffee shops, on every corner there were coffee shops....we found a little sushi for our dinner and came back to our room. Josh ate a peanut butter sandwich and then he and his sister went to bed.

While Rico and I enjoyed the sunset and our beautiful view, we ate sushi, bread, cheese, and roasted peppers while sipping on a nice bottle of wine. What a nice way to end our day.

More Traveling

Wednesday seemed like another long day of travel, even though our actual flight was only 11 minutes.

We woke up in the morning, packed all our bags, checked out of the hotel and loaded up our mini van. We had breakfast at the same place for the third morning in a row, then took the hour and half long drive back to the airport. By the time we checked in and went through security in this tiny little airport, it was time to board the little puddle jumper to "cross the street" into Vancouver. When we arrived, we took the long journey to the baggage claim, loaded up all our things, and took another long journey to the car rental location.

We loaded up our new mini van and then headed out towards the city, we had no idea where we were going, so we just followed signs to the City Centre and eventually that lead us downtown and to our hotel, the Marriot. We're right on the water, and there are sea planes right out our window that we're all having fun watching take off and land.

We were all tired when we made it to our room on the 31st floor, so we spent the evening unpacking, looking out our window and ordering room service.

It's now Thursday morning, it's raining out a little and we're just starting our day. We don't know yet what we are going to do, but first of all, we're going to go check out the gym, maybe a work out or a swim, we're hoping we can take the kids to the pool, we have yet to determine that. That's about it for now.

Joshua's Calgary Flames Shirt

On Saturday morning, Mike went out shopping for some things for our big dinner that evening, when he got back, not only did he have things for our dinner, he had a Johnny Jumper for Katie, which she loves, and a really cool Calgary Flames jersey for Joshua. Well, Joshua loved this jersey so much that he has not taken it off since he got it. The only time he's had it off is to take a bath, other than that, 24/7, he even sleeps in it! Silly boy. I'd say it was a hit Mike. So if you notice in all our pictures that he has this shirt on, it is actually different days, many different days....

Pictures From Our Flight

Sea Plane Ride

It's Tuesday afternoon and we just came back from a walk to the harbour, it's just a couple blocks from here. We went on a 20 minute tour of the island, on a sea plane! Rico was so excited, he was just like a little kid! He asked if he could be the co-pilot, and the pilot said sure, so Rico got to sit in the front seat. Joshie, Katie and I sat in the back. The plane had really big windows, so it was easy to see from all sides.

Our tour was only about 20 minutes, it went by really fast, but we got to see a big portion of the island and some of the ocean too. If we were lucky, we would have seen some whales, but not for us, not today.

Katie fell asleep right away, the very loud humming of the motor upset her at first, but within minutes, she was fast asleep. Josh seemed to like the ride, looking out the windows and smiling, but about the last 5 minutes, the humming put him to sleep too, he tried so hard to keep his eyes open, but it finally got the best of him, and he was passed out on my arm, it was sooo cute!

Before we knew it, our tour was over! It sure was lots of fun. We're now here back in our room taking a rest, we all seem to be tired today, so we haven't done too much, and really don't plan to, it's just an easy day. We'll probably walk a little more this afternoon, window shopping and dinner. That's about it.

We originally planned our trip here to Victoria in order to spend time with a good friend of my mom's that I have known since I was a kid. It turns out she's not feeling well, so we thought we would just play it by ear, I tried to call her today, but I can't get through on her number, so I think we're going to miss her all together, so that's a little disappointing.

Tomorrow afternoon we take the 15 minute flight again back to Vancouver where we will spend 4 days, the last leg of our trip. With no plans there either, we have no idea what there is to do or what we will do...sounds like fun...

Victoria, B.C.

We got up Monday morning from our hotel and inquired about a place for breakfast. We like to go where the locals go, so we were told that John's Place is a good place to go. We walked the few blocks through the little town to the restaurant and we had a very nice wholesome, relatively cheap meal. We liked it so much, we'll probably go back for breakfast again.

We then spent the day wandering around the town. Victoria reminds us of San Francisco and Seattle and the weather was just perfect, about 65 degrees. We wandered through shops and stores and we found a maritime museum, Josh had fun looking at all the models of old ships. Down by the water we found a charter plane that gives tours throughout the area, so Rico signed us up for a flight on Tuesday at noon, so we're excited about that.

Time goes by so fast, before we knew it, it was about 4:00 and we were tired, so we went back to our hotel, the Empress,. It's a very old, beautiful hotel located in the heart of the town of Victoria, it's located right near the water, so the view is very beautiful, but we learned during the night, it's very noisy. We heard babies crying and showers being taken and toilets being flushed. It's a beautiful old place, but so far, it's not our favorite.

At 5:30 we took a short walk to a restaurant we found on our travels earlier in the day and we both had a wonderful seafood meal. Rico had seafood risotto and I had Alaskan King Crab and lobster...we both loved our dinner! We had a little too much wine, so we took a walk before going back home, and since Josh didn't like his dinner at the restaurant, we found a McDonalds and got him a happy meal, and he ate every bite of that hamburger by the time we got back to our room.

The time goes by so fast, just like that, another day is done. Tomorrow a short tour on a sea plane. We're really looking forward to that.

A Long Day of Travel

We spent the rest of Sunday afternoon and evening traveling. An hour and a half plane ride from Calgary to Vancouver, an hour lay over, than a 15 minute flight on a tiny prop plane from Vancouver to Nanimo and then an hour and a half drive from Nanimo to Victoria. By the time we found our hotel and checked in, it was well after 9:00 and we were all tired and pretty much went straight to bed.

I sat next to a nice man on the short plane ride. He has lived on the island for many years, so he was kind enough to give us directions to our hotel and suggestions on a few things to do while we are here.

Monday we will check out our surroundings. It should be fun, neither one of us have been here before, so we'll have fun discovering new things....

Time to Move On....

Sunday morning came way too fast. We all got up, Mike made us a nice breakfast, Rico and I packed all our things, Wendy and I took a quick trip to Wal Mart for an umbrella stroller for Josh, and before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye. I was surprised at how sad I felt all morning and when it came to hug Mike and Wendy goodbye, I couldn't stop a few tears, and neither could Wendy. I felt guilty taking Josh away from Wendy and Katie away from Mike. We all felt so welcomed and comfortable there, it was just hard to leave. Thank you again you two, we love you! We promised each other that it wouldn't be another 12 years before we got together again.

With that, Mike and Wendy led us to the airport, and as they went on their way, we headed to the airport for our next destination, Victoria B.C.

The Meal

Well, Saturday night's dinner turned out to be a complete success, Rico, Mike, Wendy and I spent about 6 hours preparing our feast, Rico, of course at the helm, everyone arrived around 4:00, we sat down to dinner about 5:30 and within 15 minutes the meal was over. It takes so long to prepare, and eating all the wonderful food only takes a few minutes! Everyone loved it, they were all so impressed with Rico's dinner, not that we needed to impress them, they already welcomed Rico into the family with open arms. I have never met a more warm and loving family in my life, all 8 thousand of them! :)

We had 12 people for dinner that night...Aunt Gerry, my mom, Harriet and Peter, Rob and Louise, Mae and Ross, Mike and Wendy, and Rico and I, and of course little Josh and Katie. They were our entertainment for the evening.

The evening was full of good food, lots of laughter and lots of alcohol too...it was a total success and I was sad when it all came to an end.

A Weekend at Mike & Wendy's

We got back to Mike at Wendy's in the mid afternoon on Friday, and immediately Wendy and Rico left to go grocery shopping for our big Mexican feast on Saturday night. Our Mexican feast has grown from a simple dinner to thank Mike and Wendy for letting us stay with them, to a great big dinner party, that's not hard to do with this family.

I told Wendy a few weeks ago that we'd like to cook them dinner one night while we are here and I asked if they liked Mexican food, and she said sure, we'd love that. So the night we arrived, Wendy said that they had dinner with Harriet and Peter and Mae and Ross the other night and they mentioned our dinner, and Ross said what time. So the numbers are growing. Then I said since they are all coming, can I invite Rob and Louise too, because I know them best, and I'd love to spend time with them too, and if they come, my mom is staying with them, so she should be here too, and then well, Auntie should be here too, if my mom's going to be here, so in a matter of minutes, or little dinner party grew to 13 people! Rico's a little worried, about the food and about this much family at one time again! They are all so easing going, we assured him he doesn't have to worry and besides, he has lots of help. Right now, while I sit with the kids, Mike and Wendy are taking instructions from Rico and they are cooking away, it smells very good in here now.

So that's where we are now, Katie is about ready for a bottle, so I better go for now. I'll tell you all about our meal and how it turned out later on.....chili rellenos, chicken enchiladas, Spanish rice, beans, guacamole and chips and stuffed jalapeno peppers, and alcohol, with this family there is always alcohol involved.....

Winter getting in the way....and my mistakes

Friday morning after we left our beautiful hotel, we thought we would take the very short 15 minute drive to see one more beautiful place, Moraine Lake, it's also another favorite of mine. We turned onto the road that would take us there, and lo and behold, right in front of us was like 5 feet of snow across the road. Apparently, Moraine Lake is an area that they don't open during the winter, you can only get there on cross country skis.

OK, so let's recap here shall we...

1. Johnston's Canyon was too treacherous because of 4 inches of ice across all the walkways, so we couldn't do that.

2. Our beautiful drive north on Thursday turned out to be long, boring and unexciting because I didn't think to look at a map first and so we took the wrong road. I thought I knew what I was doing....

3. Last but not least, Moraine Lake was inaccessible because of all the snow.

We may laugh about all this years from now, but right now, it seems quite disappointing to me.

But now for the highlights, which surpass all the disappointments:

1. A winter wonderland, so much beauty everywhere you look

2. Gentle falling snow most every day

3. Sleigh ride

4. Rest and relaxation

5. Good food

6. Beautiful hotels and views

7. Quality time together

As far as I'm concerned, our trip to the mountains was perfect....

Sleigh Ride!