We're in the final stretch

After a whirlwind tour of Vancouver that left Chris and I wondering what we were thinking staying only two nights, we departed for northern Idaho. We'd spent our time in the city at Stanley Park, visiting the aquarium, which the girls loved, taking a horse-drawn trolley ride, and visiting the kids market at Granville Island. We also squeezed in a visit to a long-lost relative of Chris' (it was possibly his father's second cousin). We loved the city and loved the place where we were staying. It was just the perfect place for us and exactly the opposite of our beach house. The girls and I were wandering around remarking at all the conveniences (look it has a diswasher and a stacked washer and dryer!) and I said it was the nicest place we'd stayed thus far. Julia remarked, "Yeah, after the place with the bunkbed."
"Which place with the bunk bed? Do you mean the place we just stayed?!?"
"Yes."
I guess it's true that kids have different standards than adults. It doesn't matter that the place was a tear-down, as long as there were bunk beds, it was the best.

We got up early this morning and had a pretty good day of driving. The girls were happy to find all sorts of unexpected surprises at the rest stops, like a bush covered in caterpillars and big boulders for climbing. They were pretty restless by the last 20 minutes or so and I resorted to teaching them old camp songs and begging them to hold it together for 3 more blocks because we're almost there. Happily, we made it in time to have dinner with Uncle James. Unhappily, it was a crazy dinner because they were much to keyed up to sit at a table and eat. At least the host was perceptive enough to seat us at the farthest table in an empty room, so they didn't disturb anyone but us.

Saratoga Beach

We're at the beach now, the longest stay of our vacation, and it's been heavenly. Well, apart from the fact that our beach house is a dump. But to back up, we left Victoria Friday and had a pretty nice drive up the island. About 20 km from our destination, Frankie couldn't take it anymore, so we pulled off the road so I could nurse her. We ended up at the Courtenay Japanese and Chinese cemetary (they were side by side) and got out and looked around.


Then we got back in the car and after a quick drive, we arrived at "Taylor's Sandy Beach Resort". We were supposed to stay in a log cabin, but when we got there, the owner decided to upgrade us to one of the condos. It is better than the cabin (especially since it smelled like it had a gas leak), but it is grimy. Like the kind of place a bunch of college-aged beach bums would stay. Everything is falling apart or has already been broken. Like our coffee table, that is about to fall apart just from Frankie pulling up on it. Or the fact that we don't have any hooks or towel racks because they were pulled out of the wall at some point. It's like indoor camping. However, it is right off the beach and right next to the "playgroup" and has a fabulous view. Julia was heartbroken that we weren't going to be in the cabin as we'd been talking it up and there was no explaining to her the benefits of a bigger place. Especially since they both looked pretty junky. We really try to stay out all day and I've tried not to freak out every time the girls flop down on the carpet. Another bonus is that two other families are staying in the other two downstairs units and all our kids have been having a blast. It's been really nice sharing their campfire and getting to know them. They're from Victoria and Vancouver, so we've been getting some local tips.

The girls have been enjoying the low tide, which goes out 1/4 mile in this area. The water is so shallow and the waves are so gentle that they've all enjoyed getting in the water and playing in the sand. We went over to Miracle Beach Provincial Park, where my family camped when I was a kid, this morning and the girls had so much fun looking at the crabs, sand dollars, clams and even a sea anenome. Francesca finally stopped trying to eat handfuls of sand, so I had a better time, too. It was a great stroll down memory lane, but it's so much easier to deal with sandy kids with a shower and bathtub.

It's been a great, lazy time and we all really wish it could go on longer, but tomorrow will be our last full day here. We'll probably spend the morning on the beach and then play "mini golf" in the afternoon. Julia has been dying to play ever since we played at the museum in Victoria and won't forgive us if we don't make time for it.





Frankie sleeping under a makeshift umbrella:
















Beach at high tide right behind our condo

More Victoria

Tea at the Empress.

Victoria, BC

We started out the day at the Bug Zoo in Victoria. It's a great little place where a guide shows you all sorts of cool insects to look and and pick up. Julia is holding a walking stick


Mirissa decided to hold the walking stick too. This is Julia holding a millipede.

A millipede moustache!




















Mirissa holding a millipede!















Chris holding a tarantula.
There will be NO picture of Mirissa doing this.
They don't allow kids to hold tarantulas because if you drop it they will die because they are somewhat fragile.
Mirissa and camera disappeared when I held the scorpion! So no picture.

On our way back to our hotel we took our only family picture with one of the bears that are up around the city. We've taken pictures with four of them and Julia is determined to find them all.












































On to Butchart Gardens....

The girls had a blast at the gardens and it turned out better than we thought. We went in the late afternoon and they pretty much had free run of the place. Which was good, since Charlotte decided to wander off on her own and Julia had to stop and smell every flower and comment on what she would do where if she lived there. We pretty much would've alternated between backing up traffic and running past everyone to keep up with Charlie.

Ferries and More Ferries

We started our day taking a quick ferry ride across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
It was so cold and windy out there!
The "big bumper" that came right up to our car right where Charlotte was sitting. Poor thing thought she was going to get crushed and wanted us off that ferry RIGHT NOW! Kind of tough explaining that there's a boatful of cars in front of us and we weren't going anywhere. Chris did a great job of explaining that it was the boat's friend named "big bumper" and she calmed down, but she didn't want to see it at the next ferry.
(this one's for you, Pop)
This little racoon found us as we waited in line for the next ferry and was very cute until Chris started slyly sneaking him cheerios and walked off. I round the corner and practically had him on my shoulder as I edged between the car and the fence he was climbing over.
Riding a la Britney into the ferryJulia and I were feeling seasick, then the girls decided it was better to eat their lunch outside.

Seattle... or We Finally Get a Day Without Driving!

After surving two hellish days on the road (the second being so arduous Chris and I both felt the need to post about it), we finally got down to some fun. Seattle for us is the city of old college friends so we started the day with my dear friend Mary showing us the sights. We visited the ever-popular Pikes Market and got to see one fish being thrown about, bought two pounds of local cherries and generally ran everyone down with the double stroller. The girls found an enormous piggy bank by the fish stall and hopped on for a picture.
We then ambled over to the Seattle Center, where they chose to ride the carousel instead of the Space Needle. Good choice, since I wasn't about to go up there, but didn't want to tell them I'm afraid of heights. Frankie, however, was not at all pleased that her daddy forgot to buy her a ticket and left her to watch.

Then we went to the children's museum and let the girls run around in bliss for a bit. Their favorite part was a really neat exhibit that had houses, stores and transportation from Ghana, the Phillipines and Japan. They used scaled down versions of things to make it child-sized yet realistic. Very cool.
Then we left Mary for a bit and met up with Chris' old college friend Mark Barbieri. We sat in the hotel lobby and the guys had a drink, Julia had her first "Shirley Temple" and the little ones napped. Amazingly, the only disturbance we created was when I knocked the glass bowl full of pebbles off it's stand and sent everything flying.
Then we hopped in the car to meet up with Mary and her husband Norm and see their 1920's house they're in the process of remodeling. They are doing an beautiful job and it's going to be a great house when they're fininshed. The girls were so happy to meet their dog, Cora, and poked all around the house looking for the cat but never found him. The girls are funny they way they walk into a strange house and immediately search it from top to bottom as though there's some fabulous thing hidden away somewhere. We practially had to drag Julia out of Mary and Norm's closet she was taking such a thorough tour.
there are two girls hidden in this picture!
We had a wonderful dinner with them and stayed out too late, considering we had to pack to catch an early ferry the next day, but it was worth it.

The pass through state.

This drive was the longest drive of the vacation. The honeymoon was over with the kids sleeping most of the way. We stopped first thing in the morning to have a Father's day breakfast. They sat us smack in the middle of this quiet, quaint little restaurant in Mt. Shasta. We put on quite a show for the other patrons. All-in-all it turned out to be a nice time, though.

We crossed into Oregon fairly soon, the pass-through state. I don't trust a state that doesn't trust me enough to pump my own gas. I take it personally. I don't think they take kindly to us foreigners either. Mirissa was driving, keeping up with the flow in the left lane, no big gap between her and the car ahead. A big pickup truck behind us thought that just wasn't good enough so he kept flashing his lights for us to git out of his way damn it! Of course I encouraged Mirissa to do the right thing... and stay put. He passed us on the right and gave us the big, jerking, jabbing thumb motion over his shoulder which everyone knows is the official hand signal for "go the hell back to California you idiots."

This time we avoided Carls Jr and opted for a Taco Bell lunch and a Burger King dinner.
We got into Seattle about 7:30pm.

We had a great room at the Westin with a beautiful view of the sound. Julia and Charlotte had a nice pull out sofa, we had a "heavenly bed" (westin TM) and they brought up a "heavenly crib" for Francesca. It was vey cute. They give you a little rug for the cribside that looks like the sky and clouds.