Happy Old Year!

Wow! The year is over already. I've barely gotten used to writing "2009" on cheques, and now I have to break that habit already. Life is rough!

The year did seem go by rather quickly. Maybe that happens when one ages. When I was two, a year took half a lifetime; now it takes a paltry three percent of said lifetime.

Plenty of parties were had this month: church parties, bible study parties, friend parties, family parties. A good new year's resolution might be to not party for a few weeks. Hmmm, I'll have to think on it.


This past weekend we drove south to visit the family. The weather behaved, but that meant a disappointingly green Christmas. It did snow an inch or two a couple of days later, which the kids felt warranted pulling out the snowmobile to boot around for the day.

The annual gift-giving was experienced, plus the annual stuffing of faces with delicious seasonal fare. I bought a keg of beer for the occasion, eliciting plenty of trips outside on the deck.



Little story regarding the deck. It has a number of wooden steps going up to it from the lawn or driveway. At one of these locations the bottom step is missing, so thoughtful souls strung some bailing twine between the posts as a temporary fence to deter people from using those steps. Mom also kindly advised me to steer clear of the missing step.

Problem: this twine doesn't glow in the dark; in fact, it simply can't be seen in the dark. Especially when one travels at speed...

On arriving at the homestead, I was unpacking the car and came upon the 5L keg of beer. Cradling it carefully I approached the house. I headed straight for the closest steps up to the deck, taking a bit of a running leap to clear the missing step.

Well, I remember much wrenching and creaking (as twine and nails lost a battle) and a slight bit of resistance as I sailed along. The twine didn't really slow me down and there I was, standing on the deck, tangled in this twine I hadn't noticed on the way up.

I extricated myself, opened the house door, and held out the unscathed keg. Mission accomplished!

Of course, my sister and her kids had heard the commotion, guessed what had happened, and pretty much killed themselves laughing at the whole situation for far too many hours afterward.

Perhaps this incident and others (the previous victim, some poor lady, got clotheslined in the mouth) might expedite the repair of that infamous step.

Whatever. In the end the brothers-in-law and I enjoyed ice-cold keg beer.



Kids stuffing their faces...



Sister hogging the presents and the dog.



We've had the Christmas tree up and decorated at home, but we really haven't taken the opportunity to enjoy it. I don't mean climbing it, or chopping it down to hollow it out and canoe off into the sunset; I mean just sitting near it with the lights on. The tree is in the living room, where we hardly spend any time. So it will have been up for a month, lights turned on once or twice, then taken down for another year. We could have put presents under it, but neither of us got around to wrapping our gifts for each other so we just handed them over unexcitingly.

While we're on Christmassy stuff, here's Daisy's new sweater.

there's winter

Well, this past week winter finally arrived. Sort of. It snowed for a day, but all we had to show for the storm was a measly 20cm or so. It has snowed again since, not much, but every bit helps. Or is supposed to... it's rather hard to tell whether it does.

Anyway, from now on it should be white/grey here until April and that's all that matters.

December events are well under way. We had our church Christmas program and potluck last week already. We had a white elephant exchange party with friends this past week (where instead of buying gifts you get to give away unwanted junk that's lying around the house); turns out it's a potentially amusing game.

Tonight we're off to another party, sort of a mid-season Bible study soirée. Should be fun... and delicious. The time for gorging lasts only the rest of the month! (Not that I endorse gorging, but considering how little I normally eat, I should feel justified in playing catch-up from the rest of the year.)

Tuesday evening we're going to a Messiah concert downtown. We haven't been to many Messiah performances in a number of years so it was time to go again. I believe every year is simply too often, but that's probably because I overplayed the performance at home (which also means I now have in my head a "standard" performance against which I'm forced to rate all others).

Carrie's leaving me for two days. She's off to Mexico City for two whole days for work; she is the entire Canadian delegation, merely there as a third party in a USA-vs-Mexico case. She considered staying longer to go and see some touristy stuff but decided against it. I suppose our upcoming visit in January (though not to Mexico City) will have to suffice.

Carrie's knitting again. She knit the dog a sweater (I don't want her to make me a sweater but the dog doesn't have that kind of choice); I'll have to post a picture of that shortly.

where's winter

What not to do when going out shopping for four hours on a Saturday morning in late November: leave the door to the house wide open. When we got home it was a balmy 61 degrees in the kitchen (16°C), which felt extra cold but shouldn't since the kitchen temperature is usually only slightly higher at 66. Anyway, good thing we live in an apparently intruder-free neighbourhood.

It doesn't help that our furnace is on the fritz. It doesn't like to turn on, so I turn the main power off and then back on, and it fires up for a bit. After blowing hot air for a few minutes or so it stops. It could be our 1760's-era thermostat or it could be the flame sensor; I dug in there and cleaned the flame sensor and that hasn't helped so I guess we get to try to upgrade the thermostat next. That or call in the furnace service guys, but that's a whole thing. Especially this time of year. Until then, yay for space heaters... if the weather warranted their use.

Well, Boston seems like a recent memory but I guess it's a while ago now. What's next? Mexico! We just bought tickets to Ixtapa for January; we'll be joining Carrie's parents there for a week. Guess I'll have to somehow work my snowboarding schedule around that.

Carrie went to BC a couple of weeks ago; she booked a flight this summer as soon as her first niece was born on her side of the family (hopefully she won't be doing that for all her nieces/nephews!). She didn't miss any lousy weather here though, as she tends to hope for. It was rather balmy here and has been all month. Which isn't great as I've been waiting impatiently for winter since around May.

Bring on the snow please!

Boston

For Thanksgiving weekend we drove down to Boston, Massachusetts with our friends Reuben and Irene. It was mostly fun and we still mostly get along!

We initially thought it wasn't a long weekend for the States, but it turned out to be Columbus Day for them. That didn't actually affect us too much after all, so that was fortunate.

It's about 700km to Boston. We drove down Thursday evening, heading east into Quebec for a few hours before cutting through Vermont and then taking I-93 down through New Hampshire. Not much sightseeing to be done in the dark, which is a shame because it's a beautiful drive in daylight.

We stayed with Irene's relatives just outside of Boston. These wonderful people housed, fed and entertained us, making our trip even more enjoyable.

Friday was "driving around" day because the forecast was for a bit of rain. We drove to Salem, known for its rich history of witch trials and whatnot.


There are several witch museums in town, ranging from historical to hysterical. Tourism is big in Salem, and the historical buildings and sites are interspersed with haunted houses and other Halloween-oriented stuff. October is Halloween month apparently, so we had to decide what was actually permanent as opposed to seasonal.


We avoided most of the tourist traps, but we did do a tour of the Witch House, a misguidingly named museum that was once the home of a magistrate involved in the witch trials 300 years ago.

Salem is also the birthplace of author Nathaniel Hawthorne, whom I'd never heard of. He wrote The Scarlet Letter and House of the Seven Gables, the latter of which I'd never heard of. The latter is also based on an actual building in Salem, which is of course a tourist attraction. We walked by it but didn't go in.

Since I'm not big on history or literature, much of what I learned in Salem has evaporated from my brain. Not because I choose to forget, but because history lessons never seem to stick. Except maybe dates... numbers are fun!

Very near Salem is a town on the ocean called Marblehead; we headed there to check it out. It has an old military fort...


...and a decidedly maritime flavour.



Saturday was Boston day since the forecast was for good weather. We took the subway into the city. First stop: Harvard University!

The thing to do is have one's picture taken while grabbing the foot of John Harvard's statue. So of course some of us had to do it. If you look closely you may notice that the foot is very very shiny. This is of course due to zillions of people touching it every day. Germ alert!


The statue, supposedly depicting John Harvard as the 1638 founder of the university, is sometimes known as the statue of three lies. He didn't actually found the school but merely contributed to it, the statue isn't a likeness of him, and the founding year is actually 1636. But I guess nobody cares.

Oh, and now Carrie can say she went to Harvard Law School!


Reuben and I took a side trip to MIT, the other big-name school in the area. The school facilities and grounds aren't in the least bit spectacular, but Reuben, being employed at an architect firm, wanted to see one of the buildings designed by Canadian architect Frank Gehry. That would be the Stata Center.


I won't mention that the school is suing Gehry's firm for recent problems like a leaky roof.

After catching up with the girls, we embarked on a trolley tour to save us some walking as well as to hear a bit of a history lesson of the city.


We could jump on or off the trolleys at any stop, but the line-ups to get on were often long, so once we acquired a good seat with a view, we settled down for the ride. We were taken past a slew of sites of varying significance, but photo opportunities were limited as leaning out of the trolley was discouraged.


We also went past the Cheers pub associated with the eponymous TV show. Evidently it's unpleasantly busy inside, and what's more, the interior of the bar isn't even the one used in the show! If you've even heard of Cheers. I got a lousy shot of the Cheers sign at an angle from the trolley.


After the tour, we decided to take a walk through Beacon Hill, a very old mostly residential neighbourhood. It was rather reminiscent of some European towns.



As in many old European towns, there isn't much room for cars. People park ridiculously close together, so if you want to park here please do NOT value your bumper's paint job! I wasn't aware, but bumpers exist solely for the purpose of being bumped (which we witnessed on multiple occasions).


So many tiny doorways (still being used, as far as we could tell). Were people this little back then??


Interestingly, the old gas lamp posts are still in use, but instead of having them lit manually every day, they are constantly burning.


Toward evening, we made a reservation at one of many Italian restaurants in the North End. We were to take our hosts out to dinner in appreciation for opening their home to us. To kill some time before dinner we explored Quincy Market, the Faneuil Hall market and the waterfront.

Bleak cityscape:


A little less bleak looking away from the city:


We arrived at the restaurant to find a bit of a crowd. While it's nice to be able to reserve, it's not nice to have to wait outside for almost an hour before being let in; they obviously overbooked. I would say the meal was worth the wait, even if the restaurant itself was a bit crowded.

"Aunt" Jenny.


"Uncle" Joe:


On Sunday we attended the local OPC, complete with a superb preacher and a very informative church history lesson after the morning service. We were then treated to a delicious Thanksgiving dinner at the house. We later took a drive to Cape Ann, hoping to enjoy some scenery before dark.



On Monday it was time to drive home. We stopped at some outlet stores for some shopping; surprisingly, the damage was minimal.

The drive was loooong, but at least it was light out during most of the Vermont section. The fall colours were starting to show, but unfortunately we didn't get many good shots because the best views were seen while zipping along the interstates.


We paused in Montpelier because, well, why not? It's the capital of Vermont; it's also the smallest state capital, with a measly population of 8000. Needless to say there wasn't much to see. Oh, and they pronounce it Mont-PEEL-yer, not quite the way we learned it in school.

Final planned stop: Burlington, Vermont. Carrie had been here before and taken a ferry across Lake Champlain a few years back. We stopped for supper, wondering when we'd be home. Fading fast...


We had at least three choices of border crossings. Legal ones, I mean. We stopped at a rest stop near the border to check the border wait times. Of the two that were posted, we chose the 45-minute wait (the other was 2h45m). The third option would have been in a tiny town a little bit out of way, but we had no way of knowing how many people know about it, so it could have been hit or miss. We ended up waiting an hour at the border, not too unexpected for a long weekend.

Anyway, home sweet home. Too bad our furnace is acting up... brrrrr.

Oh, and thanks for letting me steal some pics, Reub. Let's face it, you're by far the better photographer. You and your dumb "rule of seventeenths" or whatever!

Falling behind

I tend to like blogging more when there are pictures to build monologues around. Unfortunately the camera doesn't get used much, even on the odd occasion when we do take it to some worthy event. As a result, boring text posts will have to suffice once in a while.

We visited some friends in Trenton a couple of weekends ago. Trenton is about a 3-hour drive southwest of Ottawa, on the north shore of Lake Ontario. A guy we knew from our Halifax years is based at the Canadian Forces base there, as is his wife. They have a nice big house with lots of space for guests (I'd forgotten how much more real estate you can get for your money when you don't live near a real city). That was a good thing because they were also hosting his parents and sisters and their dog and had just finished hosting her parents.

We had a great time, despite going to the beach one sunny afternoon. Daisy had an equally great time, entertaining herself with her fellow hound dog and being spoiled by doting girls. The other guest dog, some big lazy beagle or something, didn't quite see things her way and was not in the mood for playing; he just put up with her scampering and/or tried to ignore her. Daisy also had her first cat encounter; they were thoroughly unimpressed and made that quite clear with their hissing. If they hadn't been sequestered for the duration of the visit, some fighting would certainly have taken place.

Then this past Sunday we went to some friends for dinner. They have a young cat, and we were interested to see how he and Daisy would get along. Well, Daisy the dog and Caramel the cat playfought for a few hours, and they seemed equally matched and equally entertained. No claws or hissing or growling or barking, just lots of wrestling and jumping and running tackles. Great fun to watch. Of course Daisy will now assume all cats (a) are fun and (b) won't slice her nose to shreds at the first possible opportunity. Wonder when that will happen.

Yesterday we got her some new toys. Her year-old stuffed turkey is no longer stuffed and hardly resembles a turkey. She now has a stuffed deer to kill; may Bambi put up as good a fight as the turkey did.

And we got her dried pig's ears for treats. We don't give treats often, so she goes wild when she gets a good one. The pig's ear seems to be her favourite yet. We gave her one yesterday, and as I always do I tried to take it away from her in an attempt to make sure she still has manners. Well, I was a little surprised when she growled at me for the first time ever! Not cool. So I gave her something to think about. Flying across the room may not seem to take long, but dogs no doubt find it sufficiently long to contemplate the error of their ways. Just kidding, just a well-weighted swat. I tried the same routine 10 minutes later and got a much-diminished growl. She received another (undiminished) swat. And that was that; I'm betting she won't ever growl over her treats again. As the old adage goes, I guess training a dog is like riding a bike: if a dog growls at you along the way, a swift kick should send it packing!

Macy's

So maybe you've heard of the American department store Macy's. Kind of like the Bay but a tad more upscale. So we were in Seattle last month checking out the downtown are, and we came across a Macy's.

Carrie had been looking to buy a watch for some time since her previous one gave up the ghost, but there are very few styles she likes. She'd sourced a few in Canada but they were a little expensive. So when we saw the right style at Macy's, and since such things are cheaper across the border, we decided to buy it. There was a 10% off sale that day, which was nice. Then as a greater incentive, one could get another 15% off if one got a Macy's department store credit card. I didn't like the sound of that but 15% off is 15% off so we did it anyway. Fine, great watch, great deal.

A couple of weeks later I decided to see how I might pay the Macy's bill that should be arriving soon. I didn't like what my research dug up:
- to pay online, it must be from a US chequing account;
- paying by mail must be done with a money order in US funds;
- one can always pay in-store... if one can get to a store;
- last resort: get a friend who lives in the States doing the paying for you.

These were not great options. Even worse was reading about Canadians who didn't get their bill in the mail soon enough to send out a payment before the due date. And there are late fees. On top of the robbery that is the 24% annual fee (for those who for some reason carry a balance), there's a finance charge of $2 if you're late. I guess that's a processing fee of sorts. The real late fees are from $15 to $39 (depending on the balance outstanding) and are charged up to twice per monthly billing cycle! Who even gets away with that?!

Oh, and the finance charge apparently appears on bills regardless of whether you've failed to pay on time or not; officially you don't have to pay the charge unless you're paying after the due date. Of course that's not made clear, and people will likely opt to pay it first and ask questions later. This gimmick probably adds a couple million dollars to the company's cash flow. Not cool.

Anyway, after learning all this I jumped on it. We took the only feasible route and paid $6 for a money order and mailed it out, while also phoning them to let them know it was on the way. A bit of a hassle, but in the end we paid on time and now have a nice watch at a considerable discount. Plus $6.

And we cancelled the evil card.

Niece

A big congrats to Carrie's "little" brother and his wife who just had their first baby. Carrie's finally an auntie... from her side of the family. May there be dozens more...

That also makes Mom and Dad D new grandparents. Congratulations Opa & Oma! Or is it Grampy and Grammy? They can't just be called Grandpa & Grandma... that's so commonplace. Decisions, decisions.

Lately

Ahhh... August. The time of year when I really look forward to winter. Even more so, that is, than during the preceding three months. This would be because I would much rather go out and enjoy the great outdoors in the winter than during summer. Not that it's been much of a summer. Ottawa finally just had its first heat warning this week, so that comes a little later than most years.

Most people tend to think of water and swimming when things heat up. I'm not one of those people. On a hot summer day, water is good for drinking and that's about it. They say I'd think differently if I knew how to swim, but I'm not convinced. First, I can stay afloat for a solid two minutes before succumbing to gravity; does keeping one's head above water not constitute swimming? Second, knowing how to swim does not make the temperature of water any higher. Hot tubs are nice to relax in, but preferably when the ambient air temperature is below freezing. And I can handle warm indoor pool water since it's 'nice' and warm, but I wouldn't say the idea excites me. But outdoor bodies such as lakes? No thanks! I don't require the "refreshing" feel of cold water on a hot day; if I must be outside I'll just sit back and acclimatize (usually with jeans on). You don't need to understand, just know that I'd much rather step into my snowboard boots than my Speedo.

So a couple of weekends ago, we went with some friends to a beach. The beach is in Gatineau Park and costs money if you're driving. And it's almost hour away... considerably more if you count the ridiculous wait to get in that day. Everyone and their dog seemed intent on hitting the beach, no matter the inconvenience. Maybe it's the Houstonite in me, but if you have to wait in line for something, it better be really worthwhile. And beaches are very near the bottom of my 'worthwhile' list. To make matters worse, there was only one drive-through pay booth and no walk-in one. But I wasn't alone, so for the sake of all those present, I didn't complain too loudly. Upon asking a park attendant about the busy-ness, he assured us he'd never attempt a beach visit on a nice day like that day; he also stated that parking was a problem and if it got much busier they might have to close the gates for the day. Ughhh. But once we were in, it was surprisingly easy to find a parking spot and a picnic spot; it probably helped that it was near or after 4pm by that point and people were starting to leave.

The whole ordeal reminded me of Cultus Lake in the Fraser Valley. People enjoy the experience of long car line-ups to get in, crazy packed beach areas once there, and ridiculous traffic to get out. I can honestly say that I much prefer relaxing at home to all of that. But that's just me.

What else did we do? We visited people's campsites a couple of times. That's a nice way to get out for an evening and not have to do all the packing for camping. We'll probably go camping sometime yet ourselves at the end of the summer.

A couple of weeks ago was the Ottawa Busker Festival. I'd never been to a proper busker festival before, but I expected a whole lot of random street performers vying for crowd attention. That was not the case; the festival was held on one street downtown, with scheduled performances at five intersections. After 18 years, the festival has become quite the event, but I was more entertained than impressed. Perhaps in the interest of maximum income, they had a system and stuck to it. Each act had an hour time slot, and in general each would do progressively better stuff over the course of the hour with the promise of a grand finale. But too often the grand finale, while perhaps technically most difficult, was not near as astounding as much of the rest of the act. All this, along with numerous pleas for cash (including a "we aren't beggars, and by the way we think we're worth this much from you" speech right before the finale), failed to impress me. But in all, acts were entertaining enough (and free!).

Fire was a very common theme for performers. This act from Australia was particularly nice. A little late in the evening for the photos though.


Some local acrobats.


A talented artist, one of the few side shows.


Another weekend we attended an outdoor orchestra performance. Ottawa had its third annual Orchestras in the Park, which is a few evenings of free outdoor concerts. This is a nice way for people to enjoy the orchestra when they otherwise can't afford -- or can't be bothered -- to attend orchestra performances. It was quite well attended the night we were there, despite the threat of rain. We enjoyed two Beethoven's 'fifths' (symphony and piano concerto). Although the sound is obviously not of indoor quality and visibility depends whom you're stuck behind and whether that person brought a higher camping chair than you did, it was a decent experience; adding to the fun was some friends' one-year-old who kept us entertained with her antics.

Incidentally, we just bought a pass (five shows) for the NACO, Ottawa's own orchestra. We topped it up with a Messiah performance as it's been a few years (Halifax '04 or so) since we enjoyed one of those.

Last week we hosted (and made) some new friends from Guelph who wanted to check out Ottawa. They stayed a couple of nights and saw some of the key tourist sights. Perhaps we'll have to visit them soon and see the sights of Guelph (are there any?).

I'm so low on pictures (as I'm sure you've noticed above) I'm going to borrow one they sent me; with luck they won't hunt me down for posting this :).


This past Wednesday we went to a Thai restaurant for dinner with eight friends. The food was delicious, and the Thai beer was very drinkable. With rice and sautéed dishes galore, it was the kind of meal you'd expect to eat with chopsticks, but no such luck: apparently in Southeast Asia the only chopstick users are the Vietnamese. I guess now we know for next time.

That's all I've got.

Vanderveen out.

Summer holidays

Now that I'm fully recovered from our holiday I can finally blog about it. Last week I got that lousy (partial) molar pulled, so that distraction is finally behind me.

My little brother had kindly invited us to his wedding, so we flew to Edmonton on Canada Day. My two Ontarian sisters and a sister from BC (and their families) were to camp out with us at a provincial park a ways west of the city, while another my parents and another sister (with her family) stayed in Edmonton. The southern Ontarians took a flight to Edmonton the day before our flight, and one of them was at the airport to greet us when we landed.

(Aside: The chauffeur service was incredible during our entire trip! All told, people did 12 hours of extra driving to fetch us from or bring us to the various airports/stations. All that generosity, coupled with the fact we could travel lightly -- no checked luggage -- made our travels rather enjoyable. Thanks people!)

We and one sister (and family) headed out to the campground and found our site fully decked out with tents pitched and all the camping gear we'd need, thanks to another sister. We'd been told everything would be provided for us, but this was ridiculously awesome! Thanks, M!


We'd reserved a minivan for our travels but instead received the world's ugliest car, the Ford Flex. Strangely hardly anyone agrees with me, but I think it's right up there with the Aztec and the Prius. Ughhh... The Flex also has no power, but to its credit there's decent legroom and more headroom than I've experienced in any vehicle since I was about five.


The four camping families took up three campsites, though people spent most of their time at just one where all the cooking, eating and socializing took place. Two brothers-in-law are pretty handy in the kitchen, so we enjoyed some delicious meals, especially for camping standards. Here's B preparing steak over a charcoal fire.


Buying firewood at the campground was highway robbery as usual, so B and I decided to drive around one evening and look for somewhere else to buy some. We'd seen a sign for firewood somewhere nearby but we couldn't seem to locate it when we needed it. After driving backroads for a while with no success, we finally decided to stop at the next yard with firewood in it. Upon doing exactly that, some nice old guy let us fill the car up with free firewood! Sure beats paying $8 a bag.

The wedding was at 1pm on Friday. The weather was nice and we gained another sister-in-law. The last time all we siblings (with families) were together was four years ago at my younger sister's wedding; this time she left one of her two kids in Ontario, but other than that the whole clan was there, 26 people in all.

The immediate family.


The wedding party.


The reception involved a delicious dinner and more cake and other yummies than one could sample each of. It also involved plenty of entertainment, like the bride having to sweep the groom off his feet foot.


A sister had saved a bunch of drawings my brother drew when he was four, so we strung a few together to make a random story. Do these pictures explain why, years later, the biggest hurdle that would stand between him and high school graduation was a lousy art class?


I didn't do a whole lot of picture-taking during our trip, and it certainly didn't occur to me to single out each person for a shot or two. So I was surprised when it was pointed out to me that I took a disproportionate amount of pictures of Ontario nephews and nieces versus BC ones. In my defense, how can one pass this up...


I got a few western ones on film anyway...


...and our latest first cousin once removed. He graced us with his cute presence during an extended family barbecue that brought (some of) our Alberta cousins, uncle and aunt, plus another aunt from Holland to the lake.


On Saturday three brothers-in-law and I went golfing. The plan was to shoot 18 holes, but plans changed a little after hole 9... it hailed!!! That was not supposed to happen! Two guys in one golf cart went one way; another and I took the other cart the other way. The first cart found a sheltered spot behind some trees; our cart found no shelter whatsoever and got battered by big fat hailstones. We tried to drive it under some trees but sadly we were between those trees and the hail falling at a crazy angle. And wow, is hail ever LOUD on a golf cart. So lacking any real choices we decided to head in the general direction we recalled the pro shop to have been; visibility was near zero, partly because the hail was so thick and partly because we were driving directly into the wind and any exposed eyeballs could get severely battered by evil hailstones. Even breathing was difficult. But the cart managed to get us back to the pro shop through the several inches of hail and water on the ground -- and very slowly at that, thanks to a crazy headwind. We elicited several stares upon coming inside completely drenched. I was actually already thoroughly soaked within a minute after the hailstorm started. The other two guys drove in shortly, hardly wet at all. Not even fair. Anyway, the fields were literally white, as if it had snowed. Crazy prairie weather. We got rain checks for another full 18 holes and left. (I assume brother-in-law #4 used mine the following week since I wouldn't be around to enjoy it...)

I'd worn my dress pants for golfing in case they had some sort of dress code. Since these were now soaked, I hung them up in the hope they'd be dry for Sunday. No such luck; Sunday morning I dangled them over the campstove for a half hour to dry them off; the pockets now have singe marks as a nice reminder. My shoes I'd worn took a whole lot longer; they weren't dry enough to wear for another five days.

Sunday night five of us siblings plus spouses, including the newlyweds, hung out around the campfire and shot the breeze... something we don't get to do often. Good times...

Carrie and I flew to Seattle on Monday to meet up with friends who moved there from Ottawa half a year ago. They live 1.5hrs away so there was lots of driving involved. Our combined schedules didn't allow for much time together, but we made the best of what time we had. We met her wonderful family and got to see both her childhood home and her new place.

On Tuesday our friend and her sister drove us back to Seattle; on the way we stopped at Cabela's, an outdoorsy/hunting outfitter store. It was a big place with more stuffed animals than I've seen in one place. Mostly North American wildlife, but also an African section and an aquarium with live fish.


Also, in true American fashion, the store had a huge firearm section, with zillions of guns on display... rifles, handguns, shotguns, machine guns... Two words: Awe Some! There was also what was called the Gun Library, which is just a nook that houses a lot of used guns, for sale and in working condition, many of which have a known history several hundred years old.


We spent the day checking out Seattle's Pike Place Market and other parts of the city.


Ye Olde Curiosity Shop had all sort of weird and novelty stuff; I expect it's comparable to a Ripley's franchise. Here's what our dog would look like if we'd locked her in the house instead of farming her out to some friends.


We jumped on a bus which took us nonstop to the border. The bus had all of a dozen people on it. On arriving at the border, the driver half-jokingly warned us to be polite, since no one wants to be the one ornery person who gets yanked out of line and holds up the border crossing for everyone. Well, there was one person who, for some reason, got some extra attention but the entire border stop was probably only 20 minutes so it wasn't too bad.

We spent only two full days in Langley, which I'm sure is some sort of record. We visited the grandparents but didn't have time to visit any friends. We did manage to see a number of Carrie's relatives when they came over for a non-ladies-only baby shower-type thing for Carrie's brother and his 8-months-pregnant wife.


After a very short stay in town, the family headed to Whistler to spend a night there. We enjoyed the drive on the new Sea-to-Sky highway, which is fortunately much improved in time for the Olympics. Whistler is beautiful in the summer, with opportunities for swimming, golfing, biking, hiking, ziplining, bungee jumping, and of course (if you go high enough) skiing & boarding.


We first hit the beach where a few of us decided to try swimming. I tried to save them some trouble by pointing out that it was much too cold, but some people insist on finding out for themselves. They didn't last long.

We considered ziplining but we didn't have enough time for that.

The next morning a bunch of us drove out of town a ways to go on a hike called the Ancient Cedars trail. The highlight of this trip is supposed to be... you guessed it... ancient cedars. The lowlight would probably be the mosquitoes. Strangely I wasn't bothered by them at all for once; usually I'm the decoy that spares everyone else. This time I got to hear every one else complain. And watch them flail. Much preferable to doing so myself. The other lowlight was taking cars up the rather rough road up to the trailhead. Low-pro tires not terribly welcome.


The very pregnant sister-in-law came along on the medium-difficulty rated trail. There may have been times when some of us were worried this day might be Junior's birthday, but the woman is tough and could possibly have hiked circles around some of us... big belly and all.

So the cedars... some them were fairly large. We posed in front of one that's probably 30 feet around.


I climbed a huge fallen tree and took a picture of the ants people below.


If you look at the left side of this next picture, you'll see dad-in-law below the fallen conifer that is probably 4 feet in diameter or bigger; but it looks rather scrawny compared to the pair of massive cedars on the right that it fell between.


We enjoyed the walk despite the bugs, enjoying the sights along the way.


The entire experience took under two hours, after which we headed back to town for breakfast. That afternoon Carrie and I got a ride to Vancouver airport to finally end our holiday. We'll have to do it again some time.