Monday, August 11, 2008

From Vancouver To The Island

So, it's been a couple of days since I last posted for a couple of reasons. First of all, there was a whirlwind of family activity surrounding Becky's wedding that kept me away from the computer. While this time is (and was) very important and enjoyable, it isn't always the kind of material that makes for great blog posts :-) Secondly, I'm starting to discover that blogging and kids don't mix. I like to think that I'm pretty good at multitasking, but having a child tugging on each sleeve while trying to type and think can make it quite difficult to concentrate on throwing together a 'quick' post... when a short little post takes an hour to create, you start to feel like you're biting off more than you can chew! Having said that, I'm holed up in a dark, quiet corner of my parent's house in Sidney, just north of Victoria, hiding from the kids so that I can summarize the events of the last couple of days :-)

The day after Becky's wedding, about 20 of us gathered for a leisurely breakfast at the White Spot. It was nice to catch up with some of the aunts, uncles and cousins that we don't get to see very often. Later that day, Bob and Wendy hosted a backyard party for over 100 people. Although the weather wasn't as sunny and warm as we would have liked, all of the many guests were able to find shelter from the rain and a dry seat from which to eat :-)

Yesterday, Maggie, Sarah and I (and all five of our children) took MJ and Dave out for brunch at Newlands Golf Course in Langley to celebrate MJ's 60th birthday. We presented her with a book and DVD that we compiled for her highlighting all of her children and grandchildren... it was very well received!

Following brunch, Jennifer and I took our kids for a little spin through Vancouver. We cut across town fairly quickly, then crawled into Stanley Park at a snail's pace. We thought about showing our kids some of the tourist attractions in West Vancouver, so we crossed the Lion's Gate Bridge and stopped at both the Capilano Suspension Bridge and Grouse Mountain. I have visited both of these places many times in the past, but when I discovered that it now costs about $30 per adult to visit either attraction, I very quickly lost interest. Tourism's taken over.

We discovered Cleveland Dam nestled somewhere between these two locations. There were very few people there, and it was free - exactly the kind of place we were looking for to kill a couple of hours with the kids. We went for a little hike, then ran around the park for a while to let off steam.

Since we were already on that side of Vancouver, we ended up taking the Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo ferry, rather than driving all the way back to Tsawwassen. This turned out to be a big mistake as we didn't arrive back to the house in Sidney until just before midnight. However, it was a nice night for a ferry ride and I got to take way too many sunset photos as the sun sank below the horizon over the Strait of Georgia. However, it made for a dark drive over the Malahat :-)

Thanks for reading,
Andy


Birthday brunch for MJ - Happy 60th, mom :-)




Crossing the Lion's Gate Bridge into West Vancouver




The Cleveland Dam, sandwiched between the Capilano Suspension Bridge and Grouse Mountain




One example of the 'nature' that Rachel was collecting on our little hike through the forest :-)




Just a few minutes away from the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal, on the way to Nanaimo...




A dark and lonely night for riding on the ferry - thanks, Chris ;-)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Looks like the girls did really well at the wedding...and how cute are they! Rachel's hair was AWESOME! We'll continue to look for the owner of those specs>
Cori

 
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