Dinosaur Camp

The Surrey Leisure guide lists these types of sessions each season and we figured that since it was only $5 we couldn't really go wrong. Apparently we were mistaken. It was a one hour session geared towards 2&3 year olds and Carter is becoming quite the dinosaur fan so we signed him up. It had all the right elements for a 2 year old but I think the instructors were still in high school and their presentation needed some work. They started us out with some coloring and quickly moved us on to painting. For the first five minutes though they had no smocks which could have been quite the disaster with the huge globs of paint they gave the kids.

After the painting we moved on to some fossil hunting however instead of digging for bones we were digging for little plastic dinosaurs. I should also mention that during the painting they were explaining all about the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. I'm sure the kids were fascinated with all of the facts and figures she had downloaded off the internet to read them.

We also got to make our own fossils. Sort of. We took some dough and used the plastic dinosaurs to make impressions. We finished the session with some "What time is it Mr Dinosaur" and a few stories. Amazingly even though the session was only 1 hour we finished up 5 minutes early.

Carter did teach me a lesson in keeping an open mind and just enjoying the moment. He had a great time and is very excited about the Pterodactyl dinosaur toy he got to take home.

Spring Is Around The Corner

Although the rest of the country appears to be in a temporary deep freeze the west coast was sunny and 10 degrees. On Friday Kerry had the kids out in the back yard for hours including lunch in the gazebo. On Saturday we took the family to White Rock  For some reason we usually go to this beach when the tide is in but this time were lucky and the kids were able to try to walk to Vancouver Island. They didn't quite make it though they did make it to an island of sorts.  With kids in gumboots and adults in sneakers there was no retrieving them after they made this crossing.

After some well scheduled appetite building we started to head back to the many restaurants that line the waterfront. Depending on who you are our timing was either terrible or perfect as our way was blocked by a very long train. I think this is the first time Carter's seen a train this close.

We ended up at Moby Dicks where I chose the One Piece Fish & Chips.  I'm fairly certain I couldn't handle the Four Piece Fish & Chips that they offer. If you're not a Fish & Chip fan you'll probably see this as just a big pile of grease. If you are A Fish & Chip fan I can promise you it was quite delicious. Moby Dicks was voted one of Canada's Best Kept Secrets by Travelocity and I highly recommend it.

An End to Procrastination

Well I wouldn't say an end to procrastination. More like an effort to make a serious dent in the backlog.  I have a habit of starting projects, getting them to the point of being functional and then not worrying about those final finishing touches. This year I have a list of projects that I have to complete before I can start anything else. Subject #1 is a router table that I started about 4 years go. (I think) The base was created, the bottom drawer was in, the wheels were attached and the top... well the top was on top but not attached.  The finishing touches included drawer fronts, attaching the top, creating a centre door and finishing the wiring.  I"m happy to say this project is now 100% complete including a dust port in the back.  (Now I just have to finish my shop dust collection network.  That's not on this years list.)

Subject #2 is our laundry room.  Our old laundry room was very dysfunctional with ancient appliances and no storage.  (Our theory is that the previous owners swapped out the appliances when we moved in but we didn't have pictures to prove it.) This project included building upper and lower cabinets, a new counter over top of the new front loading energy efficient appliances, as well as new tile flooring.  I quickly completed the cabinets, countertop and flooring but three years later I still had to install crown molding on the upper cabinets, install the lower cabinet drawers and finish the back splash.  The doors had a bit of an issue when I installed them so I called the project "functional" and moved on to bigger and better things.  Now everything is complete with the exception of the back splash which should go in in the next few weeks. Stay tuned for my remaining projects.
1) A rocking chair started in January of 2010.
2) Refinishing of the family kids chairs started in the summer.
3) A work bench first dreamed about in January of 2009 but never started.

San Diego

This week I got to enjoy sunny San Diego while the rest of the continent was in a deep freeze. I work for an electric utility and there was a conference there directed at utilities.  Although the focus was for work I timed my flights such that I could get a few tourist stops in. My first stop was the San Diego Zoo. Kerry and my mother-in-law Barb had phoned ahead and bought me a pass for my birthday. Established in 1922 it boasts over 4000 animals and is by far the nicest zoo I've been to. The exhibits are very natural looking while still allowing people to get very close to the animals. These Koalas didn't seem to mind that we were watching them take a nap.

Day two was a conference day.  I signed up quite late so my hotel ended up being about 2km away.  I took a taxi there the first morning but after that I walked most of the time. My hotel was right across from the maritime museum. This particular ship is the oldest iron hauled ship afloat today.  Not far from here there the USS Midway was docked.  It's an aircraft carrier from WWII and was set up as a museum with quite a few different planes and helicopters.

Day three also ended up being a conference day but I left the hotel early so I cold get in a bit of geocaching. With over 200 geocaches within 2km of my hotel there was no shortage of unique places to visit. There were small parks dotting the water front and ordinarily I would have passed right by, however I took a meandering route instead and found my first five international geocaches. This 25 ft tall statue depicts the iconic photo from the end of WWII two titled "The Kiss".

The conference ended early on Thursday and my flight wasn't till the evening so I finished my week with a trip to Sea World.  I treated this week as a scouting mission for the family. All of this was within 5km of the airport and my hotel and there was a ton of family oriented things to do. I never even made it to Lego Land.  (A single guy walking around the zoo and the aquarium isn't too bad but it would just be creepy walking around Lego Land.) We're planning a road trip to Disneyland in 2012 and I think we might add San Diego to the itinerary.