Summer Odyssey - Crater Lake

We did it again. We crammed too much into a single day. Our plan was to drive from Reno to Woodburn Oregon and do some back to school shopping. The trip was 8 hours by Google which mean it would usually take us 9 hours with stops. What we didn't plan on doing was stopping at Crater Lake National Park. We were getting a bit bored with driving just as we were about to pass the turn off and it called out to us. On the map it didn't look like it would be too much out of our way but the road was much narrower and curvier.

By the time we got back on the road we were in for an 11 hour day. Having said all that I'm glad we did stop. We always drive by the signs on the I-5 and it sounds like an interesting place. It's an old volcano that blew it's top about 7,000 years ago. It's now the deepest lake in the US and you have to be there to get a sense of scale. We stopped off at the visitors center and the gift shop and drove around the western edge. After that we were back on the road to Woodburn where we finished up the day with some shopping at the outlet malls. Tomorrow we are off to the Ed Sheeran concert in Seattle.

Summer Odyssey - Death Valley and Reno

We had an 8 hour drive ahead of us so we planned on getting out the door by 6:00a. (more on why later.) Were able to make it out by 6:45a. We would have had only a 7 hour drive however we wanted to drive through Death Valley which added about an hour to our trip. Death Valley is home to the hottest temperatures on earth. For our visit it only made it up to 40C. I say only because on our first day in Las Vegas it got up to 43C. The hottest temperature ever in Death Valley is over 56C. As soon as you enter you can tell there is something different. The vegetation mostly disappears and the landscape is very different.

As soon as we got into the park we stopped at a very small visitors center that was nothing more than a billboard and an outhouse. There was no staff but there was a place to pay to enter the park. It's honor system and we were a bit surprised by the $30 cost. I imagine many people don't pay, especially since there was nothing on the highway saying you should. The most interesting feature we saw in the park was a lookout that looked into the valley in several directions. The landscape looks very foreign with many different colored rocks. I was definitely happy we chose to take the detour into the park.

Our destination for the day was Reno. Our plan was to make it to our hotel by 3:45p so we could go to the movie theater in our hotel. $4.00 for a movie and they were showing Avengers-Affinity War. Unfortunately our late departure and detour slowed us down and we didn't quite make it. It was all for the best because it gave us more time to tour our hotel and take in the buffet. It may take a few days for my stomach to recover from the dessert bar. We finished the evening with $20.00 of gambling at the slots before heading to the pool. Kerry was up to $26.00 and Callie and I figured she should stop. She did not. We lost it all.

Summer Odyssey - Hoover Dam and Las Vegas

We are staying in Las Vegas for a few days and using it as a jump off location for some local trips. Tuesday was the Grand Canyon and Wednesday was the Hoover Dam. The dam is only 45 minutes outside of Las Vegas so this was by far our shortest driving day. In hindsight, I think the next time we do a big road trip we will make sure to have some 'no driving' days interspersed. I'm not driving of course so it impacts Kerry the most since she prefers to do that herself,  but it's still a lot of time spent in a vehicle. We seem to enjoy about 6 hours and after that it gets to be a bit much.

I didn't know what to expect when we got to the dam but it quickly became apparent that the US is very proud of this particular achievement. the visitors center and parking are extensive and security is everywhere. We paid for a tour of the power plant which was $15. There was also an option to tour inside one of the stair wells of the dam itself for $30. The power plant tour was excellent. We got to see the enormous turbines as well as the pen stocks. You could walk over the dam itself for free. The family enjoyed this day trip very much.

We were finished the Hoover Dam and back to our hotel by 1:00p which finally gave us some time to check out the pool deck at the Venetian. Carter and I had to use the 10th floor pool the previous two days because the pool deck closes at 8:00p but the other pool is open until 10:00p. The Palazzo and Venetian share a pool deck but there was construction going on so it was a lengthy trip to travel between the two inside the hotels. We wanted to see both so we made the trek. Both sides had similar Italian inspired amenities and a total of 10 acres of pool areas. It was a hot day and very busy.

After the pool we went to check out Buddy V's Restaurante. Buddy is also known as the Cake Boss and it was of course an Italian theme. We chose this restaurant mainly because it looked like it had something everyone would like and because we had a $150 resort credit burning a hole in our wallet. We needed to use it up before the end of our stay.

After dinner we started our final tour of the Las Vegas strip. Carter really wanted to check out the Marvel Experience which was at Treasure Island across the street from our hotel. The price was a bit steep at $32.00 per person and we didn't expect it to be worth it but he got everything he wanted out of the gift shop. There were opportunities for pictures and some merchandise to round out his collection of Marvel figurines. The gift shop advertises itself as 8000 square feet of Marvel but it was very sparsely filled. They did have some good deals though so all went well.

For the remainder of the evening we walked down to the end of the strip and back which means we made it down to the Luxor. The hotels past there are mostly just casino and less interesting. Our first stop was at Caesar's Palace. I came here the last time I was in Las Vegas and warned the family that we would likely get trapped. I was correct. You enter the main door and hope that when you reach the end you can just exit but that's not the case. You end up having to come all the way back out the way you came to get to the front door. We also planned on stopping at New York for the Hersey store as well as the roller coaster. Carter was planning on going with Kerry but it was a bit too intimidating. Perhaps next time. Our last stop was at the Luxor which is a giant pyramid shaped hotel. It looks neat from the outside and has a few neat Egyptian scenes inside but is starting to show it's age. Our only stop on the way back to the hotel was the coke store. Carter really wanted to do the flight of 16 different coke products. Do not try the Beverley.

Summer Odyssey - The Grand Canyon

I'm happy to report that we did get our car back. We were out the door at 6:30a this morning for a 'Day Trip' to the Grand Canyon. In hindsight it was a fairly long ways to go just for the day. Kerry compared it to going from Vancouver to Oliver for lunch and back in the same day. We got to the village around 11:30a and suddenly realized how incredibly unprepared we were. We only planned on seeing the canyon and doing one of the easy hikes however we were only prepared to do that in sunny weather. The canyon had other ideas as there was a giant thunderstorm with a couple inches of rain in a short period of time and it was only 15 degrees.

As we sat in our car wondering what we were going to do, I remembered I have an emergency poncho in my back pack and Kerry remembered she had one in the car. We also had several garbage bags in the emergency kit. Several minutes later we were all prepared to brave the storm. We weren't about to travel 5 hours only to turn around without seeing something. It was still raining as we walked to the look-out and there was no one around. Thankfully the weather turned sunny and warm fairly quickly. The canyon was still a bit smokey/foggy but it was still spectacular. I would even call it grand.

We spent a few hours hiking the canyon rim and checking out the geology center. There were several nice places for pictures. Plenty of them were safe but there were still dozens of people taking selfies only a few feet from some steep drop offs. I wonder how many tourists they lose each year?

We headed for home in the afternoon with plans to stop in Flagstaff which is apparently one of the former Route 66 cities and we had visions of it looking like Radiator Springs from the Disney Cars franchise. It is actually a large bustling town with a university. We stopped off at the visitors center for souvenirs and some pictures before heading back to Las Vegas along a portion of Route 66. The route between the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas goes from desert, to shrubs to sparse forest with a ton of neat rock formations. I would highly recommend it as a drive if you are in the area. Tomorrow we take a rest day with just a short jaunt to the Hoover dam.

Summer Odyssey - Twin Falls to Las Vegas

We started our day in Twin Falls, Idaho where we had stayed the night at the La Quinta. Kerry insisted that if we were going to stay in a place called Twin Falls it was important that we actually see the falls. The name of the falls is the Shoshone Falls and they were more spectacular then I was expecting. The whole area of Twin Falls looks incredibly flat until you drive up the the canyon where the falls are. The water has carved quite a deep hole over the years and the falls were big enough for a major power plant and multiple waterfalls.

After our quick stop to see the waterfalls we were on the road to Las Vegas. It was going to be about an 8 hour drive and the temperature was going to soar to 43 degrees by the end of the day. A long drive and heat starts to play with your mind. In a town called Jackpot we got stopped for some road work and we opened the window to get some fresh air. It was at this point that Fred the fly joined us for our journey. We watched him fly in and didn't get a chance to get him out before the traffic started moving. It was at this point that we named him and started to wonder what would happen if he made it all the way to Las Vegas with us. We're happy to report that he did and we had great fun predicting what kind of trouble he would get into when he arrived. The picture on the right is Carter feeding him some coke bottle gummies. Fred was very well behaved for the full trip.

We arrived at our hotel in the early evening and were a bit confused when we drove up to the front desk. It seems they offer free valet service so all we had to do was get out and check in. At least I hope it was free valet service, otherwise someone has stolen our car. Our hotel room is excellent. We got a good deal as I had stayed her previously for work. The first two nights are $119 and a slightly higher rate for the third night. They even threw in a $150 resort credit for us to spend on at the hotel. Every room is a suite with a king or double bed and a full living room.

Once we had checked in we made our way to Margaritaville for dinner. Kerry enjoys coming to this place in every town we go to that has one. We got good seats in the back of one of the fishing boats and proceeded to have a mix of Cheese Burgers in Paradise and shrimp. We also had some overpriced drinks. Everything was great but it was definitely more expensive than I was expecting. I might have to rethink having that Bahama Mama next time we come.





After dinner we spent a bit of time walking up and down the strip. Our goal was to make a quick trip to the M&M Store and the Coke Store. They were a bit farther down then Kerry and I remembered and it was getting late so this was more of a scouting mission. We'll spend more time on Wednesday. One thing I should mention for parents is that the Las Vegas strip is pretty tame until about 8:00p. It got much more risque after that. Tomorrow we head to the Grand Canyon. It was 43 in Las Vegas today so hopefully it's much cooler. The heat hits you like an oven. The air conditioning bill with all these open casino doors must be enormous.

Summer Odyssey - Western Idaho State Fair

It started as a simple trip to see Ed Sheeran in concert in Seattle. It soon morphed into a 10 day journey through a province and 5 states. We started our trip with a stop in Oliver to drop off Oliver. (For those that don't know, we named our dog Oliver after the town and the book.) We had escaped the bulk of the smoke for most of our summer however things got really bad as we moved in to Peachland and got worse overnight in Oliver. The smoke continued through most of Washington and only started to dissipate when we got into Idaho. I may have to rename this trip the Western North American Forest Fire tour.

Once we had decided we would be stopping in Las Vegas Kerry mentioned that she had always wanted to go to a traditional American state fair. A quick internet search later and we had our first destination. Our ultimate day one destination was Twin Falls however that path took us right by the Western Idaho State Fair in Garden City just outside of Boise. Based on the number of food options it looked like it was exactly what we were looking for. I would say it's at least as big as the PNE but with a much cheaper entry fee. Free parking and $33.00 for the whole family.

Our goal was just to stop for dinner and a treat and take in some of the fair. Our first event  was the Splash Dogs. It started out a bit shaky when the lead dog playfully bit the entertainer on the arm. I'm not sure if perhaps that distracted him a bit because he seemed to be off on his comedic timing.  I was amazed at how much the dogs enjoyed jumping in the water. We'll have to try this with Oliver. My favorite was one named Little Buddy who was not exactly little. He was a black lab and very well trained. He brought his ball into the crowed for someone to pick up and then ran back to the platform. You had to be quick to get the ball to the water for him.

We spent some time checking out the country fair art and food competition, a crazy high diving penguin event, BBQ ribs for me for dinner, darts on the midway, a ride we got for free because someone gave Carter his wrist band and finally an Idaho Ice Cream Potato. From a distance you really could not tell it wasn't an actual potato. It's a beige colored vanilla ice cream shaped like a potato covered with a dusting of cocoa powder followed by whipped cream and Oreo cookie crumbs. Our goal for food was to get something we were unlikely to get anywhere else and this fit the bill nicely. Tomorrow we are off to Las Vegas.

BC Hydro Go Karting

BC Hydro offered to spend some effort on employee engagement this year and has set aside a modest budget for managers to do something fun with their employees. I could technically have taken myself and my two staff to do something but things get more fun when you go in slightly larger groups so my manager organized an event. We all got to make suggestions and then voted. Options included golf, horseback riding, an escape Room experience, go karting and several others. The resounding winner after the vote was go karting and we choose TBC Indoor Kart Racing in Richmond. The track is indoors and the karts are capable of going up to 70 km an hour. There were enough karts so that the 12 of us could ride in the same heat which made things much more fun. It's way better passing someone who's normal role is sending you spreadsheets to fill out. It was a hot day and I don't think I've ever sweated as much in my life but it was a lot of fun. Hard to say if there was a 'winner' but I will say I did quite well in several of the heats.

After racing we went to the downtown condo of one of our colleagues. He owns a place on Granville Street and there is a roof top patio with vistas in all directions. Food was purchased at Costco so there was plenty to BBQ and eat and I think everyone had a great time. It helped that we've had yet another sunny summer and at least for this event, no smoke. (That came a few days later.)