First Day of School

Callie and Carter were off to their first day of school again this September. Callie of course had to have Oliver go with her. She wanted to leave earlier than Carter and I so she stole the dog and went to school on her own. Oliver really seems to enjoy his trip to the school. He's friendly with all the kids and doesn't mind all the activity and kids running around.

Carter and I went over a bit later. I always find the first day of school a bit funny. They only go for an hour though Kerry has to spend the whole day. This means Callie, Carter and I got to do our regular trip to Ricky's for a pancake breakfast. We started this to encourage Callie to go to school in Kindergarten and have been doing it ever since.

2017 Eclipse

I knew about the eclipse quite some time ago. Long enough ago that I didn't remember that I had already booked the day off in my calendar. I wasn't sure however, whether Kerry and the kids would be interested in going. I brought it up with Kerry at the start of summer vacation, half expecting her to say no and that I was crazy. Half of that did happen. The detail that turned things in my favour was that the eclipse covered Woodburn, Oregon which has some very nice outlet malls. The perfect post eclipse destination two weeks before back to school.

My initial crazy plan was to simply drive down during the night. Kerry's friend Melissa had a better idea and convinced Kerry to try to book a hotel. It was at this point we realized what a big deal this thing was. The only hotel in the area went for $1,297. We managed to get a room two and a half hours away. This allowed us to leave the morning after our Donut Dash run at the PNE. The border was already crazy with a two hour wait. We had planned on going to an outlet mall near our hotel but the timing meant we had to stop at the one in Seattle. We managed to make it to our Hotel in Tumwater, Washington by 10:00p.

At this point I was getting pretty worried. Traffic was busy at 10:00p and we still had to make it through Portland in the morning. Our hotel was a Motel 6 with less than stelar cleanliness. We slept on our own blankets on top of the bed sheets. It just seemed safer. We all had a quick nap and were up by 2:30a and out the door by 3:15a. This seemed like the perfect time because it was two hours to get through Portland which would put us through by 5:30a or so. Traffic was noticeable but manageable.

The whole way from Surrey I was checking our Solar Eclipse app. It had a feature that allowed you to check what percentage of the eclipse you were going to see. Our goal was 100% though at this point I was still okay with even getting to 95%. Little did I know what was in store for us. My original plan was to stop at the fairgrounds in Salem, Oregon. It sounded like the parking would be easy and lot's of people however it turns out it was a ticketed event that was booked months ago. I did not inform the family that I had absolutely no destination planned.

Once we got through Portland and into Salem I updated everyone on my lack of plan and we wandered around looking for a good spot. There were people parked in farmers fields and on the side or the road which seemed like a good backup option. In the end we saw a sign to a local garden in Silverton. It also had a ticket only event but the parking lot was a field at a local elementary school near a church. For $10 we were able to park and set up a blanket in a field by a community vegetable garden. There were a few hundred people which made for a more exciting event. We felt the air get cooler around 50% and the light was noticeably dimmer around 85%. It wasn't until 99% that it got fun. We wore our safety solar glasses right up until it was 100% and we were amazed at what we saw. A black disk surrounded by a beautiful coronal halo. If you've seen anything below 100% I highly recommend you book a hotel for 2024. We only saw the full eclipse for 1:46 seconds but it was absolutely amazing. I've marked my calendar already.

Hunting for Vampires

Callie started reading the Twilight series a few months ago and is just wrapping up the final book. She's also been watching the movies after each book and is planning to watch the final one on her birthday. The books are set in a town in western Washington called Forks. Although none of the movies were filmed there she wanted to go on a trip to Forks to see all the locations that inspired the books. Kerry did this 7 years ago so she already has a well educated guide.

We left early Sunday morning and drove to the Coupeville to Port Townsend Ferry. We didn't realize until the end of our trip that the way to get here is via Whidbey Island. The reason we didn't realize is because there is a bridge to get you on the island and then the ferry on the other side. Port Townsend is a quaint little town that I think could be a destination in itself though we are usually on our way elsewhere. One of these times we'll stop for a tour.

After the ferry our first stop is Port Angeles. This  town has a place in the series as Bella makes her way there for a bit of shopping and ends up in an Italian restaurant. Kerry and Callie were very excited to see that they had mushroom ravioli on the menu. I have no recollection of why this is important but apparently it's an amazing part of the book.

We were only doing an overnighter so we drove the full 5 hours to Forks to do the tourist thing. We stopped at the Forks sign for pictures and then made our way to the town information centre. They've got two red trucks there. One is the truck as described in the book and the second is the truck they chose for the movies. Callie is sitting in front of the book truck. We didn't really figure out there was a difference until we did a bit of research afterwards.

Our next destination was an exhibit of memorabilia from the movie. I made the mistake of going in first. I was immediately ambushed by three very friendly retired people who had way more of a passion for the books then I did. (I only read one of them.) They barraged me with information about various artifacts and how they were important. Again, Kerry and Callie were very excited and Carter and I stared blankly. The one interesting bit was a life size cardboard wolf form that they used in the actual movies. Since the wolves were Computer Generated this acted as a standing for Bella to talk to.

We finished up our Forks tour with a visit to the hospital, police station, Cullen House and Swan House. All were somewhat similar to the movies though of course not the ones that were in the film. The funniest part was the poor home of the Swans. It apparently has owners that aren't too impressed with all the Twilight fans stopping by for pictures. There were barricades and private property signs everywhere.

ON our way out of forks we stopped by La Push beach which is on a native reserve. Kerry hadn't been here for her last trip because it was only a day trip so it was a new experience for her. There was a treat line sign indicating where werewolves were allowed and where vampires were allowed. The beach was quite incredible with a ton of drift wood and some great little islands just off shore. I may sound like I'm complaining about the whole trip but Western Washington is still a very scene place to visit. I do recommend it. (I suppose Vampires are a bonus?)

Summer in Oliver

Our second annual summer trip was a weekend trip to Oliver. I usually like to stay a few more days but we were sandwiched in by summer camps and some work items so we could only do a long weekend. We left right after Carter's badminton on Friday and arrived in time for dinner. Our first day was very full and started with a trip to Rattlesnake Canyon. We played mini golf and water bumper cars and Carter and Kristen went on the spinning swings. Not a ride I can handle.

After Rattlesnake Canyon we headed to Tuk-El-Nuit lake to go for a swim. The lake is a 2 minute walk from Barb and Reg's house and is perfect for summer swimming. It's spring fed and always clean and the kids had a blast. We were here at the same time as their cousins and Ryan's favourite part of the day was getting a boat ride up and down the shore from Auntie Kerry. He looked like the captain on a pirate ship and probably would have done that till dusk.

We capped the day off with a trip to Tickleberries for ice cream. The grandparents had given each kid a $5 gift card. Carter learned a hard lesson in economics when he discovered this could not purchase a toy and ice cream. It only really covered ice cream which we usually buy for him so I think he felt he got a bum deal. My favourite part was watching Ryan eat his ice-cream. The kids size cone has two giant scoops and it looked like the Leaning Tower of Pisa as it melted before our eyes. He needed to be hosed down afterwards.

Our plan for the second day was to go in Corey's fishing boat but it was a bit too windy so we went to Skaha beach instead. It was very busy but the sandy beach is great. We capped the day off with a trip to Liquidity winery. I hadn't been here before but they picked an amazing location. The view of the valley was incredibly picturesque. Our last day was a shorter one as we were heading back home in the afternoon. It was rather uneventful as the smoke from the first had settled in making for a somewhat unpleasant atmosphere outdoors. It was still a great weekend.

Bike for Multiple Sclerosis

The MS Bike ride is a charity ride that I've been attending every second year. It's typically in June which conflicts with a few other events I like to do so I take turns. This year they moved the event to July in hopes of getting more participants. The event is a two day bike ride through Fraser Valley wine country and is lot's of fun. This year they added a few beer stops which were interesting as well as a place that sells mead. I've never had mead but it's effectively just fermented honey. An interesting taste. The ride was 75k on the first day and 60k on the second and the weather was great. If they keep it on this weekend I'll probably do again next year.

Summer Activities

Summer activities are becoming big business now. With both parents working they need to find ways to keep their kids busy during the summer. There are all day camps but also activities like ball hockey and badminton which Carter signed up for this year. Both were one week in the mornings. Carter wasn't too sure about either sport but I took some time to show him the basics so he'd be ready. He had great fun with ball hockey however badminton was a bit of a bust. They didn't teach a lot of badminton and it was more of a daycare atmosphere. He still had fun.

Callie signed up for an art class and for the first couple days she wasn't too excited. It was at an art studio so she was hoping to learn techniques but the first couple of days were more crafts. By day three though they started on some painting and she did a wonderful picture of a deer. Definitely her best yet. She's becoming quite the talented painter.

A Harrowing Ride Home

We had a bit of a scary experience on the way home from Prince George this year though it didn't seem too scary when it was happening. We stopped in Cache Creek for lunch and as I was sitting with Oliver outside I noticed it seemed very hot, dry and windy. At this point the only big forrest fire was in 100 Mile house and there was no state of emergency. As we drove through Ashcroft we noticed a fire in front of us though it seemed like it wasn't directly in front of us. We turned a corner however and it got very smokey and we could see fire coming up the side of the road. The car in front of us turned around and so did we.

As we turned around we came across a BC Hydro truck that was shutting down the highway. You always assume there will be some sort of authority figure stopping this sort of thing but that wasn't the case here. This fire went from 50 hectares to 4000 hectares in 5 hours. After we turned around we headed down to Ashcroft to take the 97c to Merritt. As we drove through Ashcroft we could see the fire coming down the hill and RCMP were already shutting down 97c. We just barely got through before they shut down all roads down south. We would have been trapped for a week as other first had developed north of us. This was the day they declared a state of emergency for all of BC.