Christmas Tree Hunt

Going out and cutting your own tree is a lot cheaper in Prince George. You can go to a number of places including our own property on West Lake and find a tree for no cost. You then get the experience of the hunt, hot chocolate and a free tree. That experience is not the same in the Lower Mainland. There are places where you can cut your own tree but they are far from free, especially since we like a tall tree for our living room and it's the most expensive kind. At $20 a foot, our 8.5 foot tree comes in at a price where it makes more sense to get a fake tree. We used to have one but it got old and we wanted the cut tree experience for the kids.

After this year's experience, I suspect we'll switch back to a fake tree at some point. We found what appeared to be a nice tree but in hindsight wasn't as nice as we thought. It was growing on a slope and had a big crook in the bottom. That has made it almost impossible to get level. Even with one inch of wood underneath on one side it's still not straight. I also almost passed out while cutting it. It was warmer and wetter than normal so the saw just wasn't cutting. We named this year's tree "Swiftree" which was fitting based on what the focus of the year was. Unfortunately she is not taking in water well and might not make it to the new year. 

Taylor Swift Mania

I won't bore you with all the details of what it took to get tickets to the show in Vancouver, but I will say it was only at the last minute that all of Callie, Kerry and Melissa had tickets for the Taylor Swift show i which was the last stop for the Eras tour. Callie had a ticket for the past year so she was eagerly creating friendship bracelets from day one. She had actually started even before she had a ticket when Taylor was only doing US shows. She made her first batch for the Seattle show and went down with Kerry to listen to the concert outside. Her friendship bracelet skill evolved immensely during that time. She started with simple beads with words and quickly evolved to woven ones and multi later bead strings. She added clasps and all of them could be removed even when they were tied. I contributed in a small way by making some wooden rectangles with various Taylor Swift sayings on them on the CNC. I had grander plans of being able to do things in brass but I couldn't get the settings right and I'm not sure my big CNC was the best tool for the job.  I think she made north of 200.

The tickets that Callie and Kerry had were VIP seats and they would be going with Callie's aunt and her daughter. The seats were good and definitely VIP priced but the only real difference was a Taylor Swift gift box that showed up a couple of weeks before the show. The family had an opening event where they all opened the boxes together. It was mostly paper based things plus a pin. Callie was a bit disappointed it wasn't Vancouver themed which she understands some other cities were. It was still nice and will be a good keepsake. 

I think if I had been around during the Beatles it would be have been fun to be able to say I experienced some of that so I decided I wasn't going to miss that opportunity with Taylor Swift since I think it's had the same sort of hype. I went to work on the Friday of the first concert in Vancouver and then wandered around downtown. The atmosphere reminded me of the Olympics with everyone there for a common event though the weather wasn't as nice so it wasn't quite the same. Vancouver had put large lit letters at several Instagram worthy locations. It was a great opportunity to show case the city and the concert brought in over $150m in economic activity.

There had bee talk about certain areas being inaccessible except for ticket holders but it wasn't much different from a normal event or concert at BC Place. You couldn't go right up to the gates but you could hang out in front of the stadium. In other cities, there had ben large groups of people congregating during the concert. It wasn't huge in Vancouver on the first night I think because of the rain and the fact that the city had warned people away. I think it would have been a lot bigger in the summer when it was warm but there were still thousands of people by the last night.

Melissa arrived on the Friday night and Kerry, Callie, Melissa and her niece wandered around the city on the Saturday. On the Sunday, my brother-in-law had rented a limo for everyone that took them to the event and picked them up afterwards. It was more convenient then we were expecting as they got home pretty quickly after the concert was over. I think the only disappointment for Kerry was that there wasn't a surprise gust. We figure it's because she was filming all three days and they wanted consistency. Still an amazing event, 706 days after the whole thing was first announced.

 

Kiwi's in Canada

Technically they aren't Kiwi's since one was born in England and the other in Canada but they've both lived in New Zealand for almost more of their life then they lived in their home country so we'll call them Kiwi's. Emily and I went to University together in Prince George and she moved to New Zealand a few years later. The last time she was back in town was over 10 years ago. Her partner has lived  in New Zealand even longer. Emily had created a world tour where she went to Japan, UK and Canada and we met them in Vancouver. I was amazed at how much her partner was amazed by the heights of our buildings. 

The first day I met them at their hotel in Richmond and gave them a ride downtown to meet Peter. We didn't have a specific plan but there is always lots to do there, especially for someone who has never been. We walked around downtown and took a look at the buildings of course and then headed to Gas Town to check out the steam clock. The time was wrong but the 15 minute whistle was right on schedule. We then went to the German Christmas market. Fun being a tourist in our own town.

I then attempted to give them a car tour of Stanley Park followed by Science World. Unfortunately my tourism knowledge is limited and I mistook a statue of a running man as Terry Fox. The unfortunate part was that the statue had two lets so I was called on it immediately. If only it had been another one legged runner. It did inspire me on a new business model. Giving alternate reality tours of local cities. Maybe when I retire. Maybe someday I'll make it to New Zealand. 

 

Halloween Projects

I know I end every Halloween saying I won't be doing anymore Halloween projects for the yard but the reality is that every summer people start posting their projects and I can't help but get inspired. This year it was a vomiting skeleton. It's a quick project and I thought about a place to store it so I started in early September by looking on Facebook Marketplace for an oil drum. I was surprised at the selection available. I managed to find one that had never held liquids which just seemed easier than trying to to clean one out. A quick coat of black paint and some spray phone insulation and it was ready for green paint. Rust-Oleum has a glow in the dark green spray paint that was perfect. The next step was to find a skeleton. I had always planned on using a glow in the dark skeleton but it was initially sold out at Home Depot so I settled for one that was more realistic to the point of looking 'juicy'. At the last minute I found one at Canadian tire. Coupled with the one I had bought before this project, I added three more to the décor. I originally hooked up the water pump but I couldn't get the water to glow like I wanted so for now he's not a fountain.

The pumpkin patch is not quite the event that it was when the kids were younger. We still like Aldor Acres but things get busy and instead we end up at Port Kells which is a nursery just down the road. For what it is, it's enough of an experience that we can call it a pumpkin patch even though all the pumpkins are trucked in from other areas of their property. For some reason this year most of the pumpkins were quite green. I think the weather was wetter at key times so they didn't quite develop as nicely. carter decided to go with some big white ones which turned out really well. 

The yard decorations came together at the last minute. Some of my decorations aren't really designed for the rain so if the weather isn't looking good, I set up what I can the weekend before and then everything else comes out at the last minute. I think I need to start booking the entirety of Halloween off as it's on the verge of taking more than a day to set up. This year I'm serious when I say I'm not doing any more projects. (This is already not true.) What I've decided instead is that I'll start to improve on some of the items I have, starting with the pathway lights. I'll make some that are good year round that I can turn Halloween plus some stakes with bats to keep kids off the lawn. 

Thanksgiving Distress

This year we decided we would take a quick trip up to Oliver for Thanksgiving as we hadn't been able to visit for as long as the family wanted during the summer due to all the travel. Things started off a bit rocky with Oliver having some bowel distress the days before we left. He seemed okay and it was just a single event so we left on the Saturday afternoon. We had to leave later than normal as Carter had a basketball game in the morning on Saturday. Things quickly turned for Oliver when we got there as he seemed to be in a lot of pain. Kerry considered driving home that night but the roads weren't great and she decided to head to Kelowna instead.

It turned out to be a good thing that we went to Oliver as we got a new vet opinion on him. The emergency vet was incredibly helpful and did some of the testing including an ultrasound for a low fee as compared to what we pay in the lower mainland. She eased our fears on what to expect long term for Oliver and he's been fairly symptom free since that visit. We managed to salvage Thanksgiving including a quick picnic at Hester Creek. The weather was still very warm so we got to sit outside. 

PNE 2024

This year Carter was old enough to apply to work at the PNE at the end of August. He surprised us by doing the application on his own without any prompting from us. He was short listed and after a quick teams interview followed by an on site trial for a corporate event he was hired. He managed to get the position he was most interested in which was games attendant. The commute was a bit of work for Kerry and I as we took turns picking up and dropping him off with some help from one of his friends parents who was also working there. The only bad commute was when a dump truck overturned on Highway 1 and it took me four hours to get home.

He seemed to enjoy the experience though I don't think he actually had a chance to interact with anyone. He would show up each shift 30 minutes early, get assigned a different game and then he was on his own. Each shift was about 8 hours total. There were no complaints as far as we know and he managed Callie and I nicely when we went to visit him one evening. Callie and I also checked out the super dogs when we were there. This time they were in the old horse show building and not the Coliseum. I think the reason was that this year they needed the Coliseum for the evening shows as they are redoing the outdoor theatre which should be done by next year. 

Kauai 2024 - Day 7 - Beaches

Today was our last full day in Kauai so this is likely the last blog post for our trip unless something interesting happens tomorrow. We headed south as Carter wanted to check out the beach with the turtles again and we've discovered that the most cost effective location for macadamia related products is Costco. There were no turtles at the beach today but the weather was great and Kerry and Carter tried snorkeling as we had some equipment available with our condo. This isn't a great spot for snorkeling since the interesting locations are outside the reef and the life guards had to use the loud speaker to warn snorkelers to stay inside the bay every 15 minutes.

After the beach we stopped in at Kauai Coffee again so that Callie could get some crushed pennies. After that we stopped in at a local pie shop. It wasn't in a great location so I don't think they as much foot traffic as some of the other shopping areas so I found my piece of Island Lime a bit stale. Callie and Kerry really like their coconut cream pie and Carter enjoyed his mango. There are a ton of local shops on this island and it would take a while to visit and rate them all. 

We made our way back to Costco where we finally found what we thought would be easy to find. An egg. At first the theory was that it was just someone's egg they bought at Costco but it was a bit small and dirty. Most chickens lay eggs daily but we're not sure what happens when they suddenly become wild chickens. Do they still lay daily? Are all the eggs fertilized with all the roosters around? More research required. 

We really enjoyed our trip to Kauai, even with all the roosters and chickens waking us up every morning. The weather was very unpredictable but didn't stop us from doing anything. Even when it rained it seemed to rain for less than 5 minutes at a time. The beaches were great, the shops and restaurants were great and I didn't run into any locals that wanted to beat me up. (Ever since watching Forgetting Sarah Marshal I live in fear of accidentally ending up on the turf of Hawaiian locals.)