The
rewards of the journey far outweigh the risks of leaving the harbor. |
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| Blogdate:
Monday, May 21, 2012 Mother's Day & Victoria Day |
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Rian's
first time on a ferris wheel proves to be an unforgettable blast. |
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Thumbs
up for cream filled chocolate cake. |
Rian
and Bodhi at the annual Victoria Day fair in Cloverdale. |
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Eli,
Bodhi and mama at Jericho Beach in Vancouver on Mother's Day. |
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"So
what's the attendance been like so far," I asked the gate attendant
as we handed him our tickets to the annual Cloverdale Rodeo fair. "A
trickle", he laments back, "but at least you won't have any
line ups if you don't mind the rain." He was right, there we no line
ups for anything, unlike last year. But then again, enough rain had fallen
that the kids roller coaster ride was "closed for drying" before
they decided it was safe enough to operate again. The weather made no
difference to us anyway, though only a week before we had temperatures
high enough to spend an entire afternoon and early part of an evening
at Jericho beach in Vancouver with everybody for Mother's Day. |
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| Blogdate:
Sunday, April 22, 2012 the La Conner Tulip Festival |
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It's
safe to say that I've never seen so many tulips in my life. |
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Another
tradition: the La Conner Sweet Shoppe. |
Bodhi
borrowed the camera for this one. Not bad. |
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Now
if tulips can make this kid this happy, imagine. |
Rian
could only manage a leg-up in time for this pic. |
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One
more from Bodhi's point-of-view.. |
The
obligatory Tulip Festival family photo. |
Calls
us gluttons for punishment. Every other year we decide to take boys, four
of them now if you include me, to the Tulip Festival in La Conner, which
though may only be about an hour south of us, can feel like twice that
if, for example, dad loses the youngest's soother along the way. At the
other end, Bodhi is seven now so some simple math would mean that he's
been there three times, which also means he's had the pleasure of three
of those giant waffle cone ice creams from the La Conner Sweet Shoppe,
also a must stop for us. Not a bad deal I guess: mom gets her tulips,
dad and the boys get some handmade sorbet. Three cheers for the Tulip
Festival! |
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| Blogdate:
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 spring break in Monroe, Gold Bar, and Index |
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Bodhi
and Rian at the Reptile Zoo in Monroe, Washington. |
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Fruit
Loops in our cabin at Gold Bar, Washington. |
A
post-snowfall, early morning, campfire warm-up. |
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Exploration
time at the "Small Falls" along the Wallace Falls trail near
Gold Bar, Washington. |
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The
elevation gain has given Rian the funnies. |
Thick
and wet foliage along the crossings to the falls. |
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Looking
down from the viewpoint at Lower Wallace Falls. |
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Four
hours later, time to relax back down by the lower part of Wallace River
after 5.6 km of hiking. |
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In
search of climbable rock near Index, Washington. |
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We
found it! Bouldering at Index, Washington. |
There
really are still "General Stores". |
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Our final stop on the way back home was near the Boeing assembly plant at the Flying Heritage Collection in Everett, a private-but-open-to-the-public immaculate collection of working World War Two aircraft. I'm starting to think Washington state has more airplane museums per capita than any other US state. I was told that the collection is owned by one of Microsoft's founders and that Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders, who lives in nearby Bellingham, sometimes drops in to fly the P-51 Mustang parked behind the boys (above). |
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Spring
Break was a little different this year. Sure, we still rented a cabin
somewhere in Washington state like we normally do. However, this trip
was just me and two of the boys. Bern was off on her own adventure with
Eli in her hometown of Kitchener. Now when I'm left to my own devices
with just the boys a whole bunch of things start popping into my head,
and the two big obstacles to trying all those things is having the time
and money to do all of it. But since having a two week spring break is
no excuse for time, I guess the only thing stopping me was the money.
No matter, however, because all those years traveling on the cheap has
meant getting used to finding ways to cut corners, which really means
if it's just me and the boys then we don't eat, or we eat things that
fall under the food group of instant noodles. Seriously though we found
three towns just east of the Cascade mountains, all having less than 17000
people each (the towns of Gold Bar and Index have official populations
of 2075 and 178 respectively), and all of which have hiking or climbing
among their attractions. |
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Don & Bernadette along with their three boys live in Surrey, BC, Canada. |
All
material copyright © Don Mah 1998 - 2012 |
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