Friday, August 4th

Friday august 4th

It has been a whirlwind of a week unpacking and repacking for the weekend. Nicholas has been at the golf course working all week and I've been running errands since Wednesday afternoon with oil changes, fuelling up boats and trucks and getting the 64836 things ready on the boat. 

We threw everything in to the boat and truck and once nicholas arrived home from work at 215 we were gone.

We drove south and stopped in Claresholm at the 7-11 for some good old greasy chicken 🍗! There was a long wait and foreboding of what was to come but oh so delicious! 

We got back on the highway and we're making great time with medium traffic. We pulled into Crowsnest Pass and magically discovered diesel fuel at Husky at 96.9 which was 20 cents a litre cheaper than anywhere else. Yay! We filled up and headed west for 10 minutes before coming to a complete stop behind hundreds of vehicles going nowhere fast. I got out to visit the couple in front of us and they knew that there was an accident earlier in the day as their friends were held up an hour and apparently it had backed traffic up for a long time. With no cars coming from the other direction for 20 minutes we were very concerned about the trip being very long.

A few cars trickled by from the west and a lady screamed out her window as she went by "Logging truck flipped over on the highway - going to be a 2 hour wait!!" Well isn't that super. 

So we set the iPad up on the dash of the truck and watched 2 movies while edging up 100m every 20 minutes before arriving at the scene of the accident 2.5 hours later. 

Sure enough a semi flipped on its side after spreading 2x4 lumber all over the place. 

It was now about 9pm and we were starving so we pulled into A&W and had a bathroom break and grabbed some burgers. 

Back on the road in the dark manoeuvring our way down the highways and biways to Madera resort on the south shores of Kookanusa. We arrived around 11pm and deposited our boat in the boat storage lot then found our trailer rental property and made it to bed pretty quickly after unpacking and cooling off the trailer as it was very warm. Phew. What an adventure already! Tomorrow will be better!

Tuesday, August 1st

Tuesday August 1st 

A horrible sleep of a room too warm and up at 5 and could not get back to sleep. Watched a movie on my phone and drifted in and out of consciousness until 8. Up, dressed, fed and out the door with Cindy Darby Hailey and Jacob and eastern bound 90 minutes to the Skytrek Adventure park. 

Friends of Darby and Cindys from Carstairs met us and we chose the high ropes course. We waited about 20 minutes until we had a big enough group as well as an instructor and away we went!

We were shown how to hook up all our equipment and walk the ropes and boards and then zipline and off we went. 

The course started with the Green section - lots of fun things but not very challenging. Gradually we made our way to the blue section with more challenging things. Moving boards - elevation - and some downright scary stuff. After 2 hours just when I thought we were coming to a conclusion, little did I know or expect to be shown the DOUBLE BLACK SECTION FROM HELL. The craziest part of the course and a total upper body workout like you've never had. Of course we had to try every section of it as all our kids were doing it. 

This was the most physically demanding and exhausting thing I had done in my life since branding and castrating 400 head of cattle with my old roommate Wayne Bauche back in June of 96. 

We finished up there and to celebrating our SURVIVAL by heading to Three Valley Gap for lunch. A great meal and 4 minutes in the vibrating chair to move some solidified muscle mass. We drove back to Sicamous and had an ice cream cone and bought some fruit and headed to Salmon Arm. We dropped off a library book and arrived back at the lake after 7. A quick snack and down to the dock for a seadoo ride. Jacob was ecstatic and can't wait to do it again. 

We headed back to the cabin for Breakfast Supper with eggs bacon toast and hash browns. A couple episodes of friends and we called it a night. 

Monday july 31st

Monday July 31st 

Wasaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 its the last day of July..... so sad

We will endeavour to make the most of it by enjoying beautiful British Columbia and all its offerings. We did have an awful lot more smoke in the valley today. We watched the helicopter being crews in a few times to fight a small fire on the opposite side of the lake but it appears to be under control.

We had some breakfast and headed down to the lake and went north to the cliff diving area. Jacob and I did some cliff diving for half an hour and then I took three attempts but finally got up on one ski! I slalomed it up for a few minutes and packed it in as my arms were several inches longer and were killing me. We cruised back to the floating store for a quick visit with Brody and then toured the lake spots like the waterfalls and other neat places.

We drove all the way down to Anglemont to visit Darby working at the Marina and then along the other shore past the rich folks with helicopters parked In front of their cabins. Wow. We pulled back up to the docks and swam for a while in the 25 degree water. Great stuff. We walked back along the docks and saw the hundreds of sucker fish of every size sunning themselves within arms reach. 

Cindy got us all hooked up with the kayaks and we paddled down the side of the lake under the bald eagle perched on a long branch seeking its next meal. The lake level has dropped 14 feet since the spring and there is a couple places where rocks are sticking out waiting to rip off a boat prop that doesn't know their property well. 

After our ride we retreated to the cabin for beverages and munchies as time ebbed on and the sun made its way behind the north hills. Helicopters made their last pickup of the day of crews on the hillside. 

Scott made at meal of tacos and salad while we waited for Darby to return from work after 8.

We fired up the fire pit using propane as the fire ban was on all of July. One of the only downsides of summer heat without the smell of burning wood but the dancing flame entertained us as we reminisced of memories over the last twenty years and places we'd been and things we'd done. 11pm arrived and it was time to call it a night.

Another tough day in paradise.

Sunday July 30th

Sunday July 30th 

Alarm goes off at 7am at the airport to send Krista and Nicholas back to Calgary from Seattle Tacoma. Jacob and I did our dance of joy and drove both towards Everett Washington. We stopped to get fuel and found a cheap Arco a $2.45 a gallon. We popped down the street to the Totem diner and had a massive waffle smothered in blueberries and strawberries as well as whipped cream galore. We devoured it and back on the road headed north. 

We had beautiful weather and got off the I5 and went east a bit before arriving at the border. We were able to use the Nexus lane and breezed through in less than a minute!

We drove a few minutes north and arrived in beautiful Abbotsford! We sang O Canada out loud and needed to find a washroom. We found the closest Tim's and sure enough Jacob finds $2 US in the parking lot. Fourth time this trip. Hilarious!

After grabbing a couple drinks, we got on the #1 highway and headed for Kamloops. The speed limit was 120 km/hr so we were able to make great time. It was over 30 degrees so the AC was getting a workout for sure. 

We arrived in Kamloops and I had to wake Jacob up from his 2 hour nap. We went to Costco, renewed our membership and bought $120 in groceries for our stay at the Gales. We fuelled up for $1/litre and saved a small fortune also. We grabbed a dozen wings and I had 2 and jacob ate the rest. 

We got in the highway and drove to Blind Bay then north for 20 minutes to Wild Rose Bay where we found Scott and Cindy relaxing on the deck. 

We watched a couple helicopters come and go to deal with a small hillside fire that keeps flaring up in the valley across the lake. Sometimes it smokes and at other times it doesn't. 

The air quality was great and there wasn't any other smoke in the area.

We enjoyed the scenery and had a couple beverages before heading down to the lake and taking the kids tubing. The water barely had a ripple in it and we had a great cruise all the way over to the Floating Store where Brody works. Brody has certainly beefed up and has a wicked tan from working almost 40 days straight. There are accommodations for all the kids who work there to stay above the store. It's a million dollar operation as they sometimes make $40000 in sales on a long weekend Saturday! 

We toured around for a while and then had a delicious ice cream before heading over to the rope swing for a bit. We pulled the kids back on the tube and enjoyed a spectacular sunset to the West over the ridge. 

Once it got dark the mosquitoes made a quick appearance so we retreated to the indoors for a few electronic games of Catch Phrase. The kids prevailed as winners as the categories were more geared to them but we had a blast with our guesses. 

1130 brought some tired campers and we retreated to the depths of the cabin to hit the sack on bunk beds. Another great summer day!

Saturday July 29

Saturday July 29th 

Party animals and car alarms at 5am made for a ridiculously early morning. We got up, grabbed Starbucks and some delicious Burger King pancakes and were on the road by 8. 

We headed north for Seattle and drove extremely quickly in order to make it in time for the 1030 am tour of CenturyLink Field - where the Seattle Sounders and Seattle Seahawks play. We had to stop for construction a couple times but rolled into the city with 15 minutes to spare. We grabbed tickets and were able to find a parking spot for only $20 while most other places were $40.

We entered the facility and were blown away by 70000+ seats! We toured through many suites,  tv rooms and storage areas before going out on the field. Our tour guide had tens of stories about players and games and kept us entertained for well over an hour. The boys were absolutely ecstatic about the experience and couldn't stop talking about it all day. 

We got out of the tour and grabbed 4 hot dogs and smokies on our way next door to Safeco Field to watch the Mariners play the NY Mets. It was an afternoon game so there weren't any tours available but we got 4 nosebleed seats for $30 each and went up and watched the first two innings. As you can imagine, food and beverages were crazy expensive so we were glad to have eaten beforehand. 

There were several hundred fans dressed up n bright orange here to cheer for the Mets. Apparently, they apply on a website and go to different games around the US dressed in different tshirts for each game. They were rowdy and raucous and made the game very entertaining. 

Because there were several thousand seats unfilled, I made the family relocate to seats in the 20th row just past the third base line in right field. We went 3 rows in front of all the Mets fans and what an adventure we had. They were loud and cheering the rest of the game. 

We were in the hot sunshine and watched the Mariners take a 3-1 lead before Krista and the boys retreated to the shade in the top deck. I stayed and watched the remainder of the game hoping to catch a foul ball but to no avail. The Mariners pulled off the win 3-2 and the home fans were ecstatic! 

We left the game and drove our van down to the Pike Place markets. We walked around for a couple hours and watched the fish throwers and visited many shops. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for pizza and nachos. We walked down to Pier 56 and saw many sailboats, ships and ferries. We were pretty tired of walking and headed back to the van and drove to our hotel at the airport. It didn't have a swimming pool so we all just watched Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince and called it a night. 

Friday July 28

Friday july 28th 

Up at the crack of dawn and was able to upload a our videos and pictures from our amazing day in the Redwoods. The boys finally got up and we had breakfast and quickly got on the road headed north. 

We drove a bit and came to a scenic spot where people were tidepooling. We joined them and declined down the cliffs to the sand. We saw thousands of clams attached to the rocks and even more mini crabs scurrying about in the water to burrow in the sand before the tide went out completely. There were jellyfish curled up In circular blobs attached to the undersides of the rock faces also. We even found a rather large octopus with 1m long legs hiding way underneath waiting for the tide to return. After an hour, we headed back on the road to our next stop.

We proceeded to Depoe Bay and parked to go to a great seafood restaurant for fish n chips. We walked across the street and watched the gray whales for an hour and then walked around the shops. 

We headed north again and arrived in Astoria. We checked wifi and then proceeded to several locations around the city where the movie The Goonies was filmed. From the bowling alley to the kids' homes, it was neat to put places to memories.

We got on the road yet again and hauled it all the way to Kelso Washington. It was sunset and it took us 15 minutes to get checked in and we were starving. We went over to Denny's and had a great Cobb salad and a burger. We returned and went to bed as we had an extremely early day tomorrow. 

Thursday July 27th

Thursday July 28th

What a horrible sleep in a hotel with a great bed but paperthin walls. We got the boys up and they were extremely grumpy but we managed to get things packed up and over to McDonald's for pancakes and hot chocolate. We bought a big breakfast meal for a homeless man as our good deed for the day and headed north along the coast line.

Mornings are always cloudy foggy and 12° before the cloud burns off closer to noon.

Our first stop was along beach in Northern California with giant outcroppings. We bumped into a man in his mid-50s and his 18-year-old son who were biking from Vancouver all the way to Los Angeles. I had a quick visit with them and then we walked on the beach playing football for an hour. The sandy beaches were fantastic but the water was absolutely freezing and the wind was blowing like mad. 

The mostly rugged coastline is absolutely fantastic and trying to concentrate while driving along it is very difficult. We will eat in and out of forests and then back to the coast line with magnificent views all day long.

Our next stop once we got across the Oregon border was in Bandon - A little coastal village where we stopped for fantastic fission chips and a bit of ice cream. We had aspirations of taking the boys on and adventure on the Sand dunes we were waylaid with some bad news. 

Our flights to Florida in March had been rescheduled and we needed to change them in order to get back. We were able to get a direct flight on the way back since they had changed our flights but we had very sketchy phone service and we were very worried about not getting one of the last flights on the plane. 

Because of the delay in getting everything booked properly, we were extremely late and unlikely to make it to our next destination before it closed. I put the pedal to the metal and we drove very quickly and arrived at the Torex AV Rentals on the Sand dunes! we rented a 250cc quad for each of the boys and Krista and I rented a 900cc 4 wheeler and off we went!

The dunes were like nothing we had ever done before. The wind was whipping sand everywhere and we were driving up and down in every direction! We would come to the top of one doing and realize there was a drop off and had to back up and turn around! We zipped around for half an hour and on miraculously did not tip over! Our time was up far too soon and we headed back to the rental shop where the boys were ecstatic for this new experience. 

We jumped in the van and headed into town and stopped at Safeway to refuel, buy a roast chicken and salad and find a spot near the ocean to have supper. Because it was so windy, we stayed in the van and enjoy the scenery without having all of our food covered in sand. We got back on the highway and drove another hour to our hotel located in Waldport Oregon. We Holiday Inn all of our clothes and did a little laundry while Jacob went for a swim outdoors and almost froze to death. Everyone had a shower to get sand out of their parts and Louis finish the evening by watching a classic on TV - The Princess Bride.

Another amazing day of sightseeing in California and Oregon!

Wednesday July 26th

Wednesday july 26th

Late nights and early mornings do not mix well. Especially when the battery in your smoke detector keeps beeping all morning when you're trying to sleep in... 

Needless to say - out of bed at 7 - packed up by 8 - eat breakfast and on the road by 9. 

We hugged our friends goodbye and put the rubber on the road doing 80mph headed north through Oakland. 

We stopped at a Starbucks for 15 minutes to get some caffeine in us. I quickly Video Messaged my mom in Saskatchewan and caught her up to her elbows in cookie dough! Had a quick catch-up and then back on the highway. 

We bypassed the Oracle again and kept east of San Fran but still went over a couple amazing bridges. I love bridges - they absolutely fascinate me! I only wish I had more time to observe them alas when you're the driver and doing 80mph you don't get much time to do so.

By noon we needed something to eat and a rather emergent bathroom break - or should I say Restroom. No one has a clue what you are talking about when you ask for a bathroom here. 

Fuel prices were ridiculously high at $3.29-$3.50 but we managed to find one at $2.59 and filled up with premium for $2.79 to give the van a treat. 

We popped over to Panda Express for a couple plates of Chinese food and back on the Interstate with Krista now at the helm. It was great to examine the countryside for awhile as we zipped alongside the Napa Valley near Sonoma. Such beautiful areas to see...

We finally arrived at the turnoff to the Redwood forests and the Avenue of the Giants. We pulled off the freeway and after 5-10 minutes we began driving through 200ft tall trees that were 1-3 metres in width! It was AMAZING! Such memories of first seeing these giant trees on television as a kid 40 years ago and then in Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back ! The further we drove, the larger they got! We parked and walked around taking photos and videos of all the trees! 🌲 They are unfathomably tall! We walked beside ones that had fallen and some were over 200ft tall! 

We hopped back into the van and went in search of the TALLEST TREE! We turned off the highway onto quite simply the worst 4 mile road in the whole world. Potholes and insanely rough ride for 20 minutes before we found the park we had to hike in from. After walking across a river on A FALLEN TREE 200ft long and 5 feet thick! We weaved through hiking paths until we FOUND IT!! Hundreds of feet tall and a circumference of 53 FEET! I had to give it a hug and have my picture taken. It was a beast!! The fallen trees in the area were just as massive - it was one of the coolest places I've ever been on earth.

 I could have stayed hours longer but he family was giving me the "Dad! They're just TREES!" look and speech so off we went. The sun was setting hard and it was getting dark super fast and the road was obviously just as crappy going back to the highway as getting there. At last we arrived on the highway and sped like demons all the way to Eureka California. As we entered from the south side, we had two kids that insisted that we go to Taco Bell for supper. Upon entering the restaurant but we determined this was not our best idea as the place hadn't been cleaned in forever and the clientele was a little shaky at best. We ordered taco salads and lemonade and eight rather quickly as we were starving and needed to get back on the road.

Gas at Costco is $.25 cheaper a gallon so of course we had to go there but our card expired and I wasn't about to spend $120 US to renew my membership so I had to beg for a code and then none of my credit cards will work because in the United States they only use Visa and MasterCard at Costco. Thankfully I had a visa that I was going to cancel and we fuelled up and were on our way. 

We drove another 15 minutes to a smaller town with a very cheap motel six with paperthin walls but reasonably good Wi-Fi and after an hour we called it a night. Another amazing day in California and can't wait for tomorrow! 

Tuesday July 25th

Tuesday, July 25th

A bit of a slow start this morning as we had a late night last night. Krista and Caroline went for a morning walk to get a coffee and see the wharf where a series on television called big little liars with Nicole Kidman was filmed. Once they returned back we all got moving a little faster. Nicholas Jake and Randy went for a run while the rest of us had breakfast.

We wanted to go on some kind of a hike but not too long of one so we decided we would hike down the coast past fisherman's wharf all the way to Cannery Row. The morning cloud burnt off very early and we had beautiful sunshine walking along the coast. We came to Fisherman's Wharf and discovered a seal colony. We walked along the pier and observed them frolicking in the water. There were very large ones down to babies and many of them basking in the morning sun while others swam around the bay. There were hundreds of cormorants there as well. These birds have webbed feet and could swim extremely fast underwater like penguins.

We went to Fisherman's Wharf and toured around there for a while. It had many shops with tourist items for sale as well as numerous restaurants with seafood. We would hopefully get back later for oysters and other treats.

We kept on walking down the coast line until we arrived at the Cannery Row area. We stopped in at Ghirardellis chocolate for a nibble and then went to the Pebble Beach golf store that had a sale on many different articles of clothing. We purchased some golf shirts and hats and Nicholas got a very nice jacket for himself.

We hopped on the trolly shuttle and returned to the wharf and then walked back to our hotel. Everyone was starving so we hopped into the van and drove to In and Out burger which Nicholas was dying to try. We ordered double burgers and dirty fries and consumed calories like crazy. 

We left the restaurant and proceeded to the local shopping mall where Nicholas found a couple pairs of shoes while Jacob and I returned to Pebble Beach golf course to look at a jacket he liked there. Unfortunately it was incredibly expensive so we are going to continue our quest for a nice Nike jacket for him on our trip or else order it online.

We returned to the mall and picked everyone up and then came back to our hotel and headed for the pool! It was still quite breezy but we enjoyed a couple of hours of sunshine before planning supper. 

Randy and Darren went across the back alley to a hotel with a fourth story patio overlooking the ocean for an hour.

The boys had pizza while the adults headed back to Fisherman's Wharf to The Grotto restaurant for oysters and assorted seafood. The meals were absolutely delicious and we had a nice visit for a couple of hours before returning to our hotel late at night. Another fantastic day by the seaside.

Monday july 24th

Monday July 24th

We are able to have a nice sleep in in the morning before planning our day. Darren, Krista, Randy and Caroline grabbed an early morning coffee and went for a walk on the beach all the way down to fisherman's wharf and back. We stopped at McDonald's and grabbed some pancakes for the boys and had a nice breakfast back at the hotel. 

We went for a walk several blocks over to the skate park and famous Dennis the Menace playground. The kids enjoyed scootering around the skate park and then having a game of tag on the playground running around for over an hour before we returned to the hotel.

We went to a very famous destination known as Carmel-by-the-Sea. We found a place to park just out of the downtown area and then walked down to the ocean to spend some time in the waves and taking some family photographs. We left there and returned to the downtown core to go shopping. We found some great art places and had some sausages at a local deli and barbecue. We found a place for ice cream and Darren even found a hat at the Carmel hat shop. We jumped in the van and returned to our hotel to let the boys have a quick swim before we headed out for supper that evening.

We decided to go to the Pebble Beach golf course for supper as we were able to make a reservation for 5:30 PM. We drove along the highway through portions of the 17 mile drive and arrived just after 5 PM. We walked through all the stores and shops and found some nice apparel for the kids to wear prior to going to our meal at The Bench restaurant in the basement of the resort. As we walked in the front door we were absolutely blown away at the view over the ocean on the 18th green. We made our way down the stairs to the restaurant and were seated at the table of eight right in front of the picture window overlooking the 18th green.

We started off our meal with ordering a giant inflated bread basket that was then deflated and cut into eight pieces of flat bread served with hummus and dips. After our appetizer we all went outside to the edge of the 18th green and took family photos. We very much enjoyed watching some golfers come in and finish there round - especially the gentleman who drained an 80 foot Chipshot right into the hole!

We returned to the restaurant and received our entrées including various meals of steak, gnocchi and fish. It was a spectacular meal and very delicious. We were encouraged to go upstairs to the famous Tap Room and have a dessert of giant Sundae to share with the family. Unfortunately the Tap Room was very full and quite dark, so we settled into the sitting room overlooking the ocean. We ordered the famous coconut cake and giant Sundae. Minutes later we received our cake and a Sunday that would have easily said 20 people! The eight of us tried desperately to put a dent in it, but with more than 10 scoops of ice cream, several bananas, mini chocolate chip cookies and whipped cream, we were unable to finish it. We were extremely surprised to only be charged $19 for this dessert as many other individual desserts started at $15! It was a fantastic adventure and meal at the Pebble Beach golf club and we made her way back to the vehicle and back to the hotel late at night and called it a night. What are next sighting day with many new places to see and visit!