Finally catching up here! Sorry for the long delay.
My DDs are certainly growing up.
When I first wrote a TR here,
back in 2012…
2012!!?!?!?!!?
Sorry. Mind blown here.
Where did nine years disappear to??
Pretty crazy. Once in a while I look at the list of TR's I've written and I think, "Wow, that was a lot of work. How did I ever find the time to do that?"
It’s always refreshing when you
can spend a little time alone with
your kid and not want to
murder them in their sleep.
Whoopsie! Did I say that out loud?
Sorry. That’s breaking the parent code.
Don’t tell me you haven’t thought it,
at least in passing, at least once.
I'll never tell. At least, not while they're still in the house.
(And what's a hot dog without
some home-made potato salad???)
A hot dog.
Is a camping trip really a camping trip
If there’s a fire, but there’s no S’mores?????
Pretty sure that's against the law.
Sorry. The last 18 months have been… un-fun.
Understatement is a gift.
By noon, the rain had stopped and we were able
to put the kayak in the water.
We put ourselves in the kayak, too.
Otherwise, it just floats away and
you lose your deposit.
Pretty quick thinking there! Nice work.
Don’t get me wrong, it was fun
and it was relaxing.
But it was long.
Three hours sitting with your butt
in the water… was more than enough.
I'm sure. I would probably bake until the sunburn took over.
Who’s thinking of wrinkled prune butts???
Anyone?
If you weren’t, you are now.
You’re welcome.
And thanks for that.
This wasn’t a domesticated deer, but a wild animal.
Even though it might be used to people,
I was pretty surprised when it let Kay pet it.
Wow! That's shocking. Glad she wasn't hurt!
At first, I thought it might be some dried seaweed.
Kay went to poke it with a stick.
She reached forward and I said,
“It’s a…”
<POKE!>
“…wasp nest.”
Oops!
D'oh! And again...I'm glad no one was hurt!
For this portion of the summertime
update, it will be myself, Kay,
and my oldest DD, Elle.
And instead of tent camping,
we were renting a cabin.
Glamorous!
We rented a cabin that had a hot tub.
I bought Elle a toy fishing pole
that had a magnet in lieu of a hook,
and it came complete with plastic
fish with metal tabs.
She spent a lot of time in that tub.
Too much.
We pulled her out and she was happy…
And beet red.
When the kid is happy and entertaining herself...it's so hard to put an end to that!
The shop keeper stared at me
for a minute and said,
“Maybe a month? Or… a week?
A few days for sure….”
She thought for another couple seconds,
“I don’t know! They're never around
long enough for me to know!”
Just don't get the ones that are discounted for quick sale.
We arrived in the park in the afternoon
and, without much trouble, soon
found our accommodations for
the next couple of nights.
Looks like a cozy spot.
Well… I guess maybe I was too impatient.
1. I didn’t wait for the stone to get really hot.
Mistake number one.
2. I added the wood chips way too soon.
The pizza was cooked, but… the crust
could’ve been crisper and… it was way
too smoky! Kay said it was like she was
eating nothing but smoke.
Ew. Sorry it was a dud.
I've never seen a vehicle that looked like that. It's kinda cool.
(sorry. too stupid to take a photo of the desks.
)
There were plenty of patrons…
but only 3 servers.
I could tell they were being
run off their feet.
It took a while to get service
and even longer to get our food.
I didn’t complain.
Yeah...I've been trying to be a generous tipper at restaurants through this whole mess.
And for the first time in a very
long while, I was going to be flying.
It felt great to be back at an airport.
I know what you mean! We were so excited when we left for Alaska.
I moved to another unit.
Select airline, scan boarding pass,
answer the “are you a terrorist?” questions,
print baggage tag…
“Unable to complete request.
Please see an agent at customer service
for assistance.”
Ugh. I had a lot of trouble with these kiosks on the last trip. Such a pain.
(You just know anyone named "Orville"
has gotta be a whiner, right?)
Never thought about it, but it makes sense.
I’m sure you know the drill.
Dump your carry-on on the belt.
Remove your own belt and anything
Else that’s metal or has metal in it.
Pray your pants don’t fall down.
Shuffle through the detector,
praying all the while that you
haven’t forgotten anything metallic
on your person.
Stand with arms raised in the
device whose sole purpose
is to let hidden agents snicker
at your virtually nude body
as your pants inexorably begin
their descent to your ankles.
Hold onto your pants while
you wait for your belt to show up.
Look on with dismay as your
carry-on is once again, selected
for “random” screening.
Yep...every single time!
This seems to require a lot of familiarity with polar bears.
Gorgeous!
They’re all done with the phone,
and not the good camera.
As I learned, sometimes the phone is better!
Capilano suspension bridge
is one of the longest in the
world at 460’ long.
It’s a very popular tourist attraction
that brings over a million visitors/year.
And at $60 for a ticket (combined with
the fact I’d been there before)
I figured there was no way in heck
that I was going to do that again.
Is it worth doing once? I had looked at this when we were originally supposed to cruise out of Vancouver.
Beautiful!
Ah well, it's just so much hot air, after all.
I see what you did there.
For nearby was Vancouver’s famous
Stanley Park.
This park is listed by many respected
travel guides as one of the best city
parks in the world.
No less than Condé Nast, Far and Wide,
Travel & Leisure, Fodors, and a multitude
of others all proclaim Stanley Park
to be one of the world’s best.
I was looking into visiting here, too!
“Girl in a Wetsuit” is a bronze
sculpture that was created in 1972.
It is certainly evocative of Copenhagen’s
famous “Little Mermaid” statue,
but the author claims that the idea,
being a girl in a wetsuit, with flippers
and a mask, was “a new idea.”
I arrived safely, if a bit winded, at the top.
And I was glad I did.
Stanley Park’s only ice cream shop was there!
Love to see a payoff at the end!
