Wednesday, August 18, 2010

We'll start with Canada Pictures and Randy at 50!

























































































































And one of David on his last day stateside. This will be short as it is 9:00 on Wednesday night and Darla is due home any minute. We had a gas in Canada, lots of laughs, too much food and booze and lots of good, fun family time. Thank you, Al and Sherry, for the use of your home and the hospitality. It was much appreciated. Thank you, Dad and Shirley, for being base central and for all of the great food and drink while we were north of the border. Darla said a prayer while we were having dinner in Seattle and it was basically praising God for such a great family. We are truly blessed. Jenny and her boyfriend, Justin, were a highlight of the trip. Jenny is so down to earth and basically calls it as she sees it. She kept Darla and I in stitches. Justin was the butt of a few jokes, but took it all in stride. Great people.
We have heard from David and he is in Germany today and off to Switzerland tomorrow. He's had some difficulty with language and getting around, but has some amazing pictures and experiences. His traveling companion, Mya, only lasted a few days with him and bolted for a trip to the Alps with some of their friends in Germany. David wanted to stay in Germany and see more sights and is hooking up with the group tomorrow. He will get together with my former employee, Toni-Anne, in Zug, a suburb of Zurich probably Friday. We have sent some paperwork and a Schwab debit card to home care of Toni-Anne, so he will pick that up from her. he will continue travels in Switzerland over the weekend and then be in France next week. he arrives in Italy the weekend of the 28th and school starts on Monday the 30th. I will post some of his pictures when we receive them.
Dad and Shirley have a great house for entertaining, but only have two beds in the five bedroom house. It's an odd set-up, but they have theme rooms, a music room, golf room, etc. We stayed with Al and Sherry, just a stone's throw from their house. The home behind them has been torn down to make room for three more houses and right now you can see Al and Sherry's house from their backyard. Al's boys come through the lot and hop the fence.
You can see the picture of all of us taken up at Grouse Mountain on Saturday. We asked one of the climbers that had just finished the Grouse Grind and he was a pretty boy with flat abs, but a little lite in the loafers. It looks like he thought the tree was part of our family as he lined up the picture. Grouse was fun with the tram ride up and down and the bird show and lumberjack show on top of the mountain. We rode down and found a White Spot over in West Vancouver and had a late lunch.
Sunday we took a trip in to Granville Island and the farmers market. It was hot and absolutely packed. The people were like ants on syrup crawling all over each other in the market. There were Asian people with cameras poised at the fruit, taking close up pictures of bunches of grapes and heads of lettuce. I wouldn't want to get stuck watching slides of their trip to Canada. Randy treated us to a late lunch at Bridges restaurant on the waterfront that afternoon. I almost ran over a little kid when I was exiting my parking spot. Some woman let her kid go loose and he walked in back of my car from the driver's side. A car had stopped for my spot and I started backing up and the woman smacked my car and screamed at me. The spot I had was so tight I had to crawl out of the car from the passenger's side when we parked. I couldn't see the kid and was looking back over my left shoulder as I backed into the street. Luckily I didn't hit him, but the whole place was a mass of humanity. Not my cup of tea (not that I really like tea to begin with).
I will add more to this on the weekend. I've been working hard to get caught up at work. Darla and I had dinner at one of my agent's homes in Lincoln last night, so tonight is my first down night. Ciao.

No comments: