Our trip 2010 part 2

On the road to Winter Harbour. A little town whose winter population reaches a high of 17. The summer is about 20. We drove down this dirt road for 1.5 hours (one way) just to reach this little town. Why? Because we can. And it was on the map. And it is supposedly the westernly most point of Vancouver Island. Was it worth it? Well, we go this nice photo of a harbour!!! And the pride of being able to say we were at the westernly most inhabited point of Vancouver Island.

That same day/evening, we also took another 45 minute jaunt (one way) to a little town called Zeballos. It was quite quaint and beautiful. Our total time in the town consisted of about 10 minutes due to the gravel road and the setting sun.

Dan's desire was to take a picture of us eating Nanaimo bars in Nanaimo. He got his wish. We also have a picture of him eating a Donut in front of the town of Duncan sign...you know...Dunkin Donuts!

Amanda was "thrilled" to visit numerous (aka almost all of the) public washrooms on Vancouver Island. Her observation...for some reason Victoria is the only town on the Island without low-flow toilets. Yep...she visited that many washrooms (and some of them twice!!)

Our Trip 2010 Part 3

Mom dragged us up Mount Douglas and here are the resulting pictures. Kind of looks like Italy would with the houses hanging off the side of the mountainside.

Fort Rodd Hill and the Fisgaard Lighthouse. On the way to the lighthouse we had to travel down a long dyke that had this horrible sewage type smell to it. We made it to the lighthouse without incident. But on the way back the sewage smell was overwhelming. We tried to breathe through our mouths but ended up tasting sewage. The result was that Amanda lost her breakfast on the side of the dyke. Dang pregnancy nose!

Little Niagara Falls. Doesn't exactly have the thunderous roar that the word Niagara conjures up...but it'll do. The highlight??? Mom accidentally dropped her camera into the waterfall pool and had to fish it back out again.

Dan's hippie bus count: 32. The best one was this pink one that Dan saw repeatedly in Victoria. Please note that westfalia's didn't count in the hippie bus count otherwise we would have been in the hundreds.

Grandma's House

We went to Penticton to visit G-ma and also to see Dan's family in Naramata. The lady may look innocent, but watch out! She is a feisty old lady. Her hearing may be bad, but her eyesight is good. She caught me trying to steal a jar of cherry jam from the fridge and pass it off as the baby. It didn't work, but she let us keep the jar of jam anyway! Yummy!

G-ma lives across the street from Skaha Lake in Penticton. Dan and I enjoyed a nice morning walk along the beach, before it got too hot, which didn't take long.

Harambee

For the past several years, Dan's family has attended a camp called Harambee in Naramata. It is a camp intended for families who have adopted a child of African decent (aka Dan's little brother Eli). It was chance to meet up with Dan's family for a day as this was our only opportunity to meet up with them between now and Christmas (they live in Alberta). The day started with Dan, his dad, Eli and 30 people from the camp going on a 3 hour bike ride on the Kettle Valley Railroad. It was a fun ride following what used to be the old railroad tracks. There was quite a view from the top of the mountain. The girls stayed back and chit chatted at camp.

At the end of the evening, there was a concert performed by Miyanda. They are a group of girls who perform traditional African dance and drumming. They sure taught the baby a few moves, since it went crazy the entire concert!

Dan's brother Eli showing us his dance moves! It was a great day relaxing with family!

Dan's Graduation

He finally did it! He graduated from Columbia Bible College with a certificate to be an Education Assistant/Teacher's Assistant. When they called his name to get his diploma, the said that we needed to give an extra round of applause because this student was the only male in a class of 30!

Dan with his graduating class and the faculty. You'll notice he's the only male in the entire class, sticking out like a sore thumb in the back row!

Dan with his crazy classmates! We spent the entire year sitting next to each other, something that should not have been allowed to happen... the results speak for themselves.

Anticipatience

Dan was overly excited about the possibility of another batch of epic scones that he sat in front of the oven watching them bake.

Waiting with antici-patience!

Quickly removing them from the oven...

I did manage to snap a photo before Dan could snatch up an epic scone. Good thing they were hot!

You know you have an addiction when...

...you plan your vacation around the nearest location of Starbucks. (only 900 meters from the hotel in either direction). Seriously, we did it last year and we are doing it again. Every hotel we will stay at is within 3 km from a Starbucks.

...you name your Starbucks cards individually. Yes, one is named "Sweet Nectar of the gods" and the other is "Liquid Salvation."

...when you spend as much time watering your garden as you do sucking back a decaf frapp.

...when your baristas know you by name and your order off by heart

...when your baristas know your pregnant before some of your friends and family

Canada Day: The 1st Installment

Our wonderful Abbotsford parade on Canada Day!

The parade began with a "parade" of firetrucks. This one is clearly the coolest.

Only in Abbotsford would a decked-out piece of farm equipment be considered worthy of being in the parade. At least this one bursts with National pride.

Oops sorry! This one slipped in. Its really just a picture from outside our house.

Canada Day: The 2nd Installment

Amanda finally got her one piece of candy! She had to push a little girl over to get it, but it was worth it!

An all-Canadian picture???

One of the scariest things that we saw in the parade. It wanted to say hi to absolutely everybody...but we wished to stay at a distance.

You know you're in Abbotsford when....

Canada Day: The 3rd Installment

2 Canadians, 1 Jordanian, 2 Americans....we truly are in Canada! Multicultural even on our day of National Pride. Here we are waiting for the fireworks to start.

"The Circle of Life" starts us off with a bang (just like it has for the previous 4 years...at least! Abbotsford needs to redo its soundtrack for the fireworks.)

More fireworks!

After the fireworks, we went to Fareedah's "family's" house to celebrate Bernie's birthday. Fareedah made a beautiful Canada Day cake for us to enjoy!