Business and Play in Vancouver

I need to spend time in Canada in order to keep my Permanent Residence or qualify for Citizenship, so it made sense to spend a week and start to figure out some of the info we need for our eventual move. We thought that we’d stay in Vancouver for a few days.

We started our Monday morning at the Canadian version of the DMV. We were going to start the process of obtaining our drivers' licenses but then decided we’d better wait as we were not ready to give up our California licenses.

From the DMV we went to the provincial insurance company with a list of questions about importing our cars. Needless to say, some of the procedures are different so we had to sort thru those issues. We didn’t make it down to immigration but we still need to find out how much it will cost to import the sports cars. Hopefully, we can find some answers by phone.

Although we do not anticipate living in Vancouver, we did want to visit the local ski resorts. We have been to Whistler and planned to go there again, but we have heard about the local resorts and were anxious to check them out.

On Tuesday morning we packed up a lunch and started at the furthest one from our campground, Cypress Mountain, 30 min away. We walked around looking at the ski slopes and maps. Then we happened upon a trail, a loop around the Yew Lake.

Cypress mountain

The 1.5-mile trail is an easy walk and although the trail is not paved, we did see someone pushing another person in a wheelchair. The lake is quite beautiful, however, the light was not great so photos, while fine, are not great.

Yew Lake

From Cypress, we drove another ½ hour or so to Grouse Mountain. Our Vancouver friends ski Grouse and had lots of good things to say. Unfortunately, the parking was not free and one must take a gondola to the mountain so we could not see anything. We decided that we’d just come up and ski sometime in order to check it out.

Our last resort to check was Mt. Seymore. We did not find a hiking trail but did walk around. The resort reminded us of Shirley Meadows, the resort near Bakersfield. It did look like a great little place to take some of the younger grandkids.

Vancouver from Mt. Seymore

We hope to return to Vancouver in January and actually ski some of the ski resorts.

Working Our Way Across the Border

Dale and I were traveling in our RV so when we stopped at rest stops, we would park in the RV parking area. We have seen crazy things going on in rest stops; a woman with a small trailer who approached every trucker upon the trucker’s arrival, lots of people begging, that sort of thing. But we had a rude awakening when we realized that at 4 different rest stops people were living in their RVs.

The first was the 1^st stop, Northbound, in Washington, when we parked next to a motorhome. When we pulled in, I noticed that the outside skin on the driver’s side was completely separated from the rear. I thought that was strange. When we sat down for lunch, we noticed that parts of the RV were on the ground and both commented that the RV would not be going anywhere soon. Then the apparent owners pulled up in a car and got out, the man appeared to be elderly and hunched over, the woman using a cane. Wow! They must be living in their RV.

We moved on to another pit stop and realized that another woman was living in a motorhome.

At the stop, just before the border, we parked for the night, by yet another motorhome. In the morning we noticed that it was a couple probably younger than us, but the motorhome appeared to be parked there permanently. A young woman arrived with a young man. They were talking loudly and we were packing up so we could hear everything. The young woman called the couple next to us mom and dad. She wanted to introduce them to her boyfriend. It was crazy! We had to think that at least all of these people had a place to stay instead of the sidewalk.

After all that we crossed the border without any trouble. As we have the Nexus passes, we got thru immigration within minutes.

The bridge into Vancouver

Along the walk to shopping

We went on to our campsite in North Vancouver. It’s a place we have camped before. Since we left lots of stuff back in the US we thought we’d better get resupplied.

The campground is within walking distance to a wonderful bookstore, Whole Foods, Roots, tea shops, Tesla Showroom, Home Depot, and a mall. We got some walking in and bought basics; food and more books, all of the important things.

A Day in Oregon City

We told kids that we’d only stay for a day and true to our word we left in the morning, after a filling a breakfast that included roasted green chilis. This was another morning, another day of driving, working our way north. The next stop was Oregon City.

Clayton and Jen’s house was a 7-hour drive but since we had our RV along, we drove straight to a county RV park close to their house. We arrived too late to visit them that night so we made our own dinner and had some nice wine.

Jen had asked if we wanted to watch the 2 big kids participate in their jog-a-thon and of course, we said yes. We got to the park just in time to see Zoey walk into the park with her class. Each grade runs as a group and they run or walk for 20 minutes. Zoey, we noted, would run past us but then would walk the remainder of the way. But the run was to raise money so it didn’t matter.

After Zoey ran it was Fynn’s turn. He ran, taking lots of water stops, but he ran. He even let Clayton run a lap with him.

In the afternoon we played at the park with the kids, swinging the babies and watching the big kids run amok. It was fun to play with the kids and we were enjoying our time.

It was Clayton’s birthday and I’d offered to make some dinner but he opted to pick up Thai food. There is a little Thai restaurant nearby that offers many gluten-free items so we always welcome dinner from there. The Thai food went well with the champagne we brought to celebrate.

After dinner, we played with kids, talked to Clayton and Jen and just had a nice evening before going off to the RV.

That evening we started to pack up. We took an inventory of our alcohol, and since we had to leave most of it in the U.S., we packed it up for storage at Clayton’s. We also left food items behind that we knew would give us trouble over the border.

We had a nice breakfast with Clayton, Jen, and kids, played for a little while then went on our way.

We drove to a rest stop close to the Canada border then stopped for the night. It was an early evening but we thought it would be better to cross the border 1^st thing in the morning rather than try to have any hassles at immigration and get to a campsite late.

Put to Work on Our Vacation

Bekki’s parents were at Nate and Bekki’s house prior to our arrival. We always enjoy meeting up with Alan and Julie (Bekki’s parents) as they are really nice and we have much in common, so we were happy to see them.

Bekki had work lined up for all of us parents to do but, as we tell our children regularly, “we are not paid to think and we do only what is good enough for government work”. Our kids knew what to expect from us!

Our job was to harvest the corn. This was not just any corn, but rather corn to be ground into a flour, it is dried on the stock. I had picked corn as a 10-year old child, the 1^st time I’d seen corn growing. Before that, I didn’t even think of where corn came from other than the grocery store. So, we were to pick this corn off of the stock and put it into barrels. I quit a bit before the others because I wanted to shoot some photos of it all.

Colorful corn

This corn was beautiful, cobs of every color. I was surprised when Nate said that the flour would have some color speckles in it but, because the inside of the kernels was white the flour would mostly be white. I took several cobs for our table decoration.

After picking all of the corn and putting the ears into barrels we were tired and hot. We went in for lunch with some nice cold beer/white wine.

Bekki wanted for me to harvest basil but then decided that the basil could wait for another day. We only harvested veggies for dinner.

One kiddo was tired

Alan made soup out of the turkey he had roasted last night for dinner and we played the rest of our day away. Kids made sure that we kept busy playing with them.

On to June Lake and North

We were not in a huge hurry to leave the Sierra’s but did want to get on the road. Since we had to go back down to Bishop in order to get onto Hwy 395 it only made sense to stop at Schat’s for some breakfast goodies.

We had intended to go to Mammoth Lakes and look around. One of Dale’s old co-workers had recommended that we go there, that it was one of the most beautiful places on earth. I was sure we went there before but then when we looked at the map, I wasn't so sure. But, unfortunately for Mammoth Lakes, when we got to June Lake, we decided we really wanted to stop there instead.

We found a nice camping spot with a view of the lake and set up our RV and the site. There were few people camping so we had most of everything to ourselves.

After lunch, we walked down to the lake in order to shoot photos. The sun wasn’t great but it was good enough. I haven’t gotten into the photos on my Canon so there is no guarantee of quality. We spent the afternoon walking thru the campground.

June Lake

June Lake

Because we only had 1 day and night left in the Sierra’s we had to get back on the road after a leisurely breakfast. We had a 6-hour drive to Nate and Bekki’s house and we wanted to be there by dark.

We arrived at Nate and Bekki’s in time for dinner. We brought out a bottle of wine and were ready to continue our vacation.

Searching for Changing Leaves

We had a late start but we were on vacation so we didn’t care. We planned for our next stop to be Intake 2 in the Sierra’s, just west of Bishop.

As we got ready to go we realized that we’d be driving by our favorite BBQ spot west of Memphis, the Copper Top in Big Pine. We decided that we’d eat a light breakfast then stuff of ribs and goodies from Schat’s in Bishop then head up the mountain.

We ate our BBQ ribs and then pastries from Schats. An hour later we were parked in our campsite with only 2 other campers in the campground.

The weather was actually warmer than we thought that it would be so we were able to walk from the campsite over to the lake. It was a nice evening for taking photos.

The Lake at Intake 2

The following day we started by driving up to North Lake. The road up is steep and narrow, sometimes down to one lane, with a steep drop-off. We found that leaves were beginning to turn, some shades of yellow.

Lake Sebrina is just up the main road. We were here before but this time it was very crowded with tourists. We couldn’t find any place to park so we went on down the road. We drove on to South Lake.

When we arrived at South Lake we were ready for lunch. We parked and walked up a small hill where we found a perfect picnic spot. We set up our picnic backpack, opened a bottle of wine and set out our food.

After lunch, we decided for old times sake to hike a little way to Bishop Pass. We were surprised at how steep the trail was, steps in lots of areas. We were amazed that we could have backpacked this trail with heavy packs years ago to meet our son Justin.

We hiked for a while but turned back in time to return to our truck before dark. We got back to our campsite, made dinner and a nice evening.

A Fall Trip

Dale and I each subscribe to a site on Facebook called 395. This is a site for people to post and\or enjoy photos from areas off of the 395. For those of you who don’t know what 395 is, it is a highway that runs from north of Los Angeles to Canada, on the east side of the Sierra Mountains. It accesses Mt. Whitney to the west and Death Valley to the east.

We’d been home about a week from the grandkids trip and the trip to Morro Bay. We had checked Facebook and were admiring the photos posted on the 395 site. We both, at the same time, said to each other that we should go to see the leaves changing off of the 395.

We thought that we’d take a short trip up to our favorite spots, North Lake and South Lake. These are areas that we have backpacked out of before; North Lake before we were married and then with kids and South Lake in recent years. The leaves turn beautiful colors around these lakes in the autumn.

We had an appointment for Friday so we thought we could just throw everything into the RV and leave after the morning appointment. We’d already cleaned the RV up from our last trip so it just needed to be packed.

We realized that we would need to see my mom on our way out so that would be our 1^st stop. Then about Wednesday, we realized we’d be ½ way to Nate and Bekki’s so it made sense to continue north. Of course, then we’d be nearly to Clayton and Jen’s in Oregon so may as well stop there, then being only 5 hours from Seattle we may as well see Dale’s cousin Norman, then we may as well go on into Canada and start scouting around for an area to live.

We let kids know that we’d stop at their house, in Oregon in time for Clayton’s birthday. We’d probably need to have a meal together. Well after letting Clayton and Jen know our plan they asked if we could be at their house on Sunday, Oct. 5^th and stay for a full week as they would need help that week.

Our trip expanded from 3 days to nearly 4 weeks in the matter of a day. We expanded it further when we decided that friends should join us at the end of our trip with a stop back in the Sierra’s.

We quickly packed the RV, now with cool weather clothes and warm weather clothes. It took a little longer to pack then we’d hoped but were able to leave Friday afternoon.

By the time we got to see my mom, it was nearly 3pm. We visited for an hour and took off. We’d decided that we’d only drive to Red Rock Canyon 1-1/2 hours. We wanted to stop while it was daylight for our 1^st night out.

Red Rock Canyon is a favorite place, we have camped there with our boys, their friends, the neighbor girls,

and grandkids. There are no hookups, no cell service for the internet, only wind and quiet. It was a great place to stop for the start of our trip.

An Old Jag and An Old Friend

We had to rush home from Canada because we had a 100^th birthday party to attend for a family friend. We’d taken our Jag over to British Sports Cars to get a new top before leaving on our trip. We figured that we’d get that done while we were on our trip to Canada.

Our grandson came from work on Thurs evening and Friday morning we left early for the coast. He loves the Jag so he is always ready for a look at the old girl.

Los Osos Park

We picked up the Jag and drove off to the 1^st of the parties, in Los Osos at the park. We found our friends that Dale has known since they were children. Our friend’s children were there, some we haven’t seen in 30 years and 1 daughter for the 1^st time. We exchanged text numbers, facebook info, and Instagram info.

The Jag with her new top

We were invited to a party that evening. The party was in a home in the foothills of Arroyo Grande and included dinner. We’d brought a few things to share from our small ice chest, and a bottle of wine. The views were amazing and it was nice to sit and get to know some of the kids and catch up with friends.

The following day we went to the official party. We found Dale’s brother and sister-in-law who we haven’t seen in a couple of years, and another old friend who we haven’t caught up with, in several years.

Family Friend Aunt Verna

While we were standing and visiting, someone came up with an elderly gentleman. We were told that he wanted to meet the owners of the Jag. He had worked on Jag parts many years ago and loved our car.

We insisted that Dale give him a ride and convinced him that his wife and daughter would be fine. Before he got into the car, he had a walk around it, oohing and awing. When he got into the car, he had a smile from ear to ear.

Giving an "Old Guy" a ride

Dale gave him a ride of his life, stepping on the gas so that the car would leap out. I took photos and sent them to him so he could take the memory.

After the party we were invited to our Moro Bay friends house where our brother and sister-in-law were staying. We talked into the night.

On Monday, we were invited to yet another party and BBQ. We were feeling festive because it was Dale’s Birthday. Dale was surprised with a birthday cake.

We’d met the host couple many years ago but didn’t keep in contact, we didn’t even know that we had much in common. We all love traveling the world and we all love New Mexico and the NM food. They have a house in New Mexico so we are anxious to visit when we make it there. It's great to rekindle friendships

Visiting Pemberton and Penticton

As I was waiting for my Permanent Residence Card to arrive, we planned to stay in Canada for 2 weeks. We hoped that it would arrive within that time frame as instructions were that I could not enter the again country without it.

A stop at Stanley Park

We did grandkids activities for 1 week, then because my card had not yet arrived, Dale took Zoey and Fynn across the border, back to their parents. We decided that we’d take this opportunity to see for ourselves just what the duty would be for bringing wine with us. Those of you who know us well know that between the wine clubs we belong to, we have quite a few cases of wine.

Dale met up with Clayton and Jen and returned their 2 kids, then he headed for a Costco and bought 6 bottles of wine. Well we learned that we will not try to bring our wine with us into Canada. Two bottles were duty-free and the remaining 4 bottles totaled about $55.00. The duty was about $50 Canadian. Not a great deal!!

Prior to this trip, we started looking at areas we might want to live in. We thought that this week would be a good time to start looking at these areas. A friend gave me a list of cities that seemed to be a good fit for us to land in. We then sat down with our Vancouver friends and their feeling was that the cities suggested would have too harsh of a winter. In addition, they were further than we felt we had time to visit.

Our Vancouver friends suggested that we visit Pemberton (just north of Whistler) and Penticton, (south of Kelowna).

A farm in Pemberton

We loved the little town of Pemberton, the farm fresh food was great. We skied Whistler last year and loved it, however, it was a bit confining in the town with tall mountains all around. We visited the 2 grocery stores and found organic food and lots of gluten-free items. We were told that the farmers market features good fresh local produce.

Camping in Pemberton

We then went onto Penticton, about a 6-hour drive from Vancouver. Penticton is in the Okanagan Valley, just north of the Montana border. The city borders the Okanagan Lake.

The Okanagan Valley appears to be home to many smaller communities where various fruits are grown. There are about 300 wineries with about 90 in the Penticton area. We found a favorite for only $14 Canadian and are most anxious to visit the winery.

Along the river, there is a great ice cream shop housed in a small structure shaped like a peach. A great kid play structure is located just off of the shore with slides that go into the water and a small climbing wall. We were told that the farmers market stretches for several blocks, starting at the river.

The Peach

Running along the beach

3 ski resorts are fairly close by, one only 45 minutes away and Banff is 6 hours away.

We will come back in the winter and try the ski areas and the areas we didn't make it to during this week. We then will come back in the spring and stay thru the summer. We want to get an idea of winter and summer weather.

Another Day, Another Museum in Vancouver

Today was a trip to the Space Museum with a planetarium show. Kids were excited because they’d never seen a planetarium show.

The show today was on the nursery where stars are born. As we were watching this amazing show, it was very quiet. All of a sudden Emilio said “Oh Wow” over something shown. People in the audience laughed. It was cute, but then he is our grandson so why wouldn’t we think that.

The space museum is not as large as the Science World, but it has things that trigger interest. A replica space suit that kids can stand behind and pose in, replica space boot prints that kids can stand in and a machine to give a little perspective on weightlessness. There is an asteroid that people can try to lift and a moon rock to touch.

In a spacesuit

Trying to lift an astroid

Touching a moon rock

Standing in the step of an astronaut

A science student from the local college was on hand to answer questions. Fortunately, we were some of the only people there at that time. Zaya and Fynn sat down at the table across from the student and peppered him with questions. They discussed everything from black holes to stars and space travel. We were surprised, however, that Zoey was telling people facts for a while after our visit.

Kids are discussing space

When we had to leave, we thanked the student for spending so much time with the kids. He then thanked us because, he said, that most kids don’t ask questions and he loves to discuss space.

A group dive

The following day was Zoey and Fynn’s last day with us. Dale would drive them back into the US on Saturday morning. We let Zoey buy ice cream bars for the kids, they ate smores for dinner, and they got to swim as long as they wanted. We did laundry and cleaned up the RV as it was quite messy by then.

Science World with Grandkids

We’d hoped to get an early start to the day, as we wanted to get to the mainland early. But with 4 kids and an RV to pack up, early is subjective.

We just missed one ferry so we parked the truck and RV in the proper lane then took kids to run at a playground close by. Kids ran around pretending that the ground was an ocean. Zoey rode her sea horse while the others were fish or fishing.

At the ferry playground

Once onboard the ferry, kids went to hear a naturalist program while Dale and I drank Cappuccinos. We ran into an off-duty ship captain who gave us lots of info as well, on where to spot seals and other wildlife. We didn’t spot much so the kids made themselves happy with ice cream.

We had 2 museums that we thought would be great for kids, one a hands-on science museum and the other a space museum. We decided to go to the science museum first. https://scienceworld.ca/

The science museum is a 2 story complex with every kind of puzzle or experiment a person can think of. There are also exhibits of bugs; cockroaches and pregnant cockroaches, stick insects, and so on, that kids think are great to see.

Cockroaches

It is a great place because kids can be let loose and find the things that interest them. We sat and drank coffee while kids would run past us from one experiment to another. Once in awhile, we’d catch up with one or 2 but usually, it was kids just going back and forth.

Puzzles

Downstairs in the center, there are demonstrations that go on every so often. Zaya helped a chicken to fly while Fynn put a marshmallow in a vacuum chamber to show what would happen. There were demonstrations with raw eggs balanced, bubbles, balloons and so forth.

Zaya helping a chicken to fly

Fynn working with a vacuum chamber

There is also a great playground next door to the museum. Kids went on the zip line over and over. We were all exhausted by the end of the day.

2 Days in Victoria with Grandkids

I have become negligent in my blogging so now must catch up.

A few years ago we took Zaya for tea at the Banff Springs Hotel. She loved it so much that we thought it might be fun to have high-tea in Victoria with the 4 grandkids. We love Victoria anyway, so it seemed a good fit.

We really wanted to have tea in the Empress, as that is probably the equivalent to the Banff Springs. Alas, there were no reservations available and we were forced to look elsewhere for our high-tea. We found several recommended in Google so, Sunday afternoon, we started out, kids dressed in their camping finest.

We went to the highest recommended but it was closed, as was the 2^nd. Finally, we found a tea house, in Chinatown, that was open and ready for the 6 of us. Kids didn’t know that there was any place better, they were completely impressed with their china teacups and tiered trays of little sandwiches and desserts. They thought that this was a buffet of food.

The following day we went to the Royal Museum where downstairs the exhibit of the Mayas was most interactive. Small samples were made to match the original and had signs saying “please touch”. Kids would touch and look at the originals with a new understanding.

Walking down the street in the Old Town

Upstairs, the kids thoroughly enjoyed the natural history area, fascinated with a mastodon, seals and other animals before their eyes. 

They panned for gold, and with the help of a docent, found a gold nugget! https://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/visit/exhibitions/modern-history-gallery

Panning for gold

The Grand Hotel was visited over and over, with plans of where to stay and where to shop. They wanted to get on the train but it wouldn’t stop, so we spent lots of time there while they tried to buy tickets in their imagination. We spent the entire day at the museum, many times going over the same exhibits, they couldn’t get enough.

In the lobby of the Grand Hotel

To finish off the day, kids discovered their beloved Maple Syrup lollipops at the museum gift shop.

The Royal Museum is a must-see for anyone visiting Victoria!