Catching Up

Let's see if I can summarize this since I'm so behind on blogging--Pictures will have to be posted later...we need to get going around here. 

1-Dax and Isaiah enjoyed watching Tom and Jerry cartoons on ferry back from Canada to Washington.

2-We had fun putting up flags on telephone poles on the main road leading to the Diamond Point area of Sequim, WA.

3-Fun with my cousins (Kent, Tritia, Kai, Sophia) fishing at Lake Leland.

4-Enjoyed lots of hanging out and card playing with the kids.

5-The Diamond Point 4th of July Parade--kids had a blast throwing candy. We ended down by the ocean for ice cream cones. Yum!

6-Back to the house for the big shrimp boil. Double yum! Then a few fireworks.

7-The Crescent Lake excursion and hike to Marymere Falls on the muddy trails. Just beautiful! 

8-Fishing at Lake Sutherland (kind of a bust)--but, then we moved to the pond in Sequim and that was a hit!

9-Sleepover for the kids.

10-Dinner date with Kent and Tritia. Just lovely.

11-Explored Mt. St. Helen's area. Amazing.

12-Drive up Oregon Coast.

13-Hanging at Manhatten Beach on the Oregon Coast.

14-Now in Astoria and heading back up to Mt. Rainier (did I spell that correctly?)--

15-Then back to Seattle before heading home to Kansas City later this week.

"Don't worry, Dad, it's a rental."

Quote of the day: "Don't worry, Dad, it's a rental." We wanted to make it to this one small lake...it just wasn't meant to be. We landed in a deep hole in the road (more like a pig trail), unable to pass through--had to back out of it. We watched the engine steam--thank goodness we didn't get a flat, get stuck for good, or ruin the engine. We just bent the the thing under the bumper and part of the license plate on the front bumper. Dax was able to pop most of it back in place. Despite our lack of success making it exactly where we wanted to be, we were able to discover a fishing spot for Isaiah on another lake. He used a worm on a fly rod and ended up catching some small bullhead and some crayfish. He didn't care what he caught. That boy was happy fishing! We also saw a bear today, watched an eagle soar right over us and land in a tree near us, soaked up some beautiful views and some back road driving (or crawling), listened to the loons, and ended our night with a beautiful full rainbow. Can't get much better than that! 

Port Hardy, Vancouver Island, BC

 We were disappointed today because the road we really wanted to take got closed by a logging company. Arghh...so we didn't get to find the lake we wanted. Instead, we drove all the way up to Port Hardy. Long day full of rain and clouds. Rats.

Check out the fishing nets on this rig. Hmmm...looks like too much fun!

Dax and Isaiah Port Hardy, BC

Dax and Isaiah Port Hardy, BC

Backroads and Bear Spray

Good news is that we didn't need to use bear spray today. It rained all day, but we still had fun. We only saw deer and eagles, oh, and also some slugs. Isaiah likes those. :) I'm having problems uploading pictures to our blog, but will continue to try to do so. Today we took back roads to explore. Soooo much fun. We went to where the road ends and got some beautiful photos. Hopefully they will upload soon. Tomorrow, another day of exploring back roads. 

This was the view at the end of the road. So worth it.

We hung out with these two eagles for a while.

Another end of the road view. So peaceful.

Day 1 and part of Day 2 (Pacific NW)

Yesterday we flew from Kansas City to Seattle and then rented a car and made way to Port Angeles. We enjoyed our ferry to Bremerton and a wonderful drive around the Hood Canal--we cut over on 106 to 101. We stopped off at Belfair State Park for a picnic and "shelling"--a beautiful evening. We swung by Walmart on the way to our hotel in Port Angeles to stock up on picnic stuff for our time on Vancouver Island, BC. We were in bed way after midnight and were up at 6 this morning to catch the ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria, BC. Enjoyed our drive to Courtenay, BC. All settled in our hotel and looking forward to pizza and a family swim tonight. Can't wait for spontaneity and adventures together tomorrow. 

Flight from Kansas City to Seattle

Picnic at Belfair State Park

Looking for shells while the tide is out at Belfair State Park

Dax and Isaiah Belfair State Park...soooo windy.

Isaiah's find at Belfair State Park

This picture should be AFTER the next picture. This is on our drive from Victoria to Courtenay, BC.

Ferry Station Port Angeles, WA

Canada Bound

Dax, Isaiah and I leave for Canada in a couple of hours. We will be updating the blog with pictures and short stories. What a wonderful summer we have been so blessed to enjoy. 

The Bund, Shanghai

Approaching the Bund. The Bund is the waterfront area in Shanghai. It's on the western bank of the Huangpu River and faces Pudong (the eastern part of the Huangpu District). You will not only see pictures of Pudong across the river, but also of the other buildings behind us on the street. These once housed numerous banks and trading houses from the UK, France, Russia, Germany, Japan, Netherlands and Belgium. You will notice the western/classical/modern style with the a Communist flag on top of each building. 

Becky and Isaiah in front of the wall at the Bund in Shanghai.

Isaiah and Dax at the Bund.

Looking over to Pudong across the Huangpo River from the Bund.

A little later view of Pudong.

And finally, the night view of Pudong.

At the Bund. I'm sitting in the back having a "conversation" with a lady. We used my handy dandy Mandarin/English dictionary to communicate.  People would come up and sit right next to me and have their family take a picture. They kept motioning the person to scoot closer to me so I would be in their picture without me knowing it. It was kind of amusing to me since I knew what they were doing. Funny stuff. 

The western style buildings with Communist flags at the Bund.

A later view in the evening. 

And, at night.