With the Grandkids

Josh and his blue jean lap quilt I made for him.
We're with the grandkids today as mom and dad are off on a 4 day holiday. Two enjoyed the pool including squirt guns, an age old toy. We had a great time playing Uno outside, a good game for ages 7 - 16 and above.

Off to the U.S.A.

When we crossed the border, we got a kick out of the fake fir bough fence outside the duty free store.
We popped down to Bellingham to Costso for gas at $2.81.9/gal and went to Billy Hale's for lunch. This is a delightful old memorabilia place, complete with a electric train running around above your head. It even had a Canadian Pacific Engine.
We left and saw J and CJ's car in the parking lot, so went back in and visited with them. We stopped at Chuck and Barb's on the way home and joined them and 3 guests for a marguaritas, so it turned out to be another great day.

Out to Lunch

Yup, I was out to lunch. My friend from nurses training, (think the 60's) treated me to a manicure and pedicure for my birthday. I surprised her and treated her as an early Dec. birthday gift. We had a delicious lunch up on the roof of the Baothouse overlooking the ocean at the White Rock beach.

A Walk in Crescent Beach

I met my sister at the beach this morning and we walked from Blackie's Spit around the entire shore and stopped for coffee outside on Beecher. We saw a beautiful heron and admired all the gardening along the way. We particularly liked the maintenance free front yards to capture the west afternoon sun.
We smiled at our old house where we used to climb out the ground level windows as kids and steal apples off dear old Mr. Butler's tree next door and feign complete innocence when Mom told us some terrible teenagers had been stealing his fruit.

July 4th in U.S.A.

We watched the July 4th Macy's Fireworks Display and show tonight, that was performed on the 15th deck on the Norwegian Star's new ship, the Epic, on the Hudson River in New York City. This was the line that we took on our Panama trip last Dec. Justin Berber, Leanne Reimes and others performed and were good. The fireworks were amazing. They started with traditional American songs and red, white and blue fireworks.

Fort Langley - Birthplace of B.C.

My neighbour and I went to the National Historic Site of the original Fort Langley today. As we stepped through the high log palisade built on the banks and overlooking the Fraser River, we joined a guide enacting the early fur trade days. She got 2 boys to don Hudson Bay coats and tie the red sashes on the left as they weren't married. They pretended to paddle their large Voyaguer bateau as we all sang Allouette marking the beat of 45 strokes per minute. Next, one fellow hoisted a 95lb pack of furs by a headband which was used to carry 200 lbs on the portages from Ft. St James down the Fraser to St. Langley. (think Hell's Gate)
Next was a visit to the cooperage where the guide was a Sto'lo native born in Hope. He showed the cutting, planeing and curving of the boards used to make the barrels which were used to ship salmon and cranberries to California and Honolulu primarily. He told about the native women who did all the picking, curing and packing of the exports. There is a huge stuffed sturgeon in the background.
They staged a fur trade wedding where the Fort Manager acted as the priest and the couple had to get married again whenever a cleric came along. The HBC encouraged the men to marry native Kwantlen women from across the river on McMillan Island and both parties gave gifts to the other to show their worth.
We even tried our hand a gold panning but didn't strike it rich. The guides had really researched the history and told us many amazing facts.

Canada Day

We celebrated our 143rd birthday, what a young country!!, with a party at our RV park. The weather was tricky, a little bocci ball in a light rain sprinkle, some incredible black clouds but sunshine for dinner. We had Steve Lau for entertainment and he is great.