Twilight and Forks, Wa.

Big day but oh so tired! Just got back from a 12 hour Twilight tour with 5 girls. We left Victoria, BC this morning by ferry to Port Angeles, Wa. USA. Cleared customs and arrived around lunch. Beautiful ride over in the Olympic Peninsula. Rented a minivan and then we found a really bad Mexican restaurant to eat lunch at. The girls all enjoyed it but M. and I did not. Next we headed to Forks, Wa. -the location of the Twilight books. We were there to see Bella's truck, high school, home, the Cullen home and La Push, the beach where Jacob reveals his true self to Bella. There were organized tours all over the place and plenty of signs about Twilight and lots of Twilight stores selling EVERYTHING you can imagine with a vampire or werewolf on it. Overall, the town was a little disappointing but the drive to Forks was amazing. Lake Cresent was the most beautiful place I have ever seen!!!!! We did get passed by huge logging trucks every 3 minutes for an hour on the way to Forks, the logging capital of the world. So sad to see all the deforestation. La Push was interesting with rocky shores and huge cliffs rising out of the water but the whole area is an Native American reservation so it is rather poor. We then traveled back to Port Angeles to have dinner at Bella Italia, the restaurant Bella had dinner with Edward. This meal was fabulous!! Then on the way to the ferry I tried to geocache( just one) but was unsuccessful after looking for over 30 minutes. The girls were sure I was going to make them miss the ferry. We all crashed on the ride home. Fun day with beautiful scenery and lots of laughs!

Victoria, BC

Travel day yesterday so didn't get a chance to blog. We got up early and ate at our hotel then took 2 cabs to get to the bus station. Boarded the bus at 9:30 and drove onto the ferry at 11:00 am. Got off and explored the ferry until 12:30 when we reboarded the bus to drive off the ferry and to the bus station in Victoria. Luckily our hotel was right across the street from the hotel. We arrived around 1:30 pm and were quite surprised by how big Victoria was. We checked into the lovely Empress hotel and then M. and I headed to the pool while the big girls took naps and read. We had a reception in the rose garden that was gorgeous! Later that night, H. and I did 2 geocaches around the area which was fun. I found the first one and he found the second one. We attempted a 3rd in the rose garden but really needed some light so had to abandon that one. Today we had a yummy breakfast with fabulous croissants. I had 2 and L. had 4!! Then we visited the "minature" museum which has tons of teeny, tiny exhibits of wars, fairy tales, trains, the circus, wild west and many other. The girls, especially M. enjoyed this one! Next we went to the BC Museum to see an IMAX film. We ate lunch in the cafe and then H. joined us to see "Under the Sea". It was so good that 3 of us stayed to see another IMAX called "Hubble". Then L. and M. and I walked to Fisherman's Wharf to see and feed the harbor seals. Such a fun activity. The girls were a little squeamish about handling the fish but after the first bite quickly forgot how gross that was! We have a boat ride to get to dinner tonight which should be a lot of fun because it is a gorgeous day! May even geocache later- I am up to 7 in BC!!

Vancouver later

It doesn't get dark here until about 9:30pm which is awesome! All 5 of us went to a restaurant that overlooked a popular street around the corner from our hotel and had drinks and food. We people watched and had a great time with each other. Later the girls went back and H. and I geocached around the area. Turns out our hotel has one. Score #3 for today. We then went to Stanley Park, watched the sun set and geocached another one. That makes 4 for today! Yipee!!! Afterwards, as it was getting dark we walked to the Central Bistro and had a yummy dinner and sampled some BC wine. Great evening in Vancouver!!!

Vancouver, here we are!

Got up early, around 7:15 am, to go geocaching with M. and H. We all had gone to bed by 9:30 pm last night because we were exhausted so got plenty of sleep. The big girls, however, slept in. It was a rainy morning in Whistler. We got coffee and headed out to find Bob's Bench. Well it took us over and hour and we walked a LONG way and had to climb a mountain. But I am happy to report that we were successful! We made it back to the village a little wetter and a little tired but met the big girls for breakfast. Afterwards we all showered and packed and drove to Vancouver. Beautiful drive and the rain was left behind. We first went to the Olympic Village, where all the athletes lived during the games. Okay this was a little disappointing because the place was deserted except for the "sales" office trying to rent or sell the places as condos. The only house identified was the Canadians. And the street was named "Athletes Way" so this was the only remnants of the 2010 Olympics. Weird! Next we headed to Chinatown for lunch. On the way we found a cool authentic Chinese garden that also had a geocache! Score!! That is 2 for today! Mom was a happy girl! M. decided to meditate in the zen like garden. Lunch was very good but took a long time. Afterwards we headed to our hotel on the oceanside of Vancouver. Great old hotel with a huge suite so everyone had a bed for themselves. The girls are planning on hanging out tonight so we may have date night and go out to dinner alone! Tomorrow we get a cab to get to the bus station that will take us to the ferry to cross to Victoria. Planes, trains and automobiles. Great day 2 so far, more tomorrow!

Whistler, BC- Day 1

We had an uneventful trip to Canada. Arrived in Seattle at 1 am then rented a car and drove to Whistler. Crossing the border was a little weird since the guard was not nice and highly suspicious of our family (it was about 3 am and we were giddy but not guilty of any crime). We ate our first breakfast at 2:30am then after a brief nap in the car at 4:30 am because we simply could NOT drive any more!!!! The drive from Vancouver to Whistler was absolutely breathtaking at dawn!! We arrived around 7:30 am and checked into our hotel in Whistler Village. Everybody showered and freshened up then we headed out to the Village for our 2nd breakfast! After breakfast, M., H. and I went geocaching around the village then got K. and L. and we did an eco-treetrek zipline tour of the rainforest. It was AMAZING!!! It lasted about 2.5 hours and we did about 5 zip lines, each getting progressively longer with the last being the length of the Eiffel Tower. They crisscrossed a beautiful river. Every one of us LOVED this experience. Especially M. who had no fear and said after the first one "are there more of these because i love this"! We then took a peak to peak tour of Mt. Whistler and Mt. Blackcomb in gondolas. The view was incredible. We ate a yummy lunch of southwestern corn chowder at the top. Here are a few of the 300 photos I snapped today! And we saw a bear!

8th grade graduation

Big day for L.! She is officially a high schooler now! OMG!! I now have 2 in high school- does that make me old? Of course not, because my youngest just finished FIRST grade. Yeah! The ceremony was about 3 hours long but was good and touching. L. enjoyed it but found it hard to say good bye afterwards. Hard to believe she has been here since fourth grade. Great experience and so many wonderful friendships formed. Good bye Lincoln. Hello Page!

L. also got glasses today after failing the eye exam at her 14 year old check up on Tuesday. She looks fabulous in them!!

First Swim Meet of the Summer

M. had her first swim meet yesterday. IT started at 5:30 (she had to be there at 4:30) and we finally left at 10:30 pm but the meet did not end until after 11 pm!!! We had to stay so late because M. was in 4 events this year!! She swam freestyle, back stroke, butterfly and the first leg of the 100m free relay! It was quite exciting!! Today at practice our coach gives out white ribbons if you beat your own time. This is a BIG deal for the team (the ribbons from the meet are just put in your box and you go collect them with no fanfare). Well M. beat her time on freestyle so she was pumped- and earned a pack of silly bands form me! From the meet, she got 3rd place in the relay and 5th in the butterfly. It was the first time she has done the butterfly competitively so we were excited she could get from one end to the other. The summer has officially started!!