Back in business!

We have running water and a cooker, so we feel very rich and privileged tonight!  The floor will be a while yet and the counter tops and cabinets are delayed, but once you've gone without running water and gas in the kitchen anything else feels very luxurious!  Mike has created a makeshift counter and we will cook our own food tomorrow and not have to go to IHOP or order pizza.  Life is good.

Let's try to remember this when we're whining about how the cheese on the casserole is too salty or whatever it is we whine about.  (Or the meat pies are too hot, right, Rickie?)  Whiners gotta whine, I guess.

Home? Home forever and ever!

We arrived back in Canada at about 2:30 and picked up our girl.  She was very happy to see us and we were very happy to see her.  She was well taken care of but nothing is like home, is it?  She was so happy to see us, she didn't even throw up on the way home.  That's a stellar achievement for Daisy.

When we got back to the Fortress of Solitude, the floor man was still here and we were appalled to see how little had been done while we were away.  The floors are still bare and the sink, cooktop, dishwasher and fridge are not hooked up and everything is still planted in the middle of the floor.  We used the barbecue tonight to cook dinner, and Anne next door has offered to let us use her kitchen (so kind -- we are so lucky to have such good neighbours) but I don't see how this is going to work at all.  At any other time, I'd be happy to say "let's stay in a hotel!" but really, we all just want to sleep in our own beds and look in our own fridge and cook our own meals.  We are all rather bummed out about it, but there  isn't anything we can do, so we will make the best of it.

Welcome home, Taylor-Kosars!

Ringside in Portland

We went to the Ringside Steakhouse tonight for dinner recommended by my Insight Guide (very pricey, but delicious).  Valet parking and a wine list pages long (not recommended in any of the restaurant shows I watch -- how can you navigate a menu like that?  way too many choices!) and big slabs of meat for all the menfolk (not for me -- I can't imagine eating that much meat, if any . . .)  We had a great meal and great conversation where we recapped all the adventures we've had over the trip.  It has been a great experience.  Kudos to Mike for having organized all of it and picked out hotels and events for us to experience -- it's all gone really well.  And he's done most of the driving as well.  Jill (the GPS voice) has also done well, now that Mike has figured out the "avoidance" problem.

I got a message from Shelley, the woman who is taking care of Daisy at Balanced Canine.  She said Daisy has done well (what else could she say?) and that she is cute and got along with the other canines boarding there.  We are anxious to see her and get back to our own house.  Traveling is great but it will be nice to relax and not think about where we're going for dinner -- I personally will be glad not to have to look at a menu for a while.

At dinner tonight we talked about how we felt about our trip.  We all agreed that it has been a great experience.  My favourite thing was the Wild Animal Park in Escondido (which is associated with the San Diego Zoo).  Mike liked Disneyland the best and was sad when we had to leave.  Anthony also liked Disneyland the best and William agrees.  Of course, we all agree it was great to see Gordon and Annie and visit and hear Gordon play again (or for the boys, the first time).  It was fun to stay in all the different hotels and see California -- all the different terrains and the big cities and the small towns.  We met lots of nice people (and very few unpleasant people).  We learned a lot and will remember our adventures forever.

Traveling makes you appreciate your home, I think.  We've seen a lot of people less fortunate than we are and are grateful for our home and the things we have that keep us safe.  All the places we've been have been very exciting and beautiful, but not everyone in the USA gets to partake of those things equally.  But that is true of Canada as well.  Some of us live pretty high on the hog and others have to be content with the hoofs.  I think we can always try to do better ourselves and learn from people around us.  We need to reach out to each other and do our best to relish each moment -- listen to the music and live each moment as fully as we can.  But never forget our responsibility to each other.  It's not about the stronger dog eating the weaker dog.  It's making sure all the dogs get a good meal.

Thanks to all of you for following our adventures.  We'll see you

soon, I hope, and you can tell me how I did blog-wise.  Until then, this is Jean signing off from Portland.  Canada, here we come!

Back where we started from . . .

Back in Portland in the same hotel, although we all forgot what it was like.  William feels like we've only been gone a short time, but the rest of us feel like we've never been home.  Like we're like Odysseus and everyone at home will have forgotten us.   (Although Odysseus wasn't able to blog about Circe or the Cyclops or anything!)

Last night we had no wifi.  There has been something wrong with every hotel we've stayed in.  I guess the worst was the Disneyland hotel which had a litany of problems.  When we got into the room, it seemed nice and we unloaded everything and started to relax when we noticed that there was water on the floor in the bathroom.  They sent a plumber and offered to let us change rooms, but we'd already ensconced ourselves and didn't want to move.  It was close to the pool and far away from the street.  Anyway, they fixed the leak but we still had it in our heads.  The last hotel in Los Angeles was quite swanky looking with a big glossy lobby and all sorts of people running around after us and warm cookies at the desk to greet us, but Mike was very dismissive of the furniture in the room and the window at the end of the hall was broken.  I'm reading all these Harry Bosch mystery novels and it really reminded me of the Los Angeles he describes.  All made up on the outside but dark and sleazy on the inside.  The pool looked like this mysterious blue place where some seedy Hollywood producer would meet his mistress and they'd swim at midnight and drink champagne until he strangles her because she's threatening to tell his wife about their affair, or some other cheap Hollywood scenario like that.  That was the only pool we didn't use, and the one I wanted most to use.  Also the book I'm reading now, Trunk Music, mentions the street our hotel was on and says it is the site of the "Star Strip" where hopeful actors sell their favours to keep body and soul together.  At least, that's the impression I got.

This morning we had a HUGE breakfast in Yreka (which, I discovered is pronounced WHY REEK AH) at a place called Poor George's which displayed local artists' work on the walls and had a very rustic atmosphere.  Mike and Anthony had chicken fried steak, which is breaded steak, and it came with hash browns, plate-sized pancakes, and eggs, all covered in a thick gravy.  Even Mike couldn't eat all of it.  Our waitress, who reminded me of a woman I worked with at Schenker named Joni Skibbe, said, "none of you are leaving hungry, are you?"

After we left the restaurant, we took a little walking tour of the town and saw all sorts of Victorian homes, their historic main street, and where one of the lynchings I mentioned in the previous post took place.

The people who committed the lynching were never charged -- the city fathers said it was done by "people unknown".  I guess either the whole town is guilty or no one is.  It's like now when you say that the bystanders who don't stand up to the bullies are as guilty as the bullies themselves.  I don't know if I agree.  It can be hard to intervene when you think you might be the next victim.

Mike wants a steak for dinner tonight, so we've looked in my guide books for possibilities and will go after the traffic dies down a bit (maybe at 7 or 8?).  And we'll be home tomorrow!  We'll pick up Daisy on the way and she'll have a vomit fest in the car (her blanket is with her at the kennel, so we'll try to cover Anthony's lap with it at least, since that's where she likes to vomit the most!

We spent our last morning in Monterey on the golden sandy beach and walking along Cannery Row, which is now a street of trendy shops and restaurants and hotels.   There are lots of John Steinbeck named places, John Steinbeck Plaza, John Steinbeck Square, etc.  I wonder what he would think of that.  The place certainly resonates with his books – the huge farms with people bent over picking the crops and the old cannery building and Salinas itself.  I bought a copy of Cannery Row – I don’t think I ever read it and I saw the memorial to Ed Ricketts who was the real “Doc” from the book and thought it would be fitting to read it.

We had a long drive to Yreka.  It is a small place (around 7,000 people) set in rolling hills with a backdrop of mountains.  I looked it up on Wikipedia (when I had an internet connection – there doesn’t seem to be one here) and these are the two things I found out:  the name resulted from the days of the gold rush when they were slapping up buildings at a great pace.  They’d built a bakery and had painted a sign which they’d hung up to dry.  It was hung backwards and somehow the “b” hadn’t soaked through so it looked like “yreka” and people thought it was the name of the town, and it stuck.

There have been two lynchings here.  Both happened when gold or money was stolen from the stage or from the bank and the townspeople felt that the authorities were not moving quickly enough to deal with the situation and took the law into their own hands and hanged the people they thought were responsible. 

Not a very auspicious introduction to the town, but it appears to have resolved its vigilante past and is peaceful and quiet now.  Our room has a “creekside” view and you can hear the crickets singing away outside.

Tomorrow we face another long drive to Portland and then after that we arrive home, to our girl, Daisy, and hopefully, our new floor!

 

 

Light and Water

Here we are in Cannery Row in Monterey, California.  Monterey is a really beautiful little city, right on the Pacific Ocean with cute old fashioned houses and a great aquarium and the world famous jazz festival.  We arrived after a five hour drive from Los Angeles, checked into our hotel (William was happy to see a small pool at the front and Anthony was gratified to realize the wifi is strong) and went straight to the aquarium!  We had a nice lunch, albeit in a cafeteria, which is the bane of Mike's existence, and then set about to explore the aquarium.  It is smaller than Vancouver's, but it doesn't have whales or sea lions performing, which, to me, is better.  You can go out on a viewing deck and see wild sea otters frolicking in the ocean.  They are attracted to Monterey Bay because there is lots of food here for them and it is relatively sheltered.  The otters we saw were in a harem of females who are visited from time to time by one male, who impregnates them all and then goes on his way.  It seems to work out for all of them!  The aquarium staff is out there to answer questions and lend you binoculars.  They have all sorts of rescued animals and all sorts of beautiful displays -- jellyfish that seem to go on forever and a whole section of seahorses of all different kinds, even sea dragons!  Anthony took lots of pictures, but I can't figure out how to get them off his phone.  This is a picture of the outside part of the aquarium.

 

 

There is a shorebird area with all sorts of lovely shorebirds, like killdeer and plovers, all of whom are endangered because of people's encroachment on their habitat.  If only we could leave animals some space to do what they need to do.   They have huge areas for sea turtles and sharks and tuna and my favourite part was the  octopus area.  They have two octopuses (or is it octopi?) and one of them was bright red and flowing along the glass with his eye fixed on all of us out on the other side of the glass.  He was so graceful and elegant.  The aquarium person said that the octopus is very intelligent (I've heard that it is as intelligent as a three year old person) and can recognize individual people by touch and changes colours when its emotions change  I wonder what red means.  We had a great time and the icing on the cake was that they have jazz musicians from the jazz festival play from six to eight on Saturdays so we were treated to an excellent quintet of musicians and they served wine, beer and pop and even snacks while you listened to the music.  How Monterey, huh?

 

Tomorrow we really start our trek home.  We will drive 6 1/2 hours to Yreka (I don't even know how to say the name of the place, but it is in "gold" country).   It is halfway to Portland, which will be our home the next day.  We have had a terrific time with lots of memorable experiences, but it hasn't been all smooth sailing.  The thing I hate most about travelling is the part where you arrive in the place and you're tired and you want to just flop down and relax, but you have to find some place to eat or order room service or make some sort of decision.  You can't just heat up some leftovers from the fridge.  And I hate always having to eat in restaurants and look at the menu and pick something.  I like eating in restaurants once in a while, but not every night. 

 

But soon I'll be home and thinking "oh, what am I going to make tonight?"   You can't win. 

Time's winged chariot

There are three generations of Taylors above!  We were able to get back to Banning today
 and it was great to see Gordon and Annie again.  They have a lovely home and they welcomed us with open arms and we had another terrific visit and a delicious meal of "gusto" and salad with fresh California avocado and great conversation.  Gordon played the piano for us and the music took me right back to one of Mike's and my early dates when we went to the Arts Club to see "Ain't Misbehavin'" -- Gordon performed in the show along with a number of other well loved Vancouver musicians and actors, including Mike's cousin, Lovena.  That's when I met Gordon for the first time - what a wonderful show it was!  Gordon says it is one of his best memories as well.  We walked around their property -- they have fruit trees of all descriptions -- lemons, oranges, pomegranates, apples -- and nut trees.  They live in the mountains and the land is very dry -- they have a huge cactus right at their property line, laden with fruit.  There are so many birds and William was very taken with how many lizards he was able to spot.  This visit is one of the reasons we came to California, so it was fitting that we were able to go back.  Pablo, Annie's little rescued chihuahua, was very nervous when he first met us, but he took quite a liking to Anthony and was able to relax in his bed right next to Anthony on the couch.  He reminded us a bit of our own nervous girl, Daisy, who I hope is thriving in the kennel while we're gone.  It was very hard to leave at the end of our visit, but hopefully, we'll be able to come back sooner than we managed to come our first time.

Before we headed out to Banning, we stopped off in Hollywood at Gaumann's Chinese Theatre, which I think is called something else now.  I wasn't prepared for the effect it had on me.  We saw Burt Lancaster's star on the "Walk of Fame" and of course, I have always loved him and it was so wonderful to see his name and star there and remember his performances in movies like "The Birdman of Alcatraz", which I mentioned here before.  When we went further, there were all the stars' footsteps in the cement.  Apparently, the tradition began when Norma Talmadge (a great actress of the early days of movies) accidentally planted her foot in fresh cement outside the theatre.  There were all sorts of great actors represented there, but not too many who were familiar to the boys.  The first one I spotted was Bette Davis and of course, she's one of my heroes and I felt quite emotional to see her footprints and handprints there.  I took heaps of pictures -- Jack Benny's, Jack Lemmon's, John Barrymore (who put his profile there!), Joe E. Brown (whose lips were memorialized in concrete!), the stars of "West Side Story", and the stars of "Giant" (except for poor James Dean, who had died by the time the movie was released).  It really seemed to express a bit about the elusive nature of fame -- I wonder how many people remember Susan Hayward.  She was a big star in her day, but I wonder if any of my students have heard of her, even the movie buffs.

In conclusion, it was a big day for all of us and we're going to get up early tomorrow and head north to Monterey, on our way home.  We're going to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium which we're heard wonderful things about and then onward north to reach home by July 30.

A Zoo with a View

We went further afield today to the San Diego Wild Animal Safari in Escondido, California.  This is a dream zoo if you're an animal and it's pretty great if you're a person.  Whatever questions we had about zoos were answered here.  It is a huge expanse of land and the animals have vast areas where they roam and the people are kept to paths and trams and things.  When we first arrived, we climbed up to a tower and were so excited to see giraffes and rhinos just wandering around in the distance, eating grass and going to the waterhole and reclining under trees.

Originally, the park was closed to the public and was meant as a breeding facility for the Zoo, but in the 70's they decided to let the public see what they were up to.  They have an excellent record for animals breeding which is a sign that they aren't too stressed.  I've read about the idea of the time capsule zoo -- meant to preserve species while we get our acts together as far as preserving habitats, preventing conflicts between animals and people and educating people about climate change and the importance of wilderness and diversity -- I guess this is one of those places.  One of the keepers who spoke to us said if we told ten people that rhino horns are made of the same material as our fingernails, and then those ten people told ten people, we could make a difference for dwindling rhino populations.  So pass on the word to whoever you meet.









When we first arrived, we went into a tropical bird enclosure.  You could buy nectar and feed the lorikeets.  Both boys bought a little cup and came in ready to get up close to a beautiful brightly coloured bird.  There was a bunch of other people in the enclosure as well, and a little blond fellow who seemed very popular with the birds.  They were all over him!  William managed to attract a bird to his nectar and didn't that little blond fellow come over and try to entice William's bird away!  Then a lorikeet landed on William's head!  Blondie was there a

gain, like a dirty shirt!  I wish you could have seen William's face.

After seeing bats and meeting a lemur up close, we took a tram trip around the whole park and then visited the lions, cheetahs, tigers, elephants and best of all, the gorillas! Unlike the regular zoo, all the animals (except the lions) were very active, roaming around their large interestingly designed areas.  We all agreed that it would be good to be an animal in this place.  Although Mike still thinks the cats need to have a chance to hunt once in a while.  The tiger area was huge with all sorts of different terrains and places to swim and climb and hide, but Mike said, "it sounds cruel, but they should put a goat in there once in a while".  I know what he's talking about, but I wouldn't want to be the goat or see what the tigers would do to it.

The gorillas were great, of course.  There is a large diverse troupe and they also have a big area to live in with trees and running water and caves and little niches for them to hang out in.  The silverback, Winston, is apparently a gentle leader although we did see him take one of the female gorilla's leafy branches and plop himself down and eat it, while she and her baby had to move away to a less comfortable spot.  I guess he's gentle but he still wants to be the boss.

Now we're back in Los Angeles again. This time in Culver City.  We are a lot closer to the heart of Los Angeles here than we did in Anaheim and have a great view of the big city and all the lights and the hustle bustle.  We're going to go out to Banning again tomorrow to have dinner with Gordon (Mike's dad) and Annie (his wife) and maybe we'll have time to do a little sightseeing in Hollywood.  Maybe I'll wear a tight white sweater and go to a soda shop.  You never know what might happen.  I think I'm just as good an actor as Lana Turner.

Lions, and tigers and bears, oh my!

Here we are in San Diego.  It is a very pretty city with a low crime rate and an ocean beach and lots of car accidents!  Mike has noticed that California drivers follow very closely and change lanes seemingly at will and with very little room to maneuver and this seems to foster a lot of accidents one of which took place right outside our hotel window!  So far we have managed to avoid them.

We went to the zoo today.  This was something I was really looking forward to and it didn't disappoint.  We saw all our favourite animals (Mike - rhinoceros, William - reptiles of all sorts, Anthony - kangaroos and pronghorns, and me -- the great apes and elephants).  The zoo is very large, but even so some of the enclosures (for the cats in particular) seem too small.  When you think of the expanses that these animals use in the wilderness an acre doesn't really cut it.  We tried to think what it would be like for an animal in the zoo -- there are pros and cons, the boys decided.  You'd get all your meals and healthcare and a safe place to live -- all very important, but then it would be horribly boring, just to live in your house and your yard and never get to go anywhere.  They have programs for enrichment for lots of the animals, but it's still not like being free. 

The zoo is very forested with great swathes of bamboo everywhere and running water in almost every animal's enclosure.  You can always hear the birds singing and it feels very natural and lush.  The zoo keepers are knowledgeable and there is lots of room and you don't feel rushed even though there are hoards of people everywhere.  It was very hot and many of the animals were asleep, but the tiger was pretty lively and the gorillas, bonobos and orangutans looked into our eyes and did some ape-y things that made us wonder about how different we are from them.  We saw a couple of tortoises mating (very passionate in a stony, slow sort of way) and lots of animals we didn't know existed.  It is wonderful to see the diversity of life on the planet -- and the zoo is very active in conservation and habitat preservation and animal research of all sorts so you feel good about spending money there.

We will see what the safari park is like tomorrow -- it's supposed to be a place where the animals are free and the people are enclosed, so I hope that's true.

After the zoo, we had planned to have a picnic in Balboa Park and we found a nice spot near all the museums and the Theatre (which is a gorgeous Spanish looking building) and started to set up the barbecue, when we realized that I had forgotten the propane back in the hotel.  Plan B!  Hodad's Restaurant in the Ocean Park area (like an edgy Kitsilano)

was featured on "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" -- one of the boys' favourite Food channel shows -- so we headed out there.  There was some sort of street festival going on with music and crowds of cool looking people.  The restaurant was very hipsterish -- license plates covering the walls and an actual car parked inside with a table fitted inside.  There was a line up out the door and down the block so we took take-out and trundled off to the beach with our bag of burgers, milkshakes and "frings" (onion rings and french fries).  The beach was spectacular -- soft golden sand and great crashing waves and people trying to surf and swim and pelicans diving into the water head first to catch fish.  The milkshakes were delicious but the burgers not anything to write home about.

It was a full day and now we're back in the hotel -- all tuckered out.  We'll have an early night and start up again bright and early tomorrow.

I'm still behind with the pictures -- this is us in front of the "House of Mystery - the Oregon Vortex" which I mentioned on July 16.

Thanks to Esther Miller and Mike, we have visual images now!!  We haven't loaded the images from yesterday or today, but I did want to try to see if we could do it and it appears we have.  Any of you folks who might read this might let me know if there are actually pictures on the blog or if I'm living in a fool's paradise!

I thought about Universal Studios more after I blogged yesterday, and I do think they've missed the mark.  It's fine and dandy what they do there, but the reason people are interested in Universal Studios is the movies, so the rides are really not necessary.  Maybe one to show how they use modern technology to give people a virtual experience, but I think they should have screening rooms where you can see movies on the big screen and Mike thought they should have a show being made, from the beginning idea (the pitch) to the final show, with actors and lighting technicians and filming and all of that.  It wouldn't have to be real -- you could use real actors to play all the different parts.  I think if we come back to Los Angeles (and I've really enjoyed it -- I would come back, in spite of the smog and the traffic) I'd rather see a real studio tour rather than one with amusement park rides.  Lots of the studios offer them and they'd probably give you a clearer picture of what the work is like.

Today we left Los Angeles and went out to Banning to visit Mike's dad.  Mike has wanted to come for a long time because he hasn't seen his dad for a really long time (long before we were married, which is an eon, of course).  Mike's dad is in Banning and still plays music -- he has a couple of "gigs" coming up even though he's 81.   He and his wife, Annie, were great hosts and we had a good visit.  Mike showed them pictures of all the furniture he makes and of course, they have seen his website before but they were still impressed.  It is the first time Gordon has seen Anthony and William and they were good guests and I was proud of how they behaved.   Gordon and Annie invited us back for "gusto" and we're really going to try to come, although our schedule is really tight.

Tomorrow we're going to the San Diego Zoo (we are in San Diego now) and then the Safari Park.  I've read that in the safari park, the people are enclosed and the animals roam at will and that's as it should be, I think.  Mike and William are down at the pool right now, and Anthony wants something hot to eat so we'll probably slip down and see what we can find in the area.

Where the streets have Big Names!

Universal Studios is basically an amusement park with a movie theme.  One of the things I liked was how the streets are named after people like W. C. Fields, Kirk Douglas and Donald O'Connor (even though I don't think Donald O'Connor's street is nearly as nice as he was.  The best part of the day was the studio tour where we got to see all those bungalows where the Hollywood movers and shakers come up with their genius ideas to make movies like "Waterworld" and "Heaven's Gate".  One of the bungalows was Alfred Hitchcock's but of course, now it houses Dino De Laurentis and his ilk.

We paid a fortune for "Front of the Line" passes and I think it was worth it, because we did get to go to the front of every line and didn't have to stand and wait in the blazing sun and the intense heat.  We were lucky to have cooler weather and clouds at Disneyland because it was much more pleasant there than it was today at Universal Studios.  The best part was the studio tour where we got to see the soundstages that have been used in lots of movies -- the New York street, the "European" street (which they just dress up differently depending on the country), the Western street, and the city square from movies like "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Back to the Future" (the same square!)  We were toodling along as they started to talk about "King Kong" and we went into the set for Skull Island and suddenly we were in the middle of a jungle with dinosaurs all over the place and then King Kong burst out of the trees and jumped on our trolley and fought off the dinosaurs.  It was really spectacular.  We also went by the Bates Motel and there was a dusty car parked out front and a man came out of one of the rooms carrying a heavy load which he put in the trunk.  He spotted the studio trolley and started to walk towards it as we speeded away -- a little bit of drama for the tourists.   It was also neat to walk through those iconic gates of Universal Studios and see the globe and the statue of Carl Laemmle who thought of selling tickets so rubes like us could go and see how movies were made.

Strangely, there are rides at Universal Studios, based on tv shows and movies, like "The Simpsons" and "Transformers".  They were great, but I think we are "rided" out.  We're glad that the amusement park section of our trip is over, even though we have enjoyed everything we've done.  The special effects show was Anthony's favourite -- they show you how they achieve all sorts of amazing effects in movies from long ago or from very recently.  The most shocking was when they cut into a volunteer's arm.  The blood seemed to be just spurting out and he kept sawing away and we were cringing in our seats, but it was a prop knife and he showed us how it worked.  It looked horribly realistic.

There was a "Waterworld" show which was reminiscent of those Restoration plays in England at Sadler's Wells (I'm not old enough to have seen them, mind you; I've just read about them.  Really.)  It recreated the rather lame plot of Kevin Costner's "Waterworld" with a huge set and boats and jet skis and explosions and fire and finally a plane crashing into the set.  All right before our eyes!

The place was jammed with people and it was fiercely hot and sunny, so we lost our staying power and decided to wend our way back to the hotel.  The boys had their portraits done by some talented artists on the street (very impressive) and we saw a bit of Hollywood on our way home, but were glad to get back to our hotel to have a swim after our hot touristy day.

Mike wanted me to report that he discovered that the GPS had been programmed to avoid freeways and that might be why Jill's directions were so lame.  She did much better today without the freeway avoiding setting.  Perhaps we'll give her another chance tomorrow.  We're going to see Mike's dad and then go on to San Diego.

Goodbye, Mickey!

We experienced our last day at Disneyland, and I must say it exceeded my expectations (and the boys' -- Mike's expectations were fulfilled because he loves Disneyland!)  We didn't have to line up really at all, which made the experience that much better.  We arrived when the gates opened and did the popular things first and then used that Fastpass system for whatever other rides we thought we wanted to try and we saw all the iconic Disney events -- the parade, the characters, Mickey and Minnie's houses in Toontown (which is really eye-popping -- you feel like you've walked into a cartoon)! 

I was able to suck up the courage to join the family on the Matterhorn and Space Mountain and Star Tours (great fun), and the Astro Blasters.  The menfolk were very impressed because they know how afraid I am of these things.  We also went on the Nemo submarine, and the Teacups (just Anthony and me, because Mike and William don't like to spin), Roger Rabbit's Cab Trip through the bowels of New York City, Peter Pan's soar over London, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and probably others because it's starting to get to be a blur.  We went into the Innoventions building, where the boys got to see what they'd look like as Iron Man and play the most recent video games.  William wanted to see the Jedi Training School and so we had lunch there and watched kids learning to be Jedis and fighting Darth Vader.  Neither of my brave lads wanted to get on the stage and participate!

We saw the end of the "Fantasmic" show.  I'm not big on these huge spectacles, and it certainly was that -- explosions and colourful water shooting out of the Rivers of America, and multiple Mickey Mouses fighting evil (not much of a story -- the basic premise seems to be that your imagination can do anything), but it was great if you like that sort of thing.  I just can't picture myself camping out somewhere for two hours to see it.

The parade was what really knocked my socks off (and I'm not a huge parade fan, either).  There were all these brilliantly costumed dancers and floats portraying all the Disney favourites and it's amazing how many of the songs you know and can sing along to.  And the energy!  It's like living in the middle of a musical!  I couldn't take it for long, but it was certainly worth experiencing!

When we got back to the hotel, there was a cop standing in front of the driveway -- apparently, there was a protest at City Hall about the George Zimmerman verdict and they were concerned that the protest might erupt into violence.  The tv news is in one of those feeding frenzies about it with every analyst trying to make sense of it and wondering what Obama will do or won't do.  I don't know what to think about it -- I look at my little "interracial" boys and wonder if the world has really changed as much as I think it has when I think of William's gang at school -- Muzzamil, Magid, Kaoru and William -- all kids from all sorts of backgrounds who don't see any real differences, except that Kaoru plays hockey and William plays soccer and things like that.

Anyway, nothing we can do about it, at least at this point.  We're off to Universal Studios today.

Good morning from Southern California!

Here's an interesting bit of Americana!  Our breakfast includes doughnuts!  I thought that was a Canadian food, but apparently Americans like them, too, and for BREAKFAST!

We're off for our second day of Disneyland.  We are going to Fantasyland and Tomorrowland today.  Strangely enough, it has been cloudy both days and actually rained yesterday which rarely happens here, I understand.  Last night at the fireworks, we met people from all over the USA and all remarked about how unexpected the weather is.  All results of climate change, I'm afraid.

Both boys made their own light sabres yesterday and are now sitting in bed watching a cartoon, eating their breakfast (no doughnuts, though) and holding their light sabres, just in case a sith attack occurs.

Here We Are!

Yesterday, I posted a blog, but somehow the internet didn't work, and so I tried to post it from Word, but it didn't work either.  There wasn't much to say, because all we did yesterday was DRIVE.  GPS Jill got us miserably lost in Alameda and then tried to send us into the Pacific Ocean in Los Angeles, and I agree with Esther that she needs to be scuttled.  All she does is make me doubt myself when I figure out where we're going on the good old paper map.  Suffice it to say, Los Angeles is huge and I can't imagine how people here cope with the traffic!  I thought my commute was bad.

We arrived at our hotel in Anaheim at about 9 p.m. yesterday and it is right across from Disneyland which is great.  Right now, William and Anthony are frolicking in the pool as we take a break from the park.  After we arrived and checked in we took a walk along "Hotel Row" and watched the fireworks.  William was wild with excitement and couldn't wait for this morning.  He suggested we get up at 6 so we could be at the gates of Disneyland at 7:30 for its eventual opening at 8.  We all blearily agreed, since we were in a weakened condition after all that driving.

Six o'clock came pretty early, but we did get up and had breakfast and headed over to Disneyland as William suggested.  It was a good idea, because for the first couple of hours it wasn't that crowded and we got to go on all the rides we had decided were "must do's" back in Port Moody when we were studying the guide books:  Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain (with a five story drop which absolutely terrified me, but thrilled the lads who chose to have a second ride), the Jungle Cruise, the Haunted Mansion, the raft to Tom Sawyer's Island, Davy Crockett's Canoes and lots of other stuff.  I liked Tom Sawyer's Island the best, William liked Splash Mountain, Anthony Indiana Jones and Mike said he just liked all of us being there.  I am not a big Disney fan, but it is beautifully organized and I'm so impressed by the attention to detail in all the rides.  The Indiana Jones ride (and I've never seen the movies, believe it or not!) really does make you feel like you're an archeologist trekking into a strange and fascinating new world with all sorts of artifacts to look at and glimpses of strange things that make you think, "what was that?"  We've talked about what rides we would add if we could.  Right now, we're reading Inkheart together and we thought that would make a cool experience, when you read a book and everything comes alive!  I don't know how you'd accomplish it though.  I guess that's what Walt Disney himself envisioned when he thought of Disneyland -- what stories he liked when he was a kid and how you could experience them in a kind of virtual reality.  I can never think of Walt Disney without thinking of him "naming names" to the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, but I do understand the desire to recreate these stories like Tom Sawyer that he loved so that you could almost feel like you were part of the story.

 We had reserved a table at the Blue Bayou Restaurant in the New Orleans part of the park for lunch and it was delicious (and expensive!) -- we all had a nice spicy gumbo to start and then the men ate huge plates of meat and I had the vegetarian coucous.  The Pirates of the Caribbean ride goes right past the restaurant and it felt like we were part of the atmosphere of the ride.  I really like the New Orleans recreation -- of course, they have a Dixieland Jazz band playing and it's very evocative of what I imagine New Orleans to be, but not as cool as the real thing, of course.  I like a little grit in my atmosphere!

We saw a fun play at the Golden Horseshoe -- the actors were great.  Of course, I always think of them having to say "oh, I'm playing Cletus in Disneyland's Golden Horseshoe this summer" after they've spent years studying Shakespeare and Brecht and Checkov, but at least they're working.

We will return tonight to have more rides and explore more of the park.  This morning we focused on Adventureland and Frontierland, so this evening we plan to visit Tomorrowland and Fantasyland!  What "Land" would you like if you could add one to Disneyland?

Addendum

I forgot to mention why I used that quote.  Of course, if you were sent to Alcatraz, you would have to abandon hope, because what a horrible place.  One of the prisoners wrote, on the wall of his cell, "nothing is worth this".

Then over the door at City Lights as you enter there is a handwritten sign that reads "abandon all despair, ye who enter here".

So there you go.

Abandon hope/despair, all ye who enter here!

This was our day to explore San Francisco.  Not very long to experience a great city, but this is the hand we were dealt.  We got up bright and early (well, not so bright for morning allergic Anthony) and got our Muni-passes and off we went on our cable car ride to Pier 33 to catch the boat to Alcatraz.  We were lucky that Mike's friends advised us to book our trip well in advance because right now, you can't get tickets until mid-August.  The cable car ride was great fun and the operator was very lively and explained how the cable car worked and we saw lots of those cool San Francisco special houses and some fancy hotels, where we'll stay next time we come (maybe in another lifetime)!  We got to Pier 33 just in time and boarded the boat to the island.

"Alcatraz" means "seabird" and there are so many western gulls on the island that their calls almost drown out any conversations you might try to have.  There are lots of gull chicks, too, and they are very pushy with their parents and funny to watch as they try to get airborne.  There are lots of cormorants, too, and they're nesting and fledging, too, and it is amazing to see the awkward youths flapping their wings and looking off over the cliffs and thinking about taking the plunge, but not feeling quite ready yet.

Alcatraz was originally a fortified island which the USA bought from Mexico and then developed as a fortress against a possible Confederate attack, which, of course, never occured.  It was actually built by military prisoners who were then housed in the cells they'd constructed. 

Most people are interested in Alcatraz as a high security prison and that was the main focus of the audio tour we took.  It is narrated by actual inmates and guards who were at the prison over the course of its tenure as a jail.  The background sound was quite chilling because it recreated the atmosphere of the stories told by the narrators.  I wish I could post pictures because words cannot describe what the cells looked like and what the place felt like.  Especially chilling were the isolation cells.  There is a regulation that the lights should always be on in these cells, but they did not follow the regulation and the cells were left in darkness.  One narrator told how he would pull off a button from his prison garb and throw it on the floor and then spend the time searching for it to keep himself from going crazy.  One of the inmates I was interested in was Robert Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz, who was not actually allowed to keep birds in Alcatraz.  His studies of birds took place in Leavenworth Penitentiary.  The guard who described him said he was highly intelligent but otherwise, a vicious manipulative psychopath.  I loved Burt Lancaster's performance in the movie "The Birdman of Alcatraz" and of course, he didn't play him that way at all.  Both versions could be true, I think.  I hadn't thought I would be that interested in Alcatraz, but it was fascinating and the rest of the family agreed.  I'm really glad we were able to see it.

We sailed back to San Francisco and had a great seafood lunch at Fisherman's Wharf and we watched the buskers and looked at Alcatraz across the bay.   William said it was great to be in a place where so much was happening and it's true.  There was this great band on the corner with a man playing the piano and a woman on the saxophone and a guy on the drums and it was like a great concert there on the street.  We lined up for a long time for our cable car back to the downtown, but while we waited there was a guy named "Socks" doing comic patter and songs to keep our spirits up.  The cable car was jammed with people and Anthony and I lost contact with Mike and William but managed to hop off and make the dream trip to City Lights Books where all the beat poets used to hang out and where Lawrence Ferlinghetti published Alan Ginsberg's "Howl" and got into trouble with the censors.  It is one ot the classic bookstores and it was great to browse and pick out a few obscure books that I wouldn't be able to find anywhere else.  We hopped on another cable car and arrived back at the hotel and are now recuperating from the busy day and watching the fog roll in over the city.

Our plan is to go to Golden Gate Park later (in the fog?), and then tomorrow off we go to Los Angeles and Disneyland!

Big Trees and Big Foot

As I said yesterday, we were a bit disappointed in Crescent City.  It reminded me of the movies "Mystic Pizza" or "The Last Picture Show".  A dead end town where there is one young person who longs to get out and all his or her friends are apparently content with their go nowhere jobs and their narrow perspectives.  But when we drove south on our way to San Francisco, we came upon a spectacularly beautiful beach with windsurfers and actual surfers and birds and vast stretches of pristine sand to play in.  It was hard to tear ourselves away once we found such an amazing spot.  We did, only to find a "vista" pull out a 1/2 mile away and then another and another.  It was so hard to get going when we wanted to stop every 5 minutes.  The scenery as you travel down the west coast of Oregon and California is really magnificent and we didn't regret any of our stops.

We did pull in to the "Trees of Mystery" spot, but didn't bother to pay our admission once the huge statue of Paul Bunyan started speaking.  We decided that we would rather see the redwoods without the narration of the "great lumberjack" and his ox.  We drove further south and found the National Park Visitor Centre, where a nice lady  advised us to drive along the Avenue of the Giants and she was very wise.  It was quiet and peaceful and the trees were magnificent.  They are enormous and huge and old and the most amazing thing -- they're alive!  There they are just growing away and living and not rushing around like all of us.  Anthony and William ran from tree to tree stretching out their arms to measure their circumference and looking up trying to see the tops (virtually impossible).  They ran along a fallen giant and disappeared into the forest.  As we watched them, Mike said, "I probably ran along this same tree when I was here".  And then both boys emerged from the "green, dark forest" with big smiles and stories to tell.  Again, we had to tear ourselves away and we decided not to drive through the "drive through" tree (California is the "drive through" capital of the United States).  We were seeing the day passing quickly and we needed to get to San Francisco sometime today.

William HAD to stop at the Bigfoot Emporium further down the road since he is convinced that Bigfoot is out there.  It was a glorious chance for him to revel in the mystery of the saskquatch and choose something memorable as a souvenir of the Big Trees.  Anthony bought a pocket knife and it came in handy later in the day to open Mike's beer and my bottle of wine.  Thanks, Anthony!

There are elk throughout the Redwood National Parks system and we saw two herds!  Yes, herds!  We stopped and photographed them grazing in a marsh right next to the pounding surf of the Pacific Ocean.  This is also the hawk capital of the West Coast.  They're soaring over every hill and every creek and every road. 

We rolled over the Golden Gate Bridge at about 7 into the fog and dragged our weary tourist selves up to our room at the Holiday Inn, right in the heart of downtown San Francisco.  It is COLD and windy here and we are pooped, but we must get up and at 'em well before 9 because our Alcatraz tour is on bright and early .  After Alcatraz, we're going to go to Fishermen's Wharf for lunch, and Mike has promised we'll work in City Lights Books (the home of the Beat generation and still owned and operated by Lawrence Ferlinghetti) since we missed it the last time we were here.  I think we'll spend the afternoon in Golden Gate Park.

Crescent City

 I am sitting in a dark pool in our hotel in Crescent City after a huge Chinese dinner.  We left Portland in good time this morning, and there were no traffic jams or border waits, but even so, it is a long drive and rather hairy from time to time as you make your way out to the sea from the inland.  William was gripping his seat and clenching his teeth as we drove the last windy road before we got here and whispered to Mike to slow down.

We stopped in the whitewater capital of the US -- Grant's Pass -- for lunch.  Riverside Park is very pretty and there are ducks and geese and big rafty boats that go down the Rogue River for a wild ride, I guess.  It reminded William of Penticton and drifting down the river there on an inner tube.  It was super hot and we had a nice picnic and William took a dip in the river.

We decided we wanted to visit the mysterious Oregon Vortex and Mystery House (in preparation for saskquatch sightings in the Redwood Forest) and so we asked our GPS girl to lead the way, but she had a lot of trouble dealing with the mysteries of the vortex and Highway 5, so in the end, we had to figure it out ourselves.  We drove up to the place and joined a tour and demonstration of all the mysterious properties of the Vortex.  Brian, the host, was very entertaining and showed us how people shrink and grow depending on their relationship to the vortex and we went into the mystery house which looked like one of Batman's enemies' lairs, except a lot more rustic.  A broom stood on its end and a bottle rolled uphill and people's heights changed and Mike said he felt a bit dizzy which seemed to be just what Brian wanted to hear.  At the end of the tour, Brian showed us lots of strange photos of poltergeist-y forces working in the vortex and we left amazed and mystified and kitsch-ed right out!

Mike's romance with GPS Jill underwent a very unpleasant bumpy patch, when Jill insisted we take one route, when we all knew that it was wrong.  Once we got close to Crescent City, she insisted Mike pull a U-turn in the middle of the four lane highway and finally we gave up on her and phoned the hotel for directions.  The Northwood Lodge is a nice place with a pool for William, a nice little patio perfect for the sipping of a glass of wine for me, a hearty breakfast for Mike and a soft bed for Anthony, but Crescent City (except for the Wing Wah Restaurant which serves delicious Chinese food until nine o'clock at night!) seems a little dead.  Mike's family stopped here on their way to Disneyland a thousand years ago when Mike was Anthony's age (well, maybe not a thousand) but he doesn't remember it very well.  He thought it was up on a crest, but we are right across from the harbour which is full of fishing boats and dredgers and things like that.

Tomorrow we'll experience the majesty of the redwood forest (which we drove through this evening in a weary dash to our hotel and to dinner).  There is a lot of logging going on in Oregon -- I've seen more logging trucks on the highway than we ever see in BC and the Redwood Forest is only a tiny vestige of what once was, but the trees are huge and noble and the forest is deep and dark and ferny and far more mysterious than even the mysterious vortex.  Nature-wise, we've been surprised at how many turkey vultures we've seen circling the hills and dales along the roadside.  We've also seen lots of lovely deer as well.

I wish I knew how to add photographs to the blog.  I have tried to figure it out but you know how "help" is on the computer.  No help at all!

The City of Bridges

Anthony says, "this feels a lot more like the United States than I thought it would."  He thought it would just feel like a part of Canada that he had never been in before, but he says he feels like it is really a foreign country.  I always think of the gun issue, but I don't think it is that different, except we did go by Fort Lewis and there were a bunch of people on the bridge over the freeway with signs saying "Thank you to our troops" and American flags flying.  Mike asked one of the naval reserve guys, "are you connected to the base?" and he just stared at him.  And of course, when we were crossing at Peace Arch, "children of a common mother" nothwithstanding, Mike said a warm "hello" to the border guard, who did not deign to return the greeting.  We joked that we should ask him if he could take our picture as we entered the USA, but we didn't dare.  I wonder what he would have done.

As always, it took a long time to get going, but once we were on the road, eating chips (Holiday Mommy has arrived!) and Cheezies, it was fairly smooth sailing.  Joyce (Mike's mom) said the traffic is always bad in Seattle and her words were prescient because we were part of the hoards of drivers  heading south along the I-5.

We plowed on to Portland and had a HUGE American style meal at Elmer's -- William and Mike slurped down steaks with great gusto.  Mike thought he could tempt me with the peach crisp, but I was stuffed with all the chips and only had a bowl of soup and a salad, which was more than I could manage.

Then off we went to Powell's City of Books, purportedly the world's biggest book store (even though I know there are other claimants).  It is right in the heart of Portland, which is a very charming city with lots and lots of bridges.  In fact, it is KNOWN as "the city of bridges".  I could have spent days in the store, which has a blue room and a purple room and a green room -- in fact, the whole rainbow(!), all holding new and used books focused on different subjects and by every author you can imagine. They give you a map when you first enter the store and every colour of room has a couple of knowledgeable and friendly people who can help you and know what you're talking about.  What a joy for a book lover.  I bought an armful and had to tear myself away before I spent the whole Disneyland budget in what could be called Jean's "happiest place on earth".

William has been saying how much hotter it is in the United States and how much faster the cars are going and how much quicker it gets dark here, but he wants me to say he loves it.  Mike is really happy with the GPS.  We got a little lost but the woman was very patient and kept trying to help by giving him new routes.  If I had been navigating, I would have gotten louder and faster as I realized we were off course, but the GPS voice just figures out a new route and acts like you're doing exactly what she said all along.

We were going to go to Washington City Park after the bookstore, but when we came out, it was getting dark and so we've come back to our hotel to rest and read before our trip continues tomorrow.  We are going to get to California tomorrow and spend the evening in Crescent City, in the heart of the redwood forest (I think).

California, here we come!

Tomorrow we leave for our holiday to California!  Today we had to take Daisy to the kennel.  It was SO HARD to leave her there.  It seems like a nice place and I'm sure they know what they're doing (there were lots of dogs there, anyway) but Daisy is a special case.  She was left in a dumpster, pregnant and emaciated, when she wasn't even two years old and then adopted and returned twice to the SPCA.  We are her "forever" home as the SPCA says, but maybe she isn't so sure of that now that we took her to this strange place and drove away.  I keep picturing her worried face behind the fence as we walked to the car.  I know dogs don't think the way we do and I know she's not analyzing what happened, but she's worried and sad and probably will be for a few days while she gets used to the routine.  It's one of those many times when you wish you could speak to her and say, "we'll be BACK, Daisy.  Don't worry.  We are your forever home."

Waaay out of my comfort zone!

Yesterday, my creativity group got together for its monthly meeting.  It's a group of women of vastly different experiences and interests who get together once a month (if we can -- it's quite casual) to do something loosely called creative (see?  it's very casual).  We make things sometimes (last month we made summer hats) or we go somewhere (we usually make a trek to the Fringe Festival in September and the Directors' Festival out in Chilliwack in the spring -- one of our members teaches theatre at the University College of the Fraser Valley -- I think that's the name).  This month, Jan decided we should do something outside (what a great idea -- doesn't someone always nag all of you to get outside?) so we had a potluck picnic at Rocky Point Park and then we went kayaking!  As you might know, I am not a sporty type AT ALL, and can't swim very well, so I was rather nervous about it, picturing myself rolling the kayak (I think that's what you call it) and drowning.  Or at least, losing my glasses to the sea.

So I said, "well, I'll go, but maybe I won't go out on the water".  Jan made it clear that she wasn't going to be upset if anyone chickened out.  But Anthony gave me that quizzical look and said, "if you don't try it, you'll never know . . ."  (Maybe he heard that from someone along the way?)  So that shamed me into considering it.

At the park, my compatriots assured me that they were good swimmers and could save me if I fell in.  (Although Jan said if I started to panic, she might have to knock me out before my rescue!)  Jan's kayak is a lake kayak, so it isn't as tippy as a sea kayak, so I felt a bit less fearful then.

We had a great lunch and fully stuffed ourselves (great before a physical effort!) and then went out to get our feet wet!  Jan was a very patient and careful teacher and before I knew it, my lower body was soaked and I was out in the inlet whooshing along!  It was terrific.  We got up close and personal with the osprey nest out in the middle of the water (I was so happy to see them back -- I was worried that they hadn't made it this year -- you know all birds are struggling with habitat loss and climate change and birds that migrate are especially at risk) and we saw a group of crazy haired mergansers paddling along (when they saw us, they hightailed it away at breakneck speed) and looked back at beautiful Port Moody and all its lovely trees which mask our little houses up here on the hill.

Sadly then, we had to get back and pack up our paraphernalia and head home.  But I was very grateful to Jan for having organized it and to Anthony for having shamed me into swallowing my fears and taking the plunge!

And the moral of the story is:  Don't let fear rule you!

Dancing on the Edge

Last night I went to Meredith Kalaman dancing in "How to Become a Star".  Some of you remember her dancing at our school in "The Lost Art of Girl Guiding" which was terrific.  This is just as terrific, but quite different from the first piece.  I imagined it would be about how so many people these days see fame as something to aspire to.  (Why would you want to have people recognize you when you're schlepping out to the grocery store in your sweatpants with your hair in a ponytail?)  But it was about how we deal with our inevitable death, which is a subject of interest to me these days, because of my venerable age!  She started out with a series of tableaus that depicted the stages of grief -- it was so dramatic and at the end of the tableaus, she looked out at us, accepting us, just like she accepted her fate.  The "story" (if a dance has a story -- I really don't see enough dance to feel comfortable with the language I'm using to describe it) traces the mythology of the constellations, particularly Andromeda and Cassiopeia, through to more personal ideas about our memory and our longing to be remembered after we're gone.  It was lovely -- Meredith is so strong and open and luminous and I admire her willingness to put her ideas into physical form and share them with us.  There was a scene which mystified me while I was watching, where she was underwater and I think all of us in the audience felt like we were underwater as well.

This is part of "Dancing on the Edge" which continues to July 13.  There were two other dances on the program:  "remember when" by the plastic orchid factory, and "The Righteous Floater".  They were both very different from Meredith's performance -- "remember when" was very cerebral and used cameras and text in interesting and provocative ways -- the two women in the dance had this great sequence where they began dancing together in a very tender way, but eventually became combative, forcing each other across the stage and using the same movements to suggest conflict as opposed to nurturing.  "The Righteous Floater" begins with a man wearing only underpants, knee braces and shoes and socks, standing with his back to the audience, while the other man hangs out laundry.  It was funny, at times, and extremely physical -- it reminded me of two little boys and how physical their play can be.  What a contrast to Meredith's performance!

I really recommend the festival if you're looking for something that might take you out of your comfort zone.  As I said, we don't see nearly enough dance and it communicates ideas to us in a way that opens us up to a new world -- one without so many of the words we use to hide behind!  The "Dancing on the Edge" festival continues all over the city until July 13.

"Man of Steel"

Just saw the movie "Man of Steel".  I don't usually have any interest in this sort of movie, but Chris is in it in a very short appearance and so I was anxious to see it.  Of course, Chris was great, but much of the rest of the movie was not very interesting.  The story of Superman has all sorts of things to offer as far as drama goes.  The dying planet Krypton which, in this version is imploding because of the Kryptonians' hubris in trying to mine the core of their world, can provide a metaphorical connection for us who are also crazy enough to think we can keep exploiting our resources and environment and face no consequences for our actions.  This movie also gives us the child, Clark Kent, who is "weird" and bullied by the children in Kansas because he is different.  That's a great source for a look at how a special person like Superman learns to bear up under the strain of being excluded and tormented by people around him.  He wants to fight back but his father asks him to restrain himself because if people find out about his true identity, they may not be able to handle it.  I liked the idea of Superman as a kind of modern day Frankenstein's monster, travelling the world seeking to find his own place.  But of course, very soon, the movie became another one of these "look what we can make explode next!" kind of things and that makes me feel restless and bored.  I realize that we have access to all sorts of great effects in film, but even my fourteen year old son suggested that they needed to invest more effort in the writing of the film rather than the explosions.   William is excited to see the next installment of "The Hobbit", but I felt like that movie, too, missed the mark, with far too many fight scenes and not enough story to sustain the need for two films. 

As we left the theatre, I saw ads for showings of old movies like "Roman Holiday" and "The Great Escape".  Now those movies had stories!

Happy Canada Day!

I hope you are all out and about for Canada Day!  Canada's all about getting out and enjoying the natural world -- in heat (like here) or not (maybe Alberta -- I'm not sure what it's doing there but if it's hot, I think it would be pretty unpleasant with the flood waters.)  We are going down to Rocky Point Park to see what's up there and eat a piece of cake for Canada's birthday!

Yesterday, I did something Canadian!  I registered my sons for their respective sports for the fall.  Anthony for hockey, of course, and William again for soccer (tried hockey but it didn't take).  Then I booked Daisy into a kennel for the time we're going to be away.  It is hard to think of leaving her behind, but she's carsick and driving and hotels are no fun for a nervous Nelly like Daisy.  This place seems quite nice -- it's called Balanced Dog (like in the dog whisperer, I guess) in Surrey.  They have spacious day kennels for the dogs in a nice shady area and then the canines get to go inside the house at night to sleep.  I hope Daisy doesn't think we've abandoned her there.

Mr. Allison made such a nice speech at our staff goodbye on Friday.  He spoke about the loss of his dog, Rocky, which happened this year.  He said we could learn from our pets -- they live life moment by moment -- they appreciate their food and their walks and their owners and open their hearts to the world.  Maybe we can do the same thing.  Of course, thinking about poor Daisy, I don't think she enjoys the same open nature that Rocky had.  She is so frightened of everything and when she hears a fire cracker or fireworks, she's terrified.  She's anticipating something horrible that will happen after the big noise.  We can learn from her, too.  She had a very difficult start to her life -- left in a dumpster, pregnant with thirteen puppies to whom she gave birth at the SPCA, and then she was adopted and returned twice to the SPCA.  The lady there wanted us to be absolutely sure that we wouldn't bring her back and we were.  We're "dog people" and thought if anyone could help Daisy it would be us.  She has found her "forever" home with us and we accept her, warts and all.  (She has no physical warts, but lots of emotional ones).  The other night she heard a fire cracker (set off by a teenager who lives near us -- note to any teenagers reading this - tsk!) and she was so scared, she tried to wedge herself behind our dryer.  Mike tried to pull her out and she held on with her front paws and succeeded in ripping off the control panel.  But we still love her.  We can learn from Daisy's experience that you mustn't give up.  Something nice might happen -- someone might help you when you're in desperate circumstances.  While there's life, there's hope.

Let's think about how lucky we are to live in Canada on this Canada Day.  What a wonderful place -- safe and sound and peaceful, for the most part.  It's our responsibility to keep it this way.  Share our good fortune with others.  Cherish the natural environment and work to ensure that we don't destroy the habitat we share with all the other living things here.  Try to be good citizens, which means, to me, that we must know what's going on and participate in our democracy, not just on voting day, but every day!