Vancouver, Day 6

This was our last day of vacation. John ran a half-marathon in the morning. The route was along the sea the entire way, the weather was perfect for racing (cool), and he ran a PR - 1:43. I am very proud of him. The kids and I met him at Stanley Park, where the race finished. This is Helene climbing an unusual tree in the park. I don't know what kind it is. Then we walked back to the hotel together. The other two pictures were taken along the way back. Campbell took the one of me and John. I need to ask him to do that more often. We rarely get a picture of the two of us.

We got back to the hotel, packed up, and headed home. As we drove from the airport in Denver back to our house, we saw the sunset. I realized it was the first time we had seen the sun all week! It was a beautiful trip - fun city, great rain forests, and some good food - but I am so glad to be home!

Vancouver, Day 5

On Day 5, the kids and I took the Seabus across the water to North Vancouver.




We arrived at Lonsdale Quay and discovered that it was the day for their Farmers' Market, so we bought some strawberries to snack on during the day's adventure.
Then we took a bus to the Capilano Park, a forest right next to the suspension bridge we visited the other day. I really wasn't planning on coming back to this area, but Campbell really wanted to visit the salmon hatchery that we didn't have time to see the other day. So, on the way to the hatchery, we unexpectedly ran across the:

It was a really beautiful surprise. Then, we walked about a kilometer through the rain forest to the hatchery.

Here are salmon swimming upstream
and where they raise the juveniles.
The hatchery was interesting, but we really didn't get to see much. I'm glad the scenery and the nice walk made the day worthwhile.

Vancouver, Day 4

The kids and I took the SkyTrain today.  We were confused at first because we caught it at an underground station, and it sure looked a lot like a subway.  But eventually, it came out and above the road, and we could see where it got the name.

We visited Science World (second picture) and had a great, full day there.  Our Denver Museum membership got us into this museum for free, which was great - everything else we've done here has been so expensive!  It was more like the Discovery Science Place in Tyler or the museum we go to in Waco with Great Grammer and Grandaddy than like the Denver Museum.  It was very hands-on.  Every exhibit had things for the kids to do and experiment with.  Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but we had a great day - the kids loved it.

The last picture is from an area of town called Gastown.  We've been there a few times for dinner - just a few blocks' walk from our hotel.  One night, we had delicious, authentic Italian food at a restaurant called Al Porto.  Great atmosphere, too.  Last night, we went to The Spaghetti Factory, which is almost an exact copy of The Spaghetti Warehouse.  The food was only mediocre, but we got to sit in a trolley car in the middle of the restaurant, so the kids thought that was cool.

Vancouver, Day 3

On Day 3, we met Ilia and his daughters and went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge together.  Anna was supposed to be in conferences, but their 13 month old son was sick, so she stayed at the hotel.  John was at the conference all day.  

In the picture above, you can see that Helene talked Ilia into carrying her much of the time.  Ilia and Anna were good friends of ours in Houston.  At the time, they had Leeta, who is 20 days older than Campbell, and a baby named Chaya (pronounced Hiya).  Leeta and Campbell used to go to museums with us and enjoyed each other's company at the time (in the parallel play manner that toddlers do), so it was really fun to see them reunite and get along very well as 7-year-old, too.  Here they are:
And here are Chaya and Ette, their other daughters:

The suspension bridge leads into a rain forest.  It was fun to see a completely different kind of rain forest from what we experienced in Costa Rica last year.  There are almost no insects here, so that's nice.  The trees we learned to identify during our guided tour are cedars, Douglas firs, and hemlocks (which we tasted the needles of - not the poison hemlock variety, obviously).
This whole trip, the kids have been into "stunts," so they enjoyed walking along the fence here:
A treetop adventure (7 bridges between 8 douglas firs) was added to the park four years ago.  The kids marched along, chanting, "We gotta go up; we gotta go across; we gotta go down," to the amusement of everyone around.  I'm glad they all got along.  It was definitely easier for me to spend all day with my kids when they had other kids to entertain them, instead of picking on each other all day. :)

We ended our Capilano adventure by listening to and dancing to this little band.  They played songs that were popular in Canada from 1880 to 1950.
After Capilano, we went to Chinatown and ate Malaysian food, a new adventure for all of us.  It was very good, and I was proud of the kids for being adventurous.

Vancouver, Day 2

We spent our second day in Stanley Park.  It is absolutely beautiful, and huge.  The kids enjoyed playing in little "caves" made by gigantic rhododendrons.  Here's Helene peeking out from one.

This is a picture of the kids inside one of the rhododendron caves.  I could stand inside at full height, too.

After lunch, we met John (who had been in SCA conferences all morning) at the aquarium, in the middle of Stanley Park.  John had run into some old friends of ours from Houston, Anna and Ilia, at the conference, so they joined us at the aquarium (more about them on Day 3).

A baby beluga whale was born just 8 days ago at the aquarium.  She was being carefully observed and her feeding times were being monitored, as well as the length of time she was separated from her mother while swimming independently.  We could only go to this nursery to observe her in small groups, and we had to be quiet and take no flash photography while there.

Vancouver, Green Architecture

I took this shot just because I loved the architecture of the building.  Then I realized it was a YWCA!  The pool is on the main floor and the treadmills, etc., are on the second floor.  I can't believe it's housed in such a beautiful building!

We have enjoyed how green this city is.  There are trees, flowers, and little expanses of grass everywhere.  This little pedestrian park is right across from our hotel.

There are roof gardens on many of the buildings.

A new convention center is being built right next to our hotel.  We're not sure, but it looks like they're sodding the roof.  Fascinating.

Vancouver, Day 1

We arrived in Vancouver on Tuesday.  We're staying at the hotel you can see on the left in this picture.  It's beautiful and right in the middle of everything, so we've been walking almost everywhere.  The kids and I have taken the bus once, but you can only ride it if you have already purchased tickets or if you have exact change (in coins, no bills), so we haven't had enough change to do that much.  We also took a taxi once.  It was the kids' first ever cab ride, and they thought it was pretty cool.  They especially thought it was neat that the taxi was a Prius and asked why my Prius didn't have GPS and leather seats like the cool taxi!

We spent most of the first afternoon exploring the hotel and the immediate neighborhood.  We also spent some time in the hotel pool, which is outdoors, but heated.  It's rather overcast and chilly here.  50 degrees in this humidity is a lot colder than 50 in sunny Colorado.  In the evening, we visited the Vancouver Art Museum.  They have an exhibit called "Krazy", which is all about cartoons, comics, anime, etc.  It was interesting.  Then we went to an outstanding Italian restaurant called Al Porto.  

Rose Hill Drive

I had a unique (for me) experience a couple of weeks ago. Chris N. and I went up to her husband's office to be extras in a music video. It was for Rose Hill Drive's new song, "Sneak Out". Rose Hill Drive is a band from Boulder. I guess I'd classify them as heavy metal (although I don't know if that's the appropriate terminology this decade). Most of their songs are too heavy for my taste, but I really like this particular one. The whole process of filming the video was so much fun. We were amazed by how nice everyone was - the musicians, the film crew, the director, everyone. They were all so polite and kept telling us thanks for being there.

We were just supposed to look like people who work in an IT office. (But Pete and his coworkers were laughing about that because they all wear shorts and T-shirts to work, and the director wanted us to wear pants or skirts or suits.) I wore a black suit. I'm SO glad I have never had to wear that kind of attire to work.

The basic story of the video is that a geeky office worker (the lead singer, Jake) falls for a woman at work. Chris and I were there early, so they used us as stand-ins at the band members' desks to adjust the lighting and placement of props as they ran test shots. It was so interesting to see the whole process and see how much attention goes into the details. For example, the person sitting at the first desk is the drummer, and his drumsticks are lying beside his keyboard, along with a bottle of mustard - I have no idea why. The second desk is for the guitar player, and he has some guitar strings lying across his desk, and picks sticking in his keyboard (with a rather graphic image on them - it will be interesting to see if that shows up in the video). The lead singer's desk has an old-fashioned mic sitting on it, as well as three candles that are the hear/see/speak-no-evil monkeys. They worked so hard to line up the shot so that the heads of those monkeys are visible when Jake starts singing.

The whole process was a learning experience and a lot of fun. I'm glad I got to be a part of it.
You can watch the video here: http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos/--157370716

I am in the background at the white board. There are three of us "discussing a project" back there. There's a young guy on the left, Chris N. in the middle, and I'm on the right.

Parkour

Chad and I tried out a new sport on Saturday - parkour. Here's a video of the kind of stuff we are and will be learning. I showed some of you a video before that was much more extreme stuff - the link above is a much more realistic version of what I want to do. Here's a little description I copied from "How Stuff Works":

Parkour is an international discipline, sport and hobby that is best described as the art of forward motion in spite of obstacles, or to put it simply: the art of movement. Parkour's chief aim is never to move backward but instead to overcome obstacles fluidly, with strength, originality and speed. Recreational running is popular enough to warrant millions of dollars in advertising every year and more in consumer purchases, yet many people still find it boring. But what if taking a morning jog didn't mean training for a marathon or wearing short shorts? What if it meant creative, individual expression through acrobatic moves like leaping from walls and over gaps, ground rolls and precision jumping? Instead of running laps around the community park, you'd navigate through the city, making the urban landscape your personal obstacle course, a playground for strength, freedom, courage and discipline.

The class we went to was the first of a 10-week series. Unfortunately, I'll miss the next two weeks of class, but I'll try to practice what we learned so far so I can rejoin on the fourth class. On Saturday, we first did a warm-up and a fitness test, which were both incredibly tough, then we learned some of the basics of landings, rolls, and quadripedal movement. It was a lot of fun, and I cannot believe how sore I am today!

Metamorphosis

When we were at Northfork with my parents two weeks ago, my dad found a cocoon on a tree he was cutting down, so we put it in a jar and took it home with us. The moth just came out yesterday. I was amazed at how much transformation took place after it came out of the cocoon. Look how small his wings are in the first picture and how large the body is . . . watch them change through the series of pictures.