Oh Canada

For Labor Day, or Labour Day, as the case may be, we went to Vancouver, British Columbia. The land of the maple leaf. Home of our friendly neighbors to the north.

It took some convincing considering Dave's dislike of Canadians. When I got to the bottom of the deep dislike, I learned that it's rooted in the simple fact that Canadians don't find him funny. Specifically, they don't find him funny when he says things like, "Greetings from America!" and "We come in peace!"

In spite of the Canadian's lack of a sense of

humour and a lot of rain, we had a great time.

My primary purpose in heading north was to stockpile as many of these as I possibly could and bring home a stash to last through the winter.

And some of these, too.

Of course I ate way too many and got sick.

So we went here....

....where I bought some of these to counter balance all the Canadian candy. It worked. I continued to gorge myself on the world's best candy.

Dave, whose eating habits are better than mine, was more interested in this.

A fascinating and beautiful city.

We made it back to the US with:

0 Smarties

0 Turkish Delights

2 Jugs of Maple Syrup

A Sort of Homecoming

I had to chaperone the Homecoming Dance at the high school. Tiffany was fascinated with it for weeks. What kinds of dresses do the girls wear? How is it decorated? What music do they play? So I decided to ask her to be my date. She was overjoyed. It was so fun to have a little pal hang out at the dance with me. She was the prettiest girl there!

Little Scoot Coupe

We went to Friday Harbor for Dave's birthday. It's a spectacular island in the San Juans. It was a long, but stunning ferry ride from Anacortes. Apparently people from Washington refer to this area of the San Juans as the sunbelt or something like that. Sunbelt seemed like a stretch to me (as I've said before, Washingtonians have very low standards for weather) but it was clear and sunny and beautiful.

Dave above the harbor.

We rented this little number, a "Scoot Coupe", to see the island. The scoot coupe is not for the cowardly (or those who like to travel over 35, make sharp turns, and go up hills.)

Islands, islands everywhere.

Our sweet ride took us to some really pretty vantage points. We saw a seal here. Or maybe a sea lion. I'm still not quite sure the difference.

This guy here...he loves the open road. Don't try to tame him. He was born this way. Born to be wild.

Filling her up at the gas pump. What she lacks in power and agility, she makes up for in fuel efficiency.

Pin the glasses on the silly dad

The kids decided it would be fun to plan a surprise party for Dave's birthday. They made signs, cupcakes, and a very clever game. You may have heard of the classic birthday game, Pin the Tail on the Donkey. We played a similar game. Put the Glasses on the Silly Dad. The pictures were too blurry to post, but I was so impressed with Tiff's clever idea. It was a crowd favorite.

Dave and the girls.

Cupcakes and presents!

Of all the things in Target, they decided that dad would like this more than anything else. They turned out to be right.

Happy Birthday Silly Dad!

Say Kachees!

We went to Lake Kachees with the Bennetts just before school started. We took the sailboat and found a beautiful, remote camp spot. This island was across from our camp.

Tiff and the Bennett boys at camp.

Nat and me heading to the island.