Summer Recap - Blog Un-bog

So I promised I wouldn't get bogged down with the blog and here it is 3 months since I posted. So here's a quick recap of the first part of summer to un-bog the blog.


May 1st brought a school carnival at the elementary school Lea will attend starting in August. I can't believe it. We've gotten involved with a really nice group of people and Lea has met quite a few kids that she will be attending Kindergarten with. I volunteered at the carnival and ended up face painting. It was very fun.

I did a lot of butterflies.

But strawberries turned out to be my specialty.

That night I got free tickets to a Reverend Horton Heat show (at another elementary school fund raiser) and Dan got sick so my surrogate hubby Uncle Scumfy Hopens came with instead. It was very fun (open bar) and I managed to not spend a dime at the high tech auction.

The Rev's finale.

At a friend's garage sale Dan was gifted these very awesome tennis ball texture high tops as a goof, but he's worn them almost every day. He even got new laces that fit better - hot pink Ramones laces! He's certainly got style.

Around the end of May, when the fireflies started to show up Lea and I went out one night to Stone Tables with our nets. Lea liked playing more than catching, but we got one in a jar. Later Lea and daddy looked up lots of facts about fireflies.

Stone Tables Park at dusk waiting for the fireflies.

For Memorial day we headed to Clovis, NM to see Great Grandma Dusty Jones. Gra was at Uncle Kyle's house convalescing so we didn't get to see him, but Grandpa Dan was there. It was a day's drive and we had a good time. Our first road trip in Daddy's new van!

And staying with Grandpa and Great Grandma had its perks.

Like ice cream and cake for breakfast!

Great Grandma Dusty and Grandpa.
We went out to a friend of the families to see their horses and some other livestock.



Lea was very excited she still fit through the dog door. We were at their house when she was about 2 and she loved going through the dog door. I told her she was probably too big, but she proved me wrong. She loved playing the the dachshund Sabrina who had as much energy as Lea. Lea would say "talk her mommy" so I came up with a voice for Sabrina that said "Play with me little lady. Throw the ball little lady. I have to go check on my lady." Jake the dog was a bit more old and less energetic, but he kept a solid eye on the place. He had a gruff voice and mostly said "who is that by my fence, this is my property. I'll sniff around the fence to check for strangers. Now I gotta check inside."

Clovis has a zoo. Who knew? It was pretty big for Clovis, NM! They even had bears. Lea got her zoo glasses there for $1.

They had a zeedonk... a hybrid between a zebra and a donkey!

Our little monkey with the monkeys.

Family at the Clovis, NM zoo.

Saying good bye for our trip home out front.

Then we got to visit the Dallas zoo, thanks to a new school friend Hayden who had her 5th birthday at the zoo. The girls got to pet some animals (including a hedgehog - mommy got to pet it too. It felt like the tines on a comb) and played out in the water park in the children's area.

Each kid got to take home a friend. We got baby tiger.

We wondered around the very hot zoo and saw the new Savannah exhibit with giraffes and elephants. And on the way out Lea and I rode the carousel.

Twice! We almost made ourselves sick on the spinning nest.

And for 5 days Sherry was in town between assignments. So we all met at the Elbow Room for a little grown up refreshment.

Here's to Sherry

June 8 there was an outdoor concert by the symphony at Exall park. We brought a picnic and met Ann & Abel and the kids. Lea got a giant snow cone and got to do the bounce house for free!

We didn't make it to the end of the concert, but we had fun.

A friend of ours burst his spleen (by "jumping" out of a tree). So out of that unfortunate event came some fun for the girls in our lives. We had Anna and Molly stay the night on June 12 to help let Andrew recover and Pam have a much needed break. The girls had a wonderful time playing together. We played out back in the sprinkler and the mud.


I was worried about how 3 girls would get along, but they did great. If two were playing one would go off and find a toy to play with. But several times they played games where each one had a part and then they'd rotate, like princes, evil queen and prince. I was making lunch and one girl would come out and say "I'm the prince, I'm waiting for the evil queen to cast the spell. Oh gotta go." Then another girl would come out and say "I'm the prince." It was very cute.

And that wraps up the pre-vacation summer.

Vancouver 2010

Thursday April 22. Flew in about 2pm. ie on plane. Good flight, but delayed half an hour. Met Sherry right outside customs and took the train to her awesome apartment with windows for 3 walls. Like a page out of the IKEA catelog it came fully furnished in a very cool modern style that was the exact opposite of what I imagined. We dropped off stuff and walked down Granville street. Stopped at the purported best Poutine shop outside of Montreal.
Poutine is one of the few TRUE canadian foods... and why we don't talk about it more than Candaian bacon is beyond me! Its french fries with cheese curds covered in gravy. It was awesome. I had a Montreal beer to go with it and a hot dog. We then continued down Granville, a main artery in downtown alive with pedestrians and canine companions, flower markets and general bustle of an active city. We walked down to English Bay talking all the way, catching up. We stopped to tease the statures in the Laughing Man installation... they seemed to think we were pretty funny. English Bay is beautiful with its Mountain backdrop and Pacific Northwest Cost foliage. We sat and talked about where Sherry will go from Vancouver and how her company is holding her back a bit after this awesome global experience. But she has some options. We then continued down to the First Nation (Candaina Indian) sculpture of the Inkokshuk. A symbol used in the Olympics, but here long before VANOC. It was a symbol the First Nationals would erect to signify good fishing and prosperity in a certain area along the coast.
We stopped at what would be the first of many British Pubs. This one on the water was mostly Irish and I had a Strongbow Cider. We bussed back up to grab a jacket, update our facebook status and then went out for a pint... or half gallon as the case may be. We went out to one of Sherry's top spots ........ and I was introduced to Hogarten and their gigantic glasses. Its said to be a two hander beer but no match for Sherry... and I held my own.
Also had a delish corned beef sammi on grilled rye with shredded apple and chedar cheese with rosemarry au jus. It was SO FANASTIC. All the food here is amazing. The general cost of living is a bit higher than I'm used to, and there are no one dollar bills, just coins for one and two dollars. Its hard to get used to, but pretty cool once you do. We watched some playoff hockey games. It was very cool to be in a place where the whole bar was interested in a hockey game (that was not their team - that would be Friday night - including all the women. Also on tv any ad featuring a sports celeb is a hockey guy... it is truly the Candian equivalent of football in Dallas. I like it! We called it a night early since I was getting used to the time zone and I was sound asleep by 11.

Friday April 23. My first full day. I managed to sleep until 9 am - 11 am Dallas time - a true treat. We headed out to one of the highly touted breakfast places on Sherry's list. It was a cool diner that had original fixtures of in booth juke boxes and silver stools at the counter since it had been a diner continually since 1939.
Obvioulsy not the same diner as it had a tofu omlet and veggie bacon as options, but they had fare for the omnivore too. I had a croissant with egg, garlic, brie and bacon and rosemary potatoes. It was as good as it sounds! We had coffee though we could have started the day there with any selection from be bar. They also had an old time projection screen over the counter where they show movies some nights. Very cool place. We then walked through downtown to Granville Island... which is not an island. And actually we walked to False Creek (bigger than a creek and don't know what was False about it). We took a wee water taxi to the island (that is really just a peninsula). Such a cute little boat.
We walked through the market that had crafts and fresh produce and meats until it was time for our Brewery tour. Granville Island Brewery offers tours for about the same price as their sampler beer special so we got the whole package.
We were with a small group of folks, a family from Toronto with two college aged sons and a single Australian guy. We got the standard spiel about making beer and I realized I had lagers and ales backward on my taste expectation, so I actually learned something. We then sat down for our tasting of 4 of their beer selection at a long table with all the people in the tour and started talking. Turned out one of the brothers, Kovid, was going to go to college in Australia so he exchanged some info with our Aussie friend, Cameron. Sherry and I ordered a round and continued to chat with the boys until we realized we'd been there long enough the next tour was starting to congregate. The family left, but we moved to a table and continued our cultural exchange with Cameron where we talked about about driving in different countries and news and all kinds of stuff. I got antsy to spend money in this little arts and crafts mecca so we went to wonder around and invited Cameron who joined us for an hour or two. Sherry is quick to point out he was a child of 21, so young and bright eyed, but interesting to talk to and made me shopping for toys (where I didn't buy anything) more bareable for Sherry I imagine. We did have an awesome time in the hat shop where I had my eye on a $60 pink rain hat. I exercised restraint and decided I would find one online. It was a very very cute hat though. (I have since bought a blue hat and been gifted a pink hat.)

After a bit of shopping Cameron bid us adiue and we wondered a bit more about the shops, picked up a souveiner or two for me, ate gelato watching the rain come in on the water and then took a water taxi to Wicklow for more beer (in my case a yummy pomegranate flavored cider) and much heralded nachos. I found it funny I came to Canada for English food and nachos, but it was all so yummy. It was coming on 5pm. And Friday night was game 5 of a tied playoff series between the Canucks and Kings. Sherry had talked about how we needed to get a spot in a bar early because they would all fill up as the whole town would be out to watch the game. Alas and alack our timing was not great and we ended up back downtown right about the time everyone had settled into their favorite pub after work. We had a plan, but it was not to be as the two bars we had our sights on were to capacity. We were told we could wait for a table, but probably no one would leave until the game was over... not a good option for weary travelers in need of beers. We had passed a place that seemed to have some tables so I suggested popping in, and while there were indeed open tables and tvs set to show the game, it was a kind of swank in spite of itself pizza/greek place. It didn't really seem like what we were looking for. We bailed thinking that place would have an open table even in the middle of the game if we were desperate. So Sherry had another idea, a block or two down when we passed a place called Johnny Foxs Irish Snug. We passed it thinking it looked full from the quick glimse in the window as we passed, but as we walked and talked we thought we might come back to check out this Fox Snug and that Sherry'd always been curious. So we poked our heads in to check out the situation and though dark and pub-like... if there had been any light it would be like a streaming beam from heaven on the two bar stools RIGHT in front of the giant tv with the game on. It was AWESOME! They had snakebite on the menu... I didn't even have to explain what it was like I have some places (half cider and half lager). We ate mini yorkshire pudding with delish roast beef and horseradish, wings and patchos (potato nachos). We drank and talked and cheered and talked and drank until about 12:30... pretty hardcore for old Central time zone gal.

We had a few culinary indulgences on the way home. A slice of pizza drizzled with an unknown white sauce of glory... turned out to be beef and blue cheese pizza. One of Sherry's favs, but she promised never to reveal the answer to the mystery of the unknown white sauce to her friend who introduced her to this pizza. We finished up our slice in less than a block and stopped at legendary donutier Tim Horton's for a maple glaze as a midnight snack desert. A perfect day.

Saturday April 24. Woke up WAY too early with heart burn. Will lobby for a nap in the schedule. We went to breakfast at the Elbow Room where I was warned they would be rude and if we ordered too much they'd make us pay a donation to a food bank. We thought we had a plan. Unfortunately as a designer I have no sense of proportion so we ordered the 12" pancake. The thought "why that's as big as a pizza" would have been REALLY helpful before ordering. I hid toast in my purse and could not finish my share so I put money in the jar. Over all it was good, but stressful though Sherry blew it off and said I shouldn't stress about it I did. So we were incredibly full, which was actually helpful because we were off to hike through Vancouver. We went to Canada Place and the convention center, saw some cool buildings and the Olympic Cauldron (where the torch ended). We saw an Amazing Race like box, but it seemed to be some corporate workshop doing from the people who stopped at it. Plus there were no cameras, just two Asian people with a clipboard. We then took a seabus over to North Vancouver and a bus to Lynn Canyon. It started to rain just as we got to the park, but we trudged on hiking what turned out to be a beginner trail, but left me rather wined. It was awesome and beautiful. I was worried about the suspended bridge, but since there was only one it wasn't as scary as I imagined. It was beautiful even in the rain. We headed back on the seabus. We had a nice little rest before heading back out the Granville.
Sherry and I on Granville
We started at Lennox (where we were the first night with the giant beers). I then could not resist the draw of an underground bowling alley next door. It was awesome it was some wierd Canadian bowling with 6 tiny pins on strings with itty bitty balls hurled at them way more than two times per turn. We did not play, but we drank beer (from a pitcher with a frozen block in the middle - very smart - of the Granville Island Brewery that we'd toured earlier). The bowling alley was decorated with kitch from the past century. It was so cool with so much to look at.

We kind of got screwed up on the eating schedule due to our HUGE breakfast so we found ourselves rather peckish with little fare offered in our kitchy haven. I did have a piece of toast that I had hidden in my purse from the over zealous breakfast place. But that didn't hit the spot so a stop at the hoity toity Poutine place was in order (and Tim Horton for desert/breakfast). The poutine that night was extra good because it was so melty by the time we got home. It was also extra good because I got dried beef on it. YUM! Oh and maybe because I'd had a lot to drink and little to eat so it was extra tasty!

Sunday April 25. We started the day off with a trip to church. It was a lovely church that was in the middle of its pledge drive so instead of a homily they actually wheeled out three TV sets and showed a video on the diocese of Vancouver. It was kind of like a travel video, but very very very strange.


Sherry and I at Burgoo

Then off to Burgoo for the best grilled cheese in the world. While things much touted often fall short, this did not. It met all expectations with its yummy multi cheese melted on butter soaked french bread with homemade tomato soup. AMAZING!!


I felt it worth recording — this was the first non-alcoholic thing I ordered and I'd been in Canada what 4 days?
Then a bus ride took us to the park on the peninsula where we tried our best to get lost, but made our way.

Saw totems and bought a magnet for something we didn't even visit. I wasn't paying attention and liked the skyline on the magnet, but when I got it home it says in huge letters "Science Place." Ah what fond memories I have of not going there. It was something I only saw from across the water. Then home for a long rest and were considering a quiet night of movies in when we remembered it was game 6 of the Vancouver Kings series so we went to a sports bar where I finally met some of Sherry's co-workers. We watched the Canucks win their round of the playoffs with much whooping and shot doing around us. Being a Sunday our table was rather low key.

Monday April 26 I was all packed and ready to go. We went back to the Templeton for breakfast and then back the apartment to get my stuff and send me off the airport. Fortunately I made one last call to Dan to check on things. It turned out my flight was canceled so a good thing I checked in (by Skype). I could not be reached since my phone didn't work in Canada and Dan didn't have Sherry's number. So Sherry was stuck with me another day. She had planned on going to the movies so she had to drag me along hee hee. We saw Alice in Wonderland (my first 3 D movie) and had popcorn (in Canada you get real butter, but have to pay extra for it). Then we ended the day at Sherry's fav spot the Winking Judge for Broccoli and Stilton soup on a rainy day. Sherry's co-workers actually saw us in the window on their way home from work. I'm sure they thought I'd never leave!

But come Sunday morning bright and early I was off to the airport and actually got on a plane (with poutine from burger king!).


A great trip! But I missed my sweeties. The extra day there made it 6 days away. I was getting homesick. And when I got home I was greeted by this wonderful sign made by Lea and Grandma! What a great welcome!