oh the wandering life of me.
after arriving in Canada I spent one night in Guelph, one in Sudbury, two at camp (near Chapleau), another on in Sudbury... then the real road trip began! Once our family (mom, dad, Mere's family and myself) were all assembled we headed out in our rented Yukon. Although it seats 9 people, it was rather squished to fit in 7 plus food and luggage as it has virtually no trunk space. we headed down through Michegan (slight problem just across the border with someone smashing the side view mirror nearly off the truck). the first day we drove something like 12 hours.... a very long trip for 2 little boys...
we spent the night (or what was left of it) in Deluth, MN. The second day we travelled just into Montana state. On our way we made a few unscheduled stops to get out pictures taken with a huge Paul Bunyan statue
and again in North Dakota at the giant buffalo statue and pioneer village.
That night we arrived at our hotel at a fairly reasonable hour. :) The 3rd day we headed to Yellowstone National Park to see Old Faithful. It was VERY crowded with tourists so we didn't get to see much wildlife. by that point the boys were getting pretty fed up with being in the car. when we arrived at the geyser we had just missed seeing it go off and had to wait an hour for the next "viewing". by that point I was pretty tired and not really impressed with the whole thing, however the boys enjoyed watching the geyser "explode".
that night we drove back to Montana to crash. our last day was the remaining leg of the journey to Washington. It was pretty cool watching the terrain change from the "bad lands" to the mountains. I have to say driving through the mountain pass when they're getting ready to blow it up was a little scarey but the view was amazing! Aeryck had a blast taking pictures of everything with his Leap Frog.
We are now at the "Beach House" which is more like a boat house as there's not much beach but it's still a beautiful place and fully equipped for kids. yesterday the girls (minus Laura who had to work) went to get manicures and pedicures and just generally relaxed while dad and dan watched the boys.
today we're heading out to Pike's Market Place and then the girls are going outlet mall shopping. I love holidays! :D
From there we went to The Old Country Market to see the Goats on a Roof where there are quite literally goats living on the roof of the market place. it was rather bizarre but interesting. We then made a quick stop at a butterfly and turtle place just for fun. I got some great pics of some beautiful butterflies before we called it a day and went "home".
Today we spent at the beach at an event called "Kidfest". We checked out the Canadian Sand Castle Competition and walked around with the kids checking out the various booths etc. We were all pretty wiped out by the end of the day. I have yet to go swimming although we were again by the Pacific Ocean. It's a little to chilly for me!
Tomorrow we catch the ferry to the main land. Not sure of all our plans. Dan early this morning to fly home so we should have a little more room in the car on the way back! I think we're spending a few days in Vancouver before Chris and Laura head back to Washington and we start our treck back to Ontario. Better get some sleep... another long day tomorrow!
