- I simply cannot believe this is winter. 35 degrees yesterday, frolicking through the waves, sweating…now I get why Canadians would often greet me with “Why on earth would you leave Australia?”
- Have been very pleasantly surprised by how amazingly well the kids have transitioned into new life – they have even in bathed, pj-ed up and in bed before 7.30 each and every night. They even sometimes say “thank you.” Unbelievable.
- We’re living up the Sunny Coast for the next little while, which, while completely fabulous and gloriously beachy, means that we still haven’t managed to see 90% of the people we know who are all the way down in Brisvegas. Naely because we don’t yet have a car. Feeling very bad about this. Keep telling myself that we’ll get there, we’re here after all. So from here to there is just, you know, not very far.
- Have been so enjoying seeing those people we have managed to see thus far, including my big bro James who in a wonderfully serendipitous turn of events has himself moved his entire family up here too!
- Am rethinking my life – a lot – in light of having just entered this whole new chapter of life. There are lots of changes coming, very exciting changes…but in short, I feel like I’ve emerged from our travel experience so much surer of who I am and how I wish to go about living this crazy thing called life. Career. Babies. The World. And more. I’ll write more detailed musings on this at another time, but yes, these things are on my mind.
- Am taking great pleasure in that the kids (the 2 older ones, obviously) are now at a stage where I can lure them through the bed-time routine painlessly with the magic words “…then we can watch Australian Idol together”. Not only is it the first time in years I’ve watched the thing, but my whole fam is also wildly enthused. Many more thoughts on this to come.
- Missing Loose Moose. Big time.
- Making plans for my fringe festival show – excited.
- For the first time ever, Hubby and I are completely united in a vision for my career. WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
The Return to Oz Debrief: in ten bullet points or less August 25, 2009
I do believe in magic, I do! I do! August 12, 2009
After our first horrifying day at Disneyland, this was me.
We never even made it back there from the hotel, opting instead to invest in an early night for all. This investment paid us MASSIVE dividends on day two – boy oh boy, I’ll write more about this another time when we’re not still in LA land and trying to make the most of our final hours on this fine continent, but let pictures speak the words I presently cannot:
Ah yes, magic exists. Little Mister got his act together and had not ONE tantrum the entire day. There were a couple of threats mind you, but they fizzled out almost as soon as they began. Ah me.
There was an actual point during the day that I realised I was just walking around with a big stupid grin on my face. Okay Disneyland. You win. And then, in a final moment of private victory:
My own little happily ever after…
Disneyland – A Tantrum Filled Odyssey August 11, 2009
So today, after years, indeed, decades, of dreaming about it, I finally set foot in the most tanrum-riddled happiest place on earth. It took a whole two minutes for Little Mister to set the precedent for the majority of the day.
This little whopper was over a Buzz Lightyear toy at the main entrance. A toy which, might I add, he already owns. Yes, oh yes.
Around this point I was distracted momentarily by a beautiful breeze that swept past me with such sweetness, such no-nonsense-ness, such proper British-ness, that it almost blew me off my feet. I looked. She looked. We locked eyes. Mary Freaking Poppins.
Then she ran away, leaving me to stand there stunned and trying to find my voice. I grabbed Ella’s hand, then dropped it, grabbed it again, then dropped and began running after said British nanny, who apparently was in rather a hurry to be somewhere. I snapped photos like a mad banshee, until I came to my senses, realised that not only were my photos pointless given they were all of MP’s back, but I had a still-tantruming child to deal with fifteen metres behind me and five minutes into our Disney experience there I was looking like some crazy-haired Mary Poppins stalker.
I may be mad, but no stalker am I. Haha! It’s purely coincidental, I tell you, that we bumped into her again a coupla hours later. Yes, yes. Coincidence. Stunning.
Anyway, Little Mister got over his tanty just in time to undergo Jedi Training. We’d heard about this from my good mate Penny, who told us the key was to make some signs for the kids to hold in the crowd so they could show just how keen they were and hopefully improve their chances of being picked to be part of the display. So it was armed with a sign reading “Aussie Jedi: Ready for Training!” that our kiddly-winks made their way up to bust some moves.
And I know I probably sound like any Jedi mother when I tell you that he proceeded to whip Darth Vader’s butt.
So awesome. So rocking. Such a high.
But apparently, what comes up, must come down. Continuing with the space theme, we launched our family upon the Buzz Lightyear ride and – in an ill-conceived notion to fit all five of us in the one tiny little coaster carriage (essentially like trying to squeeze all of us into two air-plane seats that are pre-stocked with a layer or two of children), I’m not proud to say that we broke the entire coaster. That’s right. Production on the Buzz Lightyear ride halted for a good six minutes. So for those of you there sitting in the neon-lit dark buzzing away without motion for that time, you’re welcome. Such is the magic of our family.
Up and running again, the ride was enjoyed by all.
Only to have us disembark – in a classic Disneyland move – straight into the merchandising area, where yet another piece of classic Buzz merchandise set off the boy’s longest tantrum ever. I’m talking well in excess of two and a half hours. No, really.
I’m sorry, are you tired of me mentioning how long this tantrum was? Because seriously, it was something else. I’m talking TWO AND A HALF HOURS. Of gems including (but not limited to):
“I WANT MY BUZZ TOY!”
“BUZZ TOY!”
“AAAGHGGHGHHG!”
and my personal favourite:
“ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS GIVE ME MY BUZZ TOY AND WE CAN GO HOME!”
What to do? We tried to reason. Nothing. We tried to ignore it. Nothing. We just went on rides anyway. Nup.
So we opted to head home early, hoping that a mid-afternoon nap, some time away from the overstimulating paradise and perhaps a swim later, we might return in better spirits. Whereupon I find myself employing some sort of blogging-type-catharsis.
To be continued…
Disneyland better freakin rock August 9, 2009
Would somebody out there please remind me why we’re doing this crazy travel with family thing? Because after the umpteenth tantrum tonight thanks to a wacky combo of kids being completely out of routine, us being beyond exhausted and having essentially raised a temporary white flag to trying to enforce any sort of consistency in our lives, given that upheaval in the next week is completely inevitable, and just trying to settle them down in a new venue every few days or so, I think I’m starting to lose it.
If I ever had it.
Tonight we’ve been madly packing, re-packing, culling, cleaning, sorting, all while trying to feed, bathe, brush and get the already over-tired kids to bed on time. Impossible. Plus Littlest has begun to teethe. Yes. Oh yes.
Remind me again?
Okay, procrastinatory blog mission is officially over. Let’s do this thang.
PS The fringe show wrapped up nicely, I’ve had so many nice comments from people, I’ll write more about that soon.
Final Fringe Show! August 6, 2009
When we first decided 100% to return to Oz, I was absolutely determined not to waste away our last couple of months in Canada by spending the whole time dreaming about our future life back home. I have this horrible tendency to do that, meaning that I often find myself detached from all the awesomeness that’s right in front of me in the moment.
On the plus side, I’m happy to report that I’ve pretty much achieved that. I’ve stayed focused on all the good stuff here in our final laps of Canadian life and have indeed, enjoyed it hugely. On the minus side, I’ve been SO focused on Canucky stuff that I have a feeling now that when we get back to Australia I’m going to be in a massive state of shock: what do we do now?
Anyhoo, life in the past few weeks in a nutty nutshell:
- we polished off the roadtrip with a camping experience with our good friends Dave & Junko.
- upon debriefing, we have concluded that we tried to do WAY too much in too little time on this trip. Something to bear in mind for future travelling expedtitions for sure.
- then jumped madly into the final preparations for my first ever Fringe Festival show…
Night One:
After Tim and the kids got evicted from their usual hang-out space behind the Moose due to a crew filming a project, they launched themselves upon the theatre itself. Meaning that my tech run involved two children chasing each other screaming around the aisles, tearing through my collection of balloon props while my baby slept on the couch, my main set piece. In other words, my nerves were rather shot by the experience. Very poetic, given the subject matter of the show.
It was with eight minutes before call time though, that I seriously freaked out. The fringe being the fringe, is absolutely adamant that each show start ON TIME. No exceptions. No latecomers. Including the performers. So I’m there backstage, feeding Littlest Boob, my hair unbrushed and have apparently lost my makeup bag – it was with four minutes to go that I officially thought “WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!?!?!?!?!”
Thankfully I had amazing hubby and incredible Loose Moose posse to help me out, loan me whatever makeup could be smattered together (thank you Kat!) and take over child-sitting duties (thanks Mel!) so that hubbster could even watch the first show.
I was so so nervous, this being the first fringe show naturally, but also with 95% new material, I had absolutely no idea how it would go and also whether we would even have an audience. But both turned out better than expected. I did, however, make the mistake of reading a review from that first night, something I swore I wasn’t going to do until the festival itself was over. And then I kicked myself. I should qualify this by saying that it was mostly positive. But then it did point out the weak points of the show too. The thing is, the review – in my opinion – was completely bang on. I couldn’t agree more with what the reviewer thought was wrong. I just wish I’d waited til after the festival to read them. Anyhoo, Dennis Cahill (who has been SO amazing with guiding me in this show) had exactly the same notes following the show, so these aspects have – touch wood – changed quite markedly since that first run.
NIGHT TWO:
Bolstered by the fact that I knew now I could do it, and that we were getting a satisfactory sized (and NICE!) crowd, I definitely felt more confident going into this one. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but the improv segments went better than the night before, which were the mainly problematic areas. Shawn Kinley gave me some wicked feedback at the end too, which I’ve since incorporated – and continue to incorporate – into the run.
NIGHT THREE:
I rocked up early and got dressed first thing this night, meaning for the first time on this show, I’ve had a good twenty-five minutes pre-show just to relax, stretch and focus, rather than the typical “oh my goodness, is everything in place? Is everybody okay? Oh what, we’re ready to go? AGH!” madness that’s preceded!
I felt so much more connected and on track – Shawn’s tips were so helpful, especially in the improvised segments, plus my fabulous tech team of Lee and Sam have done such an awesome job of nailing it. I feel like we really gel together so well now, like in the performance art piece, they came in and out with sound and lighting EXACTLY where I’d hoped they’d be. Then right at the end of the show, as we were doing curtain call, I saw a few audience members stand in silhouette. The final number is spot-lit, and it’s up so bright that I honestly can hardly see anything in the crowd at all. So at first I’m all “Oh boy, they’re leaving already, wait, wait, the final gag is just coming up!” and then I see more heads rising, more heads rising and it clicks and I suddenly feel really overwhelmed with what it turns out, is not a mass exodus after all but my first proper standing ovation. I can’t wait to get home and tell hubby. It is, after all – as anybody who’s seen it will know – as much his show as it is mine.
Completely buzzing, I return home to find all three children screaming.
Enough said.
***
So I had a night off last night, it was a great relief actually, just to have some downtime with the fam, to relax and regroup and then once we’d gotten them to bed the hubbster and I ran a few rewrites of the problematic parts of the show through. It’s still not perfect by any means, but I’m so happy with this week – we’ve had more people come than I ever expected, it’s had some great reactions and I’m just so pleased with how it’s evolved and changed so much even over the past few days. That’s exactly what I’d hoped for.
So tonight is closing night – my last performance at Loose Moose for who knows how long. I’m so excited. Nervous? A little. Of course. But mainly just so stoked and pumped to give it everything I’ve got – this time performing with the Moose has been an absolute undeniable highlight of my life. And I can’t believe I have the privilege of treading the boards there for my final show.
What an honour.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changes! July 24, 2009
So the last few days of our road-trip have proven the most – shall we say – flexible of the entire undertaking thus far.
Firstly, we got to Nelson, which was still superbly beautiful, quaint and funky, but our accommodations were not particularly child-friendly, thus after a night in a nice enough but a little too pricey for our liking hotel, we embarked on a new mission: to find a new place to camp out a little way out of town. Not before we’d sussed out the town a little though:
After a cruise around the streets, we stumbled across this very Woodford-esque gypsy folk band; they were so seriously awesome and mesmerising, so joyful in spirit and gorgeous in tune that we couldn’t help but sit down for a hot chocolate and a long bask in their awesomeness:
Such a cool and unexpected delight. As was the very lovely campsite we found the next morning about 20k down the road, right on Lake Kootenay. I’ll be the first to admit that setting up camping with kids is extremely labour intensive, but once you’ve got the basics established, it’s pretty stunning just how relaxing it is. Kids LURVE LURVE LURVE the outdoors, y’all.
Only thing not to like? The bugs. Oh my word. This last walk we did on the lake at dusk had me all but completely lose my mind, as Little Miss put it: “a whole swarm was following you!” I couldn’t work it out – given that the kids were dealing with the odd mozzie but that’s it – but then clicked as I had flash-backs to the last time we camped with baby Ella round Tasmania, only to find myself getting stalked by every six legged thing with a stinger and running through teh forest yelling out “I AM NOT A FLOWER!”: insects love the smell of breastmilk.
Dang.
Anyhoo, this morning the kids awoke pumped about camping but with slightly worse chests (though no temperatures yet, that’s the big thing we’re looking out for, upon which plans will be taking some very drastic turns indeed), we opted for a post-breakfast leisurely drive and where should we end up but on the “world’s longest free ferry ride!” across Kootenay Bay, only to realise that we really had NO idea how long the world’s longest free ferry ride would be and wondered whether we’d accidentally jumped onboard an hours-long saga.
Fortunately not only was that not the case (it was only 20 mins max), but we inadvertently found ourselves in one of the most gorgeous little alcoves (again, hugely reminiscent of Woodford culture) ever. Art stores everywhere, housed in places so cute that words – and I fear, pictures – can’t do them justice.
The kids loved watching the glassblower demo too, with Little Master’s attention on the whole matter completely blowing my mind (no pun intended…well, okay, kinda)
On the way back the rain started. Which we were then told was predicted to escalate into thunderstorms for much of tonight and tomorrow morning – we made an executive decision and made a mad ditch attempt to dismantle our campsite and find a motel somewhere as quickly as possible. In short: despite our best attempts to convince the kids to stay in the van so as to stay dry, everybody got wet. Wet. Wet. Wet. And love was not all around. (PS If you got that reference, good for you. Here, have a lollypop.)
Anyhoo, after debating whether to get a motel nearby or try to seize the opportunity to drive onward towards our future destination, we opted to follow the weather’s lead. By the time we’d set out again the rain had eased up a little – at least enough for us to feel comfortable driving on major one-lane highways as far as we could push it – and thus in doing so we stumbled onto the next delightful surprise en route:
“The Glass Castle”, originally built by a dude as his own abode, who finally caved in once people kept annoying him, stopping by and demanding to know what this place was – he built it out of funeral home embalming bottles (that’s right!) and it is…well, seriously…
Yep.
This roadtrip has felt very much like a poetic end to our time here in Canada, especially in that it’s really allowed Mister Boob and I to re-discover what a fantastic team we make. When I’m falling apart, he comes through for me (and hopefully vice versa!). I can and will write more on this another time, but just want to say right now how I’m fully realising more and more just how much I love this man.
Not least of all because he took this:
She don’t like, she don’t like, she don’t like…Spokane July 22, 2009
Just kidding, I hardly even had time to check Spokane out, truth be told, it was just too good a pun to pass up.
Yesterday was by far the longest stretch of drive of the entire trip – we left Seattle around 9.30 and finally reached Spokane around 5.30 – and while it had it’s terrifying moments of tantrums big enough to rival an American buffet (and that’s not even the kids) the bottom lines are that:
1) Washington State is stunningly beautiful and diverse, with amazing forests one minute, lakes the next and rockscapes the minute after that one.
2) We arrived safely and were very pleasantly surprised by how relaxing camping can be with kidlets. Once you’re set up, that is.
Here’s a gratuitous snap of my boys waking up in the tent this morn, or as I like to call it “Boyz under da hood.”
We’re also realising quickly how worthwhile it is to do a bit of extra research and hunt down campgrounds/accommodation that is specifically family friendly. For instance, our place last night had a ton of play equipment PLUS a 9pm outdoor cinema where they show a free family movie. Thus, after a dinner of Vegemite sandwiches, bananas and grapes, we descended on a much needed wind-down viewing of Monsters Inc.
Then up and at em in the morning for our next major stretch back to Canada. I learned a very valuable lesson – just as we were leaving, Mister Boob insisted that we stop by a camping store to get a couple of extra supplies – even though I was reluctant to stop our slow-moving morning any longer, I threw caution to the wind (I know, Renegade Am I) and took the kids in for a last stretch of their legs before our huge car jaunt. And boy was I glad I did.
The so-called “Sports Store” that we entered didn’t have a basketball in sight – what it DID have was the mounted carcuss of just about any north American animal you can imagine, guns, ammo, all stuff I shouldn’t be surprised at, but what did shock the living daylights out of me was how much of this hunting paraphernalia was aimed at children. No kidding, from a doll range called “Hunter Dan!” who comes complete “With brand new moose hide camo!” to a series of colouring books called “Coloring for Little Hunters” with pictures of kids shooting elk, to an entire wall of the store devoted to photos of customers’ kids proudly displaying their first kill, I was pretty…erm, culture shocked. Even my little Mister Boob was alarming me with his enthusiasm, quickly grabbing at the kiddy level automatic air rifles and swapping his typical supermarket “Can I have XXXX candy?!” with “Can I get this gun? Please? Please? Please?”
Sur-real.
So glad we went. We entered emptyhanded, but returned rich with tent pegs, opened eyes and reams of comedy material. Thanks!
Then the real fun began. Driving, driving, driving…with just enough beautiful views along the way to make it worth the while…
Canadian customs was beyond cruisy – man I love you guys – and we arrived exhausted, hot but relatively happy in Nelson, BC this very eve. A quick check out of our campgrounds made us change plans – not that they were bad per se, but just tiny and without any running room or facilities specifically for kids. Add this to the fact that the kids – all three of em – woke up this morning with little chest rattles, and we decided to splash out for a hotel room tonight, then tomorrow we’ll head out of town about 20k to a very family friendly campground where we’ll pitch our tent for the following two nights of our stint here. Assuming the kids are all up for it, of course. Ah, flexibility – if that’s really what the hokey pokey is all about, then we, my friends, are quickly become yogis.
But sweet, sweet, Nelson. So nice to see you!
So long Seattle…and thanks for all the fish! July 20, 2009
I feel like by the end of this trip we’re going to have attained a PhD – alright, alright, maybe a slight exaggeration, but at least a Graduate Diploma – in travelling with kids. When I remind myself that our itinerary on this trip is completely toned down compared to the original draft – i.e. that the first plan involved about six additional destinations crammed into an even shorter space of time – it almost makes me shudder. What were we THINKING?!?!?
Anyway, the bottom line at this point is that we chose to use today as a bit of a ‘rest and recover’ mission. While it is my nature just to go forth and conquer despite my body telling me otherwise, I can also recognise that with kids in the travelling picture you just have to roll with the punches and do what you’ve gotta do, even if it means doing a whole lot less than you wanna do. If that makes any sense whatsoever.
So this morning Mister B set off on his own adventure while the kids and I slept late and then fudged around our apartment. It was surprisingly blissful – we’re also seeing the kids’ personality differences emerge hugely in travel terms. Little Miss is a natural born traveller who throws herself in heartily to the nomadic lifestyle. We started her up early in the piece with a travel journal (we did this for Little Master too, but he hasn’t shown any interest in it whatsoever thus far), which she has set upon with relish!
Here she writes, draws and posts in postcards and other memorabilia of our travels, a great way to distract her ever-active mind, especially when it turns to darker things, namely tormenting her little brother with taunts like “I’m sleeping on the BEST bunk!” Because of course, there is a hierarchy of bunk-beds and if you ain’t up the top, then you ain’t up the top.
Where was I? Oh yes, personalities. Little Master, on the other hand, has been doing surprisingly well especially given how much walking this past week has involved, but the little dude is just, well…a homebody. Too much time out and he just doesn’t do well – he loves the novelty of setting up camp somewhere new, don’t get me wrong, but once camp is set, he likes to stay there. Often. So today – just hanging around the hotel room, eating everything here in our little kitchenette, lying around and watching cartoons and just generally chilling out was exactly what he needed. His behaviour the entire day has been EXCEPTIONAL. Which is so awesome, as at times you can forget that in the heat of the moment, your kids are just kids and not spawned from someplace…you know…hot.
This oh-so-flattering shot was taken mere seconds after Little Mister – in a particularly nasty public tantrum outside Seattle’s Pike Place Market – reached up and in an act of vengeance for my refusal to piggy-back him, tweaked my nipple. Yes. You read that right. Tweaked it. In public. In the birthplace of Pearl Jam. So wrong on so many levels.
Littlest Boob, meanwhile, is just awesome – though he’s developing so many changes daily that I’m starting to freak out about him actually becoming mobile before we’ve finished our travels. Which – oh, poor me, look at me and my wonderfully developing baby – is awesome, but to be perfectly honest, is a little tricky to factor into life on the road. More on that another time…
So today. Yes, that’s where I was. After Mister returned – rejuvenated after some awesome solo time doing his thang – Little Miss and I headed out for a very brief but suitably fabulous time hanging out in Fremont, which I’d been advised was a terribly funky neighbourhood in this city and had a Sunday market to boot. In a nutshell, it was seriously cool - great vibe, cool sights, wicked little vintage shops everywhere plus a chocolate factory with as many free samples as you could stomach – in other words, Seattle’s stocks shot up in my world quite dramatically.
Above: me after way too little sleep last night.
Above: But then we stumbled into quite possibly the cutest little cafe setup I’ve seen in ages, so it was all okay. If I get to bed in the next ten minutes, my head might possibly even deflate in time for our significant car trip tomorrow.
Oh yeah and we finally had a west coast salmon for dinner tonight – a whole fillet for $1.88!!! My head almost exploded just thinking about that. So scrummy, I’d been told that was on the list of must-dos this trip.
So even though I didn’t spot Eddie Vedder, nor did we cover even close to as much sightseeing as we would have liked, all in all Seattle was pretty rocking.
Salada Seattle!
Hopefully next time we’ll be a little less exhausted to make more of it. At least this way we’ve rested up a little to make the most of the next week, ALL of which is camping.
Wish us luck! Agh!
First we take Manhattan…erm, I mean Seattle July 19, 2009
First things first, turns out the Space Needle really ain’t that big y’all. Hehe.
Mister Boob and I were reflecting on our bus ride home today about our first impressions of Seattle – I proffered that it reminded me of my first impressions of Boston. Namely in that I felt that in any other circumstance, I’d be head over heels in love with it. But given the timing of my entry into both cities coincided with just having fallen head over heels for another (New York City predecessing Boston, Vancouver falling before Seattle), the second city just couldn’t quite woo me in the same way – not through any fault of its own, mind you. Simply because I’d already been wooed.
Add to this the fact that at this particular point in the trip – almost two weeks in and with the past one pretty much being highly physical i.e. trekking all over major cities – we are all just so damn tired…and well, I don’t think Seattle’s had a very fair chance to blow our socks off.
Which is a real pity, because by all accounts it was a fabulous day. We headed downtown and then straight onto the monorail over to the very fabulous Seattle Center.
Turned out it was Bite of Seattle, a food festival which saw crowds and crowds (I’m talking CROWDS PEOPLE!) descend upon the square, soaking up as much yummy samples as they could proffer and with rock music – and full arm tattoos – descending upon us from all sides, we felt suitably infused with Seattlian culture in one massive hit.
Little Miss and I shared a strawberry shortcake splurge – and yes, it really was as good as it looks, thanks for asking. We left Mister and Little Master to check out the on-site skateboarding demos and investigate the entertainment arcade, while we (including Littlest) set out to check out the Music Experience Project (did I get that name right?) which included not only a sci fi exhibit featuring the original Death Star model: AAAAGGGGHHH SO COOL! but also an exhibition completely devoted to Jim Henson.
I can’t even really do it justice, but suffice to say it featured a kermit the frog tactile wall, an interactive rockband quaintly called Mud Garden with muppets inspired by Jimi Hendrix and yes, Kurt Cobain, a wall (sadly smaller than this geek would have liked) on The Dark Crystal as well as reams and reams of original scrawlings, ideas and backstories to the man’s creations. So inspiring. And while Little Miss was into it, I just couldn’t quite convey to her just how much all of these displays really meant to me, or rather, to my nostalgia neurons.
Next stop: hooking up with the boys and heading on down to Pike Place, a very famous market on the waterfront. Sauntered round for a bit, aiming to hit the ferries, then realised just how late it was and that we were already pushing our luck with the kids holding their shizz together. Opted instead to look into that tomorrow and stroll home slowly – it was around this time that we stumbled onto an alley that after a hugely long day, made my heart SING!
I turned to Mister Boob and said “NOW I get it.”
Mister: “Get what?”
Me: “Why people love Seattle.”
And what do you know? I’m not saying I fell head over for it, but I do believe my heart just put out it’s sign again:
“Open for Wooing.”
Today: the happiest place on earth! July 18, 2009
Otherwise known as the US border!
Bye bye for now Canada!
We’d expected the worst but hoped for the best, with the reality falling somewhere in between. The worst being that we indeed had to wait and got pulled over to go inside to do more paperwork, the best being that this US checkpoint was at least designed to try to keep people pleasantly occupied during the wait with some truly lovely gardens where the kids could at least get out of the car, stretch their legs and exorcise/exercise their little inner terrorists before heading in for the official passport stuff.
More positives – our customs dude was super nice, we actually ended up getting through it all pretty quickly and without too much attitude from anybody other than the kids, and then the drive down into Seattle was actually rather splendidly beautiful - not the least reason of which is that I managed to score a super cheap pair of cross-trainers at the suggested outlet mall stop (thanks Mona!) $30 for decent athletic shoes: inconceivable!
So here we are, in our apartment which is beyond fabulous because:
a) my previous local librarian in High River, upon seeing I’d ordered in a book on ‘Seattle with kids’, all but jumped on me with her barcode scanner and screeched at me (in her lovely Canadian way, of course) “I KNOW EXACTLY WHERE YOU NEED TO STAY! THIS PLACE IS AWESOME!” And happily, 5 seconds into our stay, we could see she was not kidding.
b) After cramming our bods into the Vancouver hostel (I haven’t seen the horror film “Hostel” but does it involve small children and bunkbeds? Because I’ve lived it and in a word: terrifying) this place feels about a spacious as the Sahara Desert. But with air-con. Yes I know…awesome.
Chilling out is on the cards tonight, then we’ve got a coupla days to check out the city sights/sites – thanks Kerry for the suggestions, I’m onto it!
Mister Boob and I already feel like we’ve learned SO much on this trip about the ins and outs of family travel, not the least of which is to not feel guilty about doing nothing if and when you need to. Some good time invested in recovering from exhaustion seems to be worth it, even if it goes against any natural desire (talking to myself here) to squeeze the most out of every second of your time in a destination.
Ooh and in a final trivial tid-bit, I’m so stoked to see that they have a hot tub here. That’s totally happening tonight. Yes, yes indeed. I haven’t seen much of you yet Seattle, but I have a feeling we’re gonna be firm friends.
