The Pirate princess

Landed

We spent most of June sorting, packing and cleaning as we moved out of the house in Salem.

The last few days of June were spent in some Disneyland fun, and now we are sorting and unpacking back in the Wellington house.

We've been in since july 19 and it feels quite like home now, I'm getting on top of the school run over to St Marks, where Liam and Madeline spend their days.

swimming lessons

Izabel and Madeline (left and second left) splash the instructors when their groups joined together for some fun at swimming lessons this week.

Bike ride?

We went for a bike ride at Minto-Brown Park yesterday.

It's by the Willamette river. We've had quite a lot of rain the last few weeks so the rivers up a bit...

It turns out it rained again today. I'm hopeful summer will turn up before we have to leave.

Redwoods

One of our recent ventures involved us driving south to see the Redwoods in California. We had three days so headed to Medford in Southern Oregon for Friday night, about six hours from Salem. Saturday morning we drove along 199 and stopped at a grove of Redwood's for lunch, thats where this pictures taken. There was a short loop track which we did. We continued on to Crescent city, where we got our junior ranger programs and park maps to visit some more parts of the National Park.Crescent city had been devastated by a tsunami in the 60's and guide books don't give it a great write up, but perhaps thats compared to the other more cute fisher village, California, Oregon coast type places. We thought it had a great playground, very similar to QE2 playground in Masterton, and its on the sea, but probably due to the tsunami, it doesn't have many/any older buildings and the sixties weren't great for pretty architecture, it has a functional feel to it. There was a large storm system somewhere in the Pacific which meant the waves were huge and really pounding in and crashing over the breakwater.

We drove further down the coast fo

r another part of the park, Liam and Richard did a couple of short loop walks one on the cliffs above the coast which was to some fake farm buildings which was a ww2 radar station.

The next day was spent walking, on the beach then in another part of the Redwoods park.

Winter Entertainment

Yesterday promised to be a somewhat sunny day so we thought we’d have a go at the Oregon Skiing. We’d done a very unscientific survey (Christine had asked a few people) of ski fields, there are a couple within approx 2 hr drive but settled on Hoodoo, a mountain in the cascades up highway 22 from Salem.

We did a little research the night before and learned that the neighboring mountain looks like what we (with some experience of the southwest) would call a Mesa. Hoodoo is a pointy mountain and apparently the names were swapped on a map because the neighboring mountain is called ‘hayrick’.

From Skiing at Hoodoo OR

We got up early and left here by about 6:30am and got there in plenty of time to park virtually next to the lodge. We signed the elder kids and Richard up for lessons and rented (tried to ‘hire’ it, they thought I was talking about ‘hiking’) the required equipment.

Richard, Liam and Madeline all spend the morning learning to ski, Madeline for the first time. Student to teacher ratio was very low; some had more than one instructor. Lucky we didn’t pay for private lessons!

From Skiing at Hoodoo OR

The weather wasn’t great, cold with light snow but we had plenty of gear to keep warm. Lunch was provided as part of the lessons for the kids and Izabel borrowed some ski boots to have play in the snow at lunch time (even the smallest boots were about twice too big).

From Skiing at Hoodoo OR

The afternoon was spent with more skiing while Christine and Izabel enjoyed the après ski facilities in the ski lodge. Lessons stopped at 3, Madeline was stuffed, Liam and Richard did one run before he was done too, and Richard appeared to all but have the mountain alone.

From Skiing at Hoodoo OR

We came home a slightly different route but found it much longer, still it appears we’ve proven that it’s fairly easy to go skiing for the day from here and we hope to do it again after our annual migration to the south.

Going back

We spent Canadian thanksgiving weekend in Victoria with some good friends and the kids visited the school and caught up with teachers and friends from last year. Madeline seemed to be working on the if I say it enough it will happen option of I want to stay in Canada, though we're pretty sure that it actually has to be James Bay.

one is 'doo and four is five.

We've had a couple of birthdays since the beginning of the month. Madeline has been very pleased to receive parcels in the post. Izabel has torn wrap off parcels and been excited about there being things inside.

We all went to the Aquarium on Sunday which was a big hit. The kids enjoyed the glass blowing video in the oddwater area of the aquarium. Liam liked the sharks and Madeline liked the dolphins, which we think is the concrete one's in the play area.

Thou it might be the seals who were very active.

Settling

We have returned from the east ( some time ago now) and are in our new house. We have three bed rooms and a lovely yard with a playhouse and swing.
Liam started school yesterday and seems happy with it. We have Madeline's preschool lined up, but she doesn't start till the 21st they are also signed up for swimming and after today dance as well. We have a piano in the house do there might be some lessons on that too although Liam is keen to do guitar, so we'll see. We expect our stuff from Santa fe this week which will probably contain some surprises.

National sea shore

We've made our way south and are on the cape. We spent last night camping here. The kids have another junior ranger badge each and are loving playing in the sand. I can see the attraction of a summer cottage on the cape, although one on mount desert island woulde be pretty good too. The beach we're at today is really shallow and the tide is going out so there is miles of beach. Yesterday we were on the outer side and there is surf and the sea is eroding the cliff. We visited some cultural sites in the park one I'd which was the macroni wireless site, interesting since both Richard and I have read thunderstruck.

Ice cream

We can recommend Beal's icecream in Portland Maine, exit 9 off the I 295 and it's straight though the Washington st intersection. We also enjoyed Tubby's in Wyne, also in Maine.

Seals and lobster

Mostly we hung out at Sarah's today, but in the afternoon we drove to Boothbay and went on a Lobster and seal boat trip, we saw seals and harbor dolphins and there were lobster in the trap they pulled up. Liam enjoyed the lobster part the most, he also enjoyed dissecting the lobster Richard and I ate at dinner, he was NOT interested in eating any, but he doesn't like crab or shrimp either so I wasn't very surprised, Izabel was quite keen on it.

At the other coast

Yeasterday we went to Coast with Sarah and Ethan, Pemaquid Lighthouse, in fog and lobster dinner, in the rain. It did clear in between and we had a look around Pemaquid point.

There are new pic's in the sidebar, click on it to view them.

Into the field

It took us a while to get up and Going from Paul's place, but we got to the shops by about midday. We've brought our tent, mats and sleeping bags with us, so we needed a stove, cooking and eating equipment and food!
We left by route three and drove past Lake Winnepesaukee to the White mountains. We found a covered bridge on our way . The weather was cloudy but not raining, we camped in Campton NH, tested out the cooking equipment with pad Thai, most successfully. Another slow start but we packed up and drove through some back roads to Woodsville
and had lunch by a hydro electric power station, and did a factory tour of Cabot creamery (a cheese factory) we'd hate you to think we weren't giving our children the right sort of exposure
Via a covered rail bridge we camped in Vermont at Smugglers Notch State Park
The next morning we went for a hike in the park before heading into Stowe and having lunch at Trapp Family Lodge, bakery. The family which sound of music is based on. We followed this up with a visit to the cider factory and after another covered bridge, Emily's bridge and collecting of more provisions we searched out a camp. Have tried to write more four times now, will post this and start again!

Rain drops keep falling on my head

We've made it to the East coast, saw the sea out the airplane window as we touched down in Boston this morning -EARLY! well it felt it on pacific time it was 4am, but actually 7am EDT.
We have collected our rental car and spent most of today at a collegue of Richard's, We walked in his neighbouhood, looked at a beaver dam and how industriously they dam the culverts. It's raining so were working on getting a firmer plan for the next three weeks together but we drove into Lexington and Concord and looked at and read about the battle sites. We're all pretty tired so it's worked out well and we'll get our camping gear sorted and try it out tomorrow.

Not the witch town

So here we are in another Marroitt room, not such a fabulous view but still a comfortable spot. We drove down the Washington and Oregon Coasts as far as SH22 then cut across inland to Salem. This is our destination for the rest of the year, we have a vacation to the East coast planned for a couple of weeks from now, we'll find a house over the next two weeks (hopefully) then move in.

Richard and Liam are off unpacking the UHAUL into a storage locker since we'll be either in the hotel or away for about five weeks.

Salem looks pretty so far, but I've only driven through it once. We'll get out for a play and look around later on when its cooled off a bit. It's warm here ~35 Celsius when we drove in yesterday, and its no cooler today.

We stopped in a couple of really prety places to camp in Washington, the first was a long sandy beach with a forested campground and the second on a narrow peninsula of land, the campground was on top of the hill part and overlooked the beach where lots of people were letting of early 4th of July fireworks.

Just as well there's lots needs doing, every now and then the kids come up with someone they want to see or something they want to do which is somewhere else.

Madeline is convinced we're either going back to Canada in a week or so or on our way to "Charles Island"

On the move

I'm sitting in a room on the eleventh floor over looking Victoria. We have a few last bits to pack into the uhaul and the cleaning is happening today. Tomorrow is Canada Day so we'll hangout with friends and watch the fireworks before we get onto the COHO ferry to Port Angeles on the Mainland, in the US. We have a couple of days to get to Oregon so we plan to look around the Wasington Coast, snail fashion with our trailer follwing along.

Everyone is sad to be leaving Victoria, thou Izabel doesn't realise it yet. Liam had a hard time on the last day of school, his teachers this year have been a great fit for him and the school as a whole is a warm friendly welcoming place for us all.

the hockey song

I mentioned this event a few posts ago, today I found this on good ol' you tube, Mr B on guitar is Liam's teacher, you won't recognise anyone else :)

Show business

"So Madeline and I are in show business aren't we mummy?"

Liam and Madeline appeared in Liam's end of year ballet with Boston Dance Collective's show, Madeline's not technically with this school but Liam's ballet teacher created a part for her which she was delighted about.  

Liam also managed to appear in three things for the scholl talent show, a comedy routine

 with a classmate, a tap dance by himself and a group dance item with the junior dancers.

Friday and last night Liam's school choir performed with the Arbutus Singers  Liam was very popular with the crowd.  Last night there were treats afterwards and lots of people talked to the kids who'd stayed up for them.

The preceeding week we had final classes for tap (Liam and Madeline) and Ballet 

(Madeline) as well.  

Pole

During our trip to Tofino with visiting family in July they erected this pole. It was a fun thing, they dug a deep hole and put up a really tall pole.
We visited Tofino again this weekend and called in on the same beach, we were impressed to see the same pole in the same location, if slightly tilted. I really hadn't expect to see it still there.