August got off to a fast start.
The first weekend was spent in Astoria's Fort Steven's State Park for Cycle Oregon Weekend 2008. Well, it ended up being partially Cycle Washington. You can read about that here.
The rest of the week, the girls had half a day every day of soccer camp. It was a really hot week with temps in the 90's, but they seemed to have lots of fun. Ellen was one of 3 girls out of 20 boys in her age group. Phoebe's age group was pretty evenly split. They also got some play dates in with some of their friends. One was at our house, and another was at the library for a reptile demonstration.
Our weekend didn't start out great...well, we did get to have Brinner, but I was on the phone for work until after 11pm postponing the start of my packing a little bit. Jada had a ton of errands to run and completed them all. Saturday, the girls got hair cuts and we packed for our trip to Anacortes, WA and the San Juan Islands. You can read all about that trip here.
The weekend of the 16th, we were wiped out on Saturday from our trip, but we still had lots to do. I had someone coming out to look at our garage door which had split and was sagging in the upper left corner at 8am while Jada went to the Farmers Market. He put a brace over the split to at least keep it from sagging when it was open so it didn't just suddenly split and fall into the car or something. It was already hot at 9:30am when we loaded up on the bike for our yearly trip to Conestoga Rec Center for Big truck day! It's easier to park if we go by bike, and with the hot weather, ODOT was recommending limiting driving to keep the air quality up because nothing was moving. The ride wasn't too bad, and it's only about 10 minutes. We met up with our friend Jenny and her kids Nolan and Brycen. It was their first trip to the Big Truck Day. The boys and our girls all had fun climbing into the cabs, honking the horns. Ellen went up into the police S.W.A.T vehicle turret on her own and helped Nolan get up there as well. Even the Oscar Meyer Weiner mobile was there. It was a good truck turn out this year. Later in the afternoon while the girls napped, I finally took my suit to the cleaners and stopped by another friend's house to help change a bike tire. I did that errand by bike too. When I was moving it wasn't too bad, but as soon as I stopped, it was like a Harlem Globetrotter had doused me with a bucket of sweat instead of confetti. Later that evening, we drove to a bbq for our friends Mike and Carrie who are getting married next weekend. Lots of good food was served, and the girls got to play with Carrie's sister who is over early from Hong Kong.
Sunday was still hot, but not 100 degrees. It only got into the 80's and was overcast and humid all day. I spent the day doing laundry and working on the journal from our tandem vacation (see above for link). We visited grandma in the morning so the girls could paint with her. We then spent the afternoon not napping while the girls took turns throwing huge fits well into the evening and bed time. The weather seemed to be breaking a little in the evening as the wind picked up, and the air felt a bit cooler. Jada had to get ready for a training that she had coming up this week for school. Phoebe had her Kindergarten assessments this week, and she did pretty well in that.
Friday, August 22, we drove north to Canada for the wedding of our friends, Mike and Carrie. It was quite a day, and not a good one. The girls woke us up around 6am fighting already about someone kicking someone else. They had had a long week with no naps and lots of activity, and the usual wake up before 6am every morning. We had to finish packing still. Once out the door, we had to circle back to get the directions to the hotel and the invitation so we could get into the garden. Then we still had to pick up our passports from the bank, fill up the gas tank, and pickup nylons for Jada and new dress shoes for Ellen (we did find a pair of shoes at Fred Meyer called "Ellens" that we purchased). We were finally on the road by about 9:30am. We had lunch at Fort Lewis just north of Dupont, WA around 11:30am. The Subway there is a very popular spot for the Army base there because it filled up pretty quick just after we arrived. Ellen took a long time eating her sandwich, and eventually, we just had to leave before she could eat the whole thing so we didn't let her have any cookie. That resulted in a huge screaming fit in the car with fist pounding and whole 9 yards. The fighting and complaining continued for a while longer towards Seattle when Phoebe finally fell asleep in the car. Jada and I had bet on whether we would get to use the express way this time through Seattle since the previous week's drive to the San Juan Islands we missed it both times. I lost, and had to pay her $1, but I won in that we got to use the expressway through Seattle. It was fun driving under the city and avoiding the Friday afternoon traffic. Phoebe's little nap lasted about 40 minutes, and represented the most peaceful part of our weekend. Traffic slowed down around Mt. Vernon, WA while we tried to get by an accident. We finally hit the border crossing around 2:30pm. We waited in the line of cars to get in for around 30 minutes. It only took us a few minutes to get through the gate once we were actually there, so I'm not sure why it was such a long wait. The Peace Arch park between the 2 country's gate houses was a nice distraction while we waited in line. Luckily, the weather was nice so we could have the windows down and the sun roof open. Each end of the park had that country's flag done up in huge flower gardens. A note for anyone who is thinking of going there, we chose the left-hand lane as we made our way through. I don't know if it was just the day, or if it's always like this, but it was definitely the slower of the 2 lanes. The right lane fanned out to about 3 gates, while the left tended to get stuck going to just the one, and at least this one gate seemed to move about 5 cars slower than the other gates. Not sure why since, as I said, we were able to get right through after just answering a few questions. Once through the border, we were back on provincial route 99 which took over from I-5. It was tricky at first to make sure I was adhering to the 100 KPH speed limit. Luckily, from all the years of following European cycling, I can do the math in my head close enough since the kph numbers on the speedometer are tiny. We found our hotel easily enough tucked into the outskirts of an area of Richmond catering to Asian-Pacific eateries. I found this odd since our hotel was a La Quinta Inn. Richmond is a suburb of Vancouver, BC. We were given our room, and we went up to the 5th floor to find that the room appeared to still be occupied. There were suitcases and things in the room, though no one was actually there at the time. They gave us a new room right next door to this one, though. After settling in, we went in search of food. We found a card for Old Spaghetti Factory in the lobby, and since we knew the girls would eat something there, we got directions, and the girls at the front desk even called ahead to reserve us a table since it was Friday night. They needn't have worried since when we got there, it was still pretty empty at 5:30pm. Phoebe through a bit of a fit about her food, but she did eat it. Ellen ate her food as well, but there was still a little bit of gumpiness. Bed time was pretty much the usual for a hotel stay. Phoebe causing trouble overtly, Ellen more passive aggressively and getting upset when Phoebe fought back. Threats of cots were made, but they eventually fell asleep. But it didn't end there. Phoebe fell out of bed twice during the night, and the second time woke Ellen up at 12:30am. I hadn't been sleeping much as it was, but once Ellen was awake, she made sure that none of the rest of us would sleep. I didn't sleep the rest of the night since Ellen was constantly doing her loud sigh to let us all know she was still awake, and not happy about having to do boring stuff like sleep. She did eventually fall asleep, but woke up again at 4am. It was downhill from there. It's difficult to remember that she's 7, so of course she's selfish and rude when it's the middle of the night after you've driven all day and just want to sleep for a little while.
Somehow, we made it until 6am, but I made them stay in bed until I was done with my shower. Breakfast didn't start until 7am in the lobby which is way too late for us. They had no protein on the menu, even though their information listed yogurt specifically. Luckily, they did have some peanut butter, so we made a toasted peanut butter sandwich on that pretend wheat bread that they have in these places. They did have the traditional idiot proof waffle maker that still seemed to baffle the international contingent of folks staying there that morning. My friend Ryan from UofI, and his wife and son, came down to breakfast. They too were in town for the wedding. Between the 2 of us, we helped most of the guests get their waffles. We caught up a little bit with Ryan, but we were heading separate ways that morning, since we only had the morning to see the sights while they had a few more days stay. While I was waiting for one of my waffles to finish, I was able to do some currency exchange at the front desk. The exchange rate was 1:1 that day, so for my $20, I got a $10, $5, 3 Loonies, and 1 Tooney. We had already decided the night before that we would only do the University of British Columbia's Anthropology Museum since we had a short time, and we figured we'd leave Stanley Park for when we had more time and a bike. Too bad we didn't have a bike since parking was expensive on the college campus. We got into the museum for the family rate of $25 (they took Visa). The wooden totem poles, canoes, and masks were really neat. The girls even seemed to enjoy looking at them. We got a little lost on the way back, and had to settle for Wendy's for lunch. We also found a gas station since I had drained the tank on the drive up. I paid 1.38/liter which turned out to be about $70. That's about $20 more than I pay to fill up back home. Back at the hotel, the girls continued their naughty streak while we were trying to rest before the wedding. Jada let me try to take a short nap. We came close to not even putting Phoebe in her dress, but she calmed down just enough to let us do that. At least Ellen pulled it together during the afternoon. The wedding itself was held at VanDusen Botanical Garden in the heart of Vancouver BC. It was a beautiful setting, and the ceremony was held under a canopy near a pond. We got there early enough to let the girls run around a little bit. The ceremony itself was nice and short and successful. (They did it!) We were all so happy for them, and they looked like they had the perma-smile going too. Following the ceremony, Mike and Carrie had a picture taken with everyone who attended as one big group, and some of us individually. Phoebe fell and scraped her hands and elbow on the way to dinner through the gardens. Nothing big and bloody, but still painful. The reception had nice appetizers, though not much the girls would eat, so Ellen started getting quite rude about having to wait (selfish, 7 years old) so long, and it was a long wait, but that's to be expected. I had almonds for her, but she wasn't hungry enough to snack on those. Finally it was time for dinner. Phoebe had the kids option of chicken fingers which were baked, and didn't have the breading with honey to dip in. Ellen had the smoked salmon while Jada and I both had the prosciutto wrapped beef tenderloin. Ellen's dinner never had a chance. She was finished in about 2 minutes with an adult entree, and then she ran off to play with the other kids. Dancing started late after all the toasts, so the girls only got a few songs before we pulled them off the floor. To their credit, they left peacefully. Phoebe fell asleep in the car on the way back to the hotel. Both of them fell asleep quite quickly. Ellen woke up at 4am again, but she did go back to sleep.
Finally, Sunday came, and we had to come back home. It was raining when we got up, and much of the day. We weren't able to keep our windows open at the border crossing because of the rain. We got there at 8.40am, and it took an hour and a half to get through. This time, I chose the right-hand lane, and that ended up being the slow one. There were stretches as long as 15 minutes where we didn't move while the left lane would move 10 cars. I have no idea what the hold up was, but it was once again under a minute for us to get cleared to re-enter the country. The rain made it very tense drive home with Screamy Phoebe and Yellin' Ellen in the back seat. But we actually made it home in good time with the only backup occurring on the expressway through Seattle, oddly enough. The south bound goes down to a single through lane for some reason.
Monday was back to work for all of us. Jada had to start getting her classroom together for the start of school in September. Ellen had another week of Nature Camp, and Phoebe had another week of being back at her pre-school. Ellen's nature camps have been really neat. They get to do these great field trips, well, they're more like forest trips. They've gotten to go hiking in the Gorge, spelunking through a lava tube near Mt. Saint Helens, and hiking in the old growth forests near the coast. Phoebe got to spend time with her friends in the Fours class for one last week before she starts with the Kindergarten for some half days next week. Tuesday night, Ellen had her first soccer practice. Jada lost the argument against trophies for participation. We're among the few who think they should be for something other than just showing up. Wednesday night our good friend Pete stopped by to visit in the evening. On Thursday evening we had Meet the Teacher night at the girl's school. Jada had to be in her classroom, but I got to take the girls down to where the class lists were to find out who their teachers were. Ellen is starting 2nd grade, and her teacher seems really nice. She loves science, and she doesn't show movies in the class room. Phoebe is entering Kindergarten, and she has the same teacher that Ellen had. She's very excited to get started. She has her jitter glitter all ready for the start of the school year on September 2nd. (Guess you'll all have to wait a month to see how that goes). After we walked around both classrooms, and Jada finished getting introduced to her new students and parents, we went out to the playground where they had a "nutritious" (as the principal always says) dinner of hot dogs and chips. Then we spent the rest of the time talking to the parents of the kids that we know from soccer and school while the girls ran around a little bit. We got to bed an hour after their bed time, so of course, they were both up early the next morning.
Saturday was a busy day as Labor Day weekend often is. As I mentioned before, our garage door split open in July. I had a garage door service place come by (Precision Garage Doors) to take a look, and they put basically a metal band aid on it. We had them come back on the 30th to put a new door in. This one will have windows so we'll have a little extra light in there since I've been too lazy (and intimidated) to fix the fluorescent lights in the garage. Luckily we had enough in savings to cover it. I got up early to start cleaning the garage out 10 feet past the front. Unfortunately, we pretty much filled our garbage can, so I don't think we'll have room for our regular garbage this week. Man, I had a lot of inner tubes for my commuter bike. I ended up throwing them out even though it isn't environmentally friendly. There's not much else to do with them since they can't be recycled. I've already got several that I have patched for spares, and the rubber breaks wears them and gets crusty in the garage over time. We'll have to put everything back with an eye toward how we're going to fit the 20 feet of quad in there when it arrives. I haven't quite figured out how to do that with the car still in the garage. A little shed would probably come in handy, but we don't have anywhere level to put one. The new door looks great though, and the windows do provide a good amount of light in there. After Jada and I finished cleaning up and putting things back, we had a little nap time since the girls actually fell asleep. We had one more set of errands to run after nap to pick up some new school clothes for Jada. She was able to find some things that she liked, and I was able to find a couple shirts at REI.
Sunday, we had originally planned to do a bike ride, but the weather didn't really cooperate. Fall arrived in the Northwest just after the 100 degree days of only 2 weeks ago. It rained off and on, and barely touched 60 degrees for a high temperature. It's been in the 40's over night for the last few days too. We had breakfast, accompanied by one of Ellen's huge screaming fits. She calmed a little after breakfast, but worked herself back up again before lunch. We spent all morning cleaning the house. We still haven't put all the pictures back up on the walls which is something that Jada had hoped to get done this weekend. After lunch, I think Phoebe eventually fell asleep, but I know Ellen didn't. We had Jada's mom over for dinner, and that was pretty much it for the month. This month, we put in 202 miles as a family on the tandem with all of our tours, and I was able to ride 250 miles commuting by bike to work and back.
Next month the girls start school. Oh, the places they'll go.
Journal Entry: August 31, 2008