Yesterday Jan took Marlee and Brooke around downtown. We shopped for dinner ingredients at Pike Place Market, bought a nice piece of Copper River Salmon, ate at Lowell’s, then headed to Pioneer Square. Klondike Gold Rush National Park was interesting. Smith Tower observation deck and Cozi office. Robbie gave Marlee and Brooke a tour of the potential new space upstairs on the 8th floor.
“I wish I could just take this day and put it in my pocket” – Liya. Early morning trip on the Victoria Clipper to Victoria, BC. En route we pass the Coast Guard three-masted cutter “Eagle”. Walk to Empress Hotel, drop off our bags, walk up Government Street for quick lunch at Sam’s Deli. Stroll up street after lunch and buy a nice red Roots sweatshirt jacket for Bree. (The weather’s beautiful, but just a bit breezier than we had expected.) Afternoon Tea at the Empress. Liya and Anya look beautiful in their party dresses. Short nap for Bree, and even the older girls who agree to try to rest so they can stay up late tonight. Dip in the hotel pool. Follow our noses to Bistro Bon Rouge for a great French dinner (steak frites, Coquilles St. Jacques, etc.). Jan walks with Brooke, Anya, and Liya down to harbor, which is now thronged with people coming down to see the fireworks.
Butchart Gardens today. Get to bus station just barely in time to make the shuttle to the gardens. Marlee and Brooke are like kids at Disneyland–when we get inside, Marlee walks ahead of everyone else to see the actual gardens. It’s interesting to tour the gardens with them, as they both stop frequently to identify or comment on a plant. Everyone loves the Sunken Garden and the Japanese Garden. Anya and Liya have fun stepping on stones crossing a little pond, then come back to do it again–putting other tourists in danger of falling into the water. Simple lunch at Blue Poppy cafeteria. Bree does great through the whole garden, not even a peep, she likes to reach out from the stroller and try to grab various plants as they go by. On bus ride back, Liya and Anya enjoy playing their new favorite game, Twenty Questions. Bree naps, Jan swims with older girls. Anya swims all the way across the short dimension of the pool, then later manages the longer dimension too. Endless hoping between big cool pool and small hot tub. Anya a bit feverish before dinner, hard to wake up for dinner. Dinner across street from hotel at Milestones Grill, everyone (including Bree) votes Marlee’s chicken entree the best.
Independence Day. Woodland Park Zoo in the late morning, it’s a somewhat cool gray day, so all the animals are out, but they all seem to be sleeping. (Except, ironically, the Sloth Bears.) Picnic lunch near the elephants. Chris (who came into town yesterday) joins us. On the Northern Trail, get to see one of the bears swimming in a little pool. When he’s done swimming, he shakes himself off like a dog. Anya and Liya play with Jan and Chris in the Zoomazium building. Anya and Liya get to pet a Inland Bearded Dragon lizard. End with the new flamingo exhibit.
At home, host a Fourth of July dinner with everyone: Marlee, Brooke, Chris, and Lyn. Also celebrate Sabriya’s upcoming 1st birthday. Everyone stays to watch the fireworks down the street at the tennis club, which start at 10:00 pm. Chris wakes up Anya and carries her outside, and while Jan carries Liya outside, he never manages to wake her up.
A Menu for a Summer Sketchbook. Jan, Angela, Chris, Brooke, and Marlee ate at The Herbfarm last night (7/5). We caught the second half of the tour, then settled in at 7:00 for the dining marathon. The menu:
Dungeness Crab Chawan Mushi with Shiso and Smoked Steelhead Caviar
Tomato Gel with Marjoram Creme Fraiche and Crispy Fennel
Loin and Rillete of Rabbit Glazed with Apricot and Sage Gastrique
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Kodiak Island Weathervane Scallops with Salt-Herring Brandade, Oregon White Truffles, Herbfarm Bunching Onions, and Basil Tips
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Slowly Roasted Sockeye Salmon with Fava Beans, Bok Choy, and Foie Gras Emulsion
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Raviolo of the Duck and its Egg with Wild Morels and Caraway Thyme
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Anderson Ranch Pastured Lamb, Lavender-Crusted Loin and 24-hour Braised Breast, Sweat Peas and Turnips on Roasted Garlic and Potato Gratin
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The House Made Plate: House-cured Coppa and Herbfarm St. John’s Goat Crottin, Roasted Asparagus, and Sweet and Sour Blueberries
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Chamomile and Lemon Verbena Panna Cotta with Carrot Sorbet
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Sour-Cherry Donuts with Angelica Ice Cream
Rose-scented Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Cream
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Coffees, Teas, and Infusions
*
Selection of Small Treats.
Whew. The paired wines were excellent, particularly the 2001 Cristom Pinot Noir by Eola Hills, Oregon. Jan ordered an optional ice wine flight, and everyone agreed an ice wine by Kiona in Washington State outshone the other two.
Sabriya’s first birthday! We mostly celebrated last week when everyone was in town, so today was mostly about giving a few birthday presents. When Angela had asked Jan what we should give Bree for her birthday, he suggested a Rody Horse inflatable toy–Stacy Lewis’ boy had loved his. Angela went ahead and ordered one. When Siri put Sabriya on it for the first time, Bree cried! :(
Sabriya’s favorite present, by far, seems to be the paper everything came wrapped in.
We have a new tree house! Loren finished it in two days. We still need to add the rope ladder and the block and tackle. Liya immediately brought up some Magic Tree House books to read in the tree house.
Jan took Anya and Liya shopping at Target–and the lights when out all over Northgate! They had to wait outside for about 25 minutes for the fire department to declare it was safe to go back inside. Target let people back in to shop, but the store only had backup power, so it was pretty dim. Anya and Liya each picked out some bathing suits to try on, then we went into the nearly pitch-black changing rooms. We had to leave the door open a bit so we could see! When we were finally done, we went to the wading pool at Volunteer Park so the girls could try out their new bathing suits.
While Angela went to STCC to preach today, Jan took all three girls to Seward Park for scooter/stroller rides.
Bree’s new dance. Bree likes music. When she hears it, she bobs her head, kind of like a bobble head doll. Then she strikes a pose and points. It works especially well with Trance. C’mon, everybody! Do the Bree!
Trip to Northwest Trek. Jan took Anya and Liya down to Northwest Trek, about an hour south of Seattle. A big wildlife preserve, sort of like a zoo with more room for animals to move. Hits: The moose that came running down a path, frightening some deer that began to run right in front of him and so became more frightened; the bunch of elk bulls lying down in tall grass so all you could see was a forest of antlers sticking up; the river otter in his den; wolverines; the baby screech owl that a park person was showing off.
Jan and Anya went canoeing in Union Bay this morning. We decided to see if we could see any beavers by the beaver den at the north end of Madison Park. It took quite a while to get there, and unfortunately the beavers weren’t about. Still, it was a perfect morning for a canoe ride: sunny, not hot, slight breeze, very little traffic. We saw a great blue heron, and what a kayaker described to us as a green heron. Anya practiced her paddle stroke a lot, and could make the canoe go even when Jan stopped paddling.
Anya and Liya are getting to be great little swimmers. At their joint swimming lesson at the WAC today, instructor Sabrina was impressed with how well their both doing. They kicked with the kickboards across the length of the pool, and they’re working on doing a crawl with their heads coming out of the water only to breathe. Liya: “Bubble arm, bubble arm, bubble arm, breathing arm…” They’re also starting to do the regular backstroke.
Summer vacation in Whistler. By some miracle we were finished packing pretty early last night, so we were able to get a decent sleep and wake up around 7:00 am. We hit the road a bit after 9:30. It was a bit rainy along the way, with the forecast calling for some rain in Whistler this week. (Boo.) Stories, snacks, and DVDs kept Anya and Liya happy in the morning. We decided to push through the border before eating lunch, which was a bit touch and go because Bree was hungry. We finally made it to the town of White Rock, but we couldn’t find the Wendy’s promised by the GPS. We ate a White Spot instead. By the time the food arrived, we were all a bit cranky. The afternoon went smoothly. Angela and Jan played a modified game of “ABC”: find an object whose name starts with “A”, then with “B”, etc. This turned out to be harder than expected, especially along an isolated road through forests. Arrived at the Whistler Pan Pacific Village Center around 4:00. Liya was very tired, needed to be strollered up to the room–turns out that she had started running a fever. Our room (suite 9901) has three bedrooms, so we put Liya to sleep in one. This meant we couldn’t all go out for dinner together, so we called a sushi place around the corner for takeout and ate it. Bree was predictably unhappy about going to bed; she never likes sleeping in a strange place. Angela and Anya played the card game “Spit” for at least an hour, way past Anya’s usual 8:00 pm bedtime.
Whistler day two starts very early, with a lot of middle of the night activity from Liya. Liya’s fever seems to have broken, and now she’s hungry and wants to play at 4:00 am. The day proper begins around 8:30 with a phone call from the babysitting service to say that our scheduled babysitter, Amy, is missing, presumably from too much partying at the Pemberton Music Festival up the road this weekend. The coordinator sends over her sister Laura as a replacement. Laura’s a nice woman from New Zealand, and we introduce her to Bree and the older girls. After breakfast Angela shops for food while Jan plays with Anya and Liya at a cool handmade wooden play structure. Anya and Liya play tag for a while with a boy named Thomas. We join up with Laura and Bree for lunch at a bakery. Laura takes Bree for a walk after lunch. We rent two mountain bikes, each with an extension that lets one of the girls ride along and pedal on a third wheel. Anya was initially against this activity, insisting that she and Liya ride their scooters instead, but they both quickly warm up to the cycling. We make a short ride to Lost Lake, then around the lake. We stop twice to let the girls switch who they’re riding behind. With additional breaks for snacks, the short ride still takes over an hour. Anya declares that she wants to try riding a bike on her own next. Both girls say they want to go riding lots more while we’re at Whistler. Afterward, Jan takes Anya and Liya swimming in the hotel pool while Angela rests. We go out to dinner at Mongolie Grill, always popular with both the older girls. Bree squaks constantly if Jan doesn’t cut up meat quickly enough for her. By the end of the day, everyone’s exhausted.
Whistler day three: it rained all day! In the morning, Laura suggested we try going to “The Core” climbing gym for some indoor climbing, so we all walked across the village to the gym. Anya was scrambling up the walls in no time. Liya was a bit short to reach many of the handholds, so she could only climb up a bit before getting frustrated. Angela and Jan had fun going up the routes with the self-belaying gear, as well as some routes where our assigned staffperson Cheryl belayed us. Jan tried going up a route with an overhang. It was only rated 5.7, but it was still exhausting, and he nearly ran out of gas towards the top. Snack afterwards at the same bakery we ate at yesterday. Jan and Angela took Liya to lunch at a creperie while Anya did crafts with Laura in the hotel and Bree napped. When Bree finally woke from her nap around 2:00, we all drove up the highway a bit to the aquatic center. Anya and Liya loved the different pool areas, especially the swirling whirlpool area. Sabriya was a bit overwhelmed by the mass of screaming kids and splashing water. We were all good and tired by dinner time. We walked through a downpour to a French restaurant for fondue, only to find that on Tuesdays it closes before dinner. Looking about for someplace nearby to eat, we found the Tandoori Grill on the second floor of the same building. More walking through the rain to get back home, then put everyone to bed.
More excitement than we’d bargained for on Whistler day four. The sun was peeking out this morning, so we decided this would be a reasonable day to try hiking at the top of Whistler. We left Bree with Laura, and rode up the gondola. It was cold at the top (~45F), and windy, and a bit rainy. We walked around for five or ten minutes before giving up and heading into the Roundhouse Lodge for cocoa. We stuck around for lunch, and afterward the weather had improved enough that we tried hiking again. We did the very short Paleface Loop hike, maybe 15 minutes.
The bad thing happened when we were walking down the stairs in the Roundhouse Lodge and heading toward the gondola: Liya fell on the stairs, and banged her chin HARD on the floor, right on the edge of the metal plate holding up the post to a banister. When we picked her up, we saw she’d gotten a gash under her chin and a bump on her forehead. We put ice on her chin while someone called for a Ski Patrol person to come help. A nice guy named Neil bandaged her chin, then downloaded with us to the midstation where a truck was waiting for us. The driver dropped us off at the Northlands Medical Clinic. It was, unfortunately, closed for lunch, but the doctor agreed to open up anyway and stitch her up. Angela took Anya back to the hotel, while Jan waited with Liya.
Liya was very brave during the short operation–even the doctor mentioned that Liya had held still as he’d instructed. She ended up with four stitches. She was tired, so she spent the rest of the afternoon in the hotel room with Laura and Bree watching Backyardigans videos.
Angela took Anya to the pool, and Jan took Sabriya for a hike in the Lost Lake area. Jan found a great little “Nature Trail” that led from the lake to the village through the woods and along a river. The trail is closed to bikes, so it was very quiet. Sabriya seemed to enjoy the hike well enough, and fell asleep on the way back.
We also learned today that there was a massive rockslide across Highway 99 at Porteau Cove, closing the road for at least five days. We’ll be waiting to hear whether we can leave as planned on Sunday.
Another day in Whistler that started out with okay weather and turned rainy. In the morning, Jan took Liya for a long bike ride down to the Valley Trail, Green Lake, and back up through the Lost Lake area. The highlight was probably stopping for a snack along a boardwalk across the southern end of Green Lake when a seaplane landed and taxied to the floatplane terminal there. Liya wanted to watch it take off, so we wait around until it finally flew up and turned towards Vancouver. (Probably people seeking to circumvent the rock slide.) We also had another nice snack break on a dock on Lost Lake. Angela also took Anya for a ride down to Alta Lake. Around noon it began to rain. Lunch at the Mongolie Grill grill at Anya’s insistence. Laura brought a box of crafts for the girls to do in the afternoon. Jan took Anya swimming in the pool, figuring that swimming was one of the activities we could do outside in the rain. For dinner we walked all the way back to Crepe Montagne for fondue. While it was good, we think we make ours much better. Angela took the girls shopping for clothes after dinner, and Liya ended up with a cute flower pattern rain coat, rain boots, and umbrella.