Aurora Wells

I wasn’t always a camper. I semi-remember the one camping trip from my young childhood. Dad and his best friend Henry took three of their kids (Steve was too young) out camping for the weekend in the mountains. From what I’ve heard, I was desperately unhappy, and made everyone else suffer. A summer camp overnight trip when I was a preteen was a glimpse into Hell. Let’s just say, I was not born to go camping. Luckily, Aurora took to camping wonderfully, and with the help of Daddy, Selena, Alex and Barrett, I enjoyed myself too.

On Friday we took the ferry to Salt Spring Island; we drove our car, and Alex and Selena rode their bikes, towing Barrett behind. It was a very long, hilly ride from the Long Harbour ferry terminal to Ruckle Park on the opposite side of the island, but the MossLams are incredibly fit, and they made really good time.

Here’s a picture of our site, all set up. We could have been right on the water, but decided to be closer to the trees, for the kids’ safety. Even though most of the tent sites at Ruckle are walk-in, they have a few wheelbarrows at the parking lot to make lugging your stuff easier. There was always plenty of toilet paper and hand-sanz in the outhouses (these little things are important to some people), and many of the tent sites have raised, level, wooden tent platforms.

Aurora and Barrett enjoy the novelty of really tall, uncut grass. They loved playing hide and seek by simply sitting down in the grass, which made them invisible to each other, since the grass was roughly at eye-level for them. Daddy and I weren’t so keen on the tall grass, due to pretty bad allergies. Barrett (shown here with Aurora and Ham the Space Monkey) loved the idea of calling Aurora “Buzz”, but he wanted to be “Buzz” too. Eventually we settled on “Aurora-Buzz” and “Barrett-Buzz”.

On Saturday morning we walked down to the tidepools to see what we could see. Bruce’s friend Becca was there, working on her Ph.D. project, so she showed us around a little bit. (You can just glimpse some of her square tiles in the upper right corner of the photo, above)

You never know what’s going to thrill a little kid, and although Aurora was antipathetic toward sea anemonies, she found great pleasure in climbing up and down on the base of the lighthouse.

After the tidepools, we headed back up to the northern half of the island for a trip to Ganges and the Saturday market. It was about three times the size of the Sechelt market, although I saw less that I was actually keen to buy. The crowds in Ganges on a Saturday were huge (where do all these people come from?), and the park was filled with families, enjoying the sun, playing at the playground, and enjoying the incredibly perfect summer weather. After a short wait, we managed to get seats at the Tree House Café, which has completely open air seating areas (what do they do in Winter?) and is actually built around a tree. I had an amazing lamb burger, with mango chutney and a delicious little side salad, as well as one of my favourite drinks, the Wired Monkey, a banana-chocolate smoothie with a shot of espresso. It’s probably a good thing that I live four hours away from this place.

We rounded out the afternoon’s fun with ice cream cones (click to get a closer look at Aurora’s messy face) before we headed back to camp.

On the way back to our campsite, we saw two deer, both bucks. That brought Brian’s deer sightings up to eight. His wildlife tallies on this trip also include two snakes, a bunch of jellyfish, innumerable starfish and birds. Aurora’s keenest joy, however, was catching sight of the numerous ferry boats that traversed the local waters. Every time she saw one, she lit up like a firecracker and shouted, “Ferry! Ferry! I see a ferry!” just in case anyone in the park had missed it.

Riding home from the airport last night, Aurora was bereft; G&G Nestor are gone, not to be seen again for another four months. I encouraged her to reminisce about the happy times, rather than dwell on the somewhat rushed final parting in the no-parking, unloading-only curb zone at the airport. Here are some of the highlights of the visit, or at least the ones I have pictures for:

Trip to the lovely Van Dusen Botanical Gardens. Grandpa loves the labels. Aurora loves the huge open car-free spaces to run. Daddy loves the vegetable garden, and we ALL loved the maze! We puttered around at various classes and things during the week, and then on Friday afternoon we took a trip on the ferry to the Sunshine Coast.

Aurora loved the ferry ride from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale. Even though the forecast called for rain all weekend, we had absolutely great weather the entire trip.

On Friday night we had a delicious dinner at the Sweet Water Bistro, on Gower Street in Gibsons. Thanks for the sterling recommendation, Gaylin!

The bustling metropolis of Gibsons at 8:30 on a Friday night. I could totally live here. That night we drove to Sechelt and stayed at the Driftwood Inn.

Saturday started with a seaside walk to breakfast at Wheatberries, followed by a visit to the Sechelt Farmers’ & Artisans’ Market.

Although Grandma opted out, Brian, Larry, Aurora and I had a fantastic time kayaking around Smuggler Cove that afternoon. We rented a kayak with a small seat in the centre hatch for Aurora. She didn’t seem to mind the lifejacket or sprayskirt at all, and spent two-and-a-half hours happily trailing her fingers in the salt water, pointing out boats to us, and enjoying the sunshine. Grandpa did marvelously for his first time out in a kayak, too.

Daddy paddled alongside us in a single, which turned out to be very useful, as he could manouver around to distribute snacks and find cool things for us to view in the water…

like jellyfish and starfish! We saw a few bald eagles up close, too, at the entrance to Smuggler Cove Provincial Park.

After kayaking, we took Aurora back to Cliff Gilker park for a go on the giant toddler swings again. Too much fun!

You can’t go this high on a regular toddler swing!

It was hard to leave, we were having so much fun, but there was a ferry to catch…

Unfortunately, Aurora and Daddy happened to be out on deck near the ferry’s horn when it sounded. So, for the past two days she’s been repeatedly reliving that awful moment when the boat made a noise so loud that it scared the bejeezus out of her. It’s pretty easy to sidetrack her when she gets into one of her mental grooves, though. You just mention these guys:

Cute as buttons and so much fun to play with. Thanks for the Duplo Toy Story guys, Grandma! They’re a HUGE hit!

A couple of days before we flew to SoCal, Aurora and I had our H1N1 shots, and we developed flu-like symptoms the day we left Vancouver. I thought at first that we were just reacting to the shots, but after a few days it was clear that we were truly sick, with sore throats, congestion, and achiness. That probably should have stopped me from engaging in a high-octane slate of activities, but I wasn’t going to waste a single second of my precious time in California, so with sunshine and bull-headedness on my side, we soldiered on, this time to the zoo.

What a beautiful day to go to the zoo. Clear blue skies, moderate temperature, and hardly any other people to crowd you out of views of the animals.

With their babies tucked up nice and warm in the heated cave behind them, the grownup meerkats ventured out to sun themselves and pose charmingly for the zoo’s visitors. I’m not going to bore you with a bunch of animal photos; if you want to see those, check out my Facebook Chrismukkah album.

Aurora was less than enthused about watching the animals, but I’m told that will come with age. Her favourite part of the trip was running around on a heating vent in one of the viewing areas. Also note for future visitors to the zoo: there is a cool kids’ playground tucked into the farthest back corner of the zoo, not far from the rhino & tigers. Unfortunately, by the time we made it that far, it was pretty much time to go.

Did we relax the next day? NO! Off to Disneyland! Thanks to Aunt Ashleigh for having the good sense to come home from New York City and dance at Disneyland, because she was able to sign us in to both parks for free. It was great taking Aurora this time; she was only six months older, but so much more able to handle the frenetic energy of the place. The first thing she wanted to do, when she saw the rockets, was go flying to Cow Planet (a song by Sandra Boynton).

Here you can see It’s a Small World reflected in her cool Mickey sunglasses. I would have liked her to hear the classic song, but they’d changed it to all Christmas music inside. Still, it’s a keeper, and she liked seeing Nemo and a few other familiar characters inside. I tend to cringe when anything at Diz changes from what I liked as a child, but I should remember that the park is always in flux, renovating and incorporating new characters as time goes by.

Before I was a parent, I always thought those people were idiots, standing in line for a half-hour or more for an autograph & picture with one of the characters. But Aurora was thrilled to be able to meet Minnie, one of her favourites, and… pat Minnie’s lip? Thanks to David, Ashleigh, and Grandma Gail for gamely waiting while we took our time in Toontown. We almost got to meet Pluto and Goofy, too, but they were just leaving as we approached.

Fantasyland, which I haven’t spent much time in since my age was counted in single digits, was a big hit. Aurora enjoyed the carousel and Dumbo, and was out-of-her-mind ecstatic about riding on Casey Jr. around Storybookland. I’ve been complaining about Aurora’s new no-napping policy of the past month, but it turned out to be terribly convenient at Disneyland, when she didn’t have to go home for the afternoon to sleep. After Disneyland, we ventured over to the California Adventure theme park, where we rode on a couple of rides in the Bug’s Life land, and stayed to watch a Pixar parade. Aurora’s current obssession with the Cars movie was “refueled” by a sighting of McQueen and Mater in the parade, as well as a t-shirt and toys from Grandma Gail. (It’s gotten even more out of hand since then, with a new Cars Storybook and a set of Cars GeoTrax from Santa).

We took it easy after that, with a few days spent mostly at Grandma’s house. Cousin John, home from university for the holidays, drove down with Uncle Dean so he could visit, and meet Aurora for the first time. As you can see, they really hit it off.

Happy Chanukah, family & friends! (And sorry we gave you our cold, Grandma). Have a happy new year, too!

What better time to catch up on blogging my Chanukah photos than on Christmas Day? We’re up in Spallumcheen this week with Brian’s Mum & Dad, but I’ve still got a few things to write about our California trip, last week. This is the abbreviated version – check my Facebook photos for more pics.

Uncle Steve’s Chanukah present to me & Brian was a tour of Downtown L.A., a place that was less familiar to me than Manhattan, despite the fact that I’d grown up less than 30 miles away. Steve had planned a three-part-tour, of Downtown, Griffith Park/Travel Town, and Hollywood/Westwood, but we only had time for part one. Even so, it was jam-packed with novel and wonderful sights. By the way, if you ever want to be a tourist in L.A., go on a Sunday. The parking meters were free!

The Bonaventure used to be the most-photographed building in L.A., but now I think it’s that really tall round one instead. Aurora with her moose, Charlie, pose in front of the Bonaventure, near the L.A. Central Library.

The Biltmore Hotel boasts some pretty gorgeous architecture, and a super Christmas tree, too. (Chanukah table off to the side).

Pershing Square featured a big pile of snow for the kids to sled on, as well as booths for face painting, cookie decorating, and other holiday fun. Steve says they’re trying to lure more people to live downtown, by making it more people-friendly. We firmly steered Aurora away from it all, because we had places to go, things to see!

I didn’t realize L.A. has a huge public market, similar to Granville Island in Vancouver and Pike Place market in Seattle, but with way more hot chiles. It’s only been around for, like, 92 years!

One of the highlights of the tour for me personally was the Bradbury Building, an amazingly unique piece of architecture that has been featured in many movies and TV shows, most notably Blade Runner. Take a few minutes to read about its quirky history.

Something that cannot be missed, especially if you love a good sandwich, is Philippe’s, the birthplace of the French Dip sandwich. Each of the six servers has a lineup of customers, and when you get your food you sit at long tables with stools (or at one of the few booths). There is sawdust on the floor, the sandwiches are value-priced, and it feels utterly casual and democratic. The food was great, the atmosphere charged with history (it’s been around since 1908, which is like the Parthenon in Los Angeles years), and the coffee is 9 cents a cup.

Only one block away from Philippe’s is Olvera Street, the oldest street in L.A. It’s filled with fun Hispanic tchotchkes, even if an embarrassing fraction of them were made in China. I didn’t realize we weren’t supposed to take pictures in this hat shop until after the click of the shutter, but the photo was too cute to delete. To make up for it, I can only recommend that you go do some shopping there if you are ever in L.A. Although I did almost zero souvenir shopping on our trip, even at Diz, but I couldn’t resist a Dia de los Muertas figurine for me and a Peruvian sweater for Aurora. (Christmas shopping at Target was another story – I got a little carried away).

Steve watches Aztec fire dancers with Brian and Aurora at the Olvera street plaza. Thanks for the wonderful tour, bro. We are definitely going to take you up on the offer of another one the next time we’re in SoCal!

And now, for our continuing California saga:

Time Flies When You’re Having Fun

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday passed in a sleep-deprived blur, with hardly a nap to be found (and missing-my-hubby-insomnia for Mommy, too).

I wasn’t surprised when Aurora was a little wary of Ilse (the other gorgeous little princess in our family), but it was funny how scared Ilse was of shy little Aurora! The only way we could get them together for a picture was to hold them both in arms!

Ashleigh’s pretty craft room/den is a shot of inspiration for my flagging clean-up & organize resolution.

I used to walk through this water-runoff ditch to school every day in first and second grade (as well as most of junior high). It definitely seemed longer and scarier then (it’s about four or five houses long). Now it’s a good shortcut to get to the preschool playground at Kettering.

Bossy little Aurora urged me to go down the longer, yellow slide whilst she commandeered the red one. At least she’s following my order to wear her hat!

Grandpa Larry (and Grandma Gail) had no problem following Aurora’s exhortations to watch “Meep Meep” and “Banana Song” umpteen times per day.

On Wednesday morning Great Uncle Bruce (to differentiate from Uncle Andrew-Bruce) arrived from Virginia with Cousin Jack, age 6.

Jack and Aurora had a great time playing with the little doll house,

and scrubbing the big plastic one.

Play is serious work for Aurora, or is it the other way around? She wouldn’t stop to look at me, she was so focused on what she was doing.

We were also lucky enough to meet Cousin Michael’s new fiancée, Amy, when they arrived from Colorado that afternoon. What a lovely addition to our family!

Diz Day

Thursday was a crazy day for Mommy, who showed up at Disneyland soon after it opened with Aurora and Grandma to take advantage of cooler temperatures, fewer crowds and better temperaments.

The Jungle Cruise was the first ride we went on, and it was a huge hit! From Aurora’s perspective, the clichéd and well-worn jokes were merely background noise, and the obvious animatronics were gosh! Real, live elephants, monkeys, lions and hippos! Absolutely a delight to see the cruise anew through a child’s eyes.

I think Grandma Gail enjoyed it, too. See? She’s making the face again!

After about two and a half hours, Aurora began the meltdown process in Toontown, so Grandma Gail whisked her away for a nap and an afternoon of bubbles. I met up with Ashleigh, David, Steve, Bruce, Jack, Michael and Amy for the rest of the day. I had to send the camera home with Grandma (due to back trouble) so I didn’t get any more pictures, but I had a blast discovering the California Adventure theme park with the experts (Bruce and Jack), having dinner (thanks Bruce!) at the Jazz Kitchen, and watching Ashleigh in the Celebrate! parade.

Aurora and I flew home Friday (and got voluntarily bumped to first class on a later flight). She continues to croon, “Damma Dail” repeatedly, although less frequently each day. Thanks again, Grandma and Grandpa – we had a great vacation!

WARNING!!! THIS POST CONTAINS WAY TOO MANY PICTURES!! PROCEED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!

Well, Aurora and I had a great time in California last week, but now we’re back, and after a few days of renewed sleep training (to correct the complete collapse of any kind of schedule while on vacation), I’m ready to blog again. In an effort to promote reasonable download times for this page, I’m making all the pictures small. If you want to see one bigger, as usual, you can click on it.

Catching Up with Old Friends (and their kids)

A blonde, a brunette and a redhead tried to meet up for a movie that mysteriously disappeared, so they ended up having frozen yogurt and a three-hour conversation. No joke! On Wednesday night Jenny, Stephanie and I managed to make a fun night out of scuppered movie plans, and it was great to catch up with my friends of (Jeez! Is it almost 3 decades now?) roughly 30 years. Then on Friday, Stephanie and her two sons, Jake and Riley, and my friend Gina and her daughter Andrea came over for more bubble fun.

It was great to meet baby Andrea for the first time – she’s such a cute little jellybean!

Aurora kept talking about “ahn-DEE-uh” all week!

Jake is full of vivid imagination, creating plans for new worlds of his own.

And Riley was determined to master the challenging giant bubble wand, much to Aurora’s delight.

Aurora, Andrea, Jake and Riley got along quite well for the nine-year span in their ages. We’re sorry we weren’t able to see Damian, Gina’s older son, that day. Later that night we gathered at Stephanie & Joseph’s house with some friends I’ve recently renewed contact with thanks to Facebook: Erika & David and their daughter Ella, and Lyno, too. It was great to see you all!

Bubbie’s B-Day

Sunday was party-time, with an 81st birthday for my Grandma Ann (who we’re calling “Bubbie” for Aurora’s sake, rather than “Great-Grandma”, a real mouthful). Yes, that is a life-sized cardboard Jean Luc Picard in the background. My mother has rather eclectic decorating taste.

Aurora enjoyed the Happy Birthday song so much, Aunt Ashleigh sang it again for her.

Mmm, cake!

Aunt Ashleigh’s 60-hour work weeks of high-energy singing and dancing seem to be taking a toll.

Neither Uncle Steve

nor Uncle David are able to tolerate a straight candid portrait.

Thanks for reading the blog, Dave & Marie (friends of Grandma Gail’s). It was great to see you again after so many years, and thanks for the presents for Aurora. She loves her fishies!

Cousin Sonia shows Aurora how to use a fly swatter to make zillions of tiny bubbles,

and for the rest of the week, she enjoyed running around the backyard shouting, “Bubble Rain! Bubble Rain!”

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