I write sitting in a hotel room, in the state capitol of Washington, Olympia. We’ve begun the trek south and said goodbye to Canada today. Our time in Vancouver was great. the The weather has been great (no rain except today), our hosts were amazing (Thank you so much Terry, Lana and family) and we've gotten some very important things done. So I guess I’ll recap on the last few days as it’s been a while since we posted. I worked at the construction site on Thursday and Friday, it was a nice refreshing change to get up at the crack of dawn and head out to the job site. Terry refurbishes old apartment buildings and turns them into very beautiful new suites. I had the job of putting hinges on the cabinet doors and cleaning and pressure washing the back deck area. It was a wet and messy job, but a lot of fun as well. We took a short day on Friday and I helped Terry out with his new vinyl cutter and software in the afternoon. I did some pretty cool stuff for Dora which you can see in the new pictures. I thought I would regret the Bob Marley on the back window when we crossed the border today, but it wasn’t even brought up. I found an open mic in Port Coquitlam on Friday night and played three songs there. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and I managed to sell three c.d.'s which was a nice added bonus. It's a benefit for a local hospice (Crossroads) that they do every second friday, with all the proceeds going to them. Linda is the woman who runs it, supposedly it's been going on for ten years. After the early show Terry Jr. and I headed downtown to meet up with Kellen at the club he was doing visuals at. A cool little place on Cambie street called "Bar 340", we danced the night away and stayed a little too late, missing the last Skytrain and the last night bus. Whoops. Where we're staying is in a suburb called Delta and it's a fair distance from downtown. Never fear though, we saw a cab and hailed him down, he wanted $70 for the ride back to Surrey/Delta from downtown and we both laughed. We told him we'd give him $40 and he said no way. Then he drove off, only to come back around the block two seconds later and say "Cash first, $40". Yes, the world of bartering. Then Travis (Terry’s other son) came and picked us up from where the cab dropped us off. Thank you Travis, considering it was five in the morning.

I crashed out in preparation for the big celebration on Saturday. Though poor Terry Jr. had to get up at 7:30 and head off to work on 2 hours sleep. My youngest daughter Eir turned one year old on Saturday, October 11th and we had plans to go to the aquarium during the day, with dinner and cake that night (thank you again Terry, Lana and Family). So after some more bartering about getting me out of bed -Shona and the kids got the better deal on that trade- I got up, had a shower and we hit the road. Myself, Shona, Eir, Freja and Terry's daughter Courtney. With some help from the GPS we made it to the aquarium and went to stand in line with all the other tourists.



I walked into the aquarium and was immediately turned off as once of the major exhibits is sponsored by Weyerhauser. So the same company that's polluting much of the ocean with the chemicals used in it mills, is sponsoring exhibits in the aquarium. The same reason that Orca's and other whales are considered toxic waste when they wash up on shore is generously from the good of their hearts funding the aquariums exhibit. The irony was not lost on me. It's not all bad though, as they are taking some species near extinction and giving them a chance at life. I really don't know which moral ground to stand on, though the $7.50 hotdog I ate makes me lean in a certain direction. They also served fish & chips, which I found to be oddly amusing at an aquarium but Shona ordered them anyways and was extremely disappointed. I say if you're going to make fish and chips at an aquarium, they better be damn good. Anyways it was a good day and the kids had a lot of fun which is the important thing. My favourite exhibit was the archer fish, a fish that actually shoots insects off of branches by spitting water at them. It was crazy to watch. Check out Youtube for a video of it.

Saturday evening was spent in front of the computer with Terry, teaching him the ways of Adobe Illustrator for his new vinyl cutter. I actually got quite into the world of sticker making and have been offered a job in Vancouver if we head back this way. Sunday morning the boys went out to the Flea Market at the crack of dawn. There was lots of interesting stuff there, from Banjo’s to Binoculars to Batteries. I didn’t get anything except for flowers for Shona. We had breakfast and then headed back to help with the thanksgiving dinner preparations. Shona went off to Staples to photocopy our documents and I stayed at home with the girls. Dinner was amazing, Turkey, Ham, Mashed Potatoes, pretty much everything you could want from a thanksgiving meal, and of course the pumpkin pie to finish it off. After dinner I went out with Terry again to see my little brother spin some discs and everyone else stayed home and played poker. Shona I believe came in 2nd at the poker game, but I think she won and is hiding the money away. Ha.

And so today, we packed up the van and said a tearful goodbye to our most gracious and generous hosts, and headed toward the border. We had decided to make the crossing at The Peace Arch, just outside of White Rock. The line-up wasn’t too horrible, probably about 20 minutes until we were seen. I was really apprehensive about crossing the border as I’ve heard stories about cars being ripped to shreds and all those kinds of things. We had nothing to hide, but I figured with the stereotypical hippie van they would give us some hassle. Nope, it was fairly smooth. Shona had to do a little more paperwork because she’s a british citizen, but other than that we were sent on our way. There is a definite change when you enter the states. I can’t really put my finger on it, but it’s there. It was at the first speed posting that we realized that our van doesn’t have miles on the speedometer, only kilometers. So I’m basically driving on a guess amd occasionally checking the GPS, which does have miles.

We decided to aim for Olympia and spend the night here. We were planning on camping in the van, but the weather was awful and we thought it’d be best for the girls if we just rented a cheap motel room. Eir was getting restless and hungry in the backseat so we made a stop in Seattle at this giant mall, for food and buying diapers. It was a very posh mall (the baby change rooms had plasma screen T.V.’s playing cartoons), so we grabbed some chinese food, diapers and set off again. By the time we got to Olympia it was about 9:30 and my eyes were very heavy. A good nights rest tonight, a shower tomorrow and then we’re off again. We’re going to see the giant redwoods in Oregon and probably camp there for the night and then off to California. I heard there is a tree that you can drive your car through. Crazy. Anyways thanks again to Terry and Co. for the work, the fun and the conversation, it was a great visit and I’m sure we’ll see you again soon. Buenos Noche.