Summer Vacation

No doubt about it, this is about the most beautiful place on earth in the summer. For our family vacation, we decided to stray not terribly far away. We took a journey north of the border to Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Since we were island bound, ferry travel was in order. We set sail from Port Angeles, WA to Victoria, BC, and from there drove up to the beach town of Parksville where we stayed in a vacation rental for a week. So much to do! We took in three provincial parks with great hikes, beaches and even caves. Parksville is along the Straight of Georgia, and the community beach boasts some shallow, which means warm and swimmable, water. Yes, warm water in Canada!

We took time to enjoy the very English sites of Victoria on our way in, and continued to enjoy the overall British feel of the province during our stay. We even came home with a can of Haggis! On our way home, we took a different route. Our ferry departed from the east coast of Vancouver Island and took us the city of Vancouver on the mainland. We saw some of the Olympic venues, as well as the beautiful views from the waterfront. The biggest deal of all, of course, was riding on the Skytrain, Vancouver's mass transit rail. When we looked at pictures of Vancouver prior to our trip, all the boys could talk about was the possibility of riding the Skytrain. Please, please, please, let us ride the Skytrain! Well, dreams do come true, for $1.75 Canadian.

From Vancouver, we drove back across the US border (cleared customs in a record 35 minutes!) and on back to our home in Bremerton.

Violence in the Media

Yup. My seven-year-old made the paper this week. Check out Andy's quote in this article about his piano teacher:

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/apr/25/business-spotlight-have-pianos-will-travel/

The First Six Months

I can't believe that we've been here half a year! It seemed like an eternity of waiting for Tom to join us (the first two months) but now we just cruise along. Today, March 1, reminded me that winter is drawing to a close, and I really need to post some pictures of the Brown family's first winter in Washington.

I should point out that, despite how far north we are now, the weather is fairly mild through the winter months. We haven't seen a single snow flake. We have seen our fair share of rain, but that's the way of things in the Pacific Northwest.

Here are just a few snapshots of our adventures here. Tom and the boys have enjoyed some great hiking, we've hopped several ferries over to Seattle, and we had the biggest Christmas tree ever, thanks to an abundant supply of huge trees out here, and house with a two story foyer.