I have finally bitten the bullet and sat down to try and post to this blog. I am going to type quickly so forgive the grammatical errors which may appear.
A whole lot has happened since my last post. My first term (second term here) finished, reports got written and given out, my family travelled over the two week spring break, Term 3 commenced with a camp (Canadians call it a field trip) to Vancouver and Victoria and a week in the classroom is almost completed.
The spring break was fantastic. It commenced with an early departure on the very last day of school. I went home and finished the packing before loading up the car with all our gear and setting off for a small motel just a few kilometres inside the Canadian border with the USA. The trip took about 5 hours and got a bit hairy as we came closer to Vancouver as it was raining and visibility became more difficult. Fortunately the motel was not in a really built up area so the traffic was okay. The GPS worked really well.
The motel, while comfortable was right next to a train line at a point where trains were required to blow their whistle. This woke Narelle and I frequently during the night although the kids seemed to sleep well. As they were in bed much later than usual this was no surprise.
As our flight to LA was not until later in the afternoon we looked in a few shops before heading to the place where our car would be stored while we were in California. This place provided a shuttle which took us to the the airport. We did the usual airport wait before flying to LAX.
When we arrived at LAX we caught the shuttle to the rental car company. It was now that the stress levels went up. It was late at night, wet and I had to navigate the dreaded LA freeway system to get from one side of LA to Anaheim where the unit that we were staying in was situated. The number of vehicles, roads, overpasses, entries and exits is amazing. I don't know how it could be done without a GPS which once again did a great job. eventually we found the unit which was only just over 1kilometre from Disneyland! It was a late night but we were all very happy to be safe and sound in bed.
In the morning I jogged to Disneyland to pick up the family passes. We then went to Universal Studios for the day. This is a great place and we had a wonderful time. At the end of the day we were exhausted. The drive was also a challenge as the studios were many kilometres away from our unit.
The next three days we spent at Disneyland and the California Adventure theme park which are connected to each other. These places are amazing. We had to wait in line for most rides and attractions although our longest wait was around 45 minutes. We were able to get quick access passes for some rides which reduced wait times a lot. We did most of the big and popular activities. Narelle took Alyssa off to do some 'girlie' things involving princesses while the boys and I tackled some of the scary rides. We found that three days was only just enough as we did miss a few activities.
From Disneyland we flew back to Seattle where we stayed in a wonderful 4 story condo which overlooked Union Lake. This place was beautiful and had wonderful views of the Seattle skyline and the famous space needle. We used buses to travel into the city and managed to see some great stuff. We went up the space needle, saw Pike Place Market, went on a guided ferry ride of the harbour, took a city tour and di some of our own exploring. I loved Seattle and hope to visit it again some time.
After Seattle we drove back to Vancouver saying good bye to the USA. In Vancouver we stayed with Kara Hoffman's parents, Mr and Mrs Dickson. This was a wonderful time and they were so welcoming. We ate a moose roast and saw many wonderful sites. Vancouver is a beautiful city with so much to see and do.
After a few days in Vancouver we put our car on a ferry and drove to Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. We stayed in an inner city hotel. This enabled us to basically walk everywhere. We visited the BC museum and saw a movie at the IMAX cinema. We enjoyed a Good Friday service at the Baptist Church which was great. After a few days it was time to return home. We packed up the car and headed for the ferry and commenced the long drive home to Vernon. We arrived safely, stopping a couple of times to look at the landscape including one of the many rivers that flow near the highway. We were all happy to be home, exhausted but full of life long memories and a great holiday.
After this great adventure I only had the weekend to recover before setting off on a field trip to Vancouver and Victoria with three classes of Grade 6/7 students which I will write about in my next post.
A whole lot has happened since my last post. My first term (second term here) finished, reports got written and given out, my family travelled over the two week spring break, Term 3 commenced with a camp (Canadians call it a field trip) to Vancouver and Victoria and a week in the classroom is almost completed.
The spring break was fantastic. It commenced with an early departure on the very last day of school. I went home and finished the packing before loading up the car with all our gear and setting off for a small motel just a few kilometres inside the Canadian border with the USA. The trip took about 5 hours and got a bit hairy as we came closer to Vancouver as it was raining and visibility became more difficult. Fortunately the motel was not in a really built up area so the traffic was okay. The GPS worked really well.
The motel, while comfortable was right next to a train line at a point where trains were required to blow their whistle. This woke Narelle and I frequently during the night although the kids seemed to sleep well. As they were in bed much later than usual this was no surprise.
We woke early the next morning and had breakfast. The kids loved the choice of food available. We had to leave early as we had to be at Seattle airport to meet Jacob who was returning from a camp in Mexico. He had gone there with the Year 10's on a mission trip to build a house for a poor family.
We arrived at the Aldergrove border crossing and had to get out of the car and sort a minor issue with our passports. We then entered the good old US of A. The drive to Seattle was reasonably painless although we were a bit concerned that we may be at the wrong airport. However, we managed to find Jacob who had only been waiting 5 minutes for us. He had lots of adventures to share which we slowly found out about over the next few days.
As our flight to LA was not until later in the afternoon we looked in a few shops before heading to the place where our car would be stored while we were in California. This place provided a shuttle which took us to the the airport. We did the usual airport wait before flying to LAX.
When we arrived at LAX we caught the shuttle to the rental car company. It was now that the stress levels went up. It was late at night, wet and I had to navigate the dreaded LA freeway system to get from one side of LA to Anaheim where the unit that we were staying in was situated. The number of vehicles, roads, overpasses, entries and exits is amazing. I don't know how it could be done without a GPS which once again did a great job. eventually we found the unit which was only just over 1kilometre from Disneyland! It was a late night but we were all very happy to be safe and sound in bed.
From Disneyland we flew back to Seattle where we stayed in a wonderful 4 story condo which overlooked Union Lake. This place was beautiful and had wonderful views of the Seattle skyline and the famous space needle. We used buses to travel into the city and managed to see some great stuff. We went up the space needle, saw Pike Place Market, went on a guided ferry ride of the harbour, took a city tour and di some of our own exploring. I loved Seattle and hope to visit it again some time.
After a few days in Vancouver we put our car on a ferry and drove to Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. We stayed in an inner city hotel. This enabled us to basically walk everywhere. We visited the BC museum and saw a movie at the IMAX cinema. We enjoyed a Good Friday service at the Baptist Church which was great. After a few days it was time to return home. We packed up the car and headed for the ferry and commenced the long drive home to Vernon. We arrived safely, stopping a couple of times to look at the landscape including one of the many rivers that flow near the highway. We were all happy to be home, exhausted but full of life long memories and a great holiday.
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