This is pretty typical of me.  I get going on writing daily and then get tired, too busy or perhaps just run out of words.  As much fun as we’re having on vacation, it is possible for stuff to become a little bit of a grind.  I mean, how many times can you try to describe driving down the road or shopping or swimming or visiting family?

So here’s the quick stats from the last couple of days:

Family visited: 2 grandparents

Surprise meetings: while visiting Michelle’s grandparents at the manor where they live, we found out that their nurse was my mom’s college roommate.  Crazy

Cases of pop purchased: 7 (so far).  3 Cherry Coke, 2 Dr Pepper Vintage (made with real sugar) and 2 Mountain Dew Vintage

Military ships visited: 5.  Did a full tour of a Vietnam era Destroyer, then stopped in a parking lot that was right beside 4 aircraft carriers that were docked.  Jared also spotted a submarine through a fence at the navy base we drove past.

Number of degrees reached: yesterday was in the mid 90′s and the rest of this weekend will be the same.  Nice.

Today we’ll be heading into Salem to visit some friends and do a little more shopping.  And since I probably won’t remember to write tomorrow, we’re heading to a family reunion in Vancouver, WA.  And it’s our anniversary.

/RD

Day 4 was yesterday but I forgot to write stuff.  Which is incredibly bad form considering the whole “let’s pretend that I am really scared about playing basketball” thing I had going on.

Right, pretending.

So I actually woke up on time to go play.  It helped that I kept having dreams that it was time to get up, then I would wake up and check my watch and see that there were still hours to go.

Playing actually went well, the criteria for that being the fact that I didn’t get injured.  Much.  Just a couple of blisters and sore muscles.  And I made a couple of baskets.  And overall I don’t think I embarrassed myself.  Not that I’m aware of at least.  I still am not a huge fan of playing shirts and skins for teams.  WAY too much other man sweat gets on you.

The kids enjoying the sand, surf and sun in Port Angeles

After that we all decided to head to the beach.  We had the luxury of using a friends private beach.  Very cool.  And the sun even showed up for the afternoon.  Nicest day by far we’ve had on the trip and we spent it sitting beside the ocean.  The kids spent a few hours playing in the sand (rocks?) and surf, and the grownups just sat there.  Perfect.

Michelle and Judy also found a dead seal.  Michelle thought it was cool, can you see why I love her?

The rest of the day was filled with games.  Catan, Ticket to Ride and Monopoly City.  Good times.  And supper was TWO kinds of enchiladas.  Oh man, that was good eating.

Today we’re hoping to stop off in Bremerton and visit the navy base.  There is a pretty cool tour of an old destroyer we want to take and then there are a few aircraft carriers docked close by that we want to go see.  Then off to Newberg.

/RD

This is one of those entries where I am just writing because I think people may actually be upset if I don’t.  So with an admission that sets your expectations so low that you can’t help but be impressed by what comes next…

Day 3 was the third day of our trip.  And being the third day, we decided to ensure that everything was done in threes.  For example, when we woke up this morning we found that we had three children.  Crazy.  I remembered to brush my teeth 3 times; and I also forgot to brush my teeth 3 times.  I had three muffins with breakfast and we got exactly three rounds of play done on the Axis and Allies game.

(Can I submit the line “Day 3 was the third day of our trip” to some kind of bad writing contest?  Because that had to be the worst of many incomprehensible statements I have made.”

Yes, Axis and Allies.  Featuring Jeremy, Jared (the older), Jared (son of me) and me (father of Jared, son of me).  (Did you catch the three J’s playing?).  (Did you notice I a really abusing brackets lately?)

I was able to teach my son how to play Axis and Allies today.  That’s so cool.  Sure I’ve taught him how to ride a bike, play Guitar Hero and poop in a toilet, but Axis and Allies is cool.

OK, the next attempt at turning everyday dreariness into a clever tale is of how I tried to find a camera at Wal-mart today.  And I wanted to get a better price on it so I printed up the Target ad that showed them selling the camera for $30 cheaper.  Simple price match situation.  Except that the closest Target to the Port Angeles/ Sequim area is an hour away.  So Wal-mart told me that they couldn’t match the price since Target is not a local store.

Right.  And Wal-mart is.  I wonder if they are aware that they have numerous locations across the USA, Canada and the world?  And most of them are close to a Target?  So in reality, you pretty much compete with them all of them, right?  But when you are at the Sequim Wal-Mart you cannot price match against Target because they aren’t the “competition”.  Also, you are a maniacal, local store destroying monster (who allows me to save money) so you cannot also be a “local store”.   Brilliant idea Wal-mart.

I’ll show them, I’ll just do what every other smart shopper does and drive an hour away to save $30.  They are going to miss my $150.  Enjoy bankruptcy!

Idiots.

Tomorrow I get to discover what it is like to play basketball at 5:30 AM.  IN THE MORNING.  I can understand playing hockey at that time, but basketball?  I play basketball about once a year.  And lately I’ve been about as effective as a drunken frat boy at Mardi Gras, whatever that means.  But that would be playing at a regular time in the day.  5:30 is wrong, just wrong.  It would be like taking that same drunken frat boy, putting him in an inflatable bouncy room with a bowl of chicken noodle soup and then telling him not to still a drop.  And also releasing 3 three year olds into the same bouncy room.  But I’ll be doing it anyways.

And playing basketball in the US is also stupid for a Canadian kid.  In Canada, I’m tall.  In the USA I am average.  In Canada, we play hockey first and laugh at basketball second.  In the USA, they play basketball quite well I am told.  So my only chance is to play up the whole “I’m just a simple Canadian, eh?” thing until they get relaxed.  Then I pull the jersey over their head and do a nice lay up.  And then run my hoser butt out of the gym before they catch me and do whatever they do to foreigners who make them look silly.

And if that doesn’t work, I’m going to keep yelling “Ladies and gentleman, your 2010 Olympic SILVER medalists in ice hockey…”  That should get enough anger in them that I can play.

Did I mention that basketball at 5:30 is gonna be a bad idea?

/RD

Greetings from Port Angeles, WA.  Famous for being the lavender capital of the USA, and possibly the world.  Lots and lots of purple around here.

We’re here hanging out with the Fodge family and not driving for a few days.  Should be a good time.

Highlights of today’s driving…

1. Hanging out with Paul and Heidi H in Abbotsford.  Had some AMAZING lunch.

AMAZING lunch!!!

Thanks guys.  Fully enjoyed our time with you.

2. Playing “that other car doesn’t know we’re playing tag tag” on the interstate.  We played the game today with a red Hyundai for a couple of hours.  I thought we had lost them, but they kept showing up.  Come to think of it, I suspect they knew what we were playing.  I beat them, again because I decide when the game ends.

Take that you silly Hyundai.  Never take me on in my own made up game.

3. The drive from Kamloops to Port Angeles is filled with amazing place names that will make any normal human male laugh.  Or at least giggle enough to make his wife stare at him in disbelief.

Chilliwack

Chuckanut

Luckakuk

Nooksack

Kitchen Dick

See, you can’t stop laughing.  They’re awesome.

/RD

Yup, it’s true.  We tend (like one out of three times) to kill a bird of some kind as we start a road trip and it didn’t happen this time.  There was almost a crow last night as we came home from picking kids 1 and 2 up from camp, but we didn’t count it.  (And don’t think I didn’t contemplate taking more proactive actions to spice up the story)

(Oh ya, the killing of the bird is typically performed by it flying into or neglecting to get out of the way of our van.  We don’t hunt down a bird and perform a sacrifice.  That would be strange.)

(this is an abuse of brackets)

I think we’ll be ok though.  Day #1 was pretty good.  Away on time, no problems in traffic and arrived here in Kamloops earlier than expected.  Katria even took a nap, even if it was for 10 minutes before we woke her up to eat ice cream and see the caged animals.

That’s just the kind of parents we are; on vacation ice cream and zoo creatures are WAY more valuable than sleep.

Uneventful is probably the theme of the day.  Any fun stuff would be misunderstood, but here are the highlights.

1. Playing highway tag with a couple of cars between Calgary and Canmore.  I’m not sure they knew we were playing the game though.  In fact they may have been pretty ticked the way I kept passing them after they passed me.  And they had to be REALLY annoyed that I eventually won in my mini-van.  The key in “They don’t realize that we’re playing tag tag” is to declare the finish line while you’re winning.

2. The rain was pretty steady once we entered into BC.  Except in two specific places.  Revelstoke, where we stopped for a picnic lunch.  And at the dairy where we got ice cream.  We decided it was a God thing.

3. Meeting a nice family from England in the hotel pool.  The kids played and we chatted.  I guessed he was from the UK and he said “Oh, most people think our accent is Australian!”  To which I replied “Oh no, that’s obviously an English accent.”  But what I was thinking was “I’ve never seen an Australian with teeth like that.”

I’m such a jerk.

Tomorrow it’s on to Port Angeles, WA with a stop over in Abbotsford, BC to see the Hursts.  Should be fun!

/RD