WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY AND HOME

On Wednesday, Krysty, Charlie, Kayley and I went to the Beaty museum on the University campus.  At first blush, it didn't look too interesting.  Generally, it's a biology/biodiversity museum with a blue whale skeleton above the main staircase.   But it was filled with lots of drawers that you could open, lots of exhibits inside, and several great things for small children.  Kayley created a loon hat.

There was an xray of a blue whale fin that they had set up as a puzzle.  

And, of course, some baleen to pet.

They also had a collection of some of the niftiest hand puppets I've ever seen.

We had lunch with Kayley and Krysty early (they ate we watched), and with Glenn later (no watching just eating).  That evening we had Kayley setting up books and things for us to do in her room.

Thursday was our last day there.   With all the activity, it hardly seemed like we'd been there 5 days.  Good grief!  In the morning, Glenn went off to work. Krysty, Charlie, Kayley and I went to Grenville Island, mostly for lunch and a little to wander a bit in our favorite Vancouver site.  After lunch (Vietnamese paper wraps with smoked salmon - fantastic!), we went over to the children's shops. 

There are lots of rides for the children.  No, the vehicle below is not our flight home.

And, yes, there is another arcade.  We managed to do well enough in skee ball for Kayley to get a ring prize.  The prize disappeared in the car almost immediately, but we do have evidence of its existence.

MONDAY/TUESDAY TO VICTORIA AND BACK

Glenn had a thesis defense on Vancouver Island in Victoria.  He asked us if we wanted to join him for the trip over - sounded great - so off we went.
Kayley packed her bag.

And off we went to the ferry.  I had remembered the shops at the ferry dock as a little more interesting than they actually were.  But we did find great cupcakes.

The trip to Vancouver Island is gorgeous.  The boat winds between lots of islands.  For Kayley, there was a children's play area, and even better, an arcade.

Here's a few outdoor family shots.

In Victoria we got a hotel suite.  Kayley got her bed (a fold out cot) in the same room as Krysty and Glenn.  I'm not so sure about Krysty and Glenn, but Kayley was delighted.

The next morning, Glenn went off to the defense, and Krysty, Kayley, Charlie and I went to see a bug museum.  They really had nifty bugs, but given that they were out and climbing on people, didn't appear to be to nifty to Kayley.

Kayley took one look at the huge stick insect and asked to go "outside".  We did wander through, quickly, but Kayley found nothing that wasn't scary.  So we went to a museum across the street, a miniature museum.  Now, this WAS nifty.  Lots of buttons to push, (good for adults too)

but Kayley's favorite exhibit is below

You could push a button in the booth, and the phone would sing different nursery rhymes.

A few Victoria scenes outside of the museum

Glenn returned, and we drove back to the ferry and eventually back to Vancouver.

VANCOUVER - SATURDAY/SUNDAY

We flew to Vancouver on Saturday afternoon.  In typical Sammis-style we ended up at the airport with 3 1/2 hours to spare.  Needless to say, with lots of extra time all the lines were short, no traffic, and no interruptions.  We found a space at the United Club.  Charlie went to the La Brea Bakery and got two chicken salad sandwiches (which were fabulous).  We got on the flight and got up graded right away to "first class".  On this flight it meant snack packs or packs of pretzels.

Glenn, Kayley and Krysty met us at the airport.  We went to the Greek restaurant Kirkis for dinner.  Great start to trip.  Stayed the night at Stephs.  We've gone so often, Steph's condo feels like home.

We brought Kayley a Jessie doll (from Toy Story).  Thanks to a hint ahead of time, it was a real hit.  Kayley spent a lot of the trip 1.) with Jessie and 2.) announcing  "Yee Hah"

Sunday, after a relaxing breakfast - and some great Krysty coffee - we went to the science museum in Vancouver (Telus?? Museum)  What a great place.  It feels a little Tardis-like.  A metallic ball from the outside, it has incredible amounts of space on the inside.  How did they do that?  Lots of buttons to push, made the place great for Kayley.  Great for the rest of us too.  The most interesting ecological exhibit I've ever seen, great physics exhibits, and an amazing dinosaur exhibit too.  The creatures were full sized and animatronic so you could push buttons and make them move.  I felt like I was two years old too - push those buttons, oh yea!

An ecological push button exhibit.

There was also an amazing puzzle room.
And the view out the window was incredible.

WHALE WATCHING

Charlie and I haven't been whale watching in years.  We decided, after reading that it was a banner year to see whales off the coast this year, that we'd go again.

Mid January, we drove up to Ventura to the "Day Packers" building and joined a three hour boat ride around the channel islands.  

I love boat rides in general, so any excuse to go out on a boat is great (not cruise boats - smaller boats).  Leaving the shoreline, the first thing we came near was an oil platform.  I knew the platforms along the central coast were in a line.  What I didn't know was that they were lined up on a shallower sea bed.  Just beyond the platforms, the ocean floor takes a steep dive down to 250 ft or so.  Apparently, the dip in the sea floor is what the whales use to go up and down the coast too.

We then saw a huge pod of dolphins.  They were hard to take photos of, but they surfed on the wake of the boat which I think is very nifty!

Pelicans are one of my favorite birds...

Eventually, we came across three gray whales on their way south - a female and two males.  Here's a couple of them visible above the waves:

Charlie and I posed too -

On the way back to the harbor, we dropped off a ranger on Ana Capa Island.  I'd seen the islands from a distance, but never was so close to them.  There's an arch and a lighthouse on the island.

The island is also a nesting spot for sea birds.  Here are some precarious nests for sea gulls.

Dropping someone off on Ana Capa is a bit precarious.  Here's a few photos of the procedure:

It was a gloriously beautiful day - here's some photos on the way back to the harbor.

NEW YEAR'S 2012

Good grief!  It's already February 10th, and I haven't written a thing about the last month and a half.  I'll go back and fill in some details.....

The second half of Winter Holidays, Ian, Sarah, Sean, and Harriet came down to visit.  The trip was very relaxing.  We ate, watched TV, and celebrated the new year in a calm, lovely holiday.  Just before New Year's Eve, I thought it might be nice to walk over to the Veteran's Memorial building to check out the South Pasadena float.  "If Life Hands you Lemons".  Although a bit of a walk, and although Harriet wasn't sure treking out to see it was a good plan, she liked checking out the float after all.  Here are a few photos of the experience....

Wally came too...

Needless to say, he preferred the attention he got to the float.