Novel writing

It's been more than a month and a half since I last posted on here. Even though I'm not using this as my primarily blog while I'm overseas, that's pretty bad. I thought I would at least post once a month or so. Oh well, I haven't even been doing that great on my SM blog and am now trying to post retroactively.

I found something I almost wish I had known about a month ago. I say almost because, while I love the idea, I don't think it really would have been feasible for me to undertake this November. We've had too many evenings without power (as evidenced by my lack of SM blog posts) and I've been spending a lot of time at the baby home and with the other volunteers after work.

So, have you ever wanted to write a book? I have (and I suspect most of my readers, at least the ones who are subscribed to my blog because of the requirements for Creative Writing and Adv. CW classes, have too). And next November, I think I will. That's right, I think I'm going to join in on National Novel Writing Month and write 50,000 words in the month of November. Now that I've committed to it, its up to you guys to hold me accountable. And to remind me that I made this commitment in the first place. I mean, it is another 11 months until November rolls around again. Who know what other things will be filling my mind until then? So are you up to it? Will you remind me? Hey, better yet...maybe you should just join me and write a novel as well! Yeah, I think you should do it...or at least consider it.

Wishes fulfilled

Who knew, when I wrote down my Christmas list a few weeks ago in the blog post below, that I'd get two of my wish-list items more than two months before Christmas Day! About a week and a half after writing the list an electrician came to the campus and worked on my shower so now I have warm water.  Yay, it's so nice to at least have the option of a warm shower! And then, this past weekend, I was able to go on a three-day safari with three of the volunteers at Cradle of Love Baby Home (which is located on the ADRA campus). It was a wonderful experience, but I won't write about it on here. If you want to know more, you can click the link above or check out some pictures on Facebook (but be patient with that...the internet here makes posting too many pictures pretty difficult so it might take a few days to get all the pictures I want to post up on Facebook). I still can't believe I actually went on safari. Now, I wonder which of those other items I'll get in the near future... ;)

Christmas List

It's a tradition. Every year I start my Christmas list in September. I've been doing it for as long as I can remember writing out my own Christmas list. My methods have changed through the years (from paper and pencil to computer with word processor) but the outcome is still the same; a list packed with things I'd like (clothes), I'd love (books), and I definitely don't need (a trampoline...seriously, I write it down every year). I guess I really don't NEED to write down my list of wants and wishes anymore; my close friends and family members know me well enough by now to have a pretty good handle on what I'd appreciate for presents. But I just can't help myself. Like I said, it's tradition. And I love [most] traditions.

What's really weird is that if I haven't started a Christmas list by around September 25, something inside me just starts feeling just a little off. And this feeling compels me to once again write a list. So today I started my 2010 version. But this year the start of my list looks a little different:

1(a).  To see Jonathan
1(b).  To see my family
2.  A safari trip
3.  Books
4.  Warm water for my showers
5.  Trampoline

Yeah...some things never change :)

ChangeEverything

At work today, while researching about bicycle ambulances for a grant proposal, I happened across ChangeEverything, a site devoted to, you guessed it, positive change. From there I found 43Things, a site that lets you list your goals and network with others who have the same goals as you. I like it when I find interesting websites...especially when they are from my home province!

Over the Pond

So, this is it. I'm leaving North America in a week. As most of you most diligent readers know, I'll be heading to Tanzania as a student missionary working with ADRA. I'm going to try to post creative writing-esque blogs every now and then so definitely don't stop coming here to check once in awhile. But for the most part, I'll now be using this blog primarily and would love to receive comments from my faithful followers. Have a great year in whatever you'll be doing, my friends! I'll try to keep up with your blogs and adventures as well.

Artist's longing

A lake sped past my window and I looked up quickly to see the tail end of it disappear from view. I was torn. Finish my book or stare out the window at the gorgeous Newfoundland wilderness racing past the shuttle? I kept my eyes up for a few more minutes reveling in the stubby, wind-shaped evergreens, rocky hillsides and glistening waters painting ever-changing pictures through the glass. But soon my head dropped again to the book I held open in my lap, "Chenxi and the Foreigner" by Sally Rippin. I wasn't thoroughly impressed with the book's premise or language, but wanted to finish it before starting a new one. Just a few pages later, when I came across a passage that fully captivated my attention, I was grateful that I hadn't discarded the book earlier.

In the following paragraphs the main character, Anna, a teenager visiting China for a month, is talking to a fellow artist, Chenxi, from her fine arts college in Shanghai. I've taken out the extra words as much as possible, so just the essence of her longing remains.

"I think an artist's responsibility is to show a different world to the viewer. No, not a different world, the same world, but a different way of looking at it. It's an artist's responsibility, and I'm talking about writers and musicians too, to take the smaller paths that come off the main road. To go down them and to bring back what they find for those people who never dare to go themselves. Or never have the chance."

Anna goes on to voice one of my own deepest desires, although hers is for painting whereas mine is for writing.

"You know, if I painted one painting that changed the life of one person, affecting them deeply enough to make them see something in a completely different way – even if only one person – I feel like I would have achieved something."

I read those words over and over again for the next fifteen minutes and then put my book away to gaze out the window and think them over for the rest of the trip from St. John's to Grand Bank, NL.

Fairmont vacation

On Wednesday, June 23, my family took Bryn to the airport and said farewell to her until the end of next June. She's going to be the new director of a preschool in Heliopolis, Egypt. She decided to leave before the date she had to be there by so that she could get used to her surroundings and get some training before the current director, a girl named Ana who I think is from California, left for home. It was sad sending Bryn off, but I know she'll have a great time in Egypt and have tons of pictures and stories to show and tell when she gets back.

Two days later, my dad, Ty and I set out for our annual vacation in Fairmont Hot Springs, BC, a five-hour drive northeast. My mum stayed behind for a few days to look after my grandma who had to go back into the hospital a week after getting out. (She's been having mysterious pains in her abdomen that the doctors can't figure out.) Fairmont was awesome, as usual, except for missing my mum and Bryn. Since there's no Adventist church for at least an hour in any direction, Dad, Tyler and I spent a quiet Sabbath morning and early afternoon having our own church service and making lunch.  Then in the afternoon we went on a hike up the road to the hot springs, spent some time exploring the old Indian baths, and then hiked down a trail back to our villa. Just as we got back to the resort, we noticed three deer-shaped objects lying in a empty building lot between two houses. Ty discounted them as fake deer, but I wasn't convinced and walked closer. Sure enough, they were three quite real and quite unafraid young deer, who got up when I got near them, but just strolled around nibbling plants once they were on their feet. Dad noticed their antlers were still in velvet. It was a nice Sabbath surprise.

Indian bath house

Ty relaxing in the hot spring-fed bath

View across the valley

Deer in velvet

My dad returned to Kelowna on Sunday night to attend a funeral and brought my mum back to Fairmont after it was over on Monday. Throughout the rest of the week, we went boating in nearby Windermere Lake, visited both Fairmont Hot Springs (developed, requires entrance fee) and Lussier Hot Springs (natural hot spring pools beside a glacier-fed river, free), enjoyed the views of the Purcell and Rocky Mountains from our villa porch and had a relaxing family time.

Admiring the Rockies

When our awesome week of vacationing was over, we headed back home where we enjoyed hanging out with my Auntie Sandy (my mum's sister) and two of her kids, Conner and Alex.  They had arrived a few days before from St. Georges, Manitoba and stayed in the Okanagan Valley long enough to visit my grandparents and our family before continuing their journey to the Fraser Valley to see their other set of grandparents/parents-in-law. My dad offered to take them on a boat ride and so this afternoon, about half an hour after unloading our stuff from the truck, we picked them up and headed out to a local lake for a few hours. We were greeted with some strong winds and lots of waves, but we still had a great time with the relatives and a few daring souls even braved the chilly early-summer water.

Enjoying a protected cove

Eating and talking

Wet cousins on a boat

All in all, we had a very enjoyable week of relaxing and then fellowshipping with relatives!

Top 5

Several summers ago, while driving home from a quick work-related trip to Vernon, a city 40 minutes to the north, my brother Tyler and I started talking about our favourite things. We each tried to narrow our lists into a Top 5 after establishing some ground rules (mainly not being allowed to include things like air, food, water, etc. or ideas like freedom that nearly every human being appreciates). This was solely based on the unessential items we love, not the necessary ones.

This weekend my siblings and I went camping with three of our friends. Yesterday, while we were sitting around the campsite talking, Ty and I brought up our Top 5's. I'm pretty sure our original lists had at least a couple favourite food items on them, but not anymore. Here's Tyler's current list. And here's mine:

1. Wind
2. Bodies of water (large enough to swim in: rivers, lakes, oceans)
3. Mountains
4. Books
5. Aurora Borealis/Lightning (too close to just pick one)

So, what's your Top 5?

Six-word memoirs

Last night, my mum was getting her Sabbath School program ready (at our church we meet in the sanctuary and have a twenty-minute program together before breaking up into Sabbath School study classes) and asked me for ideas. I had just found an article online written in February for the Adventist Review by one of my Southern professors, Andy Nash, and suggested that she talk about that for part of the time. She conscripted my help. So this morning, I read the article to my church. It starts like this:

"If you could sum up a formative period in your life in six words, what words would you choose? I recently posited that question to two different groups of people - Adventist college students and Adventist retirees.  I got the idea from the chunky little book Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Famous and Obscure Writers.  The book's editors got the idea from Ernest Hemingway, who once wrote: 'For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.'"

Following, Dr. Nash gave a small sample of the six-word memoirs from the book and then, some from the Adventist college students and retirees. (I strongly encourage you to read the whole article.  It's not too long and very good.)

After reading the article to my fellow church members, I told how Dr. Nash began my Publication Editing class last school year by explaining six-word memoirs and then had us students write our own and share them with the class instead of just the same old name-major-hometown information.  I remember my six-word memoir: For international students, I-20 means everything. (I had just come back into the States after Christmas break and had had a problem with my I-20 student visa, so this was on my mind during that first class period.) Then I shared another six-word memoir that I had written last night: Filled out SM application.  Still waiting... This was a nice segue into the next part of my mum's Sabbath School program, where she asked Bryn to tell a little about her upcoming year as an SM to Egypt.

This afternoon my grandparents invited my family, along with my mum's sister and her daughter and granddaughter who are visiting from Alberta for the long weekend, over for Sabbath lunch. Later on, we had a worship together and my grandma asked each person to participate by coming up with one part of the worship. When my turn came, I handed each person a piece of paper and a pen and asked them to write their own six-word memoirs. Here they are (and yes, we had a French immersion student in our midst):

Anticipating the future, missing the past.
École le violon domente le piano.
Sweet dog. Lived, loved, and died.
Fell hard. Broke wrist. Much pain.
Traveled far. Arrived safely. Visited family.
The eastern USA is really terrible.
Work, work, work, eat, sleep, repeat.
Nearer to 90 than 19 years-old.
Wind, wind, rain, rain, bang, bang.
Transferring to Southern opened new opportunities
Family, friends, flowers, fun, free, photos.
Life gets better day by day.

I love trying out new writing ideas and seeing the variety of each person's tastes and experiences.  So, now it's your turn.  Why don't you try writing a six-word memoir? I'd love to read them!

Blog decision

School has finished, graduation has been marched, a cross-country trip has been driven, Jonathan has flown back to Maine, and now my long summer has begun.

I have finally come to a decision about what to do with this blog. It was made specifically for Creative Writing class and used for Adv. Creative Writing as well. It has been a wonderful forum to document my final year of university. But I have too many blogs to keep them all perfectly up-to-date. So here it is, my final verdict. Since this blog was created for the purpose of creative writing, I will continue to post on here whenever something creative flits into my brain. I hope that will be often, but sadly I confess that my creativeness has been waning since school ended. But, my diligent readers, never fear. I WILL post on here throughout the summer.

Since I won't be posting every day, I will give you the links to my other blogs (and also post them on the sidebar of this blog for easier referencing). That way you can look at my other blogs and decide which you might find interesting to keep up with. So here they are. Happy blog browsing.

Everything from EH to ZED - This is my first blog which, as the title suggests, covers just about anything. If you want to know what interests me or if you want keep updated with what's going on in my life this summer, this is the best blog to read.
Writing to Serve - This is a blog I made recently to document my upcoming year as a student missionary in Tanzania. I will occasionally post on here during the summer as I learn more about my position and get ready to leave but, once September rolls around, I will almost solely be using this blog.
Writer's Notebook - This is a blog I started last Christmas break when I was trying out different blogs to find a good one for my mum's photography. I decided to use it as a place to store future writing ideas (all my little scraps of paper were getting kind of confusing and unorderly).
Looking Back - This is another blog I started during Christmas break. I use it to record stories from my childhood whenever a memory pops into my head.
Enjambments - And finally, this is a blog started by a friend and Creative Writing classmate. She has graciously allowed me and several others to jointly post book reviews and reviews of writing in general. If you love books and/or writing, Enjambment posts are always an interesting read.

Outlet stores

We woke up lazily this morning, had showers, packed up, and left the hotel.  After driving up and down International Blvd. we remembered where IHOP was and stopped in for breakfast.  I tried out one of their new types of lemonade, watermelon lemonade, which was interesting, but I still think I like regular better.  While we ate it started to rain, definitely not an uncommon occurrence for Seattle.  We had been thinking about going to the Woodlands Zoo, but the rain convinced us to forgo that adventure, at least for this trip.

After breakfast, we set out for home, but stopped at the Tulalip outlet mall just after Everett.  Bryn separated from my mum and me after a few stores and shopped on her own.  I had a grand time helping my mum buy some chocolate-covered fruit from Harry & David's, a few adorable baby outfits from NauticaKids (for future baby presents, cause who knows when someone might just all of a sudden decide to have a baby), new shoes for Tyler, and an awesome pink and blue Burberry tie for my cousin Nathan's birthday present.  When I saw the baby clothes I absolutely wished they came in my size and, when I found Nathan's tie, I kind of wished I was a guy so I could wear it.  (Sidenote: We found Burberry baby clothes in that store too and wow, they're darlingly cute, but who would pay $200 U.S. for something that a baby will only fit in for a few weeks??  But, I gotta say, the babies who wear Burberry are totally styling.  I'll bet Nathan's kids will sport those clothes.  Funny thing though, as ridiculous as I thought the price tags were, I secretly wanted to buy one of those baby outfits.)

After all those purchases, my mum and I were ready to leave and get back home, but Bryn was still shopping.  So I went into a few stores with her and ended up getting an couple things.  Finally Bryn was done too and we drove home without any mishaps, getting home around 11 p.m.  And now I'm sitting here typing this and missing Jonathan.  And he's only been gone a day...

Exploring Seattle

Today was a long day. My mum, Bryn, Jonathan, and I got up early, around 6 a.m., and left about an hour later to take Jonathan to Seattle to catch his flight. The six-hour drive down was fine and, surprisingly, the border official barely asked us anything. Just wanted to know where we were going and why and then had a few other simple questions. We stopped about 20 minutes later in Bellingham, WA for an Olive Garden lunch and then kept going and finally made it to downtown Seattle around 2 p.m. We spent some time at the Space Needle and Jonathan and my mum took about a thousand pictures (Hyperbole?? Probably not.) of the Seattle sights and the harbour, oops, harbor. I spent a good bit of time watching some float planes take off and land in a lake right near the heart of downtown. When we came back down, Bryn stayed in the gift shop to look around and Jonathan, my mum, and I walked to a park right in front of the Seattle Science Center to take, you guess it, more pictures. After that we met back at the truck and consulted the GPS for another place to explore.

Statues are fun!

We decided on seeing the piers at the edge of the Pudget Sound and walked around those for awhile before heading to Pike's Place Market, which was just starting to shut down for the day. It smelled terrible and, after hugging a bronze pig, I was glad to leave. Somehow Jonathan and I got separated from Bryn and my mum so we waited by the side of a road until finally getting a text that they were back at the truck. We quickly made our way back there and then Jonathan found a park at the end of the lake that I was watching the float planes from the Space Needle and we decided to spend our last few hours of free time there.

Across the lake from downtown Seattle

It was an awesome park. If you're ever in Seattle, check out Gas Works Park. It's pretty cool. We watched float planes, walked around, and took more pictures. Finally it was time to go.

Twirling at Gas Works Park

We made our way to International Blvd. and found a hotel for the night. Then we brought our stuff in and got settled for the night before Jonathan and I left for the airport. His flight was at 11:30 p.m. so we left the hotel around 9:45 and took the shuttle to SEA-TAC. I showed Jonathan where to go and he got his ticket really quickly. Then we walked to security and said good-bye, after which I had to stand there watching him get into line, go through the metal detector and finally wave a final good-bye and walk towards the S gate. It wasn't the best part of the day. But, observing a young gay couple who were bawling right before one of them went through security helped me feel a little better about the situation since I had refrained from bawling unlike them. Once Jonathan was out of sight, I went back to the shuttle waiting area and called the hotel clerk who said the shuttle was already on its way to pick up another passenger. I made it back to the hotel without any mishap and tried to be quiet as I got ready to sleep since my mum and Bryn were already in bed.

Cabin on Crooked Lake

It was great being back in my home church today.  It's a small church so everyone knows everyone and I got a lot of hugs and "welcome backs."  My grandma told the elder in charge this month that we would be back for church this week and then told us that we should plan to have a song ready for special music.  So, last night we practiced a version of "Jesus Paid it All" that Jonathan had sung at his church during Spring Break with Bryn playing the piano.  This time he also had the parts for two cellos, so Ty played the one cello part and I played the other on violin.  I think it went pretty well and afterward lots of people told us it sounded great.

When church was over we went home for Sabbath lunch and relaxed for a little bit watching a few kids videos on Tyler's request.  After watching a couple of the half-hour videos, we put on quading clothes and my parents, Bryn, Jonathan, and I drove up to my uncle's cabin for some outdoor fun.  My mum took pictures and then decided to stay in the truck and read while the rest of us drove to a dam at the end of the lake.  When we got back to the cabin, we weren't quite done wanting to quad so we set out again in the opposite direction and went on a trail leading up to a lookout.  We got as high as we could before the trail disappeared and then made our way back again.  Then Jonathan wanted to try out my dad's motorbike again so he took it out on the logging roads while my parents, Bryn, and I carried our canoe down to the lake.

First my parents and I took the canoe out for a ride, but it wasn't too enjoyable because of the large quantity of mosquitoes hovering nearby.  I kept hitting my mum on the back to kill the ones that landed on her.  When we got back to shore Jonathan was back from his drive and so I went back out with him after I covered myself with bug spray.

Then Bryn joined us and we proceeded to try to get stuck in some waterlogged logs and trees in one corner of the lake.  It's a favourite pastime of mine and Bryn's when we go canoeing at the cabin.  It's really a very challenging sport to get stuck and then try to find a way out of the mostly-underwater maze.  By the time we made it back to the dock, it was getting dark so we pulled the canoe back up to the trailer, loaded everything up and headed back down the mountain.

CLKI tour & flying

This afternoon I took Jonathan to my dad's cabinet company, Century Lane Kitchens Inc.  After giving him a tour of the showroom, my dad and I took him back to the factory.  My dad did most of the talking out there because things have totally changed, machine-wise, since I worked out there several summers ago.  I don't think I could work a single machine out there anymore since they've all been upgraded and are all computerized and the like.  I did jump in with a few stories, though, and showed him my old edgebander, the machine I was a pro on when I worked in the factory.  But, alas, my favourite machine is only used as a backup now.

After the shop tour, Jonathan and I made a quick trip back home to get his camera, which he had forgot to bring before.  Then we drove back to the shop and jumped into my dad's truck for the ride to the airport.  We parked near the north end of the runway where my dad's jointly-owned plane is kept, but when we tried to get through the gate, the lock combination number my dad had wouldn't work.  He said it must have been changed recently and he hadn't been given the new number.  After several failed attempts to use some small metal items as mirrors to reflect the new number, taped to the inside of the gate, back at us, I finally realized my hand was small enough to get through the chain link and managed to grasp the handle and open the door.  We walked inside the grounds and my dad unlocked the plane and started to do the walk-around.  Jonathan started taking pictures.  I stood around looking at all the wonderful planes, until I finally decided to help with the walk-around by checking the gas, which was a good clear colour.  Feeling like I had been a big help, I used the rest of the time to watch some jets take off and land, while Jonathan documented the same planes on memory card.  Then Gene, a guy who rents air time from my dad and the other owner of the plane, came to help my dad fly and we got set to take off.

Jonathan and I crawled in the back, but waited to put on our headsets until the engine was started.  We kept ourselves busy by watching more planes while Gene and my dad did the pre-flight checks.  Finally they radioed the tower and got clearance to taxi to the runway and soon we had taken off and were flying over town.  We headed north over Duck Lake and Woods Lake and then went east toward my uncle's cabin up in the mountains, which I tried to point out to Jonathan.  After that we flew a little to the south so we could get near Big White, a ski resort about 40 minutes from town.  We had to make sure that we stayed away from several weather areas, but for the most part it was easy to skirt around them.  We also managed to fly over McCullough Lake where we had been the afternoon and evening before.

Decked out with headsets

Then we set our course back to Kelowna and soon the tower was guiding us into a circuit to come in for landing.  My dad tried out the landing and got pretty close until the strong side wind discouraged him from staying in control.  He gave control to Gene, who, since he was in the copilot's seat, had to attempt the landing with his wrong hands on the throttle and yoke.  We bumped down pretty hard and Gene decided, in an instant, to take the plane back up and go around again to try another landing.  He pushed the throttle all the way in and we were back in the air.  The tower gave us new landing instructions and we went around in another circuit.  This time Gene was in control the whole time and he guided us in pretty good.  After we taxied back to the plane's parking spot and got out, Gene apologized for the hard landing the first time, but I thought it was fun so I hadn't minded a bit.  My dad and Gene pushed the plane back into place and Jonathan and I watched/took pictures of a few more planes before we left the airport.  I loved every second of the flight!  For some pics, see the album on Jonathan's Facebook profile.

After leaving the airport, we went home quickly and then went over to my grandparents house for a Friday night supper and a sundown worship where we all had to participate.  It was a good end to the day.

Quading

Forgive me for the title of this post.  I have yet to figure out if quading is spelled with one D or two, but I think it looks better with one, so that's how I spell it.  (If any English major, or any major actually, can shed some light on this predicament, your help would be welcome.)

Today we took Jonathan for his first quad ride.  At least I think it was his first.  If it wasn't, I'm quite sure he'll correct me in the comments :)  My dad took off from work early and we loaded up the quad trailer and drove up into the mountains about 45 minutes to McCullough Lake, also called Hydraulic Lake.

We unloaded our two quads and my dad and Tyler's dirt bikes at the main campgrounds, found helmets that fit everyone, decided who was riding what, and took off.  I rode one quad with Jonathan and my mum rode the other with Bryn. We drove down a trail several km's until we got to a big sand pit that my parents and some family friends had found last fall.  There my mum got out her camera equipment and started snapping pictures while the rest of us zoomed up and down the sandy hills.  After a bit I got off the quad so Jonathan could do all his daring feats without the burden of another person weighing him down.  Later, he let me have a chance to drive by myself.  Although it was a little freaky driving up some of the steeper edges of the pit, I managed to conquer the slopes, both up and then back down.  When everyone had their fill of sand-pit-quading/biking, we got ready to head back.

Me driving toward Ty's biking boots

First, I had to tow Ty's dirt bike a little ways to get it started since the battery wasn't holding a charge.  Then my dad gave Jonathan a little lesson in how to drive it.  I didn't wait around too long to watch and jumped on the back of my dad's dirt bike, which Ty was driving.  It was interesting riding on my dad's bike since one of the back foot holders has broken off, so I had to hold my right leg straight out, but pull it closer to the bike whenever the trail narrowed or we had to go between rocks or metal poles.

We got back to the campground first so, while we were waiting, Ty taught me how to drive the motorbike.  I've driven a 50cc and a 70cc bike before, just small ones with no clutch to worry about, but never a large one like my dad's.  Soon my mum and Bryn drove up, just in time for my mum to snap a picture of me falling over when I didn't have time to steer the large-for-me bike out of the way of an oncoming tree.  A minute later, my dad arrived.  We all waited around for Jonathan, but he didn't show up.

Rolling so the bike wouldn't crush me

Finally my dad was getting worried and decided Jonathan had missed the turn, so he climbed onto the quad to go find him.  Just as he was leaving the campground, we heard the sound of a motorbike and Jonathan drove into camp.  He had missed the turn, gone as far as a gazebo he didn't recognize a little ways down the trail, and turned around to come back.  Once we were all accounted for again we got out campfire food and made a supper of roasted hot dogs, veggies, beans, and, of course, marshmallows.

Soon the sun was starting to set, but Jonathan wanted to go out for one more quad ride.  He and I took out the two quads and drove back up the trail to the gazebo that Jonathan had found on his misadventure earlier.  We watched a loon swim across the pond nearby and then saw a beaver coming toward us.  We stayed really still and quiet as it got closer and soon it reached our end of the pond and pulled itself out of the water to preen.  Finally the sky was getting darker and we knew we had to get back, so we started up the quads, which sent the beaver rushing back into the pond.  Once we got back to the campground the males hurried to load up the quads and bikes before it got too dark, then we drove back home where we cleaned dirt off ourselves and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Knox Mtn. & Westside Rd.

Jonathan and I played Racko this morning as we ate breakfast and backed up the stuff on my computer onto my external hard drive.  Then in the afternoon, I showed Jonathan the downtown area of Kelowna from the best vantage point, Knox Mountain.  I hadn't been up there for probably a few years and we stopped at the first lookout so I could point out some of the most notable places.  I made sure to show Jonathan the monster on Black Mountain across the valley, a figure my dad has pointed out to us kids whenever we're driving around town and can see the shape made by a combination of the dry bare patches of mountainside and the sporadic forests.  We took pictures of the mountain monster and then returned to the car, me reading all the information signs as we walked back to the parking lot.  They were full of interesting trivia about the area.  Some of it was stuff I already knew, but most of it was new information to me.

Then we drove to the top of the mountain, parked again and hiked up to the lookout at the peak.  From there most of the same things were visible, but we also had a pretty good view of Okanagan Lake and the area across the lake.  From up there, Jonathan saw a road running right along the lake and said he thought it looked like a really fun road to drive on.  So I told him that it went all down the westside of the lake and if he wanted, we could drive south on it all the way to Vernon and then come back on the highway, essentially make a huge loop.  I said I'd heard about the drive, but never done it myself so we decided to try it out.  We headed back to our car, drove down the mountain, through downtown and over the bridge before turning off onto Westside Rd.

It was a lovely afternoon drive, although a tad scary at some points because of sheer dropoffs on my side of the car, straight down to the lake.  Just a bit after a passing a provincial park that my family has gone to quite a bit, we saw something in the road ahead and slowed down, trying to identify it.  As we drove closer, we both realized it was a bear, which shocked me because, although I've heard about bears coming into orchards at the edges of town, I have never seen one on a paved road in the valley before, only up on logging roads in the mountains.  We slowed to a crawl and Jonathan put the hazard lights on while I grabbed my camera and tried to get pictures of the bear, who was ambling along eating roadside berries and greens.  My camera was being annoying and not taking light enough pictures, so I was going to try taking a few on Jonathan's phone, but then we got too close to the furry brown bear and he scooted off the road and into the weeds and woods down the slope.  When we were sure he had left for good and we wouldn't be getting any more pictures of him, we continued on and soon we were in territory I had never driven through before.

When we came to a new little community of condos and townhouses, we drove into one of the gated summer house neighbourhoods and explored the area and a little later, when we got to the small town of Fintry, we drove down to the lakeside and looked at a provincial park near the water.  After that we drove to the end of Westside Rd.  I was confused as to where we were for a bit until I saw a place I recognized, a historic ranch turned into a tourist stop called O'Keefe Ranch.  Then I knew exactly where we were and directed Jonathan into Vernon where we explored some other roads west of town that I hadn't been on.  They were fun to drive on and there were tons of orchards everywhere that were really pretty.  Finally we figured out how to get back over to the town centre, where we stopped at A&W's for French fries and root beer floats.  I mentioned a place I wanted to take Jonathan and so we decided to take our food there to eat.

We drove to the northeast part of town to Kalamalka Lake and parked at a beach.  Then we walked to the end of a long dock with our food and ate there.  A whole hockey team, wearing their jerseys, was celebrating at the beach and I recognized the logo on their jerseys, the Vernon Vipers, a BCHL team who, apparently by the looks of their large trophy, had just won the league's championship title.  While we ate a loon swam the waters of the lake and we watched it until it dove and disappeared.  By then the sun was starting to go down, so we got back in the car, turned up the heat since it was getting chilly, and headed back to Kelowna, taking a few other scenic roads so I could show Jonathan some more of the valley and he could have some more fun driving.  And that's our adventure for today.

Greenway & H2O Centre

Jonathan woke me up this morning because I gave him permission to.  I knew I'd never wake up much before noon on my own and I detest waking up to a blaring alarm clock, especially on days when I don't absolutely HAVE to be up at a certain time for classes or work.  Around lunchtime we went for a walk, which turned into a hike.  I suggested we walk along the Mission Creek Greenway and Jonathan agreed.  For a few minutes we toyed with the idea of biking on the Greenway, but I was in the mood to walk, and I was really glad for that later on.

We walked right by my old elementary and high school (all one big long building), crossed a main road, and walked another minute or two before reaching the Mission Creek and the Greenway.  Then we set out east for a short time and then mostly south, along the creek.  We stopped for a few minutes at the pool of water I used to always walk to with Pepper so she could swim.  Then we took a seldom-used trail that kept going beside the creek until we crossed back to the Greenway.  After walking about two or three miles, we got to a bridge, which is the farthest up the creek I have ever gone on the Greenway.  There was a trail with a sign saying the trail was dangerous and not to proceed.  I kind of wanted to anyway, to see where it led, but then we saw a different trail going up the side of the cliff beside us.  So we took that trail, which made our walk turn into a hike.

After finally getting to the top of the rock trail/wooden stairs, we rested for a bit and then hiked up another short trail to the top of a rise where we took pictures.  Then we went to the edge of the cliff and sat on the boulders to take pictures of us above the creek.  We opted to go back then so we could spend the rest of our afternoon doing something else, but I wanted to try going back a different way, on the second trail leading to the rise.  That went well for a few minutes, but soon that trail got overrun with weeds.  Jonathan suggested we just feet-slide our way down a sandy-rocky section of the mountain.  I didn't feel quite alright with that, but wanted to get down and head back home quickly, so finally agreed to it.  It was a mistake.

We clung to the roots of a huge tree as we tried to stay upright while scooting down the shifting  terrain.  Mid-sized rocks came dislodged and bounced down the slope beneath us and a dog in the trailer park below started barking.  I got really nervous about the whole venture and voted to climb back up to the trail and go back the way we came up.  Jonathan still wanted to try the sliding sand and, since I didn't want to go back up alone, I followed him farther down the embankment.  Finally, after sand poured into my shoes and more rocks tumbled down the hill and it looked like the whole thing would come down around us if we attempted to go further down, we both decided to climb back up to the regular trail.  Jonathan went first and I tried to mimic where he placed his hands and feet.  Unfortunately, I'm a lot shorter than he is and my arms and legs are too, so I had to make my own way back, all the while hanging on to the tree roots.

Eventually, we made it back to the top of the embankment and back on the trail, where we made our way back to the bridge.  Once there, still filled with an adventurous spirit from our recent escapade, we decided to venture down the closed, potentially dangerous trail.  It was just as nice as the rest of the Greenway until it petered out into a bunch of creekside rocks.  We looked up and identified the cliff we had taken pictures at earlier.  I was boiling by this time and decided to risk drinking the cool creek water.  Jonathan followed suit and then poured water down my back when I wasn't watching.  Although startled, I didn't really mind.  It felt great.  After our thirst was quenched and I was considerably cooler, we headed back along the trail and eventually made it back to my house.

We rallied the rest of the household currently at home and then all of us stopped first at Taco Time (like Taco Bell, but cooler and only on the West Coast) for a late lunch/early supper.  Then we drove down to the relatively new H2O Centre, an indoor water park type of place.  We tried out most of the pools, including the wave pool and the current pool that pulled you around a circuit as you floated on top of the water.  Then we raced on the three waterslides and I lost every race.  Bryn, Tyler, Jonathan and I made our way to the surfing/body boarding area and watched some people try out the man-made wave.  Since there wasn't really a line-up, just a man and a boy taking turns on the wave, Jonathan wanted to try it out.  He body boarded with gusto and then told the rest of us we should try it out.  So Ty and I did.  The first time I tried, I went right off to the side, completely out of the wave.  But after a few turns, I kind of had the wave figured out.  Unfortunately, my eyes were getting pretty water-filled by then and so we returned to the wave pool.  After another few laps around the current pool and a few more waterslide races, we left the H2O Centre.  But we got Jugo Juice smoothies before we left and they were great.

Later this evening, our friend Nik came over to visit.  He just graduated with a biology degree from CUC (the Canadian one) and we hadn't seen him since Christmas.  He brought Bryn and I grad presents, CUC SA T-shirts, which are pretty neat since they have the CUC mascot, Broose the Moose, on them.  We talked to him for a bit, sharing our plans for the upcoming year and listening to his.  Ahhh, I love being home.  I just want to ignore the suitcases and plastic bins that are piling up in my room and the entryway.

Banff, Lake Louise & wildlife

Well half of our plan for last night worked out.  We drove down the mountain into town, found a parking place (which, to my surprise, were absolutely free.  In a tourist town like Banff, I thought that was really cool.), and walked to the Old Spaghetti Factory.  The food was great, as it always is, but they had already run out of spimoni ice cream so we didn't get our free dessert, which is sad because I really love that stuff.  Anyway, we hurried out of the restaurant as soon as we were done and drove up Sulpher Mountain to the Upper Banff Hot Springs and walked up to the pool, but just as we got near the top, some people coming down told us that the hot springs were closed for the evening.  We were really surprised to hear that because my mum had looked in the Banff N.P. guide that we got when we drove into the park and said that the hot springs were open until 11 p.m.  It was just after 10 when we got there.  So we walked the rest of the way to the top and found a sign that said the pool was closed at 10 p.m. on Sunday nights, but was open until 11 p.m. all the rest of the nights.  So, we didn't get to go in, but made plans to come back today.

We drove back down the mountain and then drove to the Banff Springs Hotel so we could look at it.  It's one of several really huge chateau hotels that were built for the fancy train travelers coming to tourist spots back in the day.  The most famous of these hotels, now owned by the Fairmont hotel chain, are the Chateau de Frontenac in old Quebec City and the Chateau Lake Lousie, another 45 minutes down the Trans-Canada highway.  I would LOVE to spend a night in any of the chateaus, but they're super expensive, even for the cheapest room, so I probably never will.  But it is fun to walk around in the lobbies and pretend you're staying there.  But last night, we just drove around the perimeter before heading back to our campsite.

This morning was beautiful and my mum went outside to take pictures early before the rest of us were up.  Later on, while we were waiting for other people to be ready to go back into town, Jonathan, Ty and I watched some ground squirrels play.  Ty got some good pictures of them and then people were ready to go.  We headed back to Sulpher Mountain, but before going to the hot springs, we went to the gondola that took us to the top of the mountain where there is some observation decks and an indoor restaurant.  We got a LOT of pictures up there of the Rockies surrounding the Banff valley.  The hike up to an old research hut was closed for construction, so we didn't get to do that, but it was fun being up at the top of the mountain again.  The last time our family did that was when I was in grade 10 and we took the Japanese girl who was staying with us that year to see all the tourist sights in the Rockies.  Once we (meaning my mum and Jonathan) had had our fill of taking pictures, we went back down the gondola and then visited the hot springs.

The sun was brightly shining, so it was kind of warm to be in the hot water, but if you sat where you could catch some of the mountain breezes, it wasn't too bad.  Hot springs are definitely better to experience in the evening/night.  After our soak, we got dressed and drove back into town to find my favourite candy store, which wasn't too hard.  This store is absolutely packed with all kinds of awesome candy. Some kinds you find in other candy stores, but there are many that I've only seen in that store or in olden day candy stores in ghost towns turned tourist attractions.  We had a great time pushing past other candy store visitors to see all the sights and by the end, most of us had bought something, some (me and Bryn) more than others.  We also were treated to ice cream since we hadn't been able to eat any with our meal last night.

Then it was back to the campsite to load up the trailer and get moving again.  About halfway to our next stop, at Lake Louise, Jonathan saw something down the river that flowed right beside the road.  He quickly pulled the car onto the shoulder and I declared the tall, stately blob in the distance a moose.  He confirmed that with his long camera lens and took lots of pictures before we continued on to see the sights of Lake Louise.  Once we parked, we jumped out of the car to tell my mum we had seen a moose.  She was really sad since she said she had seen it too, but my dad wasn't able to pull the whole truck and trailer off the road, so she didn't get any pictures of it.

Then Bryn joined us, and we walked to the lake, which is definitely prettier in the summer when the snow and ice on the lake melts and the glacier on the mountain behind the hotel contrasts beautifully with the turquoise water of the lake.  But it was still pretty and Jonathan and my mum took quite a few pictures in our 20-minute stop,  Then Bryn, my dad and I walked to the hotel to show Jonathan the lobby area.  It really is a unique place, especially if you've never seen it before.  I've been inside a ton, but it still never gets old for me.  After that stop, we kept on driving (through lots of construction) until my mum pulled over to the side of the road.  Concerned that something was wrong with Bryn's car that she was driving, we pulled off and parked in front of her.  She didn't get out of her car or anything so we were confused until I noticed a shape moving up near the railroad tracks.  "A bear," I shrieked to Jonathan and he grabbed his camera, quickly changed to his long lens, and started snapping.  When we looked back at my mum, we saw she was doing the same thing.  We stayed there for a big until the bear wandered off across the tracks and we lost sight of him.

Then, just before we got to Golden, we stopped at a construction site to take pictures of a group of mountain sheep, who didn't seem to mind the attention.  There are almost always mountain sheep on the east side of Golden, so I was sure we'd see some, and I was right.  After the pictures and a quick stop for gas and food at Subway (a place we ALWAYS stop to eat at during our road trips through the Rockies), we were on our way again.  A ways down the road, I saw two black bears, what looked like a mother and a cub, way down a railroad track as we came around a curve and down a bank, but there was nowhere to pull off the road since we were on a built up part with no shoulder, so we couldn't stop and get any pictures of those bears.  But later on, my mum pulled off the road again, turned around and drove to the shoulder on the other side.  Jonathan and I were right behind her.  There was  silvery-looking bear chomping on some greenery or berries right near the woods.  When we drove up, he looked up, stared at us for a second and then dashed away into the brush before Jonathan could get a picture of him.  We waited a bit, but he never returned.  Later we found out that my mum had gotten a couple, fuzzy pictures of him on her small camera.

Soon we were off driving again and saw no more exciting wildlife, except for some soaring birds, for the rest of our trip.  But Jonathan still used his time wisely and took a bunch of pictures of the impressive mountains (I think we were in the Selkirk mountain range by then).  Soon it got darker and I was sad Jonathan wouldn't be able to see all the scenery of driving into Kelowna, but I was also pretty happy our trip was coming to a close.  We finally drove into our driveway around 11 p.m. and it felt great to be home.  Now I think I'm going to hop into bed.  I've decided to keep up my commentary of my life at least while Jonathan is here.  So never fear, there will be more to read in the coming days.  Good night.

Border crossing & Rocky Mountains

Yesterday afternoon we traveled north on an apparently little-used highway.  We didn't see too much other traffic, which was a nice change from the big interstates.  I really enjoyed watching the land change as we drove and decided that not all parts of North Dakota are stark and endless plains.  The sunset, especially, was quite beautiful, but I was glad to use an extra pair of Jonathan's sunglasses.  We got to the town of Minot around sunset, so we pulled into a shopping center parking lot and had a sundown worship and quick meal of sandwiches in the fifth-wheel while my dad and I figured out the best route to take to the border.  Then we continued on our way and finally got to the border town of Portal a bit before midnight.  We parked beside the road and Bryn and I ran in to the American customs office to turn in our I-20 and our I-94 student visas now that we were graduated.  I made sure to mention this to my parents and Bryn earlier since I had had some problems with my I-20 the year that I worked at home and didn't want the same thing to happen this time when I went back to Canada.  We turned in the I-20s without any hassle and only a few questions from the officials.  I asked several times if we were all cleared now and they assured me that we were.

Once that was taken care of, we ran back to our cars and got in line to go through Canadian customs.  Only one line was open and there were quite a few cars in front of us, so it took awhile, but finally Jonathan and I, who were first in our group since my parents had to go in the taller-vehicle line-up, got to the window.  The guy asked us all kinds of questions that, in my 25 years of going through the Canada/U.S. border, I have never been asked before, as well as the usual ones about firearms, tobacco, etc. coming back with us.  He seemed most interested in the fact that Jonathan and I were dating and made sure we weren't engaged (nope, for sure not) and that Jonathan had a plane ticket already made back to the U.S.  Finally, he wrote stuff on a yellow piece of paper and said that he would have more questions for us inside.  So we had to park and come in to the customs office where we waited and waited for someone to talk to.  The rest of my family had to come in too and my mum told us that the lady they had talked to told her that Bryn and I would have to make a list of every single thing we had ever bought during our time in the States that we were bringing back when us.  I got annoyed, since we had brought many of these things back with us every single summer between school years, but there's not much you can do about stuff like that when you're trying to get through customs and back into your own country again.  Finally, the lady appeared and looked over some papers and then told us that we didn't have to make our lists "this time."  Then the guy came out of some back room and said that he actually didn't have any more questions for Jonathan and I, so in the end, we were all clear and free.  We got back into our vehicles and kept driving for another half an hour until we got to Estevan, Saskatchewan where we found a grocery store parking lot to stop in and finally fell into our beds, completely tired out.

This morning we woke up pretty early and gassed up before having breakfast at Tim Hortons.  It was awesome to be eating there again and it was fun to listen to the conversations swirling around us as we waited in line.  Lots of farmers and workers come in to Timmy's early in the morning for their coffee fix and it was great to hear the mid-Canadian accent again.  After Timmy's (again, Jonathan's first time eating there even though there's a Tim Horton's in his hometown), we piled back in our cars and drove through western Saskatchewan.  Just around Swift Current, we encountered a lovely spring snow storm and stopped to get gas and buy some new windshield wipers for Bryn's car.  Then we kept driving until we crossed the Alberta border and stopped again in Medicine Hat for a small snacky supper of sandwiches and other random foods we could find in our trailer.  We kept going and got to Calgary several hours later, where Jonathan, Bryn and I somehow missed seeing the fifth-wheel and Ty's car stop at a gas station on the west side of town.  We were already past the 1988 Olympic ski jumping park when we got ahold of them and found out they were back in town, but fortunately I knew the place they had stopped at and it wasn't too far to go back and meet them.  After that mishap, we continued on into the foothills of the Rockies.  I drove because I knew Jonathan would want to be taking pictures as we got into the Rockies and I was right.  He snapped pictures left and right, front and back (with the help of my sunroof).  Finally we got to Banff and found a campground to stay the night at with a spectacular view of the famous mountain of Banff.  Now we're just about to leave for supper at the Old Spaghetti Factory and then hopefully a dip in the Upper Banff Hot Spring pool.

Church mix-ups

The grown-ups (my parents) slept in the hotel last night and the kids (us young adults) slept in the fifth-wheel.  We got up and showered in the hotel before putting on church clothes and getting ready to experience a brand new church in North Dakota.  We headed out, following my dad's GPS, which was a bad move.  It took us all over Fargo on a wild goose chase for the elusive church.  Finally we tried out using Jonathan's phone, which got us to the right address, though once we were there we saw warehouses, a police station, and a residential area, but nothing resembling a church.  Finally we decided to go to another church in the area and the GPS got us to that one fine.  Just as we were walking up the stairs to go into the church, I noticed their signpost hanging beside the door: Church 9:30 a.m., Sabbath School (which I will hereafter refer to with the initials, SS) 11 a.m.  Yep, you guessed it.  This church had their services backwards.  So we went in, broke up a SS class, introduced ourselves, and settled into the class as best we could.

 The group was super friendly and it turned out that the SS leader for the class we were in was the father of a Southern graduate and another Southern student, Jessi and Krista.  Both Tyler and I knew Jessi from classes, and Bryn and I both knew Krista from SM class.  Wow, the Adventist world really is small.  When SS was done, many members talked to us and the SS teacher invited us all over to his house.  So we went back to our hotel, changed into comfier clothes, and drove out to their farm.  His wife made an amazing lunch and we got to know them better.  Their girls weren't back from Southern yet, since they stayed an extra few days to do some fun after-school activities.  They were planning to get home the next day.  After lunch, we talked a bit longer until we realized we had to continue our journey.  We took pictures of each other and then drove back into town.  Now we're just about to check out of our hotel room and leave.  Wonder how far we'll make it this afternoon and evening.

Hubble 3D IMAX

Yesterday evening we got to Jonathan's sister Becky's apartment in time for supper.  She knew we were coming and had made really great chili and rice for us to eat.  We parked behind the building and then crowded into the living room of Becky's and her husband Kent's apartment.  After Jonathan introduced us all and we had a tour of their place, we ate supper and then headed a few minutes away to get ice cream from Cold Stone's for dessert.  We got there just before they locked the doors so that was good timing on our part.  I got the best thing in the store, a mint chocolate chip shake.  Yum, mint is so great!  After we got back to Becky and Kent's place, we lounged around in their living room on their really comfy bean bags and I found my sister-in-law, Terrie, and her sisters in Kent's elementary year books.  It was super amusing.  Then it was getting late and we were getting tired so us Q's left to go settle down in the fifth-wheel and Jonathan stayed to sleep on one of the two bean bags that made into queen-sized beds.  Yeah, they were pretty cool.

This morning we ate breakfast in the apartment before heading into to Minneapolis and managing a whirlwind stop at the Mall of America.  We had about 45 minutes there before we had to leave for our next appointment.  Bryn left the group to look at stores and my mum and I bought tickets for the rides that we soon found.  I texted the guys who had gone to Radio Shack or Best Buy or something like that and they soon met us at the rides.  Ty and I and my dad went on this awesome ride that looked like a giant skateboard and spun us around.  Then Jonathan and I went on one of those huge swings while Ty went on the skateboard ride again.  We met up with Bryn and raced to a rollercoaster to use up the final tickets.

With our time at the mall over, we briskly walking back to our parked cars and drove into St. Paul to the IMAX theater at the zoo.  We got tickets for the 12 p.m. showing of Hubble 3D and Becky managed to get there before it started after she finished working.  It was an awesome IMAX.  My dad said it was the best one he's ever seen and my mum and Bryn kept saying how much it made them think about God.  I'm so glad Dr. Nash told us about it in our last Literary Journalism class.  I loved it.  After the movie was over, we browsed the gift store and bought a couple older IMAX's that we hadn't seen before on DVD.  Then we all went back to the area that Becky and Kent live in and were going to go to this one place for lunch, but then found out it wasn't there anymore, so we walked down the street to a burrito place that was amazing.  After that, my mum went with Becky to a bread store and a grocery store, while the rest of us went back to the apartment to load up the fifth-wheel and we all met back at a gas station before saying good-bye to Becky and continuing on our drive.

We made it to Fargo, ND before finally stopping for the night.  We were actually on our way traveling north to Grand Forks, but the winds were really bad and it was raining too, so my dad turned our parade of cars around and we drove back to Fargo.  We tried to find the KOA campsite our GPS found, but when we got to the address, there was nothing there, so finally my parents decided to stay at a hotel.  We drove across the street to a La Quinta and my dad made arrangements for a room and also for a place to park the fifth-wheel for the night.  Now we're all in the hotel, about to start Friday night worship, so I'd better sign off for tonight. Adios.

Wisconsin Dells

I wasn't really bothered by trains during the night, but I sure heard them early this morning long before I wanted to be awake.  They seem to come through the area with surprising frequency.  Finally everyone was up and I decided to hop off the top bunk, too (with some help since it's pretty high up).  We showered and ate breakfast, then headed out for some fun in the Dells.  We left the fifth-wheel at the campground and drove our cars through the city, looking for something that  would be open at this time of the year.  Finally we found an indoor adventure center.  My dad got us all wristbands, which let us do anything that we wanted to inside the center.

First up was a couple rides on an indoor ferris wheel.  Then we all went go-karting before Bryn, Ty, and Jonathan decided to try some wall climbing.  After that we headed downstairs to play laser tag.  It was my mum's first time playing and she had a grand time shooting at the many people darting around the darkened room, only to find out at the end that she had her gun turned the wrong direction and had successfully shot herself myriads of times.  For her sake, we played again and she did much better that round.  Next my mum got us to go on a carousel ride and then Ty begged Jonathan and me to go into a kids indoor crawl/play place with him.  We did and realized that they are definitely made for kids, not young adult-sized people.  It was still fun to climb through the area, though.  Finally, we went to play a game on mini-golf.  It was a really cool course, designed like a real golf course, with greens, rough grass areas, and sand traps, which made it pretty challenging.  About halfway through, I somehow got two holes-in-one and a little later my mum decided that whoever won would have to pay for lunch.  I ended up winning somehow (I hardly ever win when I'm playing with Bryn and my dad) so I said that we should go to Taco Bell.  Having done most of the activities in the center, we decided to head off for lunch.

Right across the parking lot from the center was a Cracker Barrel and the rest of the family convinced me to go there for lunch instead of Taco Bell.  I agreed, even though I was really in the mood for some soft tacos.  It was Jonathan's first time ever eating there (which is inconceivable since he went to school in the south for five years) so in the end I was glad we went there.  I really wanted him to experience Cracker Barrel before being back in New England again.  After lunch we drove back to the KOA and loaded up the fifth-wheel.  Now, we're about to leave for Minneapolis where Jonathan's sister lives.  I'll write again when I have Internet.

Traveling

Well, we actually got away from the Cleveland KOA around 7 p.m. yesterday evening and then drove north on I-75 until close to midnight, when we stopped to sleep in the parking lot of a Sam's Club in Lexington, KY.  With four vehicles (a truck pulling a fifth-wheel and three cars) in our entourage, we had a fun time trying to stick together through the cities, but somehow we managed to end up together by the time we wanted to stop.  Once we parked our cars and got our beds ready in the fifth-wheel, we were all tired and fell asleep pretty fast.

Today we got up and headed out of Kentucky and into Ohio for a short time and then on to Illinois.  We skirted around both Cincinnati and Indianapolis, making our way to Bloomington, IN, then north to Rockport, IN, and finally to Wisconsin Dells, WI.  Now we're happily parked in a campsite at a KOA and enjoying the free wireless Internet for a few minutes before we head to bed.  I wonder if any of us will sleep very well.  There are train tracks right across the road from the KOA and I'm sure a train is bound to come through sometime during the night.  I guess we'll see what happens.  Night from Wisconsin.

Packing & leaving

Wow, we're FINALLY going to leave.  Phew, today has been a LOT of work and I'm really glad it's over.   I woke up early to finish grading and went to the SJ&C to drop all the newsletters off in Ms. Chamberlain's office and then texted her to let her know they were done.  I said bye to Mrs. Ellis, Mrs. Ball, and Mrs. Herod, who were all talking in the SJ&C office and they all said that I better come to Ty's grad next year to see them all again.  I said I would try my best.  Then I drove to the house that Emily (our photographer for the family pictures) was staying until she left for home and picked up the pictures from her.  And then it was back to the apartment to pack.

When our apartment was pretty clean, Jonathan and I took a bunch of stuff away to the Samaritan Center and then to recycling.  We stopped by campus on the way back and helped Ty finish up his room.  I also went dumpster diving to find Ty's old shoes.  My dad had convinced Ty that they were awful and needed to be thrown away, but later Ty had second thoughts and wanted to keep them until he could get another pair.  I felt bad for him because I know what it's like to love clothes or shoes that are really comfy like that, so I went and found the garbage bag we had just thrown out and saved the shoes.  Ty was happy and so was I.  And I found out that dumpsters aren't really all that gross or smelly.  At least that one wasn't, but maybe it had recently been emptied.

Ty and my dad went to get the last few things out of Ty's room and so Jonathan, my mum, and I went to the Campus Shop to get some last minute things.  Then Bryn and Josh met us at the ABC and we spent a happy bit of time looking at our favourite kids books.  All of us had enjoyed all the same good old Adventist books and tapes as children and it was a lot of fun to reminisce together.  Then Ty and my dad met us all at the Village Market as we got some final food items to eat as we traveled.  We went back to our apartment to put the last few things in the vehicles and give the keys back to the Martins.  And now we're about to leave so I'd better pack up this computer and get going.  We still have to stop at the KOA in Cleveland to hook up the trailer and THEN we'll finally be on the road to home.

People leave

I can't decide what to do with this blog now that I'm not required to write on it for Creative Writing or Adv. C.W classes.  I have so many blogs already, I don't really know if I should keep this one up or go back to using my original one.  I think I'll keep using this one, at least to record my trip home and then I'll re-evaluate.

Well, it's the day after grad.  People are leaving.  Actually, Julie already left.  She took off yesterday during grad because she had to get back to her PT clinical in Michigan.  Luckily, she got away before all the rain and craziness in Nashville, although she did have to drive through about four hours of really, really heavy rain later on in her trip, but I got a text later on last night saying she had gotten back safely, so that's good.

My uncle left early this morning to go visit his cousin in Oklahoma so we said good-bye to him last night.  And my grandparents flew out of Chattanooga this morning too back home.  We said good-bye to them last night too, but we'll be seeing them when we get back to BC.

Around 11 a.m., I drove Jodi to Groome Transportation so she could catch the shuttle to Atlanta to get her flight back to Alberta so now she's gone too and then, several hours later, Bryn drove Cherry to the airport to fly home to BC.  So now it's just my immediate family still here.

I worked a bit on grading more newsletters today and also started working on packing in earnest now.  We're going to try to leave sometime (my dad says early, but I know it won't be until at least afternoon) tomorrow.

Jonathan and I went to a wedding tonight.  Adrienne, the copyeditor for the Accent, got married in the UTC chapel and I was invited and could bring a guest.  I wore the same dress as I did on Sabbath at church, but I doubt anyone except for my family and Jonathan knew.  It was a nice wedding, but there was a little ways to walk from the parking lot to the chapel and then back again.  And then Jonathan and I got lost trying to find the reception place.  We saw another car trying to find the place too.  Finally, we just ignored the directions on the program and used Jonathan's phone to find the right place.  Ahhh, how nice to have technology when we need it.  About halfway through the reception, I got really tired and I also started to worry about the newsletters I still had to grade, so we left and went back to my apartment where I graded for a couple hours.

I've actually made a significant dent in them now, so hopefully I can get the last few done tomorrow morning.  I think Ms. Chamberlain needs to get them soon and look over them herself to get the grades in on time so I have to do that first thing.  But now I'm dead and so I'm going to bed.  I can grade more tomorrow.

Graduation Day

And I'm graduated!!!  Let me tell you, it feels great to FINALLY be done.  And I should know.  I graduated from high school a little more than seven years ago, which is a long time since I'm sure that the majority of the university graduates sitting up front next to me today graduated from high school about four or five years ago.  But I did other stuff, like SMing and working and changing my major four times.  So what I'm basically trying to say is that it really feels awesome to be done this next step in my life.  I'm sure you all know how grads go so I won't get into the whole ceremony.  I'll just say a couple things:  (a) I had to get a picture taken by an American flag.  I asked the camera person, "What if I'm not American?" but got no answer other than a shrug and a nervous laugh.  (b) Commencement address was terribly boring, in my non-financially-oriented brain.  Maybe some people liked it, but I sure wasn't interested.  I used that time to text Jonathan, who was sitting several rows in front of me.  (c) Class gift at the end?  Strange.  The whole talk about it being almost as long as the address was super annoying to me.  I really don't care much for or against the gift, but I felt a whole lot more against it after that whole rigmarole than before it.  Yeah, it's a picture.  People will look at it.  But what can anyone really do with it?  I'd rather have gotten another gazebo thing for people to swing in or eat food in or hang out in or something else like that that people could actually use.  But a picture is fine.  Just don't make me sit in my chair an extra 20 minutes telling me stuff I already heard over an e-mail, on a voice mail, and at grad practice.  (d) The idea of having people gather at their major signs in the hallway after grad made sense, but it didn't turn out to be very practical.  There are just too many people attending grad for that kind of thing to be very feasible.  Oh well, I guess they'll probably do something different for next year.

So after grad, a bunch of graduates and our families and friends met at student park for a haystack, potluck meal.  It was great, especially since my family made sure to bring pickles.  Americans seriously don't know what they're missing out by not having pickles on their haystacks.  Then we had a bunch of pictures taken of the grads with a big cake and then people ate the cake, but I opted not to since I am still caked out from all the cakes I've eaten earlier in the semester.

After the meal and hanging out and visiting, people started leaving and then mine and Jonathan's and Danielle's families moved by the Southern sign and got some pictures and then we left to go back downtown to the aquarium.  I've been there tons, but it was fun showing it to the family and friends who had never been there yet.  I especially love watching the sharks and spent a good portion of time sitting in front of that tank.  Oh and also the crocodiles and turtles.  When we were done at the aquarium, it was pouring rain so my parents ran to get the vehicles and drove them as close as they could.  We all piled in and then went to Panera's to get food to go and then we all came back to our apartment to eat it.  Ahhh, a good fulfilling day.  Oh, and busy!

Picnic & exploring

Today I had to get up early.  Earlier than I have in quite awhile in order to have a shower and get downtown for Sabbath School and church in time.  I made it and I enjoyed both very much.  After church, our whole group drove to Chesterfrost Park in Hixson where my brother Mark and my sister-in-law Terrie put on a wonderful picnic meal for Bryn and me.  Veggie meatballs, potato salad, assorted raw vegetables and then a triffle and cookies for dessert.  I ate so much I thought I would pop.  My mum's cousin, Alan, and his granddaughter, Brianna, drove up from Dalton, Ga. and it was really neat to meet them.  I've seen pictures and read e-mails, but had never met them in person before, even though we were so close to them for three years.

Before lunch was fully ready some of us played a game that Mark and Terrie had brought along for their kids, Tucker and Coral.  There were two ladder sort of things set up across from each other separated by several meters and each person got three balls (which were each really two balls connected with a string) to throw and see if you could land on certain rungs.  Each rung higher was more points.  It was kind of hard at first, but soon enough us older people got the hang of it and it was fun.

After playing that and then eating and visiting and playing the game again some more, Bryn and I and Jodi, Julie and Cherry decided to go explore Lookout Mountain.  Other people wanted to leave and go rest for a bit so we took off all squished into one car and found Point Park.  We were disappointed at first because we thought you had to pay to get in when we saw the turnstiles, but then we realized there were no people taking money and all the gates were open, so we just went in and really enjoyed ourselves as we walked around.  We took a bunch of fun pictures and just had a great time hanging out together.  Then we realized it was getting late so we quickly drove by Rock City and then down the other side of the mountain and back to Collegedale to change into warmer clothes.

Soon after, we left for Cleveland where my parents had their fifth-wheel parked and joined our family and Jonathan's family for a worship and then meal of hot dogs and other fire-roasted-type foods.  It was delicious and again I ate too much, especially when the marshmallows were opened!  And then we all left and now I'm about ready to fall into my bed, smoky smelling and all.  Wow, what a busy day.

Photoshoot day

Oh my goodness, so much has happened, just in one day.  Last night Bryn got the directions to Jodi's auntie's (Dr. Penner of the music department) house and we took them and they eventually led us to the right place, but it was all on very back roads and places we had never been before.  Then, when we were there, Dr. Penner said that we could have just taken Apison Pike to their road if she had realized we lived that close to it, so we tried that on the way back and it worked out great and was a lot shorter.

This morning Bryn and I went to grad practice at the gym, which was actually a good thing to attend so that we knew all about what was supposed to happen during the weekend and especially on Sunday morning.  After that, Bryn had to rehearse with Renee for the special music for vespers tonight so I trailed along with them to the church only to find that it was nurses pinning practice there.  So we went to the music building and they practiced there.  I offered my services as a page turner and so I guess I practiced too.  Then we met up with my mum and carpooled to pick up Jodi and Cherry.  While we were driving back from getting them, my friend Julie called me and said she was almost to our apartment so we gave her instructions to get to the Greenway parking lot and we met her there and then all six of us drove downtown to Coolidge Park.  Bryn and I had brought along our grad gear and my mum took pictures of all of us riding the carousel together and then pics of Bryn and I in our grad outfits.  Once we'd used up all our tickets for the carousel, we went outside to the waterpark and played around and got pictures there too for a few minutes before heading back to Ooltewah.

We joined with the rest of our extended family and drove out to Ruth's Florists and Gifts where my mum and Bryn and I had made plans to take some family pictures.  I had asked Emily, a photography major, to take pictures for us and so that took up the next hour or so.  She took tons of pictures and I was pretty surprised that my certain members of my family were so good-natured and happy about the whole thing.  I think it was because it was a nice area to walk around and enjoy when not in pictures.  After pictures were done, we drove to the Golden Corral for supper before heading back to Collegedale/Ooltewah area and getting ready for vespers.  Jonathan's family saved us seats and the whole big group took up about two whole rows.  Bryn did great in the special music and I don't think I really messed up with the turning pages so that was good, too.  After vespers, the young people went to Hymn Sing (the last one for me ever, which is really sad to think about) and then came back to our apartment to talk and hang out until people left to go to sleep.  And now I think I'm going to go to sleep too.  I have to get up early tomorrow to get to S.S. in time.

Everyone arriving

Last night my dad took us (and the friends and family who had already arrived) out to supper at P.F. Chang's.  Right before we were seated, Cherry called and said she was almost at Groome Transporation, so my dad, Bryn and Josh left to go pick her up.  We waited to order until they got back and then we all ate really good Asian food and had tons of leftovers to send back to Ty who didn't come because he was on duty in the dorm.

This morning Cherry took my car and left early (like the kind of early that is so early humans shouldn't even be awake yet) and drove to Atlanta to pick up another friend Jodi who flew in there.  I spent the late morning and early afternoon sitting on the porch at Jonathan's apartment trying to get some grading done of the Pub. Editing final newsletter projects, while his family worked at packing up his stuff.  I tried to keep in touch with my dad and also with my mum who was supposed to be flying into Chattanooga at 4 p.m.  Unfortunately, the person who was pushing the wheelchair for my grandma (who was traveling out with my mum) walked too slowly and they missed their flight from Atlanta to Chattanooga.  My mum, apparently, was really angry with all the people involved in the situation and because of her persistence to have them remedy the situation, they got them onto the next flight into town and bumped some of the airline workers who were trying to get free flights.

Once we knew their new arrival time, my dad, my uncle and I went to the airport to pick them up.  After waiting and waiting for the luggage to come, the carousel stopped and we didn't see the luggage anywhere, so my mum went to investigate and found out it had come on that earlier flight that they had missed.  So it all turned out alright.  We brought my grandma to the hotel where she was reunited with my grandpa and she left her stuff there and then we all went out to Cracker Barrel.  Cherry and Jodi, who had just gotten back from Atlanta, met us there with Bryn, Ty and my cousin Breanna.  After supper, they all came back to our apartment to hang out and talk for a bit before everyone headed out to their respective sleeping places.  And now Bryn and I are about to leave to take Jodi and Cherry and Jodi's auntie's place where they are staying for the weekend.

Finally finished

And now, here comes the whirlwind effort to catch up on exactly three weeks of inactivity on this blog.  Bear with me please.  I'll do my best to zip through the days and get you all caught up on what's been going on with me.  Going back in time, now:

I'm done, really done.  I just finished my Adv. Creative Writing final.  I was kind of worried, after our last class period on Thursday, that this exam would be harder than I thought, but it was actually a lot of fun.  Tons of writing though, but hey, I'm a writer so it wasn't bad.  And now all I have to do is visit with family and friends who have already started arriving here for grad, participate in all the graduation events, and pack up my apartment.  Should be fun.

My dad, grandpa and one of my uncles got here this morning.  They left my hometown last Friday, stopped by WWU for Alumni Weekend, and then drove the rest of the way to TN.  My dad called me earlier while I was holed up in the abandoned Accent office marking/helping to edit an Adv. Reporting student's final project/studying.  I gave Dad directions and the three travelers came up to the office to say hi and visit for a few minutes.  They didn't stay long since they wanted to pick up the fifth-wheel that my parents left in TN last fall and move it to the KOA they'll stay at during grad weekend before it got too dark.  And now, in a few hours, one of mine and Bryn's friends, Cherry, will arrive here too so I guess I'd better start cleaning this place up a bit for having company.

Class memento

I'm so excited.  I have a lot of new reading material.  Dr. Nash took our Literary Journalism projects and photocopied all six of them for each of us to keep.  So now we all have a 150-page memento of experiential, immersion, and reportage-based literary journalism.  When we got our copies, we passed them around the table, getting everyone to sign their own piece, which I think is really cool.  Now I can't wait until my last exam is over, the hype of graduation weekend dies down, and I'm on the road home.  Then I'll be able to finally settle down and read my humongous document.  It's going to be great!  My only regret is that we didn't get Mr. Lale to do the same thing for us in Creative Writing and Adv. Creative Writing.  That would have been really nice, too.  I love reading really great writing from people I know - my peers and classmates!