family

I left this off last time while we were leaving Reno... My mom had a bit of luck on the slot machines..I lost all the 12 cents I put in!


We went out and Looked around Virginia and Silver City and wandered around the back woods a bit...


Of course we did NOT keep out and we have found out that there can be holes under places in the ground that you don't think there is any..Both Bazza and I managed to find that out when we started sinking. The moral is "obey the signs"


Found some pretty old places to wander around and look though. Hot and dusty...I would not have made it long back then...






Mom wanted to take pictures of us, but we found her first...


Dad loves old graveyards, and we found an old one on a hill that we wandered around...





These were for two children who died back in the 1800's. The most elaborate toys I have ever seen on a grave!


It was time to make our way over to Lake Tahoe area then as we had arranged a surprise for my mother, meeting my sister and Chris there. We walked into the restaurant and there they were. Yes, she was surprised....


Dinner was "ok" We went to Pacific West Grill and for the price, it was "ok" although one of the few times I tipped quite low and wrote why on the bill as the service was bad.


We had bruschetta, with mozza, roma tomatoes and basil....


The hamburger with salt and pepper fries looked good! (let's face it, after a couple months watching what I eat, anything deep fried with salt and the possibility somewhere of ketchup, looks damn good to me!)


The ahi tuna on the other hand with the lima beans (one of my all time least favorite vegetables) did not tempt me in the least...


Nor did the lamb that Bazza seems to find wherever he goes nowadays....


The Margherita thin crust pizza was pretty good though, once I blotted a lot of oil off the top of it to make it edible...


Back to the house in the woods we were staying at, a bit of a visit and then I think everyone was off to bed quite early. Long day trying to fit everything in....By the way, it was freezing at Tahoe...


The next day I unloaded the RV off all the "canadiana" food I brought down that my sister wanted, the most important being the becel margarine.....


My sister had brought my mother Dungeness Crab, which mom quite likes....


And my family made me take pictures cuz they said I really looked like I was starting to lose weight. Well, these pants have not fit for about 6 years....and now they are about falling off...


My sister brought much healthier food then I brought her!


We went for a drive around the lake. It was DAMN freezing! I apologize to every person who came to the BVI and had rain and cold that I said "it is never like this here weather wise" as I did not believe anyone in Tahoe that it "is never like this in summer" either!
Sorry, I just did not see the appeal. Nor am I a skier, so there would have been even less appeal if there was white stuff on the ground! I will stay in the islands methinks....


One other tip, don't go out to a Mexican Restaurant when you go to Tahoe either. It was, well, very less then average. We should have stuck with somewhere that had Baileys and Hot Chocolate!
Maybe then I would have liked it more there....



We perserved on sightseeing though, and were about blown away in the cold wind....


Yep, looks cold Syd!


My parents up on the rocks....


...and the whole damn cold group....Bazza cannot quite believe that he is in California...


We had company over that night. Brendan and Kim, along with a couple of their friends, came over for the evening. Brendan and Kim had their honeymoon on Promenade 4 years ago, and have been on the yacht subsequently. They moved across the country to San Francisco and now have an adorable 2 year old called Anna, who is the splitting image of Kim!


A fair amount of wine was consumed, it was 130 in the morning and the conversation was still flowing strong...in fact Brendan mentioned by the time they got home the babysitter was about waiting at the door to bolt out!


This is Brendan and Anna...


It was great to spend some time with them. We have had no shortage of a social life on this trip down the continent this time!

On Sunday it was time for some to go back to San Francisco and the RV headed off toward the old Ghost Town of Brodie in California, which was our next stop before heading toward Las Vegas...

Until next time....

I am still working on Thursday on the blog, but in actual fact I am in Edmonton for a quick overnight visit for my son Chad's opening of the Treasury Vodka Bar and Restaurant. That will be next entry. I will finish up Thursday's adventure first...
We were up earlyish for a trip out to the airport to pick up a van for the day to fit everyone in. It was a full size Suburban, and just for the record, I don't want one. The guests were all bright and perky waiting outside the hotel for their 10 AM Pick up...


Dad was tour guide and we started with the city and shoreline portion..






Followed by the "holy crap there are deer EVERYWHERE in the city limit tour" Mostly eating flowers in yards.


We went to see the Seals down at the wharf...


And was reminded one more time that I could feed my charter guests poultry for years and have plenty of leftovers with the size of these here on the island...


But back to the seals, mom and Nancy fed them and we took pictures.


There was a mom and baby wandering around....


And then George bought me my very own seal. I don't even have to clean up after it, although I would think a live one would work fine for me, after all it would not stray to far from the back of Promenade cuz we have lots of lovely charter food left over and it would be an unique marketing opportunity in the charter market I would think....


Had to laugh, dad took us to see one of the most expensive waterfront properties up for sale and we noticed that it has now been sold...


...To the government of Saint Kitts and Nevis for a consulate! OK...I am just going to not say anything at all here.


My obligatory one flower picture...


This is a much better flower picture. More deer eating more flowers...


He does not care at all if I film him and very quickly ignores us to go back to his lunch. He is having to start to reach higher for flowers.


A random scenery and people shot...


There are many good captions for this below picture, but if dad was JUST lean a bit more......If it was someone I did not like or if there was water underneath instead of blackberry bushes, I might be tempted to trip....


Out to My Chosen Cafe at Mechosin for lunch, always a nice spot to visit...and I made them hurry taking the picture as I was STARVING. Everyone laughed at my carrots in the car but I think by the time we hit lunch Don was looking longingly at them! THe guys had a open faced meatloaf sandwich on top of a piece of garlic bread, with fried onions and mushrooms on top and covered with gravy served with fries. Unfortunately, it did not fit into my calories allotted for the day, but it did look amazing....


And some random scenery shots.


And the tour ended up at the Empress Hotel, where we left our friends to have scones, tea and probably beer for some. It was nice to share some time with everyone who over and we think we were very lucky to have so many friends in Victoria the same time as us...


Friday it was off up to Duncan. (I know, the life of a social butterfly never stops now does it?) In another meal that looked amazing was Bazza's hamburger. I had a veggie burger and plain salad. Enough said about that. Sigh.


We met up with a couple that we had met down in Tortola at the May Boat Show. They are in the process of chucking it all away to go sail for a living, and we had updates on courses they are completing etc, just in case you need a good crew they are ready to go! We had a great couple hours gabbing with Cam and Rhonda. They have started a blog to share their adventures, and once (and if I suppose!) I get permission to share that link I will pass it on cuz I know many who read this like following those types of journeys...



That covers Friday, up early Saturday AM to get out to the airport to fly to Edmonton, so until next entry....

We had a treat this week as our friend Margot was over making bank life's miserable doing her job so she came for dinner and a visit at the house. She brought nice flowers, which, yes Sydney, mother loved! I would have preferred frozen blended bushwackers personally!! We had a nice visit though and she already has some of her trips planned to the boat for next season. She already knows how to sort and fold the laundry on the boat and put it away, next we will be working on teaching her how to do DISHES!!!!



Bazza woke up with a totally seized shoulder, which entailed a trip to the acupuncturist and the doctor. First time I had seen this procedure, not sure what I think about it. Not sure what is happening with it, but Bazza is not a whinger so I know it was painful.


I loved this flyer though in the doctors office for prostrate checks....



Watched the neighborhood cats in the back yard. They sit very calmly pursuing their buffet options...


Why do I say buffet options because this is what they sit under. They must be waiting for one to fall from the sky!


We were getting dressed to go out for dinner and my mother and I actually took a decent picture, so I thought I would put it up. The weight loss is starting to show on me now I think.


It was out for dinner at Vic Steak House tonight...I was teasing Margot that she was ordering a caesar to drink so it would look like a salad on her expense accounts! She assured me that it was not so!


We had more friends in town tonight. Dan and Nancy and George and Jane, also known as the "old folks from St Marys" just came off a wonderful cruise up to Alaska with perfect weather (it must be only the BVI they bring shitty weather too..) So along with my parents and Margot, we all had a nice visit. George mentioned that he did not think he had ever seen me before with Make up on. Probably true!


It is MUCH MUCH more fun to visit when I don't have to cook the meal and do the dishes let me tell you. I could see a theme for that happening on the boat...I truly think that Bazza could throw out the long tables in the cockpit and put in round ones as well as it is so much easier to visit that way.


steak....


hamburgers...


pork chops...


and fish and chips were on the menu tonight. The food was "ok" The restaurant was short staffed and you could sure tell that. Service was slow and lacking. Really do you guys have cocktails up here with only 1 oz in them? What in the world is the point of that? That 1 oz does not seem to last very well when it takes you 20 minutes to get the next oz! We had a great visit though and sat and talked for a few hours...


I was not ultra crazy about the public swimming pools with the bandaids floating in them, so opted for a walk the next morning, which apparently I should do more often as it got my heart rate up higher then the swimming does...but I enjoyed it....




My niece will hate me, but doesn't she look cute in her cheerleading outfit? She looks more like my sister every day! And obviously more of a girl then Sydney and I were with being in cheerleading...


In the other big news in our world, my oldest son Chad's new Restaurant and vodka bar opened last night in Edmonton. The Treasury. I am sure it was a schmozzle as those kind of openings always are, in my experience. I still remember my first ever charter I did not being able to get dinner out until 1130 at night! I just kept on giving them more liquor......


This is Chad and his girlfriend Christina, I wish them all the luck in the world...


Once I get new pictures of the opening weekend I will post them.


That is it for today's online diary, time to get ready as we are heading up to Duncan to have lunch with a couple we met at the spring boat show in Tortola, Cam and Rhonda. Cam and Rhonda are a bit younger then us and have done the proverbial sell their worldly possessions, quit their jobs, train for chartering and are planning on doing charters in the BVI. I feel so old, it seems like such a long time ago that we did that!

In Canadian Speak the temperature here in Victoria was 32 degrees. I did not know it ever got to that temperature out here! Apparently the Inland Empire back home is in the triple digits too, so there is heat everywhere..
My dad went to march in that heat in a parade. I cannot even tell you what it was for! He mentioned something about old uniforms not fitting...Go figure!


We made the Saturday afternoon trek with the parents to the Legion...


One of their friends brought their grandson who was visiting from Australia, who brought his voting papers with him for Bazza to countersign (In Australia if you don't vote you get a $200.00 fine! Bazza has been gone ten years.....Yikes!

In Australia you don't just put a X beside the one you want, you also have to RANK them all in the order you want them in, it is all very complex. What was not complex was some of the names of the parties...The sex party (apparently they promote escort services) the fishers and shooters party ( I hope they hunt and fish but i am not sure!) Some were more understandable, the aboriginals, the greens...but I did not see the Pot Party!


Bazza drank vodka (i think he was trying to work up the courage to ask me to dance but he never did!) and it was pretty warm in the building too...


i am not sure what I was up to here, being a bit loopy I think!


Sunday we went over to look at the car show at Oak Bay...Nice and early in the morning before it was hot and busy. You can see Bazza still happily found fresh donuts to munch on....


We saw shiny cars, which don't interest me too much but it was a nice walk...


License Plate...


After that it was off to see Eat. Pray. Love. The boys went whether they wanted to or not. ONe second before I snapped this photo my father was fast asleep! He obviously was in self preservation mode and sensed when I was close with a camera...I think the girls liked it better then the boys..


Then cuz it was hot as can be we decided to heat up the kitchen to bake potatoes in the oven for an hour (just like being on the boat..) But steak and potatoes was yummy...



And so ends the weekend up on Vancouver Island

About the time we got on the road we decided that driving to get there was a very good idea. And we did. By Thursday morning we were heading across the border into Canada, after the appropriate border games...Where do you live? Who's vehicles are these? Why do you have vehicles with CA plates? So do you ever live in Canada? And on, always confuses things when we go through the borders with our different passports and residences...

We dropped the RV at the ferry docks and drove like crazy up to North Vancouver to catch Richard and Lisa for an hour before they went out on charter again...Had to laugh when we pulled up and we both had cameras out at the ready! Had not seen them for only a few months, but I could have hugged Lisa forever! I so enjoy her (sometimes abrasive!!) personality!



I don't know how many pictures i have of these 3 people, but quite a few!


So, we got to see the boat! Lisa is showing off her salon here, (saying please don't take one more crappy picture of me here Kerry!) They both look good, and are eating seafood like kings tottering with only 4 guests back and forth to Vancouver and Desolation Sound.


This is the view looking out their "shed" the boat sits in. NIce view and seals playing around too!!!


Up on the top deck where the tender is stored. Lisa says she has to worked harder on here and Rich says he works less so it sounds like a match made in heaven! Lisa misses chartering and would go back in a second, Richard not so much. They are here until the end of September and then Lisa has to get some holidays in so it is off to Las Vegas, California, UK and Cambodia to go dirt bike riding in the jungle (why oh why????) They are then planning on working a Ski season as chalet hosts in France for a few months after that this winter, so lots of traveling around. Lisa misses the SCUBA diving like crazy. Anyways, it was great to see them if only for a short time and we hope to get together again while we are up here on one of their forays back to the big city. The boat is nice, but truthfully, I prefer Promenade! I don't like tippy boats!!!!!!!!!!


Had to laugh walking back down the dock as the tide was low and it is such a surprise seeing this after our entire 8 inches of tides in the islands. And having to walk up STEEP ramps to get to the parking lot.


We made our way through Vancouver traffic back to the ferry docks and I nicely slept all the way across to Vancouver Island. When we pulled up at my parents, mom had her cousin, Jimmy Lee and wife Lynn visiting from Alberta, so the family parade starts! Poor Bazza....


OUr first meal out with the parents was...well since it was Friday lunch and they always go here then, we made it to Costco.


I had water as there was nothing on the costco menu that i felt like blowing my entire days calorie budget on so I could starve the rest of the day.....


Kevin had taken a picture of my swimming pool at home the other day and it is very nice. I found a swimming pool to swim in up here yesterday, but REALLY? You have to share a lane with all these people? And I know I am a large woman, but do they really make lanes that narrow where I have to practically turn over on the side to squeeze by the person coming the other direction? And I do notice that even after not having swam lengths in a pool for about 2 decades that people still don't know whether they should be in the fast or the slow lane doing their lengths. OK, rant over, I will go back and swim in my own pool soon.


Bazza had bought himself a Net Book a few weeks before we left the islands as his laptop had died. Of course he bought one when he got back and continuing on in our "handing down the electronics" theme, dad inherited the Net Book! He can look up his very own coins on EBAY and read the obituaries of who has died in Victoria wherever and whenever he wants now.


Today is our once a visit trip with the parents to the Saturday afternoon Dance at the Legion, so I better get some work done so I don't miss that...

Although this is really a crap picture, I had to take it when we checked into the RV park last night and they have a large folder with the words EMAILS on it..Nice to see that the older set still prints them off and files them!


We stopped to see Cassie, she looks good for a 6 month pregnant woman who has only 2 features on her body!




We then went to meet my sister, Sydney and Chris for dinner in Pleasanton. A really nice little place called Oasis Grill, and we had WONDERFUL skewers of sirloin, shrimp and spices and Basmati rice. Highly recommend it.... Of course by this time it was after 730 and I would have thought anything was very good.






Of course the Australian contingent in the group had Lamb of some type...


For the first time in a decade or maybe even two I even got to look at the black line for swimming in a pool. I thought of my Swim Vacation friends who only make it to the boat once or twice a year and usually look at black lines (THey have two groups coming on Promenade at the end of March, beginning of April next year if you are looking for some swimming time in the Caribbean sea)


At Harris Ranch not only did they have wonderful food, but they also had an olympic size swimming pool just for me to swim in. Very nice setting. Too bad it is in the middle of NOWHERE. Seriously, like half way in between San Francisco and Los Angeles


Up early and on the road again, up past all the large ships rafted up in the San Francisco Bay and heading north!