Kamloops and Whistler

Our fears of wet roads were unfounded as we woke Thursday to dry roads, 23 degree temps, and about 3 inches of snow on top of our car. We began what the GPS said would be a 7-hour drive to Kamloops in BC, our halfway point to Whistler. We arrived in Golden where we were to catch the Trans-Canada highway only to find it was temporarily closed due to an accident. After a half hour delay we were allowed to move on, but the road was understandably crowded. We were to go through a couple of national parks on the way through, but it turns out that most of the venues in Glacier and Revelstoke National Parks were closed for the winter. There were some spectacular views, but nothing close to Glacier NP in Montana. It really seems to be more of a hiking/backpacking place than tourist-friendly. We stopped for lunch in a little town called Revelstoke, a charming little railroad town, called "historic" for reasons we never figured out,

but we did find this cool place to eat called Bad Paul's, pictured at left. I had a spicy beef wrap, which wound up being nearly as hot as the shrimp at Giovanni's on Oahu. It was also very filling, so I still have the other half in our ice chest. As we have found in every stop in Canada, the waitress was very friendly and helpful, and after a short tour of the town, we moved on toward Kamloops. Evidently the GPS figures on your averaging about 40 MPH, and since it is off-season, there was not much traffic, and we made very good time.

We finally arrived at Kamloops around 4 pm, and this is an aerial view of the city. It has about 75000 people and the place we stayed was very nice, with a very good restaurant called the White Spot within walking distance. Jan was feeling poorly, so we got takeout and I endured another Halo win over the Red Sox.

Today was about a 4-hour drive to Whistler, which along with Vancouver will be the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics in a couple of months. Unlike the other places we have visited in Canada which are already scaling back for the winter, Whistler was in full swing, and the downtown parking lots were full. Turns out it was the annual Turkey Sale, which is held every Thanksgiving Weekend in Whistler. October 12 is Thanksgiving in Canada, and the turkey sale is actually the time when all the local merchants have their end-of-year sales. So skiers, bikers, snowboarders, etc, can find some great deals, so the place is packed.

We discovered all of this information from the clerk at the Residence Inn in Whistler, which we have decided is infinitely a nicer place than the Residence Inn in Costa Mesa. We are on the 6th floor with a view of the mountains from out back patio. The city of Whistler also operates a free shuttle from the hotels to the Village, so we took advantage of that. The Village is their eating/shopping district and is closed to auto traffic. It is really a place full of energy, reminding us of a summer evening on Main Street in Huntington Beach. We visited the Araxi restaurant, which is where Hell's Kitchen is currently being filmed. We didn't eat there, partly because I refuse to eat at a place when I don't understand the ingredients as explained on the menu--40 dollar entrees need to be understood for me to order them. My son-in-law said we would be sorry if we didn't eat there. I assume that was a prediction, not a threat. We did eat at the Mongolie Grill, which is one of those places where you fill your bowl

with food from the selection at left, add sauces and give it to the chef, who grills it in front of you on a round grill. There is a place like it in HB at Garfield and Brookhurst, with a much smaller selection of foods. It's a lot like Fire and Ice, which is in Tahoe and Boston. The difference is that the chef actually weighs your food, and you pay $3.50 for each 100 grams of food--thats about $17 a pound. Mine was delicious--since I picked out the food myself, and we got out of there for about the cost of one entree at Araxi's. We did a little shopping afterward, found gifts for the girls, I bought a couple of logo t-shirts. We didn't buy Olympic gear, because it's amazingly overpriced to get logo stuff for the olympics. I know, I'm cheap. Speaking of cheap, Jan wanted to ride the gondola to the top of the hill, but I disappointed her by not being willing to pay $44 per person for one round trip. Another cool thing for bikers--they may have this elsewhere but Whistler is the first place I' ve seen it--they have a chair lift for bicycles, they take you and your bike up to the top of the hill, and then you ride the trails downhill. I think an all-day pass for that is $53.

Here is a shot of Whistler Village. This is definitely a place on my "revisit" list, as are most of the sights we saw on this trip.

Back to the states tomorrow. A couple of days on Whidbey Island with cousins, a few days in Salem with cousins, a couple of days in Portland with friends and family, then home, probably getting in late on the 21st. If it is possible for a vacation to exceed expectations, this one has done so.

Banff and Lake Louise

I remember there was a Greek philosopher (don't remember which one), who theorized that he was the only person in the universe, because his awareness was the only reality he know. The function of every other person and thing in the universe was merely to complete his view and awareness of the cosmos. I'm sure I've butchered the essence of his philosophy, but as I understand it, if he were alive today, he would say that the AIDS crisis in Africa exists only if he actually witnesses it, and if he doesn't then it doesn't matter. For some reason I was thinking about this guy a lot today as we experienced another perfect day in Canada. It seemed as though God ordered the universe today, at least the part I was in, merely to please me. That's not as egocentric as it sounds. I just have a God that is powerful enough that, if He wanted to do such a thing, He could. We had early on decided that today would be the day that we visited Banff and Lake Louise, partly because the water in our condo was to be turned off all day (it's still not back on). But the weather was calling for snow all day today and tomorrow, and I wasn't feeling all that well, so we had kind of given up on that. Got up this morning and decided we would go as far as we could, until the Mounties or the weather told us to turn around. We did get some snow, but we also got a lot of sunshine--scenery so wonderful that breathtaking doesn't seem to do it justice. When we entered at the ranger station and asked if there was a chance of chains being needed, she said no, that it hadn't even begun to snow in the park. (Jan and I are phobic about driving in snow, dating back to a couple of mishaps when we were in college.). So as the day unfolded, I realized that when we made our reservations on May 1, God was setting things in motion so that we could have a perfect day on October 7.

When you enter the park, you are greeted by the sight at the top of this blog. It's called the castle, or castle cliffs, for obvious reasons. After about twenty minutes, you enter the town of Banff, a beautiful little alpine-looking city with a downtown pictured below.

It was snowing lightly, temperature was in the low 30s and once we found a restroom we began exploring and searching for a place to eat. We saw a subway, a Tony Roma's and an Old Spaghetti Factory, but we kind of rule out places that we could visit at home. (Hence the fascination with Cracker Barrel when we are out of California)

We finally settled on this place, the St James Gate Old Irish Pub. This must be a replica of one in Ireland, because those are the first pictures that came up when I searched. The interior is pictured below, and the place was just full of "atmosphere". The food was great also, and there was enough that is also serving as dinner tonight. Being an Irish pub, there were Irish sayings all over the walls. This was my favorite: AN IRISH CURSE:

"Lord, may those that love me, love me. And those that don't love me, turn their hearts. And those whose hearts you can't turn, turn their ankles, so I'll know them by their limping!" We ate at a couple of Irish pubs in Boston last summer, so this brought back memories of that great trip. When lunch started I had started to feel a little woozy again, and I told Jan that if I didn't feel better, we could get Lake Louise on the next trip. But after lunch and a trip to the drugstore for some more Advil sinus, I felt much better and we decided to go for it.

So, after saying goodbye to Banff, and realizing that it would be the subject of a much longer visit in the future, we headed back on the trans-Canada highway for Lake Louise. BTW, the roads were fabulous. The roads all the way into and through the park reminded me of the stretch of road from Bishop to Mammoth--not your typical, windy, narrow mountain roads that you experience at, say, Yosemite or Sequoia.

Part of the panorama on the way to Lake Louise is in the picture on the left, called the Ten Peaks. I didn't count them.

This picture is kind of blurry, (actually I accidentally deleted it, but Lake Louise is also in the picture at the bottom) but this is Lake Louise, at the northern end of Banff National Park. While it's blurry, the color of the water is exactly as pictured. Again, it was snowing lightly, just enough to entertain us Californians who never see it where we live. And since we aren't skiers, we usually don't even visit our local mountains when there is snow.

Finally, this is where we decided we want to stay next time we come!! This is the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, and we'll probably be able to afford it if my tax business reaches annual receipts in 6 figures!

What a perfect day it was, and I felt kind of guilty for worrying that it would be anything less.

Hoodoos, Golf and Vertigo

The natives call these formations "Hoodoos". I don't think it's the same as Creedence's "Born on the Bayou"--"Chasin down the hoodoos there." but they are quite impressive up close. Sandstone cliffs with erosion that makes the cliff faces look almost like human faces. These hoodoos are about 10 minutes south of where we are staying in Fairmont Hot Sprins, British Columbia. It was about a 3-hour drive from our motel in Whitefish, Montana and we arrived here Saturday.


This is a picture of the condos where we are staying, Fairmont Villas at Riverside. It's a nice, spacious 2-bedroom and probably the nicest non-Marriott we have visited. We have the whole place to ourselves since our cousins and my sister we not able to join us. (Aside to Ben, Lisa, Karen and Jay--you missed it!!!) There is a full kitchen, 2 jacuzzi tubs, the best shower ever, and spectacular views. We are here until Friday and then we head on to Whistler to see the preparations for the Winter Olympics. Units have barbecues on the back porch (which overlooks a river and a golf course) and I cooked some delicious top sirloins for dinner tonight.

To the right is pretty much the view greeting us when we walk out our front door. Those are the Canadian Rockies. Banff is on the other side of them, and we were hoping to get to go there sometime this week. Thay may not happen because of some health issues described below, but we are still hoping. If not this trip, the next one, because we have already decided this is a place we want to revisit.

There are 3 golf courses on the property, 2 full 18-hole courses, Mountainside and Riverside (names are self-explanatory) and a 9-hold par-3 course called Riverside. Jan brought her clubs, and since it's been about 4 years since she played, we chose to play Creekside. We had lunch at the Mountainside clubhouse. That course was still fairly busy even though it is obviously off-season, and in the pro shop I overheard the starter discussing (with a couple getting ready to tee off) how to deal with a brown bear sighting!

So we teed off at Creekside, and concentration was sometimes difficult thanks to views like the one to the left. The course itself was not that challenging, with most of the distances in the 110 yard range for me, but it was perfect for Jan's reintroduction to golf. Highlight of her day was sinking a 40-foot putt on #2. Since the course was not that crowded, I sometimes played more than one ball, with the goal of shooting a best ball of 60 or better--so I can say I've shot lower than my age. I struggled on the first time through with a 33, but had 6 pars and 2 birdies the second time for a 26 and a score of 59!! For you OC golfers, the greens were a bit slow--that's an exaggeration. The made Willowick seem lightning quick. Kind of reminded me of the greens at Ridgeline in Orange, which is no more. Though I played well, I began to get lightheaded and dizzy every time I reached down to tee up or pick up my ball. (I haven't included pictures of the next part, for understandable reasons). I think the adrenaline of playing minimized the effects, but once we were done and in the car, the dizziness and nausea set in, and I headed straight for the couch. Readers of my earlier blogs know how ill I have to be to allow myself to lose my lunch, but this was the closest I have come in many, many years. Actually had to crawl to the bathroom because the room was spinning so much. Dinner consisted of soda crackers and diet Pepsi.

Woke up a little better today, but not well enough to try to go to Banff. Ate lunch at the clubhouse and went from dizzy to tired, so came back and took a 3-hour nap. Jan found some Advil sinus at the store and that has seemed to help. Since snow is forecast for tomorrow and Thursday, and I have no desire to drive in the stuff, we may have to forego Banff and Lake Louise for this trip. Friday we head for Whistler with a stop at Kamloops Friday night, and that will include driving through Glacier NP of Canada. If it's even close in beauty to Glacier in Montana it will be a wonderful trip.

The Perfect Vacation

We've been on the road for 9 days now, and if it is possible for a vacation to be perfect, then that's what we have so far. Jan won money in Vegas, and we are still living on that. Utah was unbelievably beautiful, and I've posted pictures that kind of scratch the surface on that. It was our 3rd trip to Bryce Canyon, but our first to Zion, and we now understand what all the fuss is about. It's amazing how different they are, and beautiful in their own way. The night in Whitefish MT was great, tho we had such a long drive yesterday we wound up not going to Glacier. Also was hoping to see former students Janice and Brett, but they had parents weekend at, ironically my alma mater, Point Loma in San Diego. So I guess that means it wasn't perfect perfect.

Had one of those serendipitous moments yesterday on the way to our condo in Canada, that I thought I would share. We had been in Canada for about an hour, and were a little hungry, and the road we were taking didn't offer a lot of choices. We came down into a town called Canal Flats, which is very close to the Columbia River, and saw a restauarant called Fire Valley, so we stopped there. As I looked at the prices on the menu, I realized that since we were in Canada, I had no idea how much money we were spending! The waitress--there was only one to service the 8 or so tables--was in the middle of putting up Hallowe'en decorations, and seemed kind of put out to be interrupted. there were a couple of other groups, obviously locals, and they were chatting. We ordered, our meals were great, and as we were finishing up, 5 Dodge minivans pulled up, and people began piling out of all the doors, and it was obvious they were on their way in. The locals started laughing, and the waitress said, "Quick, lock the doors." The group piled in, and to add to the confusion, none of them were speaking English--or French. Turns out they were a group traveling together from Germany, and it was obvious their English was very limited. Since we were almost done, we just used the situation for entertainment!! (We did offer to help, but got a "no thanks"). For example, it took a couple of minutes for the waitress to get one guy to figure out she wanted him to choose between white and "brown" toast. There were about 25 in the party in all, and they filled every other table in the restaurant. One couple, obviously locals, walked in, surveyed the scene, and walked out. As we finally paid and left, she still hadn't gotten all their meals cooked and delivered.
Arrived at our resort, Fairmont Hot Springs at Riverside. It's a rather large timeshare development, with 3 golf courses on site. Our villa is very nice, 2 bedroom 2 bath, full kitchen, washer and dryer. Our front windows contain a breathtaking view of the Canadian Rockies, and out on our back porch is a river and one of the golf courses. We pretty much have done nothing in the day and a half we have been here, in fact I never left the villa today.
Tomorrow is driving range and maybe some golf. We will probably go to Banff and Lake Louise on Wednesday, especially after learning our water will be turned off all day. We'll also go through Canada's Glacier Park, which hopefully will make up for missing the one in Montana this time.
Still on tap a trip to Whistler to see their preps for the winter olympics (and Jeff told Jan to check out the place where Hell's Kitchen is being taped), then down the coast on a 2-week meander home.

This Was My Day

Figure I saved about 5,000 words.

Things I learned this Week

Been an interesting week as we get ready for vacation. I've learned 3 things I didn't know before.

1. When your refrigerator gets noisy, it's not necessary to go buy a new one. Sunday night our fan in the freezer got very loud, then stopped, and was then noisy again Monday morning. Then it stopped altogether, and the food in the freezer started to get warm. Called GE, scheduled an appointment for Thursday, and prepared for the worst. Had a brainstorm--called my friend Bret in Portland, who works with refrigeration for a living, and told him the symptoms. He said it was likely the seal on the door was compromised, the fan was drawing in moisture from the outside, and that was freezing. The noise results from ice encroaching on the fan. The coil then goes into defrost mode--thus the warming--until it frees itself of ice, then refreezes everything. Upon checking, I discovered a refrigerator magnet lodged into the rubber seal. Used hair dryer to melt some ice, noise stopped and I figured we were good. Noise returned next morning. Upon lifting some things, discovered inch-thick ice around the coil and fan. Thought maybe ice maker was leaking as well. Emptied freezer, used knife and blow dryer to get rid of all the ice, and she's been purring like a kitten ever since. Cancelled appointment, probably saving myself hundreds of dollars.

2. Malfunctioning toilet fill doesn't mean buying a new one. I probably would have just gone out and bought a new one, since it's about 5 years old and keeps leaking into the tank. Discovered this was different type than I was used to, so did some in-tank research. Discovered rubber seal had come loose, reset the seal, no problems since. Probably saved about 12 bucks.

3. If you plan to get fingerprinted in HB, don't do it on a weekend. Thought my clearance to e-file with IRS was done, but filed an extended return that got rejected this week. Spent a couple of hours online and on the phone, discovered there's an EFIN number I have to get from IRS, and to get that I need to be fingerprinted. So I moseyed down to HBPD today. Learned they only do fingerprints on Tue-Thur, by appointment only. My first though was, "So if I get arrested on a Friday, you keep me until Tuesday just to do my fingerprints?" Then I had a more rational thought--from Friday thru Monday they are probably too busy doing involuntary fingerprints to have time for law-abiding citizens such as I. They did have a list of places, and I found a place on Beach that did walk-ins on Friday--for $20 each. Went there, discovered he only does electronic fingerprints. He gave me the name of a place about a mile away--and she was out for the morning. I'm thinking now of just waiting until we have a few days in Brian Head, or even until we get back. Can't wait until I have to go through it all again to substitute teach. At least I learned what my options are.

So, for someone who has the goal of being a lifelong learner, it's been a pretty productive week!

Retirement Party Thoughts

Had my retirement party last night. We waited until September for a couple of reasons. First, as a teacher, not working would not really hit until school was back in session. Secondly, I figured more people would be able to attend once school was back in session. I was right on the first count, wrong on the second.
Thanks to facebook, I invited close to 400 people directly, and 700 indirectly. We got confirmations from about 70 people and a few more "maybes" so we decided to order food for 100 people. Wendy, one of my former students is a wedding planner, organized almost all of the event, and has a deathly fear of running out of food. My fear was ordering food for a large number and having the event attended by a small number. Turns out my fears came true. While not getting an actual head count, I think there were about 40 people total, and fewer than 10 of those were former students. Jan's first words when we got in the car were, "are you disappointed?" Honestly, yes. Also honestly, I had a great time with every single person who took the time to come. That's what I'm taking away. My spiritual Enemy was whispering the whole night, "Only 7? I guess the last 36 years of your life didn't amount to much." If I take the approach that the party was all about me and validating my career, he would be right. Had lots of time to think about it before and during the festivities (caterer was an hour late to boot), and decided that the Enemy, by definition, is a liar.
So I'm not going to focus on who didn't come. Many sent their regrets, and I cannot argue with their reasons--tho not wanting to drive from North Carolina or Mississippi seem to be pretty weak excuses to me!! I'm going to focus on who DID come, and what they mean to me.

First of all, every member of my immediate family was there, except Jolie, who had a sleepover, and I'll see her tomorrow and I have no doubt about how she feels about her grampa. Jeff and Jen came even though Jeff's 20th high school reunion was also yesterday. Tim and Anne drove in from Riverside to be there, even though they have to drive in from Riverside every day of the week for work.
My sister and brother in law drove down from Shaver Lake Friday, so we had a great weekend with them. My nephew Brian drove down from Fresno with his oldest and youngest, Hannah and Jacob, even though he had to drive back last night so as not to miss Caleb and Emma's soccer games. That made me feel really special, especially when Hannah decided to stay and spent the night with us, along with Jeslyn. Nephew Jeff came with Brian, making the trip from Seattle. The only one missing from that group was nephew Todd, and we spent an hour on the phone as he expressed his regrets at not being able to come from Vancouver, WA.
The Thorns, friends from our former church, took the time to come. Scott and Leslie met and married while they were members of our singles class, have 4 beautiful daughters, and we spent precious time with them, and look forward to attending the girls water polo matches at Pacifica and maybe Long Beach State if Kirsten makes the team as a walk-on. Leslie took care of Jolie when she was a baby and her sister Robyn took care of Jeslyn, so our girls have a strong bond that was still evident last night.
Eric, worship pastor at our former church came, along with Alyssa and Jacob. That was really meaningful, and further cemented an already strong friendship. It was good to watch the Thorns and Hendricksons interract with the Russells and Tim and Anne.
Cheryl Denio was there. Cheryl Denio was in charge of the attendance office for the 24 years I was Tustin High School, has been retired awhile, and planted a seed when she pointed out she went sky diving for the first time at age 70. I think she would win my award for "most surprising attendee."
Tom Tallman was another colleague that was there. Tom taught with me at THS until 1982, and is now subbing quite a bit in the district. He was my automatic sub any time I needed one last year and it has been great to renew our friendship.
There were 3 students from the Tustin class of 1980. Wendy, who planned the party and did a great job. She worked tirelessly to get things ready and running, stayed long after to tie up the loose ends, and did all without compensation as a "labor of love for my teacher." Cynthia, who I actually have known less than a year. She went to dinner with Wendy and I a few months ago, is one of my biggest blog supporters, and took the great pictures that she's posted on fb from last night. Feel like I've known her forever. Andrew, who played basketball for me in 1978, made a special effort to come, and we talked away quite a bit of the evening. Again, I haven't seen him since he graduated from THS, yet it was important to him to come to this event.
Lisa, Renee and Mark came from the class of '82. I've kept up with Mark recently through his FB posts, used to bowl with Lisa a couple of years ago, and Renee was the statistician for a lot of the teams I coached. Great to see them.
The only Foothill alum to come was Chloe. I had her for 2 years in math, she was a great softball player at Foothill and is now playing for Cal State Fullerton. She brought a card which told me, 'I wouldn't have made it through high school without you.'
Jerry showed up, in his sheriff's uniform, having just gotten off duty--thus a couple of pretty funny pics taken by Cynthia. Jerry was Tustin '78, and his daughter was in my Algebra 2 class this past year at Foothill, and will be a big player in the Foothill basketball program this year. Jerry is one of my heroes, having taken a couple of bullets in the line of duty for OCSD, and it was really special that he came.
Scott A, one of the Foothill campus supervisors and coaches, came after attending a funeral. Scott and I go way back, he having been in my sunday school class in high school and college and also on recent bowling teams. He and his family are very special to me.
Heather and Darren came even tho they have a new home and Heather is expecting their first child in a month or so. Heather was Tustin '89, and I've blogged about her before. Her presence made the evening complete. Good also to spend some time with Darren--they are still relative newlyweds, and the wedding was not a time for us to get acquainted. He's a social science major, which in the current climate means "no jobs available" but he's recently gotten a full-time non-classroom position at Tustin High, and is coaching football. It was great to listen to them testify to God's provision during this time of economic uncertainty in education.
Hope I haven't left anyone out. If I did, I blame a senior moment.
So, if you are one of the people who said they were coming, the only thing you missed was getting your name in this blog.
My friend Kristi has a phrase called Spiritual Spice, which I think means finding a spiritual interpretation for events that seem non-spiritual. I think it applies here. I could choose to listen to the voice that wants to minimize my career based on the number of people who showed up for my party. To do that would be the same as those who choose to judge Jesus based on the actions of some of his followers. Instead, I choose to be thankful for those who enriched my life by their appearance last night. Just as I choose to love Jesus based on the blessings he has provided, and the friends I have who demonstrate his love by their daily service. Yes, it hurt that some didn't value their commitment enough to attend (it hurt emotionally AND financially!). Again, such is human nature--we hurt each other. In this case I'm sure the hurt was unintentional, but nonetheless real. We are not perfect. If I choose to base my value on the quantity rather than the quality of last night's turnout, I would feel badly. I choose to base my value on the fact that my saviour loves me enough to die for me, as would many of the people in the room last night. And vice versa. And that's enough.