At 2:30 in the morning, we discovered how they kept the grass so nice and clean as the KOA sprinklers gave Da Bean a bath! For Breakfast, we met up with Great (in so many ways) Aunt Terri at the local airport cafe Norms Hanger Coffee Shop. Good food, nice views, good company... I am led to understand that pilots actually fly in just to eat at Norms. The name is misleading.. they are way more than a coffee shop. Before we left Pamona KOA, Michelle went swimming and Tony "fixed" the bike rack. His previous fix to keep it from wobbling involved shoving some plastic wrap in as a shim. LA traffic thwarted that fix, so this time, Tony experimented with Duct tape... see below for results. Given yesterday's experience with LA traffic and lack ... read more

What we need is MORE SCIENCE! There were many choices for our day in Vancouver. It was B.C. day so everything was running on holiday hours. Michelle decided she wanted to go to Science World so we found our way across town to South Vancouver after breakfast. Science World is another great hands on science museum. The thing that set it apart from others (especially for Michelle) was the hourly shows and demonstrations. She saw five shows including one on bubbles where she was picked to help out on stage. She also saw the fire show, an illusion show, a dinosaur game show and one called Surprise Science. Yes folks, we spent over 5 hours in that museum. I won't feel guilty about saying no to the children's museum for some time to come. :) Tonight ... read more

On the Train Again.... We were up and out early this morning to say goodbye to Seattle and catch a 7:40 train to Vancouver, BC. The trip did not take too long and was nice and relaxing. We did find out about the Vancouver Festival of Lights starting that evening with a giant fireworks display put together by a group from China. After lunch, some laundry and dinner we headed out into the city to find a place to watch the fireworks. The main grandstand was at English Bay Beach but fireworks being and aerial deal we could see them from many places along the bay. We found a good spot not too far from our hotel and settled in to wait for the show to start. There were a ton of people and hundreds of ... read more

Lions and Tigers and Buses, Oh My! Everyone was tired enough to get a late start today. Anne and Michelle decided to brave the bus and visit the zoo. The Woodlend Park Zoo had some really great exhibits, easily rivaling the SF and Oakland zoos. Michelle's favorite part (after the bus ride with the bus that bent in the middle) was the bird encounter. Inside the aviary there were a bunch of parakeets and cockateels and the zoo sold little bunches of millet glued to a popscicle stick. If you held out your stick near a bird it would eat the seed and maybe even perch on the sick or your hand. The zoo had great gorilla, oragutang, and wolf habitats and was working on building a new habitat for the big cats and bears. A ... read more

Welcome to Seattle Michelle's first choice in Seattle was the Children's Museum. Seattle has a huge 22,000 sq ft Children's museum with tons of things to do. We spent almost 5 hours there with only a quick break for lunch. Her first stop was the life sized erector set in the construction room. Her tunnel was very nice. We also went bird watching, visited far off cities, worked behind the scenes in a theater, made sandwiches, created with clay, explored physics and constructed with Legos. Not bad for a children's museum. After the Children's Museum we rode the monorail to downtown Seattle. From the station we walked to the city library to read some books and use the computers. The Library had a challenge to find a green sheep somewhere in the children's section. Michelle decided ... read more