October 11th

11am: Canadian Thanksgiving - a public holiday & supposedly a day for Roast Turkey & the like. We choose to ignore these traditions. Roast Turkey if for any time, is for Christmas in my book. So we spent the day as a family out & about including a morning trip to the little play park up the road & the much loved tyre swing.

August 25th

11pm: Nicky has headed back across the Atlantic for her dad's 70th birthday. I am going to attempt to work around the kids - Tabby is at an art camp, Charlie is heading for the first time to daycare - not sure he is going to like it. We will find out tomorrow, as you can see Nicky is somewhere between Canada & Greenland as we speak...

August 23rd

8pm: I have to admit I am not a big wine buff, however this bottle that we picked up in Spokane the other day knocked my socks off. A juicy big red bursting all over the place. We picked up a few cool things foodwise in the USA but this is my favourite by far!

August 16th

8pm: On the road back to our apartment in Depoe Bay from a great fish & chip supper in Newport, we stopped to take a picture of the coast shrouded in mist. Kind of reminded me of the Amalfi coastline in Italy. Earlier in the day we had of course visited various beaches, a bit of a cool day again but given the 90+ temperatures a few miles inland we weren't complaining too much.

August 15th

3pm: Stonefield Beach, Yachats, Oregon The kids were impressed with the abundant marine life surrounding us, this feisty fellow was found hiding under a large stone in one of the rock pools near where we were camped out for the afternoon. We also saw plenty of whales, sea lions, seabirds of all descriptions, starfish & live mussels. There is a big aquarium in Newport & numerous opportunities to get on crowded boats for whale watching - but we were able to observe a lot of interesting flora & fauna just be getting off the beaten track.

August 14th

3pm: Nye Beach, Newport, Oregon Today started out bright & clear but the sea mist lurking offshore, slowly closed us in. After visiting the Newport farmer's market & then buying some freshly caught Tuna, we headed for the beach. Charlie couldn't wait, he just ran for the sea......

August 10th

1pm: Portland, Oregon; Only 3 days in Portland & so much to explore, here is a little pod of food trucks on the trendy Alberta Street. We are just about to eat the most amazing Venezuelan dishes from the truck in the background - arepas (corn breads) with black beans, chorizo & other goodness. The kids loved their food, but we would have been happy eating from any of the trucks in this pod. All over the city there is amazing food to be had, the night before we feasted on the best pizza I have eaten outside of Italy (Apizza Scholls) & later this day we ate $10 worth of fresh Mexican tacos from another hole in the wall. Finished the day off with a cable car ride & a walk up to the park that overlooks the city - better pictures were taken for sure but this sums up one of my favourite things about this city.

August 9th

11am; Portland, OR The kids love the streetcars in Portland, deprived of much meaningful public transport in Alberta, it is nice to see the system here. Portland & Calgary are polar opposites in so many ways, especially politically & culturally. I just adore Portland, it is such a cool progressive, artsy & liberal city - not astoundingly beautiful in any way but just a friendly, tolerant & vibrant place. If I could I would move here in a shot!! We rode the streetcars, ate at the food trucks, browsed the bookshops, walked in the parks & generally enjoyed city life for a short while. Hardly a junk food chain in sight in the downtown core & inner cities as well - so refreshing.

August 8th

2pm: I-84, just east of Arlington, OR A longer drive today down to Portland, we headed through Spokane & then down through the high, desert plains of Eastern Washington. We crossed the Columbia River at Kennewick & then followed it's course all the way into Portland through the scenic, but traffic clogged Colombia Gorge. The kids behaved impeccably on what was a long, hot & dusty drive. I love the countryside, in all it's barren, arid glory. The stop off above gave us a chance to look at this great river.

August 7th

8pm: Liberty Lake, WA Well a long drive down from Canmore to Liberty Lake, a little community just outside Spokane. It was of course much, much warmer down here than up there. The drive itself took us through the Kootenay region of British Columbia, and over the border into Idaho. The Idaho section was interesting, real redneck, hillbilly country in parts - the area we drove through is home to the remnants of the Aryan Nation. Not hard to imagine them holed up in the tumbledown shacks that you see from the highway. Anyway we reached Liberty Lake, had a really nice dinner & then took the kids to the lake itself, where they had a blast playing in the sand on a staggeringly beautiful evening!