And Up to Canada

Mom and Dad flew in on Monday and Scott, Charlie, mom, dad and I drove up to Canada to spend a few days in Vancouver!

Border

I believe this is actually the border :)

Ohhhhh Canada!

Charlie, Scotty and Me in the backseat

We arrived at the cute little place we were staying and then headed out for dinner. Apparently Monday was British Columbia (BC) Day, so a lot of restaurants were closed, but we went down to Historic Gastown and saw this clock go off across the street.

Tuesday we got up and drove out to University of British Columbia (UBC) to see this whale exhibit! Then mom and Charlie went to the museum of anthropology while Papa, Scotty and I took a drive.

This is the LARGEST Blue Whale Skeleton in Canada!

When the whale was alive it supposedly weighed like 150 Tons
which is like 33 grown elephants... HOLY COW

Gram, Charlie and Scotty reading about the whale

UBC Fountain

View from UBC Campus

Gardens on UBC campus

Scotty, Papa and Charlie enjoying the view

Some crazy logging

Papa and Scotty watching the logs

How did Gram get in the back seat?

We went home to eat lunch, then we headed to Stanley Park for some adventures. Charlie went to the water park while Scotty and I went to the aquarium!

Water Park!

This Sea Cucumber is for Laura :)

Cool shark

Scott getting close to the life

Penguins!

This little guy was friendly!

Then, since Vancouver has a really high population of Chinese folks, the Chinese food is supposed to be spectacular. So we decided we would eat somewhere in Chinatown for dinner. We yelped a place and showed up there... nothing on the menu was in Mandarin so we left and went to a different place. The food was delicious!

Chinese food in Chinatown!

Charlie ate the rest of the bowl of fried rice... all of it!

Wednesday we got up and headed out to Whistler. We were taking a beautiful drive but had some fun stops planned on the way. First stop - Grouse Mountain. We (everyone but Gram) took the Gondola up the mountain and we could see the skyline of Vancouver. It was really spectacular!

Charlie looking at the map before we left!

This is one of the gondolas. They were pretty big and fit about
20 people or so

Scotty takes after Gram on heights... he
wouldn't look out the window

Charlie had NO issues

View from Grouse Mountain

Me, Papa, Charlie and Scotty

Panorama from Grouse Mountain

Beautiful on the drive to Whistler

Next up, we stopped at a waterfall for lunch. It was pretty beautiful! :)

Just watching the waterfall

One of the tallest waterfalls in Canada

Scotty and Charlie

Huge tree near the waterfall

Finally we made it to Whistler, we drove around a little, but didn't have a whole lot of extra time, we had places we needed to go!

Whistler

I believe this is Whistler ski slopes which are quite impressive
even from far away

Like the train museum!!!

One of the trains we went inside

And another

Gram and Charlie walking across the train museum parking lot

Oh and we totally had a ride on this MINIATURE train... yup

Charlie, Scotty, Gram and Papa 

Papa on the train

Yeah... this is at the train crossing

Then we headed back to Vancouver for our last night there! Got some nice views on our way.

Look how blue/green the water is

View from a golf course!

Across the USA

Bright and early the next morning (Sunday), Scott, Papa and I drove to the airport so that Scott and I could fly across the country to Seattle! We get to the airport and there was a LOOOOOONG line to check our bag, but we stood in it for 30 minutes, checked our bags, then continued to security where we encountered ANOTHER long line! After going through security I waited in, yet another, loooong line for Dunkin Donuts coffee, bagels for Scotty and me, and juice for him so he could take is dramamine. By the time I was done waiting in that line our plane was boarding so we hopped on and embarked on our journey!

I didn't actually take this when I was in Seattle this time, but I saw it in my
Picasa and I HAD taken this when in Seattle at one point!

When we got to Seattle my friend Katie picked us up from the airport and we drove to my brother's house! We found somewhere to eat while we waited for Rich and Lea to get home!

Katie and me in front of Rich's house

After Katie left Rich, Scotty, Charlie and I walked down the street to pick some blackberries! They had cut back the bushes so it was kind of hard to get in there to get any, but we did get like one container full.

Blackberry bushes

Just a few blackberries that I picked

This is an artichoke plant... looks cool!

Then we had Sushi for dinner! Charlie LOVES sushi and he was SO excited when he heard that's what we were having! Scotty had never had sushi... I think the jury is still out on his opinion!

Charlie enjoying his Tempura

This was the FIRST sushi they got to share... Salmon, Tuna and some
other thing, no worries they got a second round!

Scotty trying sushi

This is the sushi Rich, Lea and I shared... most of it was good,
some of it wasn't my favorite :)

On Monday, my parents embarked on the same cross country flight as we got to enjoy Seattle for a morning while waiting. We watched sea planes take off and land, we looked at the boats, and of course we played in the fountain!

Sea Planes

Rich, Charlie and Scotty

Space Needle, again :) This one I actually took
while in Seattle most recently

These people are all pedaling this moving bar up the hill... kind of cool!

Massachusetts and Rhode Island

So I had another family wedding last weekend.  This time on my dad's side. I flew back to Boston on Thursday night. I worked from home on Friday and got my favorite coffee treat from the northeast!

Yummy Dunkin Donuts!

 The family headed down to Newport, RI for this wedding... sorry I was totally lame in taking pictures there!

Mom and Dad at the wedding!

What wedding wouldn't be perfect without a merry-go-round!?!?! Here's my cousin
Julie and my sister Elena riding around, wine in hand!

Here's one of the beaches in Newport! :) Beautiful!



I wanted a better picture of this, but the guy in the pinstripe
suit TOTALLY had purple polka dot socks on!

 So, the next day, Dad and I got up, drove around Newport, saw the mansions, walked on the cliff walk, and then headed off to the bride's parents house for breakfast. We headed home where we bought my favorite fish (swordfish) for dinner, and on the way home stopped at Marshland to get some of my favorite clam chowder (or chowdah) for lunch.


BEST ice cream! :) It's homemade and SO SO SO Good!

  

Who DOESN'T love a sign in shrubbery welcoming you to Cape Cod!

We went to bed that night and Scotty and I prepared for our next leg of the journey, which would be happening just a few short hours from then... waking up at 4:30 to drive to the airport and fly to SEATTLE! :)

More about that later!