To the East We Fly

Darren and I are on our last flight to reach the beginning of our travels in Eastern Europe.  I had looked into earlier dates for flights, but I am actually very happy that we had a few more days with our family.  After squaring everything away in Bishop, we were able to spend a few days mountain biking near the lake at Sly Park, relaxing with Darren's parents, helping a cousin move, and watching our oldest nephew graduate from eighth grade.

The California sun has been intense, but we were able to escape by heading to the family houseboat on Lake Oroville for the weekend.  I could have spent all my time worrying about our Europe trip, but I only looked at my 11 year old Greece guidebooks fleetingly.  Instead we SUPed, jumped off the top of the boat, swam, played water basketball, and rediscovered the endless wave wake surfing.  I had forgotten that I had not tried the latter since 2010 (this blog reminded me), and it was so much fun to feel the gentle power of the wave again.  No more wake boarding face plants for me, thank you very much.

Sunday afternoon, Darren's family dropped us off at the airport (I already had not showered for several days because of being on the boat.  This should be fun.) and we began our journey towards Europe.  Actually, first we moved further away by flying to LAX, but that was the cheapest way for us to go.  LAX is one of the most disorganized airports I have been in, and I have done a bit of traveling.  After our arrival, we had to roam random hallways to get outside to take a bus to a different terminal.  I felt extremely tired, and I happened to have a celeb siting of a scruffy looking Bob Saget, which made the whole experience all the more surreal.  Somehow we found our bus, then an elevator that popped us out behind the security line.   Thankfully someone showed us where to go and we made it to our gate.

I was able to doze a little through our too short four our flight to
Toronto, but coffee was top priority for Darren and me after we landed.  We took a train directly to downtown that popped us out at the base of the CN Tower and train museum.  We wandered towards the Lake Ontario shore and eventually found a breakfast place.  We still had several hours until we had to return for our flight, so we threw down the money to ride the elevator up the CN Tower.  I am quite sure I was able to see New York, but did not get a confirmed view of Niagra Falls.  The rest of the city seemed clean and filled with trees, water, and high rises.  The tower was also fun to explore with glass floors looking down hundreds of feet and the ability to watch the "edge walkers" lean off the side of the tower.  When we had a fill of the beauty and excitement, we zoomed back down the elevator and relaxed on the grass just outside until it was time to catch the bus back to the airport.

John and Deborah's Canadian Wedding

He better not be checking out her tookus!

There was a crag party at Squamish, and we were partying!

My favorite wedding shot of the new married couple!




























The super colorful hippie girls. The three of us had been rock climbing in the morning, took super fast showers at the golf club, and literally made it just in time before the bride.





Darren and I love lupins!

It was a good summer...

I remember:

basking in cool humid-free mornings and evenings, sleeping on the porch, gazing up at the tall skinny trees, surfing at sunset and in the early morn, scarfing ridiculously too much food then taking a siesta and playing ball tag on days-off, navigating the winding-deer-infested road, watching the World Cup, touting around our mascot Herbert the Stuffed Dragon, scurrying all over the place for supplies, hanging off the side of a cliff in Montana, searching frantically through nasty garbage cans, digging holes and making every imaginable piece of furniture out of sand, doing rock/water yoga, parasailing over bright blue water and deep green foliage, creating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at line call, attempting to learn the life guarding dive, being inspired by the courage and spirit of my blind campers, rappelling from trees, hiding in pirate garb with hoards of other gals chanting together "yo, ho, we yo ho," FINALLY learning how to play truco (gracias Phil!!), admiring my cheerful families, being attacked and smeared with inches and inches of pudding and dirt, and then hosed by a fire truck; gasping over otters, beavers, birds of prey, and deep purple canyons while rafting; swimming through fat free salsa, skidding around the ball field in the golf cart, playing the jimbae, being pelted by and pelting balls during Medic, listening to a lot of Coldplay, laughing at the office boys, indulging in Otter Pops and soy chocolate Silk, driving the short bus, sailing at three knots, getting tippy in the Air Skiff Nautique, watching from afar the magic of a shooting star fly over a tent of a couple just engaged, having quality campfire conversations, being a part of nightly circles of song, learning about the "One Way" of purpose and grace

meeting friendly Canadians, sleeping under a picnic table and a tarp during a rain storm, observing wild goats, elk, marmots, and caribou(?) in Banff; hiking in the rain surrounded by gorgeous glaciers up to a Buddhist-flagged tea house; playing guitar while our Ramen cooked on a wood stove, spotting berried grizzly scat (after having slept without a tent between two berry bushes), crossing the continental divide, dipping in Radium thermal pools

flying over the Cascades, exploring Pikes Place Market: visiting the first Starbucks, smelling flowers, spitting seeds from Rainier cherries, seeing a monk fish in real life, learning the art of seafood tossing, watching an amazing card manipulator, and drinking tasty Thai tea; coveting the flexible flips and turns of river and sea otters at the aquarium, my friends and I having our picture taken at the Space Needle without the top of the needle; watching a kid biff it near the UFO fountain, being nerdy in the Science Fiction Museum, and reaping the benefits from the super secret corner of REI