A very big week

We had a very big week. On Wednesday school started again for Marlene. She is now a First-Grader at Rogers. The classes were mixed up, but she managed to stay with some of her old friends. Kailanee, Ethan, Anthony, and William are still with her. It was fun to see all the old friends. Marlene hugged her rainbow pals Erica and Alex and she has been playing a lot with her friend Olive who is starting Kindergarten.

On Saturday German Language school started and there was a special surprise for the First-Graders. They all got a "Schultuete" (a large cone filled with candy) for their first day. In Germany children start school in First Grade and on the first day the parents give them Schultueten. I still remember mine. It was pink with a picture, a blue border, and yellow tissue paper.

Saturday evening then, Marlene lost her first tooth. It is an incisor. It had been wiggling for months and finally today, after some horse play with daddy, it fell out. Marlene is very proud. All her friends had already lost teeth and she was the last one.

Bumpershoot

As many of you know there is a huge arts and music festival in Seattle over Labor Day weekend. When I was childless I would go every year, but it has been a dew years since I went last. I took Marlene once when she was still a baby, but hat was it. Jason was able to get some free tickets, so the price was right. The girls had a lot of fun. They got their arms tattooed (yes, Amelia is wearing a Bill Richardson button), we listed to music, we ate fair food, and we looked at all kinds of merchandise from all over the world. They especially liked playing in the big fountain at the Seattle center. You can see us running as the water chases us. They were absolutely fascinated by a pair of jugglers. there are not too many street performers out there any more, so this was a special treat for the girls.

What else did we do this Summer?

I think I mentioned that Marlene and I made a "Summer Action Plan" at the beginning of summer, because I felt, that we always have grand plans, but then summer comes to an end and nothing happened. Not so this summer. I am proud to say, we had a list of about 20 items, that all got checked off. Marlene wanted to go to the beach in Seattle, California, Oregon and British Columbia. We made that happen. She played with her cousins in California. I got to go to the Sam, and so on. So I have to say, we had a great summer!

Here are some pictures of various things we did. We had a great morning at Golden Gardens building sandcastles. We went to various summer concerts at the University Village. Amelia is quite a dancer! We went to the Japanese Tea garden and fed the Koi fish. We went to the "Evergreen State Fair" and participated in the Guinness Book World Record in most people participating in the Bunny Hop. The old record was at 1880; the new record stands at 1886, so I am glad, we took part. We went hiking several times, with and without friends, and we collected a huge amount of blackberries at various places around here. I am blackberried out for right now. I think we had more, than in the rest of my live combined.

Our Trip to Victoria B.C.

While my mother was visiting we took a trip to Victoria in British Columbia. We drove across the border and took the B.C. Ferries from Tsawassen to Schwarz Bay. I love the ferries up there. It is always such a nice trip. We stayed with my friend Ulrike and her family, while my mother got a room in a nearby bed-and-breakfast. It amazes me every time how Victoria can be so close and yet so different. There were English manicured lawns everywhere and come late afternoon and evening everyone was going on walks around the neighborhood.

We did the usual tourist things around downtown. We walked along the inner harbor, we saw the parliament building, the empress hotel; we walked along parliament street and checked out all the tourist stores. The girls were behaving really good. Off course we had tea at my favorite little tea house, the "St James Bay Tea house" right behind Parliament. Even thou there was a wide selection of little sandwiches, cookies, cakes, tartletts, crumpets and scones. Amelia settled on only eating all the whipped cream from the little bowl. Marlene did a little better, but, I guess, High tea is still too much for them. Unfortunately we were not able to see the "Titanic" exhibit at the Royal B.C. Museum. It would have been too much for the girls.

On our second day we took a trip inland on Vancouver island. We drove Highway 1 north over the mountains at Malahat, where we had a beautiful view over the Saanich Inlet. We left Highway 1 to drive along the coast to the little town of Cowichan Bay. It had been recommended to us to visit an incredible little organic bakery there. They grind all their grain and off course bake a large variety of sweet and savory pastries and a good variety of bread, which was very attractive to us Europeans. Since the bakery was located next to a cheese shop we were in little heaven. After our mid morning snack we went on to the tourist town of Chemainus. The town is famous for it's many murals on every exposed wall. It also features dozens of little shops, cafes, and restaurants. Here we had lunch. It was a very hot day and the girls got tired fast from walking around. Back in the car they fell asleep immediately. So we decided to drive for a little bit and see the countryside. We drove to Cowichan Lake and along the lake to Honeymoon Bay. Here we found a little park with a beach and so the girls could go for a swim. Since it was a lake the water was nice and warm. Amelia was very concerned with crabs in the water, because we had seen a lot of crabs on the ocean beaches, but we kept telling her that there are no crabs in the water, a phrase she kept repeating the whole way back.

In the afternoon we made one last stop in the town of Duncan, which is know for the large number of totem poles. It would have been nice to take a guided tour to learn more, but again the children factor kept us from that. I guess, it is always nice to safe something for next time.

We had a great time in Victoria and it was fun to spent some time with Ulrike. I definitely want to go back and see more of the island.