Hello all, tomorrow will be September 1st already! Gracious, where has Summer gone? We took our first vacation of the Summer in late June. This time, we traveled to Vancouver Island British Columbia. Mind you, it hadn't rained on that island for four long months and as soon as we set foot on the island...it poured down rain! We had one day in the five we were there that it didn't drown us. We had hopes that we could knock down about 50 geocaches while there. The island is loaded with them and most are the ammo can type. That means there is lots of swag just waitin for the takin! However, the liquid sunshine kept us from catching till we dropped on this trip.
I found out an interesting fact while visiting Vancouver Island and that is that slugs are as ugly on Vancouver Island as they are in Washington State. Yes...I said SLUGS! Dear God, how could you possibly have a use for these disgusting things? They don't do anything and if they were to do anything or go any place it would take them a lifetime to actually accomplish it. As we walked through the woods on our way to find a geocache, I literally found myself doing the slug dodging dance to keep from stomping on one and ruining my new hiking boots. None of you know this next tidbit of news about my hatred of slugs. I have severe PTSD from them. As a child, I grew up in Burien Washington. We did all the fun kid stuff growing up and one of them was sleeping out under the lovely stars at each other's homes. We'd just grab our sleeping bags, a pillow and a flashlight and cram ourselves on to a half inflated air mattress in our friends back yard. The great anticipation was...what was our buddy's mom going to fix for breakfast the next morning. Oh yes...that was an unspoken rule between the parents. You let the kids sleep over, they don't come home until their bellies are full. Now that posed a problem because my mother was probably one of the best breakfast cooks on the block, so our back yard was always chalk full of kids and the other parents ended up owing a lot to my parents. Well enough of that side track...back to the slugs. As life would have it, I chose one Friday night to stay over at my girlfriends house. Her mother was French and could she make the crapes! As we slumbered under the stars, the slugs decided that my hair was the perfect place to cross over to the other side of the yard. Oh yea...remember I told you that it takes a really long time for a slug to do anything? Well, I awoke the next day as the sun came up in great anticipation of having strawberry crapes. Nope...never saw one single strawberry. My friend took one look at my hair and let out a blood curdling scream. Her mom thought one of us was dead or something and bolted out the door to see what was wrong. The slugs had gotten tangled up in my long hair and couldn't get out! She marched me home to my sleep deprived parents who spent the next 4 to 6 hours cleaning slime and slugs out of my hair. I've been traumatised ever since! Needless to say, if I could have cornered the market on salt, I would have. In case you are not familiar with it, salt will melt the little buggers in seconds flat!
So...as we flip back to present time...that was the jest of our first vacation, slugs and lots of rain.
There were a few stellar moments on the trip. The trip across the strait from mainland Canada to Vancouver Island was quite delightful, especially the trip back. The sun decided to come out on the way home so we sat out on the deck of the ferry and took in as much of it as we could. We also chose a different route back to I-90. After we got through the Canadian border we drove down a little side road and went through Duvall and Carnation Washington. When I was a kid, my parents would take us to the Carnation Dairy Farm for a tour. I remember it being quite interesting but the best part was they gave us ice cream at the end of the tour. It was kind of like the kids version of the Budweiser brewery tour! It really is a sweet little town. We were able to geocach on our way back to Montana while traveling through some of the little towns and that made the whole trip worthwhile. Any time we can geocache makes for a good time for us.
My daughter and son in law came to say their goodbye's after we got home. They moved to Belgrade Montana where he was able to accept a teaching job and she could finish college. She too will be a teacher. Of course it was a teary-eyed moment for me. I thought I had gotten over the butterflies in the stomach but they all came back as I watched the kids drive away. It is good for them though. Now they have to rely on each other if times get a little rocky. She can't run home and neither can he. They have their own place together now and taking ownership is half the battle. She called the other day, asking for the ever famous hamburger pie recipe. She hadn't started classes yet and was settling into the housewife roll. She's learned to make meatloaf instead of breadloaf and can even make a mean cuppa joe! She always starts the conversations with "First of all, I'm not pregnant" but I hope someday I get a call that says she is. I'd like to have a chance to spoil the little darling rotten before they don't want to have grandma wipe their face off with the sour kitchen rag! I'd like to sit and watch stupid B movies with them and eat popcorn in our jammie's. I'd like to make tents over specially placed kitchen chairs and get cookie dough on the ceiling fan. I'd like to sit and play with play dough and finger paints and maybe scrape color crayons onto wax paper, sealing it with an iron and hanging it in the window. I'd like to snuggle in a handmade quilt that was made especially for them. Oh, how I want to be around to do all of those things and more. I want to gaze into the angelic face of my grandchild while they stand defiantly, asking me "Grandma, why do I have to always do what you say?" I hope I am around to watch them accept Jesus, get baptised, graduate from high school and college and someday, take a wife or husband. So much to look forward to and so little time to do it all in.
So...I keep on working at my job, trying to help my clients survive their crazy, mixed up lives. My husband plans to retire soon and I hope he can have some time to enjoy his life for a while. I've seen so many folks retire and end up dying right away! What's up with that anyway? I have plans to hang around and annoy everyone with my blogs for a long time! So you better make room for me because I have a lot more to say. I guess you can compare me to the slug in a way. Slow and methodical with my journey but always leaving a lasting impression! As always, Freedancer
