We have 4 hours to sleep, 3 hours to drive, 3 airplanes to connect, 1 piece of luggage to check that hopefully doesn’t end up in Dallas and a total of 6 hours to fly before we touch down in the Pacific Northwest tomorrow afternoon.
It’s been too short, time has flied, and we’re really wishing we could have taken two weeks off instead of one. John’s up playing Madden on PS2 with his nephew so I thought I’d finish writing this out.
Today we walked around ‘downtown’ for a bit. I got a tour of John’s parents’ business, the community centre that had Christmas trees all setup by local businesses, took a walk to Riverside Gardens, and got to spend the entire day hanging out with my Bollwitt family – which included losing terribly at a card game.
I got to taste a different type of Thanksgiving meal, with corn casserole, Josie’s famous green beans and sweet potatoes and finished nicely with pecan and chocolate silk pies from Perkins – rounding out the meal, and probably my waist line.
John’s family is starting to feel more and more like my family and I’m continually amazed at how strong they are, together and as individuals. I also know they’re probably all reading this right now so I’ll try not to butter them up too much, even though we won’t be seeing them again for a while… and we owe them all a lot more than a sappy mention on a blog post. We’re really hoping to get some of them up to Vancouver, I know in particular John misses his nieces and nephews dearly. He talks about them often and schemes almost every week, plotting to “steal” one of them away to Canada for a visit.
We’re leaving the house in about 5 hours so I best get to bed, maybe I’ll post an update for the road but we’ll be napping every chance we get. Might check in again when we reach SeaTac as we have a bit of a layover until we get the flight home. We’ll take that time to see if we can make sure our luggage made it to the coast with us, and to hit up one of those fine brew pubs we spotted in the airport when we left. Bye bye Iowa.
Now that the Grouse Grind is closed for the season, you can head up North Vancouver’s natural lookout for ice skating and more festive activities.
Enjoy Christmas carols, movies, sleigh rides, learn about Santa’s reindeer and get your pic taken with the man himself, all in a beautiful snow-dusted evergreen setting.
What: Grouse Mountain – The Peak of Christmas
Where: Grouse Mountain
How Much: The cost of a lift ticket, varying by age (from free to $39)
More Info: Check the schedule for exact times for each event.
There is also ‘Breakfast with Santa’ from December 15-24, 9am to 11am, call in advance for tickets.
I must admit, I’ve never ever been up Grouse, not even for the grind or the sky ride, so I’m hoping to change that at some point this year. However due to family interests I think I’ll do most of my boarding at Seymour this year, which will include teaching John how to become a knuckle dragger.
I had a pretty tumultuous start to the day, health-wise but I’m feeling a little better. We spent the night in Iowa City last night and are back in John’s hometown – what I like to refer to as “Anytown, USA”.
(from Seinfeld)
George: What-what are you doing?
Kramer: Oh, I’m putting up Frank’s screen door. This beauty’s got a little life in her yet.
Jerry: What do you need it for?
Kramer: (Closing door) The cool evening breezes of Anytown, USA. Let’s see how this baby closes. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Patty: (Surveying Kramer’s hall patio ) What is this?
Jerry: (Knocking on Kramer’s door) Anytown, U.S.A. Hello? Is Kramer home? Oh, hey.
Kramer: (Spraying his flowers) Hello, neighbor.
Jerry: Boy, those azaleas are really coming in nicely.
Kramer: Oh, you gotta mulch. You’ve got to.
Jerry: You barbecuing tonight?
Kramer: (Ringing his wind chimes) Right after the fireworks.
Those who know me, know that I have a thing for small towns even though I’ve never lived in one. People from small towns on the other hand, might think I’m a little crazy for longing for a slower pace, sipping lemonade on the front porch and being on a first name basis with the woman at the post office. John and I had our wedding photo in the local paper so I’m pretty sure walking around “downtown” tomorrow some people might recognize us, or at least John… maybe even as that Bollwitt boy that moved to Canada.
This evening it started snowing, dropping down to 2 celcius, which is quite the departure from the 25 degrees two days ago. It’s supposed to clear by tomorrow afternoon and here’s hoping roads are clear for our 2 hour drive to the airport on Friday. I wish we had more time here, it makes me sad to think about leaving already. With John’s new job he won’t have vacation time again until next year so maybe we’ll be back for Thanksgiving 2008. Honestly, it can’t come soon enough.
The guys who brought us social media rooftop bbq’s in Gastown, Bryght, have now been acquired by the the primo Drupal site, blog and podcast deliverers, Raincity Studios.
This global-mega-hyper-conglomorate melds together the two single most important companies in Vancouver when it comes to web 2.0, imho.
This morning’s news release states:
The deal took flight while Scales and Kris Krug, now-former-President of Bryght, were in China
scouting a new office location in Shanghai when they decided their companies’ complementary services could be enhanced by joining forces. Krug, the newly appointed President of the new company, saw the growth potential saying, “By joining Raincity Studios, we can capture market leadership by responding quickly to the unmet demand for Drupal development services worldwide while also offering an increased service roster to our existing growing client base.”
I personally hold those guys mainly responsible for the thriving geek activity around here. Aside from meetups, face time, chats and friendship being built, there is also truly a sense of community (see: our crimebusters work re: Workspace‘s computer theft incident or Vancouver.FreeTheNet.ca wireless mesh project). You now, aside from all the professional things they do like working on projects for clients like SPIN Magazine, Ozzy, and The Grateful Dead – to name a few.
Also, big things are to come very soon from a Miss604.com/Raincity Studio collaboration, which I’m very excited about. All the best to these individuals and their companies in this new venture.
(Read more coverage on the Raincity Site)
There’s a lot I never knew about Iowa. First off, it’s not famous for its potatoes – that’s Idaho. Second, it’s not as flat as everyone thinks.
You wouldn’t know it if I didn’t tell ya (okay maybe you might) but that famous painting of the farmer and his less than enthused wife called American Gothic was by Grant Wood, of Iowa. After learning this, I looked up more Grant Wood artwork which consists of simple landscapes that are uniquely American in charm.
Grant Wood
Driving north from Missouri I got to experience the scenery of Central and Eastern Iowa. By sunset the entire sky was pink until it met the rolling hills that were all shades of green and brown. Little white houses sat at higher elevations like lookouts over the fields, and they were always surrounded by groves of trees who have already lost their leaves for the season.
Grant Wood
We rolled into John’s hometown under cover for pea-soup fog and headed right over to the youth centre to watch his nephews play a basketball game. Today we’re going into Iowa City, where John lived before moving out to Vancouver. Hopefully we’ll have time to stop by his old radio station, do some shopping, and see some friends who may still be a bit bitter that he left for “Canada, and a girl”.
Photos from the trip can be viewed in my Flickr set.
