Category Archives: Vacation

Vacation Day 1-3: Mom’s Celebration of Life

April 1, 2016 Chris 2 Comments

My mom’s Celebration of life was on Saturday March 19th. We went down to White Rock on the Friday and stayed with my dad and step mom. We had an early ferry to catch and it was the only way to make it work. Our drive down was uneventful other than passing the remains of the semi truck fire. The back-end was burnt down to the frame rail and a Bobcat was scooping up cans of what ever he was hauling.

It was good to catch up with my dad but it was short as we needed to get up early to get that ferry. The ferry ride was interesting as there were a number of groups that were also headed to the celebration. On group was my brother’s old scout group whom I also know. It was good to see them as well.

The actual celebration was perfect in my views. The reading was Ecclesiastes 3.

The Purposes in God’s Timing

There is a season for everything, and a time for every event under heaven

a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot what was planted

a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build up

a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance

a time to scatter stones, and a time to gather stone; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing

a time to search, and a time to give up searching; a time to keep, and a time to discard

a time to tear, and a time to mend; a time to be silent, and a time to speak

a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

It made me remember one of her favorite songs from when I was little. I would think that the Pete Seeger version would be the one she listened to but the Byrds one is more familiar to me.

There was a poem that I also remembered from my youth that I never thought of as a poem. I want a poster of it for my house. Anyways here it is as an image I found of Pinterest.

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There was also a beautiful eulogy that I can not possibly cover. The celebration ended with the sing with another favorite song of hers ‘The Saints go Marching in’. Overall the celebration fit my mom and she would have been happy with it.

There was a reception afterwards. Most of the people I didn’t know because they are from her life on Pender Island and that started after I was an adult and on my own. There was her scout blanket there that she had donated to the area scout house. With all the badges on it it was a living piece of history.

We had dinner with my various family members. It was good as I haven’t seen Tony’s kids in like a decade. We talked a lot and the kids introduced Ticket to Ride to their daughter. Ian won by 2 points but there was only 6 points separating the top three players.

On the Sunday we went to church at the little Catholic Church. They have a great view on Magic Lake and with it being a small island they also knew my mom so we ended up talking after mass.

We spent some time at the house going through things. There are a couple of painting that were painted by relative like great and great great grandparents. I also grabbed my mom’s recipe box and discovered that she had my grandmother’s as well. I need to try some of those recipes.

We caught the late ferry back to the mainland and drove to a hotel in Vancouver for the next segment in our vacation.

Sasquan, Vacation

My Trip To World Con (Daughter’s Post)

September 11, 2015 Chris 2 Comments

This is my daughter, Margaret’s post on her experience at Worldcon. My posts for the final two days are:

Sasquan World Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention – Day 6 Final Day

Sasquan World Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention – Day 5 Science

Day 1

It started with the long drive to Spokane where the convention was held. It was kind of boring but we played games like I-spy to keep us busy. We stopped for lunch at Subway on the way. We were travelling a day early because we had to take a detour around a forest fire. Still , we counted SIX forest fires on the way. Because we were travelling a day early we were in a different hotel than we would be in the rest of the vacation. We had supper in the hotel. After supper daddy went for a walk
while we played in the pool. Since I forgot my goggles I learned how to see under water. How? You wonder. First I went under water with my eyes closed. Then I made my brother do it because I was scared. I had to hold my eyelids up with my fingers to begin with. After a couple of tries I didn’t need to hold my eyelids up any more. After swimming, we went back to our hotel room and slept.

Day 2

Today we got our nametags and I got my first ribbon. It said “first worldcon”. I made a goal to get so many ribbons that they hang down at my feet. After that we went to “ Star Wars: Are We Hopelessly Spoiled”. It was interesting. After we went to the children’s program and made costumes for the masquerade. I made a time lord costume, Philip was a ranger and Ian was a rainbow kitty. Then we went to riverfront park. It was beautiful. We walked around. We looked at the falls and found a little kids park. The little kids park was boring. Then we went to the merry go round in the park. It went fast. It was so much fun. On the outside there was a thing that had rings at the end witch you could grab. Mommy was the only one who could get them because we(me,Philip and Ian) were on the inside. She got a few but you have to have a bronze one to get a free ride. We each had another ride but we were saving it for later. Then we went to opening ceremonies. Ian went to the children’s program. Me and Philip got to be in it. We got to listen to stories on stage. After the opening ceremonies we went to first night. We got free ice cream. Then I got another ribbon that says “first night”. Then we went to “Ook! A Welcome To Discworld Fans”. I was really excited because I had recently started reading Discworld. After that we went to choose your own apocalypse. There there were three people who sat a a table and told their apocalypse they made up. There was the cheese apocalypse,the bronie apocalypse and the weather apocalypse. My favorite was weather. Then we had supper and went back to the hotel room.

Day 3

Today we went to a doctor who fan fiction. It was made out of Lego and was good. It was made by a 14 year old. After the fan fiction was over there were questions. I asked which doctor he was dressed up as. After that there was a Doctor Who procession. I wore my time lord costume. There was a tenth Doctor, two eleventh Doctors, three time lords including me(not including the doctors), a fourth Doctor, a third Doctor, a twelfth Doctor( he was the same person who made the fan film) and a pink dalek (I may have miss some people that were in costumes). I had lots of fun at the procession. After I went to “Unseen University – A World Within the Discworld” although I missed some of it to go to “Logan Must Make Star Wars – PG-13” with daddy. It was funny. We then met up with mommy,Philip and Ian and went to get some lunch. While we were walking someone was yelling that there was free hamburgers and hot dogs in riverfront park. It was delicious. After lunch me, Philip and Ian went to “You Like That on Doctor Who? But How Could You Not Like This?”. It was talking about doctor who episodes that were under or over rated. We enjoyed it. Then we went to children’s program and I continued to work on my costume for a few minutes before I went to “Terry Pratchett for Kids”. I was the only kid there. It was in the children’s program. We talked for about 15 minutes and then I went back to making my costume. Then we made light sabers out of PVC piping. After I finished I went to “Docent Tour of the Discworld Exhibit”. I liked death feeding the cats and the part about Tiffany Aching. After I went to each table and asked whether they had ribbons. I got lots of ribbons. After that we had supper and went back to the hotel room.

Day 4

Today is the day of the masquerade! But first I went to “The YA Discworld novels, and Other Books by Terry Pratchett For Young People”. It was interesting. I forget what happens next but later a 1:00( the The YA Discworld novels, and Other Books by Terry Pratchett For Young People was at 10:00)I went to “Do We Live in the Marvel Universe? Marvel Conquers TV, Movies & Comics”. I was bored with that one. Then I went to children’s program to work on my costume. After we had supper and then we went back to the children’s program. We had delicious cookies, practiced how to walk on stage and then went to have our pictures taken. We were part of the kamikaze kids which means we made our entire costume here. After we had our pictures taken we walked though Smokane. It was called Smokane because it was so smoky out. There was signs on the doors saying dangerous smoke. It was not far. When we got there we waited and waited and watched the huge spider that was waiting with us and waited some more. Once we were done waiting backstage we went to side stage, lined up AND waited some more. Then they started calling us. One at a time we went up on stage. On stage we got our ribbons and went offstage. They led us up to where our parents were and watched the rest of the show. It was great. At the end when to judges went to pick there was a funny concert onstage. Then the judges came back out and told who won. After that we went back to the hotel room.

Day 5

The first thing I went to today was “The Costume Procession”. That was fun. After I went to “Magic Show”. It was funny but most of the tricks were just silly. Then I went to “Songwriting 101” though I didn’t pay much attention because I was writing a song. After I went to “Masquerade Show & Tell”. I found that very interesting. Then me and mommy had a quick lunch and then I went to “Family-Friendly Board Games”. It was interesting. I made a few comments. Mommy ask me about new to us board games we talked about. To be honest I can’t remember. Much later we went to “Carcassonne”. We have this game at home but we enjoy playing it. After we had supper and then went back to the hotel room.

Day 6

Another boring travelling day. Luckily we weren’t travelling until later. The first thing I went to was “Heraldry in Discworld”. It was meant for kids but I was the only kid there. It was funny. Then I went looking for a souvenir. Then I went looking for mommy and daddy. while I was looking I found Philip who was also looking for mommy and daddy. We looked in a couple of rooms. Later when we found them they were in the first 2 rooms that we looked. I got 2 souvenirs: a blue jay and a Tardis necklace. Later I went to “Kids’ Concert”. It was good. They told us that all the adults have their brain melted at this point. Then we went to “Stand Back, I’m Going to do Science!”. We got to put flowers in liquid nitrogen then smash them on the table! We also got ice cream made with liquid nitrogen and put chocolate sauce on it(real ice cream is much better). Then we drove home. It was dark by the time we got home.

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Sasquan, Vacation

Sasquan World Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention – Day 6 Final Day

September 9, 2015 Chris 3 Comments

This was a really long day. It is also the day that I have the least amount of notes for. We got up at our normal time but we didn’t leave Spokane until 5pm. That, a different route home and dinner meant we got home at midnight.

My first panel of the day was on historical accuracy in fiction. While they talked about some of the problems of more interest was how to be sensitive to different cultures and their beliefs, stories and history.

One of the panellist was a Native American with many hats but one was being on the board that decides the material for history in California schools. In discussing sources one panelist who was a librarian talked about what made a book a primary source. For him a primary source was talking to someone that was there. He also talked about the problem of who wrote the books. He spoke about the Indian wars and that almost all of what is written is by the people fighting them. In some cases whole tribes are gone with no one left to tell the tale from their side.

We picked up the art that we had bought and helped clean up the kids area. It was a huge mess. A big thanks to Fred and Persis who ran the kids area. They made my kids week. I can not thank them enough. Also a thanks to all the other volunteers that helped out.

I came across an area that was signed as ‘Costume First Aid’ they had all the tools need to fix a costume that had gotten bumped, torn or otherwise damaged. A volunteer there ask if I need help with something and we got talking. She told me about a number of other Cons that we might be interested in. I had had that conversation a few times but each had added more and some repeated others adding weight to those being good. One that I heard a few times was NorWescon in Seattle. It is cheaper and we are planning on attending. Two of my wife’s favorite authors are going to be there.

She also talked about a webcomic called “Girl Genius”. I had heard of it but had tried to start at a bad, confusing spot. She set me right and I read 10+ years of comics in 4 days. You have to start at the beginning and while it is a little hard to follow in the beginning it is well worth it. I want to go back and read it again from the beginning to catch things that I am sure that I missed.

I asked what a pile of fur cut in circles was for. They had made tribbles for Guinan’s Place, an eating area. She got me one that my wife loved. It meant that we had to find ‘Trouble with Tribbles’ when we got home. The kids laughed their heads off.

We went back over to Uncle’s Games as my wife wanted to pick up puzzles for her father. He tends to get puzzles for his birthday and Christmas. Then it was time for our drive home.

We had to go a different route as the one we came down via was closed due to fire. Our best choice has a border crossing that is only open until 5pm so we went with a third route. The drive was very smoky, with a blood red sun adding to the post apocalyptic feeling. To complete that feeling we drove past a temporary air base for fire fighting helicopters and watched a military Chinook come in low out of the smoke for a landing.

For those worried about our drive the main worry was delay, detour or being forced back. We were in more danger from other drivers than anything else. It would have had to have been windy to make it risky and most likely that would have closed more roads. It was windy the following day and more roads did close.

We also came across a camp for the fire fighters. In the smoke I spotted a blue port-a-potty with a white roof. With the week we had just had my brain processed it as a Tardis. I told this story to a friend who without pausing hit me with the best and worst pun I have heard in a long while. She said ‘Oh a Turdis’.

We got cheaper gas on the US side of the border and dinner in a town on the Canadian side that I mostly know by where the fast food joints are. We got home at midnight, unloaded the car and thus ended our journey. For those of you that are finding the idea of WorldCon appealing the next one is in Kansas City, MO. MidAmeriCon II

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Category Archives: Vacation

Vacation Day 1-3: Mom’s Celebration of Life

My Trip To World Con (Daughter’s Post)

Sasquan World Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention – Day 6 Final Day

Tips, Tricks and Humor of Being a House Husband