Alfredo, our waiter at Ruby's.

Everything was in the 50's decor, even the uniforms.

A very old pelican who just stood there, making everyone walk around him!

A view from the pier, looking north towards our condo unit.

Going for dinner at the end of the pier.

The waves crashing in by the pier. There was a 50's Diner at the very end. Very good burgers!

This was the view from our room at North Coast Village.

Welcome to Oceanside, California! March 24-28/09 we flew down with Allan & Marlene. The sunsets were awesome!

Joel & Derek Westeringh at work on Golden Ears bridge.

Joel, with his safety harnessed tied to the bridge...building the deck.

Many layers of going around and around...and lots of bracing!

Joel is working on the pedestrian bridge leading to the new Golden Years Bridge out by 200th St. What a project!!

...and then to haul it to another part of the field where a dyke will be built to flood sections of the field at harvest time.

Another big scoop of wet dirt!

For work experience week with school, Dustin worked with his dad's cousins, preparing a field for cranberries. He got to operate this big excavator and this funny looking dump truck to haul the dirt away. He was digging out a lagoon which would hold all the water to flood the cranberry fields.

With Tyler, everything is 'Ball!' but he did take time out to listen to Sarah's ipod. "you like it?"

Brandi, dribbling the ball across the court! 'Go, Brandi, Go!'

Brandi, ready to throw the ball to a teammate as soon as that whistle goes.

After a hard-fought, well-played game it was time to get in line to thank/congratulate the other team! Way to go, Ash! (3rd from left, and in front of her, her best friend, Jenna.)

February 13, John and I & Sarah went to down to Prosser, WA to see my sister Julaine & her family. Ashley and Brandi had basketball games on Saturday. Looking at this picture, it could very easily have been Julaine! I guess Ashley inherited that thick hair from her mother!

More Flooding

A dairy farm on McGuire Road was hit hard. Notice the boat next to the mobile home. Makes farming just that much harder when stuff like this happens.

Our friends, Dan & Marlene Kooyman, now have 'lake front property!'

Flooding near Sumas, Washington

The water was rising in Northwest Washington as well. My sister Nancy's place was surrounded, right up to the steps going into the house. Their farm was inundated with water as well so the cows and calves had to be moved to higher ground, aka neighboring farms. Dirt banks/dikes were constructed, lots of gravel was hauled in and things were starting to look a bit better by the next day.

First snow...and now RAIN!

After all the snow we had, it started raining...on frozen ground. With the rain, the snow melted but had nowhere to go. And so the rains came down and the floods came up!

More snow!

Wow, what a winter! Snow, snow and more snow.

Saturday - going home

The last day of the trip arrived. Saturday we took some family pictures and lounged around on the beach. Our transfer vehicle arrived at the hotel at 4 p.m. to take us back to the airport.

Our plane was an hour late arriving in Cancun. After a 6 hour flight we had to wait another hour on the tarmac in Vancouver as there were 4 planes in front of us...all waiting for a gate and for baggage handlers. Air Canada baggage handlers were in the middle of a dispute so the managers were unloading cargo. We waited another hour for our luggage and then were finally on our way to Park 'n Fly to retrieve our vehicle out of a snowbank!

Friday - Jungle Tour

On Friday we went on a Jungle Tour. In the end we agreed, Yes - it was a tour...but JUNGLE?? That was questionable. We took a city bus to the Marina Sunset were we met our guide, were fitted for snorkel gear.

After we had all our gear we were shown to our boats...small beat up fiberglass boats. Joel and Dustin were in one. John, Sarah and I were in another. Our guide was in the lead boat, and we were followed by a couple from Texas on their honeymoon.

We headed out of the lagoon area through a bunch of trees and bushes growing in the water. THAT was our Jungle Tour! The only creature we saw was a pink flamingo!!

Once we were through the "jungle" we heade out into wide open ocean. The waves were kind of big and the water was pretty rough. But we finally arrived at our destination...30 minutes later. A reef out in the middle of nowhere that was good for snorkelling. We saw several different colors of fish, a stingray and an octopus so it was well worth it.

On the way back, Joel's boat quit and even though we whistled and waved and yelled to get our guide's attention, he drove on...unaware that we were not following him anymore! He never looked back to check on us! We took beach towels and tied Joel's boat to ours and to the boat from the Texan couple and began limping back to the resort.

About 15 minutes later we saw our guide heading back out toward us. He almost made it back to the marina before he noticed we were no longer following him! He checked Joel's boat motor and then told them to get into his boat. When Joel asked 'what about my boat?' he motioned for them to 'just leave it' and then asked Joel if he wanted to drive his (the guide's) boat. I think Gideon had to much Tequila the night before!!

So we left Joel's boat afloat all alone, out in the ocean.

Wednesday, Isle Mujeres

We followed a tour guide at a fast pace, zig-zagging through the streets to a little shop where he rented out golf carts.

Yes, these are actually streets that you drive on. People often live above the businesses.

On our 'golf cart tour' around the island we had to stop and admire the huge, crashing waves.


Just can't seem to escape that HONDA thing!

Thursday, back at our own beach, John started his next project...a giant sea turtle. And that's a plastic spoon handle in his mouth, not a cigarette! :-)

Sarah showing Dustin the sea urchins she found...'over there.'

This was Joel's hang-out...in a chair in the shade reading a book!