September summary

I guess I will begin at the beginning.

On September 4th we headed out, had no trouble crossing the border and that night we went as far as Exit #79 on the I5. We shopped, I got lots of yarn for the toques, and spent the night.

The next morning we went to Starbucks for breakfast and then headed to Estacada for the Oregon Travel Club Fall Rally

 In attendance were 44 people, 31 from Oregon and 13 from Washington (including 6 from Canada).  What a great group . . . we wish you could have joined us . . . and not a drop of rain the whole time.  We did the usual pot luck; golfers had their day; bus & walking tour of Oregon City and McLoughlin House; tour of the Philip Foster Farm in Eagle Creek; Wayne & Sarah Gabel led a tour to Guide Dogs for the Blind Fri. we spent the day at the Bowman’s Tree Farm in Estacada participating in a “jackass race”  taking a “hay ride”and barbeque; Gerald & Linda Lavy whipped up a wonderful breakfast of “omelet in a bag” with all the trimmings; pizza appeared Sat. night and of course the “happy hours.” 

The rally ended on Saturday night and on Sunday we headed for McMinville Oregon. Roland and Marilyn Vorrath had invited us to go Crabbing with them and of course we did not turn down an opportunity to be on the water. On Monday morning everything was loaded up and away we went. I could not believe the size of and the number of crabs we got. We had a wonderful day and a great feast of crab that evening.



Roland shows Ken the best part.



On Tuesday we headed for the shore. We spent 2 nights at Nehelem Bay. We saw a beautiful sunset, flew our kites, walked the beach, had a fabulous meal at Pirates Cove and all too soon we had to leave.

We arrived back in Abby early on September 16.



The 2 Grandmas



Just in time to head to Vancouver on September 17 to visit with Peggy Rogers ( Leo's other grandmother)who was visiting from Moncton.

Next came our one day cruise and it was an adventure in itself.



I just love a mini suite!!



We left the house at 4:15 on Sunday Morning ( September 18). We meet our friends at Mt Lehman and drove to Vancouver and we met the Quick Shuttle for a ride to the cruise ship pier in Seattle. We boarded the Sapphire Princess and explored our Mini Suite. We were upgraded and it was great. But only for one night :-(



Then the real eye opener was the penthouse suite which Wayne and Carol had been upgraded to. It was amazing truly amazing. This stateroom had almost as many square feet as my first apartment.



We toast the Penthouse Suite



It was a great cruise and Bob and Janet and Alyson and Wayne and Carol and Ken and I enjoyed every second of our little mini cruise. But before we knew it we were back in Vancouver and we had to disembark and head back home to Abbotsford.

So we arrived home after noon on Monday . We had a meeting with Ron to organize the upcoming church service scheduled for 2:30 and we were just in time.Tuesday we had to pack for our second cruise. It was on Wednesday.



So early on Wednesday morning we picked up Janet and Bob Trout and we headed back into Vancouver. We expected a lot of traffic congestion but we were wrong. We were at the pier in lots of time and we were able to board the Island Princess in time to have a very nice lunch. It was like coming home to be back on the Island. We spent 32 days aboard her when we did the Panama cruise.



Our balcony suite aboard The Island



Both couples were upgraded to a balcony stateroom which was just fine with us. The weather did not co-operate and so we used the balcony very little. But at night we opened the drapes wide and laid in bed and watched the stars and felt the roll of the sea and listened to the waves. it really was wonderful.

This was a four day cruise and it was grand.  The first stop was Victoria. We asked the captain what he did all night since the trip from Vancouver to Victoria is usually only a couple of hours long. I guess they travelled in circles a lot. We did meet with friends and even though it was a dull day we enjoyed our visit to the city and our only port of call for this cruise.



Darren Mc Gaven



We saw wonderful shows including the most amazing mentalist who has us still scratching our heads. As usual the food was sensational. We had great table mates whose company we enjoyed for the 4 evenings. We played games, enjoyed music, relaxed, ate wonderful meals and just had an amazing time. Darren Mac Gaven from the television show Love Boat was on board and it was a treat to chat with him.The only problem was that the cruise was entirely too short.

This was cruise number 15 for Ken and I and so we now have Elite Status. That means we will be able to enjoy all of the perks when we set sail for our trip around the horn in February.



In our Roomette aboard the train.



The ship docked around 7:00 am on Sunday and we disembarked without difficulty and we hired a taxi to take us to Union Station in downtown LA where we boarded the Coastal Starlight Amtrak train for our trip back to Vancouver.We love train travel. Bob and Janet had the roomette across from ours. It was grand trip lasting 39 hours. On Monday night , actually Tuesday morning EARLY we were in Vancouver, picking up our car and heading back to Abbotsford.

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This brings us up to September 27th and I was scheduled to teach the craft of making memory wire bracelets at the Harmony Meeting on the evening of September 28th and Ken was scheduled to curl the morning of September 28th.

After such a hectic month we tried to unpack, prepare for the meeting and get in a few naps.

Then of course I had to prepare and practice for the church service on the morning of October second. I managed to sneak in a shopping trip with Margrett as well.

I am happy to report that the service went well and we survived our very hectic and fun filled month.

I wonder what we will be doing in October.