Signs and Fences…

The signs and fences I’m sharing today are all from Stanley Park in Vancouver, B.C. taken on Friday March 18th.

We were happy to find Stanley’s at lunch time. We were still full from our hearty breakfast but after walking about we were ready for some refreshment.

May would be another great time of year to visit Stanley Park to enjoy the Rose Gardens. I still have a post with the beautiful flowering trees we enjoyed on this day. After we had our refreshment at Stanley’s we hit the road back to the good ole U.S.A.

I’m linking up with Lesley for signs, signs and with TexWisGirl for Good Fences.

We have another few days of sunny weather here in the Seattle area and there are predictions of the temps getting close to 80 tomorrow!! I’m back in a pattern of walking which is a good thing. I finally got my Senior Sneakers membership card so I will head to a gym nearby to sign up and see how that goes…

What’s new for you?

Totems at Stanley Park

The nine totem poles at Brockton Point are BC’s most visited tourist attraction. Because many of the original totems were carved as early as the 1880s, they have been sent to museums for preservation. The totems you see at Brockton Point today are new ones commissioned or loaned to the park between 1986 and 1992.

Luke Marston’s sculpture, Shore to Shore, stands at the site of his family’s ancestral village site X̲wáýx̲way, and celebrates Portuguese adventurer Joe Silvey (“Portuguese Joe”) as well as his first and second Coast Salish wives, Khaltinaht and Kwatleemaat. The artist Luke Marston is the great-great-grandson of Portuguese Joe and Kwatleemaat.

Joe Silvey was born and raised on Portugal’s Altantic Azores Islands, though after several adventures, Joe found himself on the Pacific, and an early pioneer of Vancouver’s Gastown.

The sculpture honours the link between Portuguese and Coast Salish First Nations cultures, marks the land’s rich heritage, and symbolizes unity for the Vancouver’s present-day diverse inhabitants. The large bronze sculpture is surrounded by engraved Portuguese stone, prominently installed in Stanley Park’s Northeast shore, overlooking downtown. You can read more about Shore to shore here.

The Skedans Mortuary Pole is a replica as the original was returned home to Haida Gwaii. In the late 1980s, the remaining totem poles were sent to various museums for preservation and the Park Board commissioned and loaned replacement totems.

In March Dear and I had an overnight trip to Vancouver B.C. and we were able to spend a few hours in Stanley Park on March 18th. We stopped at the Totems at Brockton Point for a while. You can buy an all day parking pass for $6.00 which worked well for all our stops. I’ll share our other stops at the park soon.

I’ll be linking up to Tuesday’s Treasures hosted by Tom the Backroads Traveller.

March in Vancouver B.C.

On March 17th (St. Patrick’s Day) we headed North for the border between the U.S.A. and Canada. We are fortunate to be a few hours from our friendly neighbors to the north.

On this trip we were headed to North Vancouver and had to cross some bridges to get there. We found our hotel and after a wait in line to get into the parking structure of the hotel we checked in and looked at our room.

The room had a nice view of downtown Vancouver across Vancouver Harbor. We were ready for our first adventure on the SeaBus that would take us across the harbor to the downtown area of Vancouver. We were ready for a meal.

We disembarked close to Canada Place and walked along the harbor to find a restaurant recommended by Lovella of the Mennonite Girls.

We found the restaurant and later when we shared our view Lovella realized we had sat in almost the same spot a week after them and we definitely had the same view. See the boats I marked with an X? Thanks for the recommendation Lovella. We enjoyed our meal at Cardero’s.

We walked after our meal and saw some interesting things and then headed back across the harbor to our hotel where later in the evening we enjoyed a light meal in our room that we purchased at the Quay Market that was located under our hotel.

We didn’t make reservations in Vancouver until we saw that the weather would be good for walking and exploring. Having Dear working from home gives us that flexibility to decide on last minute trips with the weather in mind. Being so close to Canada is another win win for traveling and seeing new things. On Friday the 18th we checked out of the hotel and drove to Stanley Park. On the way we stopped for breakfast at De Dutch…

I’ll share what we saw at Stanley Park in another post.

Dear and I are having a hard time standing up and sitting down today after several hours working outside yesterday. I’m glad we still can manage to do what we did. Cleaning gutters, pulling some weeds and cleaning out some planters, pressure washing the deck and cement areas, and then washing the car! Sheesh, this weather brings out the work in us! Thankfully I had a leg of lamb marinating in the fridge that I could throw in the oven for our meal of the day with potatoes and carrots that cooked underneath the roast in my handy Jamie Oliver pan. Today after church we had lamb sandwiches with our leftovers. So happy not to have to do anything today. A good day of rest.

Hope your Sunday is going well.

Since this post is filled with blue skies and blue water I’m linking up with Jeanne at Backyard Neighbor for Blue Monday! Thanks Jeanne!

Foreign Fences…

Washington State borders Canada to the north (British Columbia) and it’s great to be able to visit a foreign country so easily that’s not really too foreign since for the most part they speak English and they accept our currency. Dear and I drove up to Vancouver B.C. to enjoy an overnight on St. Patrick’s day. Here are a couple of photos of a wooden fence next to the Totem Poles in Stanley park.

Next week I’ll be sharing a longer post about our adventures in Vancouver and Stanley Park.

I’m linking up to Good Fences #106 with TexWisGirl.

We’re having another great weather day in the Pacific Northwest so I’ll be going out to mow the lawn. I’ll visit later…

Catching the Light

Trying a new meme this morning called “Catching Light” at Nature Footstep.

1 John 1:5 ~ This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light , and in Him there is no darkness at all.

Hope you all had a nice weekend. We had our kids who live the closest to us over for Dear’s Swedish pancakes which are always a treat for them. We watched a soccer game together which ended up not being a treat since our team lost. Oh well…that’s the way it goes in soccer and life…you win some, you lose some. I’ll be working on “staying in the light” this week and choosing gratitude.

Summertime in Canada…

Who knew several years ago that we would become familiar with the roads and back roads in Abbotsford and Chilliwack Canada? God knew and we had another fun adventure on Sunday meeting up with seven of the Mennonite Girls and their husbands.

We started with a short hike to Cascade Falls to see and experience the new suspension bridge.

Marg and John would meet up with us later for dinner.

This is Judy’s photo of the new suspension bridge. I forgot to take one. Thanks for letting me steal it, Judy.

I didn’t get two of the couples shots because I was using their camera’s and phones to take the photo for them.

After our time at Cascade Falls we traveled back to Hatzic Lake where Anneliese and H. hosted all of us for our potluck.

Lovella brought this beautiful bouquet from the flowers blooming in her garden!

We enjoyed the most delicious meal. Everything was fresh and homemade including the buns that Anneliese baked. Chilliwack corn fresh from Marg’s farm again verifying why everyone agrees that Chilliwack corn is the best! Lovella’s potato salad made from her farm eggs and potatoes from her garden. Kathy’s coleslaw that topped my pulled pork sandwich was perfect. Bev’s very fresh salad of watermelon, blueberries, cucumber, feta and mint. I forgot to take a photo of the cheesecake I brought and of the Peaches and Cream pies that Judy brought for dessert.

It was a lovely evening on the lawn beside the lake getting caught up in person and sharing stuff like books we’ve read and lots of things that made us laugh or moan. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we do not take this friendship circle for granted and we acknowledge that God brought us together and it is good as He is good!

Dear and I made it home by midnight after a 25 minute wait at the border crossing.

But the Greatest of These is Love

When God brought the Mennonite Girls Can Cook together little did we know the doors He would open for us to share His love with others and with each other. Yesterday was a day filled with examples of how powerful God’s love and purposes are and what it can do for a small circle of people and extend to the greater community and the world.

My 220 mile round trip drive up to Abbotsford and back was worth my time.

About thirty minutes into my drive I realized I had left my passport at home and was happy that I had gone to the trouble of getting an enhanced license. It worked great going into Canada and coming back. When I walked up to Lovella’s door I was greeted by Anneliese and Lovella with their cameras in hand. Of course I pulled mine out and started taking photos, too. Lovella’s table was set beautifully for us and the aroma of the food she and Anneliese had prepared set the mood for our celebration.

The 4 Chilliwack girls arrived and we sat down for our delicious meal starting off with Anneliese’s Roasted Red Pepper soup (which I forgot to take a photo of). Lovella made a quiche with fresh laid eggs from her farm and an amazing layered salad with greens, papaya, avocado, strawberries, onions cut big enough just in case we wanted to discard them and a tasty home made avocado dressing.

Lovella will be sharing the recipes soon on our blog.

We missed Bev, who is out of the country with her hubby on a business trip and our Winnipeg girls, Charlotte and Betty. I ~~borrowed~~ stole this next photo from Anneliese’s blog.

Judy made a special Valentine’s day dessert treat for us and because 2 of our girls have February birthdays she brought something special to light their desserts up!

Happy February Birthdays to Marg and Lovella!

Aren’t these desserts in a jar sweet! What a fun surprise to have them come out of Judy’s Tupperware tote and placed on Lovella’s plates and her mom’s vintage paper doilies from years ago.

The main reason we got together on this day was for a special tour of Matthew’s House in Abbotsford which was scheduled for 2:30. We’ve played a small part in making this dream come true. I will share more about Matthew’s House tomorrow. The house that love built…

We were going to meet at a restaurant for lunch before our tour. We all appreciated meeting at Lovella’s home instead where we could have a more intimate time together. Thank you Lovella for thinking of that and opening your home and table to us.

I made it to the border close to four for my trip home and had a fun chat with the U.S. Border agent. I wanted to give both the Canadian and U.S. agents I encountered this day a Gold Medal for doing their job cheerfully! I was home by six with just one nasty back up close to home. I’m always thankful for the ease of travel from my home to Canada.

All Aboard!

I’m traveling back to Katie and my Amtrak Cascades train trip to Vancouver B.C. last Thursday before Christmas Eve and Christmas activities commence!

We had to dress with a few layers because the temps on this day did not stay above freezing for long.

We started our journey in Edmonds, Washington. For many miles the tracks are right next to the water and it felt if I leaned towards the window I could land in the water.

As we approached Everett, Washington I wondered if we’d see a battleship or an Aircraft Carrier.

I wasn’t disappointed.

I’m glad I don’t have to clean off that rust…

So many interesting things to see with my camera.

After Everett the tracks came inland and we got to see some rural views before the tracks bent back west to the water.

Looking back I caught a glimpse of Mt. Rainier and zoomed in to catch our famous volcano in the distance.

It was fun to see the views of Semiahmoo from the train. Dear and I spent our anniversary at the inn which is right next to that water tower.

Seeing Semiahmoo I knew we were very close to crossing the border into Canada.

White Rock, B.C.

The train station in Vancouver.

We were underwhelmed with the Christmas market that was our destination choice. Thankfully food is my love language and Finch’s Tea and Coffee House came to the rescue. We really enjoyed our baguettes and Lady Grey tea.

This was in Katie’s words a “Hipster” establishment. The menu was posted on the blackboards. They delivered most of the sandwiches on brown waxed wrap paper.

Betty from Mennonite Girls Can Cook made the scarf next to my nice big cup of tea for me and the really cool thing about it is that she included slots in the scarf that serve as hand warmers/slot pockets.

Speaking of that large cup of tea, we had to take our signature sipping tea shot!

We visited some antique shops in the Gas Town area of Vancouver and a fun shop called Old Faithful.

We walked back to the train station and boarded our train for our long trip back to Edmonds. We were very happy that there was a dining car on the train with several food and drink choices. The trip back was in the dark so it seemed slow and long to me. It really helps to be able to see things out the train windows that are interesting to make the trip seem shorter. If we do this trip again we’d like to spend the night and only travel one way each day. I do like the quiet stress free aspect of traveling on the train.

Well here we are with just a couple days before Christmas. How are you doing? I hope you are calm and collected and that you have time for joy and peaceful moments.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Corrie Ten Boom…

“When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away your ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.”

Heading North…

…on the rails for a Christmas adventure with our daughter Katie. This was totally spur of the moment with hopes that we will have dry skies.

I’ll tell you all about it when we get back.

Some of this will definitely be on the agenda…

Ditt enn Daut…

This and that from the rest of our time in Manitoba…and of course food is involved. These events are not in any particular order.

This was the Retreat Center that we stayed in during our time in Manitoba. Our last morning there we took our coffee out on the wrap around porch.

Betty is keeping an eye on me as I trek through the tall grass and weeds over to the church next door to take a stroll through their cemetery. She was hoping I wouldn’t end up with ticks on my legs. Yikes!

Here I go…

When I got back from my trek I found most of the girls having their coffee on the porch while we waited to enjoy our breakfast. Or maybe this was after breakfast. Anyhoo I won’t say out loud on my blog what I said to make them laugh.

One thing for sure is that we did not go hungry on any day or for any meal!

We were able to make a quick stop at Betty’s home and have a little tour to see where she cooks. While we were there a storm blew through and Lovella was excited to get out into it. The reason she’s toting that hanging plant is a whole other story.

While in Betty’s community we stopped at Main Bread & Butter Co. so some of the girls could buy some famous Bothwell Squeaky Cheese. We were excited to see our book for sale on one of their displays.

Now we are all the way back to the beginning of our time in Manitoba and our first night at the Women Refreshed at the Well Retreat Center. We pretty much started with good food and ended with good food. After all…it was a cookbook signing tour.

This was Charlotte’s Cake that she made for our dessert on our first evening.

We are grateful to God for all he has done in each of our lives and the great times that we enjoy together.

It’s been good to have a large chunk of this week without any plans or appointments. The next thing on the calendar is a bridal shower on Saturday for my nephew’s future bride. Those of us up here in the PNW are happy to be able to attend a family shower without having to fly. We will be flying to the wedding in August that will be in the Santa Barbara area.

I’m experimenting with a new way to make ribs in the oven and if the recipe turns out well I’ll be sharing it on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook website on the 4th of July. Time will tell since I’m cooking it low and slow…

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Canada