What We Did on Our Summer Vacation

Well, we’d been giving some thought to going to Northern California on our vacation this year, to show Anya some of our old stomping ground (especially the Reno-Tahoe area, while Aunt Sam was still there). However, given that Kim only had one week between classes, that itinerary would be badly rushed. While we were still debating the plan, we got a call. The local library district was looking for kids to throw out honorary first pitches at an Everett AquaSox game on the 10th. Would Anya be interested?


So we cobbled together a shortened vacation plan, and just went to Canada. We hit the Vancouver Aquarium, home to bubble-blowing beluga whales ...


... and then went to Victoria to tour the Inner Harbour (complete with street performers such as Plasterman, below) and shop a bit. (Actually, Kim and Anya shopped. I loitered around the waterfront.)


Finally, we caught a Washington State ferry from Sidney, BC (about 15 miles from Victoria) to Anacortes (about five miles from Whidbey Island; Kevin undoubtedly remembers it) via the San Juan Islands. This is the most expensive ferry trip I’ve ever been on, but also one of the most beautiful. In among the islands, you really get away from it all; the outside world seems very distant.


And then we came home for the game. Anya threw her pitch, the other kids threw their pitches, and we sat through three hours of appallingly bad gameplay and pervasive sponsor plugs. Welcome to the world of Short-Season Class A minor-league baseball, folks.

Note: I’ve added a terror alert indicator that I found on the Web. As I post this, we’re still in the aftermath of the UK liquid-explosive plot, so there are three different alert levels. Air travel from the UK to the US is at Elmo (the highest level) and all other air travel is at an alert level of Ernie. Other environments and activities are at Bert, as usual.