Holmes Family Adventures

Manzanillo 2011: Day One - Edmonton to Seatac to LAX to Sheraton Hotel

2011-12-25T20:04:00.001-07:00

US Road Trip: Day 15 - Arlington, HOME! via Ottawa

2010-07-30T23:57:00.000-06:00

We spent our last morning at the Arlington National Cemetery.

The enormity of it hits you as soon as you walk in. There are seemingly never-ending rows of white markers as far as you can see.

JFK Burial Site with the eternal flame

Challenger Memorial

The Memorial Amphitheatre. They hold 3 memorial services here each year.

Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers

There was a funeral going on while we were there - sad.

Boys heading out at Dulles Airport!

Flight to Ottawa is all set to go

Nate doing his happy dance

Goodbye Washington and the USA!

View of Dulles airport from the sky

Hello Canada!

Flight to Edmonton is on time.

Of course, one of the first stops was at Tim Hortons. We missed our Tim's.

View of Ottawa on takeoff - on our way home!

US Road Trip: Day 14 - Pentagon

2010-07-29T19:52:00.000-06:00

Today we went for a tour of the Pentagon. This was arranged almost a year ago! I had to sent in tons of information to request a tour but it was worth it when we arrived. We went through more security outside and then again once we got into a holding area.

They had some neat information and displays to check out. Nate was more interested in reading.

Their official podium for news conferences

Once we got inside we were no longer allowed to take photos. The tour was great - about an hour long. We were issued ID tags and were told under no circumstances could you lose it or you would be jailed. We worried about Zach's the entire time as he kept playing with it! Our tour guide did the entire tour walking backwards which was a huge feat. We got to see lots of internal rooms and operations at the Pentagon. We also got to see the 9/11 memorial and information about the part of the Pentagon that was hit by Flight 77. The memorial is beautiful - built like a chapel with a room with all of the names of the 184 people killed there. Unfortunately, we were not able to see the outdoor memorial as they were doing work on it at the time.

George Washington Masonic Memorial

Air Force Memorial

US Road Trip: Day 13 - Washington, DC; Smithsonian Museums and the Washington Mall

2010-07-28T23:01:00.000-06:00

We got up early this morning and headed into the city for a day in D.C.

First stop was the subway. The boys were so excited to ride the "train". We could have done this all day and they would have been happy...

Waiting in front of the Smithsonian.

We were the first ones in line.

Our first stop was the National Air and Space Museum.

First thing the boys went to was to touch the Moon Rock.

Crazy how big these space shuttle pieces are.

The fact that I owned one of these and it is in the museum now is slightly odd.

This was so cool - the original Wright Bros plane! It was so special seeing this after seeing the replica and the site in Kitty Hawk a few days ago.

Nate liked this map which showed the route the Wright Bros took to get to Kitty Hawk. It also showed the last part of our trip from there to Washington.

Walked a bit through the Washington Mall. Everytime I looked around I just got chills. Two days isn't enough to spend here - we will have to come back to do it right. It was by far the highlight of my trip - the boys not as much.

Cool sculpture tree

Our next stop was the Museum of Natural History

This one was cool - but we went through it really fast as it didn't keep the boys attention long. I think they have seen a lot of this sort of stuff at the Tyrell and Royal Alberta Museum.

Next stop, National Museum of American History. As we walked in there is a great exhibit of the original American Flag sewn by Betsy Ross. No photos of it as it is deteriorating. It was really neat to see though.

Photo of me in Julia Child's kitchen. Another check off my bucket list to see this. I'm a huge fan.

Nate had fun in the kids area.

But even more fun pretending to be JFK in the President's exhibit. They had amazing artifacts there!

Zach wanted to ride this train so badly!

Some of the buildings around the mall.

Aerial view from the Post Office building. Thomas had found out that it has a great tower that you can go up for free to get some really neat views.

Capitol building

Washington Monument. It's neat how the buildings are constructed to have internal courtyards.

Washington Monument

Internal view of the Post Office building

The White House! We were restricted to a fenced area that was at least a block away to see it and take photos which was frustrating.

The boys and I

Boys and Thomas.

Taking the subway back to the hotel for dinner.

After dinner we took a drive back into Washington to see the monuments all lit up.

There was less of a crowd at night, which was nice.

Lincoln Memorial. (So much bigger than the replica that was in the O'Hare airport on the way down).

Boys checking out the Washington Monument.

World War II memorial

Jefferson Memorial

I love this photo. Two great men...

US Road Trip: Day 12 - Annapolis, MD and Washington, DC

2010-07-27T20:54:00.000-06:00

It is a beautiful day in St. Michael's. We're sad to be leaving here so soon. This morning we found a cool park that is right on the ocean.

The boys were really interested in the jelly fish they could see floating around.

Another bridge - this time on our way to Annapolis and back to the mainland.

Once we got to Annapolis there was this beautiful bridge for the entrance to the Naval Academy.

View of the Naval Academy from the bridge

I love the old architecture of the buildings here. The streets are all so narrow and each one seems to end with a park or roundabout.

We walked around downtown and did some shopping and found a Subway for lunch.

After lunch it was time to get back on the road and head into Washington! At this point we were joking about how we could go to Baltimore instead - no way! :)

It was immediate rush hour once we got into the city.

Ahh! The Capitol building! I had been looking forward to this the entire trip!

Military helicopters constantly fly overhead here. A bit unnerving at first.

I didn't realize how close downtown and the Washington Mall are to the airport. Makes 9/11 a bit more vivid.

The Pentagon is right on the way to our hotel. We are touring here tomorrow.

Stopped at the mall for lunch - typical US mall with tons of red, white and blue decorations.

US Road Trip: Day 11 - Chesapeake Bay, NASA Station, St. Michaels, MD

2010-07-26T18:44:00.000-06:00

We started off the day by driving across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge - Tunnel, one of the 7 engineering wonders of the modern world and once the longest bridge in the world. It is 23 miles long - but it doesn't feel that long when you are driving on it. It goes by quickly. It was really cool. The trip took us out of Virginia and into Maryland. We drove up to the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, VA first. They have a great visitors centre there that you can tour, watch a video and see some artifacts.

They have something like this at the Space and Science Centre in Edmonton that Nate likes too.

This rocket was fairly large as you can tell by the boys size relative to it.

The entire time we were there test planes were flying overhead at a really low altitude. You can see some of the trails from them in the sky in this picture.

After that we hit the state line - Hello Maryland.

Goodbye Virginia!

This was a really interesting stop. There is a line in the US called the Mason-Dixon line. It divides the North and South states and was surveyed during the Civil War. This cornerstone is one of the survey posts of this line - showing the corner where Maryland meets Delaware.

In this photo, Thomas is in Delaware and I am in Maryland. It was very cool - but hard to find, out of the way and not marked. I thought this was a very important historical place but it didn't seem to be that significant. At least it is protected from the elements now as I'm sure with the erosion that it won't be around much longer. After this stop, we continued on to St. Michaels which is on the west side of the peninsula.

Zach enjoying his dinner in St. Michaels. It was a seafood/steak restaurant, but was so expensive we had hot dogs and burgers :)

The boys were excited that they gave them ring pops after dinner.

The harbour here is so beautiful. Especially with the sunset and all the colours - it was gorgeous. The movie Wedding Crashers was shot here.

Our hotel - which was nice and clean. And the manager offered to have her Dad take us out crabbing the next day, but we didn't have time! It would have been so cool!

US Road Trip: Day 10 - Hatteras Ferry, Virginia Beach, Norfolk

2010-07-25T18:09:00.000-06:00

After a nice night in Elizabeth City, NC and a morning swim in the pool (and a breakfast with grits!) we headed back to the coast to a little town called Currituk, NC. They had a really cool old jail to check out.

We wanted to head out on the Currituk-Knotts Island Ferry which will take us up to the back way to Virginia Beach and into Virgina. Had to take a quick picture of our rental car - still chugging away in all this heat!

The boys hung out in the small cabin on the ferry so they could see further out towards shore.

Once the ferry landed, we drove out to a favourite beach of the locals, Sandbridge. It is such a hot day today - well over 110 degrees. Thomas and Nate jumped right into the ocean, but Zach was too scared so we stayed on the shore (and baked!).

After the beach day, we drove into Virginia Beach towards Newport News, where our hotel is. It's amazing how big and industrial Virginia Beach is. It has a huge harbour and port - with a lot of military ships from the Norfolk Naval Base.

On our way into a really long tunnel that goes under the ocean to get from Virginia Beach to Newport News. It was fairly creepy the first time we did this. Sort of like the avalanche tunnels by Revelstoke, but longer and darker.

We arrived at the Naval Station for our tour. The security is pretty tight here - had to be pre-registered and screened beforehand.

View of the USS Enterprise. Due to the heightened security status, they don't allow tours very close to the ships anymore. We were quite aways from this one.

I used the zoom to get a closer view.

Some of the big houses on base for the officers.

One of the display helicopters. There wasn't alot of chances to take photos - lots of restrictions - so there aren't many of this tour. It was worthwhile though to hear all the history of the ships and to see the actual operational side of the base. We did have to stay on the bus the entire time.

Back through the tunnel to Newport News again! Dinner tonight at Golden Corral.

US Road Trip: Day 9 - Kitty Hawk, NC and we reach the Atlantic Ocean!

2010-07-24T22:05:00.000-06:00

Off again! Today is one of those days where we are a little bit ahead of schedule, so we are heading out not knowing exactly where we will end up. The boys are excited to set started today after a great continental breakfast in Hickory. The night before we also had their favourite dinner at their favourite spot - Walmart! We let them go through and pick out a TV dinner of their choice and bring it back to eat at the hotel with swimming afterwards. It was a lot of fun!

Heading along the open road...

Once we start getting close to the coast, it starts to look even more like home with the wide open farmland.

They have a great rest stop and tourist information in Columbia, NC. It has displays and a boardwalk.

We've reached the Atlantic Ocean! Yay! The boys were excited to see it...

We stopped along the way at Fort Raleigh (in Manteo, NC). It is the site of the first attempt at colonization by English speaking Europeans in the 1500's. Very interesting - it's called the Lost Colony and you can read all about it here: http://www.nps.gov/fora/index.htm

They have an outdoor amphitheater where they have concerts and great plays, etc.

This was the site of a type of housing - like a Fort

Afterwards we were back on the road and over another bridge to Nags Head, NC.

Right down the road is Kitty Hawk and the site of the first flight by the Wright Brothers.

We barely made it into the museum before it closed for the night. The boys loved reading through all the information boards to see how the first flight happened.

They have a replica of the original Wright Bros plane on display here.

Nate liked checking out the bronze plane statue that was on site, but didn't like that I wouldn't let him play on it like the other kids were.

The monument at the top of the hill they flew off on. The hill is pretty high - it took us about 30 minutes to hike to the top and the temperature is about 120 degrees Fahrenheit (the hottest so far) and muggy. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself until a bunch of joggers passed by. I can't believe they can run in this heat!

View from the top of the hill and the runway

Afterwards we went for dinner in Kitty Hawk - seafood of course! All you can eat Crab place which was pretty good. Pricey though and had non-existent ambiance. We tried to get a hotel in Manteo before coming across to Nags Head, and then again in Nags Head and Kitty Hawk, but everything is booked! So we're just going to drive until we can find something after a quick trip to the beach with the boys!

So the hotel search finally ended really late (about midnight) in Elizabeth City - about an hour away! Thank goodness for the one room left at the Quality Inn! :)

US Road Trip: Day 8 - Day out with Thomas the Train, Great Smoky Mountain Railroad, Hickory, NC

2010-07-23T18:56:00.000-06:00

Off on our way from Gatlinburg through the Great Smoky Mountains - the road was really windy, reminded me of the drive from Salmon Arm to Sicamous.

The boys on the state line - Hello North Carolina!

You can see why they call them the Great Smoky Mountains - the blue haze in the distance does look like smoke...

The start of the Appalachian Trail - goes all the way from here to the Atlantic Ocean

Road trips aren't always exciting - lots of driving, but the boys are having fun today!

Everyone is excited about going to see Thomas the Train

Waiting for Thomas to show up

Thomas is here!

Zach and Thomas

Mom and Nate waiting on the coach

Zach had to meet the conductor

The boys checking out the inner workings of the couplings

Nate wanted to stand in between the cars the whole time

Zach playing on the bouncy castle - not the best thing to do in 110 degree weather. It burned him on the way down!

There were lots of activities for the kids and a petting zoo.

Stopped for lunch at the Bar-B-Que Wagon for some great pulled pork sandwiches!

Home for the night - Best Western Hotel in Hickory, NC

US Road Trip: Day 7 - Dollywood Splash Country

2010-07-22T21:41:00.000-06:00

The boys have been waiting for today for months - Dollywood's Splash Country! After giving up a small fortune for the passes and parking, we headed in super early and got a great spot by the wave pool. Nate was excited to go on the big scary slides right away - but then found out the minimum height is 48" and he's 47" tall. He was disappointed but there is lots of other slides that he got to go on. Zach was excited to go into the kids area and loved this green kids waterslide. There was also a river tube floating ride that was great - so relaxing. But you know you are in Tennessee when the lifeguard gets called over to the tube ride right in front of us because there is a snake in the water! We spent most of the day there and left about 3pm as it was just too hot. Once we were out of the sun we realized that the 70 SPF sunscreen we brought just wasn't enough - I ended up with a huge burn and Thomas and Nate have a bit of a burn on their upper body. Zach was pretty well protected with his special lifejacket.

After the craziness of Dollywood - we headed back for a rest and then to a Mexican Restaurant for dinner. After dinner we walked for a bit around the main street in Gatlinberg and had ice cream sundaes from McD's.

It will be an early night as we have the big day with Thomas the Train tomorrow!

Here's Nate going down the kid's slide

Nate on the slide

Zach and Daddy going down the kid's slide

Walking to another part of the park

Family pic on the way out - not too many pics at the park as the camera was in the locker!

Boys waiting outside for the car

You can tell they got sun today. Here's their new matching Mario T'shirts

Playing at the playground at the hotel after the waterpark

Our car and our room (the top floor - third door in). We saved $20 by going to the second floor. I asked why and she said that most people don't like walking up the ramp - weird...

The boys after our walk in Gatlinberg

US Road Trip: Day 6 - Nashville, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg

2010-07-21T22:36:00.001-06:00

We left Paris super early this morning as we had quite a drive to Pigeon Forge. It was so sad to leave Frank, Wendy, Frank Jr and Shannon (and the puppies!) as we had so much fun there! There's been a big flood lately in Nashville so the entire area around the Grand Ole Opry was closed down, so we didn't stop in Nashville - we just drove through. We got to Sevierville by lunchtime and stopped to shop for a bit in an outlet mall. We didn't realize that we had passed over a time zone change and were surprised to arrive in Pigeon Forge earlier than the GPS had said we would. It is so crazy here! Like Las Vegas and Banff all rolled up into one! It all starts with Seiverville and shopping - then turns into Pigeon Forge where where is Dollywood and a main strip like Vegas with shows and atttractions and hotels. Then you enter the Smoky Mountain Park and drive about 10 minutes to Gatlinberg. It is like Banff - a mountain town - but it is full of attractions like Ripley's museum, rides and restaurants like Hard Rock Cafe. It's crazy busy! We checked into our hotel in Gatlinberg and went to the Ripley's Aquarium next door (Thanks Uncle Frank for the passes!). The boys loved it - especially Zach! There was lots of neat things for them to see and do there - a very cool shark exhibit and a place to touch crabs and sting rays. After the aquarium we headed back to Pigeon Forge for dinner at O'Charley's (which was fabulous!) Thomas had catfish and we all got to try it - it was great! Then we headed back to Gatlinberg and took the Ober Gatlinberg gondola ride up to the top of the Smoky Mountains. It was an awesome day! Thanks to Uncle Frank for the passes for the aquarium and gondola and the gift card for dinner!

Our back door in our hotel room opens up to a balcony and a picnic area by the river.

Front view of the hotel - yes, there is a boy fishing down there...

Our hotel is right next to the Aquarium

Zach getting excited to go inside

Checking out the exhibits

Looking at the fish

The awesome Shark Exhibit

Nate was a bit scared to go in here - and it lasted about 10 minutes!

Nate's grouchy face

Zach loved it - he wanted a picture by the fish

Touching the crab

Boys in the aquarium

Zach driving the boat

Thomas and Zach found a spot to rest

Boys with the penguin exhibit

Family picture afterwards

Dinner was incredible! Steak and potato dinner with soup and buns for under $10!

Zach eating his corn dogs - which were actually made with cornmeal

Driving through Gatlinberg after dinner

The gondola at Ober Gatlinberg

View from the Gondola

The boys found a carousel at the top

Nate and his horse

He wanted another picture after we stopped.

US Road Trip: Day 5 - Kentucky, Clydesdale's and Antiquing

2010-07-20T15:54:00.005-06:00

Paris is very close to the Kentucky border - in fact Frank and Wendy both go to University in Murray, KY. So we went out early in the morning to check out Hazel, Murray and to meet up with one of Frank Jr's friends to visit a horse farm.

Here's the family picture crossing into Kentucky.

The boys by the Tennessee sign

In two places at the same time :)

Nate going for a ride on a Clydesdale horse called Greyson - with help from Uncle Frank and Sam

Nate riding the horse

Zach and Daddy's turn

Zach loved it! Both boys asked to go for another turn...

Nate got to ride with Daddy this time.

Zach and Uncle Frank

Zach riding with Shannon

Frank and Shannon thanking the horse with Nate

These are some of the harnesses that the work Clydesdale's use

Picture of Greyson at the end of the barn

Some of the carriages that the horses pull

We stopped in Hazel, KY for some antiquing on the way home. The boys were only interested in the Candy Shop. Zach picked out a candy necklace and was half way through it before we were back to the car!

For the rest of the night - more time in the pool, more naps and Thomas and Frank Jr are planning their version of movie night to see Inception. Early start tomorrow on our way East!

Us Road Trip: Day 4 - Paris, Eiffel Tower and Pool Day

2010-07-19T21:52:00.000-06:00

When Nate had his kindergarten graduation he had to fill out a survey of questions his teacher gave him. One of the questions was "If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?" Nate answered Paris to climb the Eiffel Tower. Little did the Teacher know that he didn't mean Paris, France - but Paris, Tennessee and that there is an Eiffel Tower here, too! It's a lot smaller but has a playground next to it which makes it a lot cooler to the boys. :)

We started the day out with a tour of Paris, the Tower and downtown. Then we headed out for lunch and then back to the house for a pool day and naps! Later that night - Shannon, Wendy and I went on a girls night to see Eclipse at the theater here.

The boys posing by the Eiffel Tower

Family pic by the tower

Menu at Paulette's for lunch. It was soo good - homemade bread and buns and soups and desserts. Nate ordered a huge piece of chocolate cake for dessert and there was enough for everyone to share.

The fruit tea version of "sweet tea"

The boys having a rare moment giving each other hugs without us asking

Zach and Wendy enjoying popsicles in the pool

Nate having a popsicle break

Thomas jumped into the pool with Zach off the diving board. Zach wasn't very happy about it - but Thomas thought it was great!

US Road Trip: Day 3 - Paris, Tennessee - Fort Donaldson, Kentucky Lake

2010-07-18T21:19:00.006-06:00

Today started out as a pool day with Frank Jr. taking Zach and Nate for a ride in the pool. Two minutes after this picture Nate was begging Frank to dunk him in the pool. Zach didn't get out of his floaty chair the whole time :)

Thomas bought a book at the airport in Edmonton and has been reading it non-stop (which is really unusual for him). It's pretty interesting - he's been letting me know about all of the harmful stuff that we've got in our house and kitchen - chemical wise.

Here's a view from the deck at Frank and Wendy's house of the yard and neighbour's lake.

View of the house and pool. Nate's behind the floaty in the pool.

That afternoon we loaded everyone up for a visit to Fort Donaldson National Battlefield. http://www.nps.gov/fodo/index.htm

The boys thought it was cool right away with the canons and canon balls around the entrance.

Zach was showing Aunt Wendy the train - anything with a train he is drawn to. The visit started with a great video telling the story of how the battle at Fort Donaldson was one of the most significant in the Civil War. It was really interesting - about Ulysses S. Grant and the strategies that they used.

A lot of the battle took place on the river - here's everyone checking out the info.

The boys and I overlooking the river

Afterwards we drove over to a Yacht Club on Kentucky Lake for drinks, snacks and live music. It's called a lake but it is actually a river - but it is so wide that I'd consider it a lake. Lots of boats race, ski and cruise along the lake and then come over to the club for drinks. It was super hot but a nice lake breeze helped.

Uncle Frank took this picture - so Zach is actually looking at the camera and smiling for once :)

Sign at the club... Hmmm.

Boys running down the dock to catch up with Thomas and Frank Jr.

We got home about 5pm and everyone headed in for a nap. The heat and humidity really wipe you out! Then it was time for more swimming and snacks before a movie and bed.

US Road Trip: Day 2 - Memphis, TN to Paris, TN

2010-07-17T22:17:00.001-06:00

This is how the boys woke up this morning :) All snuggled up together. I'll have to use this photo to remind them how much they love each other when they are older :)

Our rental car. Does having Louisiana plates count as visiting another state? ;)

We got lucky on this one - upgraded 2 classes, leather seats and satellite radio.

We had to wait at the Hertz location at the airport (different from where we got the car) to exchange carseats for Zach. It had a cool view there of the big FedEx terminal in Memphis. They even have their own dedicated runway as jets land every couple of minutes for them. Reminded me of the movie Castaway.

First stop (after Walmart to buy Nate a booster seat) was lunch. Of course it was BBQ! Great pork sandwiches with coleslaw on top, beans and fries!

We had planned to go to Graceland in the afternoon but were shocked when we got there. Over an hour to buy the tickets for the tour and then 1.5 hours to wait until our tour time. It was way too hot to sit and wait so we took some photos and changed up our plans to go downtown Memphis instead.

I can still tell them that we went to Graceland when they get older - as we have proof! :)

Nate thought it was cool that there was a plane named after me :)

Boys with a statue of BB King downtown. They started climbing on it and set off an alarm!

Elvis statue too

View from the park of the river

Boys checking out the Mississippi River

And then we were off to Paris to see Frank, Wendy, Frank Jr and Shannon! The boys slept for most of the 1.5 hour drive. We drove some of it on the interstate and some off - and enjoyed the drive off more as there was actually stuff to see! It's pretty lush and green here with huge big trees lining the road. We found a Canada news channel on the Satellite radio and got caught up on all the news. The boys were so excited to see Frank and Wendy and the kids (and the dogs!). We had a nice drink on the patio and a great dinner. Then all of the boys had a night swim and Zach chased Fireflies (or Lightning Bugs) all over the yard. It is so beautiful here!

US Road Trip: Day 1 - Edmonton to Chicago to Memphis

2010-07-16T23:45:00.001-06:00

We're off! After over a year of planning and the craziest week (Thomas ran the transportation for the Canadian Teacher's Federation Conference all week) we are finally ready to head out on vacation! Everyone is excited and ready to go. The day started off at the Sutton Place Hotel in Edmonton, staying with Thomas as he's been there all week. We packed up and drove our car to Dave's to store while we are gone and then took a taxi to the airport. There has been a huge thunderstorm all morning (which is really rare in the morning).

The boys in Edmonton getting ready to board the plane to Chicago.

This is the great ticket agent who loved Zach and upgraded our seats the whole time :)

Off to Chicago! As soon as we went through the gate and onto the ramp we heard an announcement that all flights were suspended due to lightning strikes near the airport. Not exactly what you want to hear when you are heading into a super small space (without a bathroom) with a 3 year old. But it only lasted about 10 minutes so nothing was delayed...

Zach's reading the safety brochure and talking about the plane crashing into the water.

Nate's discovered Captain Underpants Book #7 in his bag and couldn't wait to start reading it.

We arrived uneventfully in Chicago. It is crazy busy at that airport. We debated leaving the airport to see downtown but didn't want to risk it just in case. So we found a fabulous children's play area and settled in read and relax while the boys played. That lasted for over 2 hours! Then it was McDonald's for dinner (finally got to try the 1/3 lb burger with Mushrooms and Swiss Cheese - which was okay, not great) and back onto the plane to Memphis about 9:00 pm.

Here's a statue of Lincoln at the Chicago Airport. Had to take a picture of it as we plan to see the real one in a couple of weeks in DC.

Nate at the playarea - it was set up like an airport with control tower, baggage carts and plane

Arrived in Memphis! And it is hot already! This airport is nothing like Chicago so we got our bags and onto the hotel shuttle pretty fast. The boys loved these cool guitars. Check out our youtube channel for a cute video I took when we landed in Memphis and had a wait to get off the plane. We had to fly around a thunderstorm which made for an incredible sight out Thomas and Zach's window of lightning right at the same level we are. Zach was enthralled and let the whole plane know how dangerous it was.

San Francisco Day 4 - Last Day - Shopping and Shrimp

2010-04-01T09:23:00.000-06:00

Today is our last day and we'd done lots of tourist stuff, so we decided to drive down to San Jose to the outlet mall to do some shopping. We also discovered the US version of Mountain Equipment Co-op, REI, so had to check that out as well. It was a neat drive - cities don't seem to end down here, they just keep melding into another one to make one big long commercial/residential area. We got lots of great deals (especially Thomas!). Afterwards we decided to spend our last night back in downtown San Francisco. We headed to the main tourist spot - Pier 39 and checked out all the shops and restaurants. We decided to eat at Bubba Gump's and got a nice table overlooking the bay. It's a cool place - a bit kitschy - but we had a nice dinner (of shrimp and crab). Walking out a huge storm hit and we were drenched by the time we hit the car. We had missed out on Lombard Street (the crookedest street in the world) the other day we were down here, so we did it at night, which was cool. We drove around a bit just touring and then headed back to get ready to leave early the next morning.

Funny signs at the restaurant that you turn if you want service. They worked some of the time :)

Thomas checking out the menu

Cool view of the street from ontop of the hill

Night view of Lombard Street

Some of the big buildings downtown

One of the best parts of the trip was flying first class (thanks Aeroplan!) and getting to use the Air Canada and United Lounges at the Airport. Totally worth the money! They had fabulous food, free drinks and magazines. Here's a quick pic of the one in San Francisco as we were waiting for our flight home! By then we were ready to go back - we missed the boys!

San Francisco Day 3 - Visits, Bridges and Muir Woods

2010-03-30T21:03:00.000-06:00

Today we got up a bit later and headed out for breakfast with Stuart and Beth in Berkeley. They are leaving on their trip today so we wanted to visit a bit before that. They took us to a great restaurant - La Mediterranie - where we had steamed eggs and a wonderful turkish cereal similar to cream of wheat with cinnamon. Yum! After that we headed back over the bridge to the city and went to the pinnacle of tourist places in San Fran - the Golden Gate Bridge. There is a bit of a visitors centre there to tour and then you can walk across the bridge. We made it about half way - it is so windy! The views and the construction were amazing! Afterwards we got back in the car and drove across the bridge, heading to Sausalito and Muir Woods. This is a National Park where we got to see some amazing California Redwoods. Afterwards we drove the long way back to Berkeley, past San Quentin Prison and across another bridge. We had a fabulous dinner at a great Mexican restaurant in Berkeley (and dreamed of opening a franchise of it in Edmonton it was so good - and we're picky!) We headed to Oakland for a show about 10pm and had some pretty interesting adventures getting there (and getting lost) - stopping for ice cream - and then after the show with the Oakland Police! Ask Thomas for the story sometime...

The fabulous breakfast with Stuart and Beth

This is crazy - a side view of one of the cables on the golden gate bridge

The view from the Visitors Centre

There is a military fort under the bridge - not used anymore. And the little black spots in the water aren't rocks - they are people surfing! in March! Crazy - there is some serious undertow and currents in the bay.

Us and the Bridge before we walk across

Houseboats in Sausalito. Interesting way to live. The smell was pretty fishy here.

Cool view of a Redwood Tree at Muir Woods. The markers show significant dates in US History back hundreds of years - the tree was that old.

The height of the trees was almost overwhelming - and we both grew up in BC - tree country!

The cedar/tree smell sure reminded me of home.

Pic in Muir Woods. It was raining a little bit but mostly just humid under the tree cover.

Entrance to the trail

The road to get to Muir Woods was intense - narrow, windy and the fog was thick! We got to this part and you couldn't see down the valley below. The wind was blowing so hard that the trees have grown sideways (like the one in the background). We both almost blew away just taking this pic!

San Francisco Day 2 - Golden Gate Park & California Academy of Science

2010-03-29T22:57:00.003-06:00

Today was a packed day! We also headed out to Golden Gate Park and the California Academy of Science. What an amazing place! It's much more than a science centre - check out their link here. We walked through Golden Gate Park to get there and the trees were huge! It was full of families picnicking and lots of museums and stuff. We didn't even see a fraction of it. After we finished there we headed over to the beach for a few minutes and then to Castro Street to walk around and tour and then home!

View of the trees at Golden Gate Park. There are small white flowers all through the grass.

Roof on the California Academy of Sciences building - a living roof

Some jellyfish in their aquarium exhibit

Pic of us in the multi-layered tropical exhibit (you can see the windows in the roof behind us)

A butterfly and flower in the tropical exhibit

Us at the entrance. There is another big museum across the street as well (next time!)

San Francisco Day 2 - Alcatraz

2010-03-28T22:35:00.000-06:00

We had to get up really early today to fit in everything we had planned to do. I bought tickets to Alcatraz Island online and after reading the guidebook recommendations - chose the earlybird cruise (the first one of the day). They say it's the best as then you get some time on the island with only a few people before the rush starts. The return trip is done by choice - whenever you are finished you just hop on the next boat back.

This is the view of San Francisco from the boat. Breathtaking.

Our approach to Alcatraz. The little sign on the left notes that it is a prison.

Nice pic of one of the guardtowers from below. A lot of the buildings are deteriorating or have already disappeared.

The gardens were incredible - all planted by the prisoners. An assistant warden thought it would be a nice project for them to do. They cover the island with amazing flowers and foliage.

View of one of the main buildings from below

Some of the deteriorated buildings.

The main building that greets you when you arrive.

Nice self-portrait of us.

San Francisco - Day One

2010-03-28T10:11:00.020-06:00

We arrive in San Francisco! It was a long but great day yesterday meeting up with Lisa's brother Shawn and friend Lindsay in Vancouver for dinner,drinks and visiting- and then getting to the airport at 4:00 am for our flight! But it was all worth it when we looked out the window of the plane on it's descent and saw the fabulous view of the bridges and the bay! Hertz hooked us up with a great rental car - a Hybrid! - and it took us a little while to figure out if it was even turned on... Our first trip over the bay bridge was so incredible. We stopped half way across on Treasure Island to take in the city view and to check out a bit of the naval base there. Then we headed over to Berkely and checked in with Stuart and Beth (Thomas' cousin and his wife) where we'll be staying. Their guest house is so cool - very californian! It's wide open with beautiful skylights and an incredible garden surrounding it. Beth took us on a tour of the Edible Schoolyard Garden at the school she teaches at and of the Berkeley Farmer's Market. She headed off to do some errands and we got to tour the University of California Berkely campus with Stuart. He used to work there and was a great tour guide! We headed up the Sather Clock Tour and could see all the way back to San Francisco. It was great! We had a fabulous dinner and visit with Stuart and Beth and then headed to bed early as it was such an early morning. We've got a big day planned tomorrow - starting with Alcatraz!

View of the Bay from Treasure Island

Marina at Treasure Island

Interior of Stuart and Beth's incredible guesthouse

Flower at the Edible Schoolyard

Beautiful sunlight at UC Berkeley Campus

The buildings at the Berkeley campus were incredible...

Sather Tower at the UC Berkeley Campus

Manzanillo - Day 12, 13 and 14 - Relaxing, New Year's and the Trip Home

2010-01-01T22:40:00.000-07:00

Our last 3 days of vacation were spent relaxing. On the 30th we did some shopping downtown Santiago and the market and then swam in the pool and watched the World Junior's Hockey . On the 31st we went shopping for food for dinner that night and did up a great shrimp and steak dinner! We decorated the condo with new year's decorations we brought from home. Nathan and Thomas had a late night swim and the we got ready for the fireworks. Once again, they were incredible and I think the boys have been spoiled from normal fireworks for life! We headed to the airport early on the 1st of January to begin the long trip home.

Zach and our condo decorations

Nate's late night swim

Fireworks

The boys running around the airport in LA

Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth were on our flight. We didn't know who Eli Roth was until we got home and watched Inglorious Basterds. It was so cool that Quentin's carryon bag was a leather Alias satchel. That role of McKennas Cole is still my favourite of his work.

The pilots on the LA- Seattle flight let the boys check out the cockpit. It had been a long night of flights for them and they were so excited to pretend they were pilots!

It was a great trip - but we were happy to be home! Even with the super cold weather awaiting us!

Manzanillo - Day 11 - Hiking to the Hidden Beach

2009-12-29T20:41:00.001-07:00

Last year, we went on a day hike to La Cruz. On the way there we could see a beautiful hidden beach below and thought that we would hike their next year when the booys were bigger. So we took off today downtown to do that. The hike starts off through the residential areas and then heads up into the hills. We went over the top, past La Cruz and then down a huge hill to the beach below. It was beautiful and amazing but so so so hot. We were exhausted when it was all over but it was worth it.

Here's the boys heading down the street from the condo beginning out trip.

Nate didn't like the loud gears on the bus on the way downtown.

Hiking through the residential area.

View from half way up of the city and the bay.

More residential areas. Part of the hike is up the stairs.

and part is through the trees.

View from the top

Nate did a great job!

The beach

We were here!

Zach was so hot that we stripped him right down. He played in the sand because it was cool!

It was so beautiful! Lots of crashing waves...

Zach's little patch of shade

Rocks and waves

Nate found an empty milk jug so he wrote a letter saying who he was and gave his email address in case someone finds it!

He threw it into the water. It kept coming back with the waves until he threw it far enough.

Getting ready to hike up to go home

View of where we were from up top

Stopped at the first little store we found once we got back to the residential area for drinks.

Manzanillo - Day 10 - La Bouquita

2009-12-28T21:38:00.004-07:00

Today we visited friends of Mom and Dad's - they live in the gated community that is at the far end of La Boquita beach. So we started with swimming and snorkeling and then ended the day with a BBQ at their home. La Boquita is so beautiful - it's a favourite beach for the locals. The sand is black and glimmers with gold. It's also the site of the sunken ship that we snorkeled last year and a coral reef off by the mountains as well. We brought all the snorkel gear and our new inflatable raft for Nate to snorkel from and started swimming out to the wreck. The coast guard stopped us and yelled some things in spanish that we couldn't catch (thinking it was either that there was something dangerous swimming in the wreck or that the boat traffic was too busy to be out that far into the bay). We turned course to go to the reef - but soon our equipment started to fail on us. Thomas'mask broke so I gave him mine - then my flipper broke so I ended up beaching in the worst possible spot in the rocks. I got a huge gash in my foot and then had to walk about a mile down the sand beach to the beach spot to sit down. The boys towed Nate on the raft over to the reef but it was just too hard to see anything and Nate was getting afraid of falling in. So they all came back and we headed home early. The dinner afterwards was great - the boys had a wonderful time exploring their home, swimming in the pool and chasing the cats. Dinner was full of shrimp and was so delicious. It was a fun day!

View of our spot on the beach

Nate running

Doing some body surfing

There was a beautiful haze over the mountain side. Below here is the coral reef...

Thomas was chasing Nate on the body board

You can see the black and gold sand really clearly here...

Trying to take Zach in to wash off all the sand. It's in his hair, on his face, in his eyes and down his diaper...

Nate's sandcastle with shells Nana found on the beach

Zach scaring us - he kept climbing in the pool and there is no shallow end!

Zach climbing in again. Don't worry - I wouldn't have let him fall in just to get the picture :)

Manzanillo - Day Nine - Colima

2009-12-27T22:12:00.001-07:00

We spent our last day in Colima touring around the city and checking out some of the shopping. There is some amazing architecture here. We bought a bottle of their local specialty Don Pedro - a sort of liquor with fruit in it (ours is pomegranate) . There is a store selling it literally every block or more. It is a great place to visit and we'd love to come back to check out more. The museum (which is one of the highlights) wasn't open today or yesterday with the Christmas season and I'd love to see that for sure.

Thomas walking through downtown

Nate and Zach in a park chasing the birds

Lots of people were stopping to watch Zach - he's a real novelty for Mexicans with his fair skin and light hair.

He kept trying to catch one, but no luck :)

I love moments like this one - little spontaneous brother hug

Boys going shopping

Zach riding a mechanical horse. They can go on all the rides here - it's only one peso - which is like 10 cents

New Family Puma shoes

The hotel had a great vintage camera exhibit in the lobby. They are after my own heart :)

Cool map in the lobby that shows the volcano and projected lava routes, etc. If you click on the picture to see it bigger - look 3 squares in from the left and 3 squares up for La Yerbabuena. That is where we were - up the road through San Antonio. Fairly close to the top!

Great sign inside our hotel room "In Case of Earthquake Stand Here"

Zach inside the old city hall

And checking out "Baby Genius" again

Exterior shot of our hotel. Best Westerns don't look like this at home :)

Thomas taking a break in front of an old church

Zach played a game while we were waiting for Nana and Nate to shop - run back and forth from Mama to Daddy again and again. It was cute.

Thomas got right into it

There was ash all over the city and we thought it was the volcano (typical tourist reaction) but it was the burning of the sugar cane. We came across the fields being burnt on the drive home.

Cute picture of Nate. Santa brought him a little plastic Mario Kart and he lost it in a restaurant in Colima. On the way home I look down and he's looking at photos of it on his camera that he took yesterday and crying.

Beautiful sunset when we got back home.

Manzanillo - Day Eight - Colima

2009-12-26T22:57:00.000-07:00

We headed out early this morning (Boxing Day at home) to drive about an hour and a bit inland to the city of Colima. Manzanillo is in the state of Colima and the city of Colima is the capital. (Colima, Colima). What we really wanted to see was the volcano there and we weren't disappointed - you can see it from miles away! It's the most active volcano in both Mexico and North America. There are actually 2 volcanoes - Nevado de Colima and Volcan de Colima. Here's more information on both.

The boys checking out a creek bed below the volcano

View of the volcano from below

Entrance to the cemetery in one of the small towns on the way up to the volcano

You know you are getting closer when you see stuff like this. It's a map of the evacuation routes.

The boys and I

Family pic

That little tiny road you can see in the middle of the picture - it's the road we drove up on. We're pretty high now but still just at the clearing at the bottom of the volcano. The road ends here so you need a permit and some endurance to hike the rest of the way in. We don't have either (or at least the boys don't).

Nate found a caterpillar

These flowers were everywhere. Reminds me of chamomile

Thomas by the volcano

Checking it out again on the way down. The cloud directly to the right of the top of the volcano isn't a cloud - it's smoke

See? Very cool.

Nativity scene in front of Colima's City Hall. Zach loved looking at "Baby Genius"

This place was cool - you order drinks and they bring the food for free. Whatever they decide to have that day. We got ceviche, tacos, beans, lots of appetizer type stuff. And they had entertainment - so here's Zach checking out the harmonica player.

The boys in the town square gazebo

We stayed at the Best Western overlooking the town square and park. Very cool. This is our little balcony.

View from our hotel room. Lots of Christmas decorations up

The main city hall - all decorated for Christmas

Manzanillo - Day Seven - Christmas!

2009-12-25T20:57:00.001-07:00

Christmas Day! The boys were so excited to see that Santa had eaten his milk and cookies the night before and brought them presents in Mexico. We had a lot of fun opening presents and having a nice breakfast. The boys spent the day at the pool and I spent it in bed trying to sleep off the cold I had. Shawn flew home in the early afternoon after all the presents were opened, which the boys were sad about...

Nathan and his dog Rufus showing off his Christmas Pjaymas

Nate and Zach opening their stockings

Santa knew Nate's been wanting Bendaroos for awhile

Zach got a Percy train to play with in the pool

Daddy helping Zach get everything out of his stocking

Nate opening his Santa present - a new Leapster game!

Zach was so so excited that he got Handy Manny tools from Santa

But then he got a Princess Doll from Mom and Dad that was the hit of the day

Thomas checking out his new Netbook from Mom and Dad

Pool time

Thomas

The boys

Manzanillo - Day Six - Cutuylan

2009-12-24T21:11:00.001-07:00

Today we headed on another roadtrip the other direction - to Cutuylan and the Turtle Sanctuary. It's a cool place where they have lots of large and medium sized rescued turtles and raise baby turtles from eggs to release in the ocean. There are other animals there too - iguanas and an albino alligator. We also got to go on a boat ride through the mangroves to check out the birds and plants. When we got home we packed up and went over to Pedro and Veronica's house for their annual Christmas Eve party. It was incredible again - fabulous food and company! We had a great visit with them and a wonderful way to start getting excited about Christmas. Thomas spent lots of time with Veronica, Leti and the ladies learning how to correctly cook tortillas so he'll know when we get home.

One of the larger turtles

Zach checking out the turtle tank

Nate touching a young turtle

Where the eggs are placed in the sand to hatch

Zach checking out the albino alligator

Nate taking pics on the boat trip

Thomas found a cool hat on the boat

Nate on the boat

Mama and Nate on the boat

Nate with his baby turtle on the beach

Zach getting his baby turtle on the beach

Not sure what to make of it

Nate loves his - he'd probably keep it for a pet if he could...

But it's time to let them go

The long walk to the water

Close up - they are so tiny!

Family picture on the beach - it's black volcanic sand

Zach checking out the stuffed alligator

Not happy while we are eating lunch

The beach at Cutuylan - lots of stands and beach restaurants and umbrellas

Relaxing on the beach. I've got a cold...

The boys doing some body surfing

They rented a body board for Nate but he gave up quickly. So they got another for Shawn and he and Thomas spent lots of time out there surfing

Uncle Shawn and Nate building their huge sandcastle/fort

Manzanillo - Day Five - Downtown Manzanillo - Inflatable World

2009-12-23T23:52:00.000-07:00

Lindsay left this morning to spend Christmas in Toronto with her family. While Shawn and Dad took her to the airport we enjoyed some time by the pool. Then we all headed into downtown Manzanillo to do some shopping and walking around. There are lots of cool things to see there, including a huge sailfish as it is the sailfish capital of the world. We went to an area that has tons of Iguanas and got to see them all hiding up in the trees. After dinner, Shawn, Thomas and I took Nate to this cool playground near the house that is full of inflatable jumping things for kids. Nate had a great time!

Zach in the pool

Beautiful crane by the iguanas downtown

The iguanas hide up in the trees overhead.

Zach got a ride from Daddy when we were shopping

Shopping downtown

The big Sailfish downtown

Nate and Thomas at the Inflatable World

Thomas and Shawn wish they could play too...

Manzanillo - Day Four - Barra de Navidad

2009-12-22T23:49:00.000-07:00

Today we drove out of town a little bit over to the town of Barra de Navidad. It's built on a sandbar with the ocean on one side and the bay on the other. It's a very cool, touristy town.

Zach and Daddy building sandcastles

View on the beach

Out for lunch

Nate pretending he's surfing

Zach wasn't too interested in going in the water

He was much happier playing in the sand

He wouldn't put his feet in!

Boys walking down the beach

Pic of us on the beach

Family picture! Shawn and Lindsay, us and Mom and Dad

Nate getting ready to open the gift exchange presents. We did it early this year so Lindsay could join in.

Mama opening her present from Nate - beautiful hair clips and earrings!

Manzanillo - Day Three - We're going on a boat...

2009-12-21T21:48:00.000-07:00

This morning we got to go over to meet up with one of Mom and Dad's friends by La Boquita. They have a boat and took us (-Zach and Nana) out on a boat ride to "Bird Island". Everyone got the chance to drive (including Nate!) We had some rods out to catch fish but ended up catching two birds! That was a bit crazy.
The pictures from the boat are on Nate's camera so I'll have to post them later on. Here are some from later that night...

Zach by the beach

The beautiful sunset view from the condo

Manzanillo - Day Two - Pool and Beach Day

2009-12-20T23:44:00.000-07:00

It's nice to have a pool and beach day when you first arrive, so that's what we did. We hung out at the condo and played in the water and sand most of the day. Later on we went over to the Santiago Market so that we could buy the gifts for our 100$ Peso gift exchange ($10) - Then we went to one of Mom and Dad's favourite restaurants for dinner (where most of us had shrimp in different fashions). It was a great relaxing day!

The lounge chairs by the pool were waiting for us...

Nate and Thomas trying out the snorkel gear

Zachie swimming with Daddy

Manzanillo - Day One - SEA to LAX to ZLO

2009-12-18T17:55:00.001-07:00

Rise and Shine Boys! It's 3:30am in Seattle and time to get to the airport!

Seattle to LA - First Class! Lots of room for Zach in this seat...

Nate taking a video of his dog Rufus

Mama and Nate

LA! It's about 8:20 am. You can see the Hollywood sign in the distance...

Zach was excited to land in LA

Next flight - not First Class - Thomas and Zach asleep and Nate in the middle watching a movie. It's about 12:45 and we've just started our trip to Manzanillo. Third flight in 2 days...

5:01 pm and we're at Julio's! Our favourite little taco stand right by Nana and Papa's house in Manzanillo. Zach loves the radishes with a little lime and salt - he can't wait to dig in!

We'll be eating lots of this food during the next two weeks. Thomas has been deprived of his favourite tacos for almost a year now!

La Boquita Beach

2008-12-29T21:27:00.000-07:00

When Shawn and Thomas and I went snorkeling we hit this great beach, La Boquita - it's the beach that most of the locals go to. The sand is black with pyrite flecks (volcanic) and there are tons of little areas set up with umbrellas and chairs that you can rent for the day for about $10 US. We really liked it there and decided to head back for Shawn's last full day in Mexico with the entire family. There is a sunken cargo ship about 500 feet from shore - sunk in a hurricane in the late 1950's. We rented some gear for Dad, Thomas, Shawn and I and got some smaller stuff for Nate and a snorkel raft. The raft is great - you lie down on it to be towed out to the site and it has a clear plastic window in it as well so that you can pseudo-snorkel if wanted. We had a great day here - it was long and hot but so much fun!

View of the beach

Nate got in the water as soon as we got there.

Our set up - the snorkel raft is the blue one. Part way through the day the wind came up and broke the umbrella - sent it flying back into the people behind us. Luckily no one was hurt but it could have been pretty bad.

There is a man and a bicycle under all this! He rides up and down the beach selling inflatables all day.

Nate getting his arm floats on.

Zach just walks up to kids and plays with them. Not shy at all.

He does like to eat sand, though. Hasn't really got that part yet.

Nate posing on the beach

Getting ready to go snorkeling. Can you see the sticks coming up out of the water in the distance? That is the ship. The little one on the far left is the hull and then it goes way past the picture - mostly underwater, though. The fish were incredible! We took the underwater camera so I just need to get those pics uploaded so we can share.

We're tiny specks in this picture -snorkeling the wreck.Mom took this from the beach.

The boys and I - Nate's mad that we have to go soon

Dad had to drag Zach from the beach -the boys are sure beach babies!

One last family shot

Sign for parking at the beach - we had to wait a little while for a taxi back to town sitting by this sign. The taxi didn't come - so Dad went to one of the little beach restaurants to ask them to call a cab and they sent their cook to drive us home in his jeep! (for the same price as a cab, of course!)

Hiking to La Cruz (The Cross)

2008-12-28T20:36:00.000-07:00

Dad had got some information from a hiker friend of his about some of the local hikes around Manzanillo. There was one that interested us - a hike up the hill right behind the city to La Cruz, a large cross, that would give us a 360 degree view of the area. The guide said it would be good for kids and only about 30 minutes, which sounded great. Thomas was the first to say that 30 minutes and easy to a hiker might be totally different than what it would take us - but we started out. The beginning was a ton of cement stairs up through local neighbourhoods and then some small paths to a utility road. Then we took what Thomas termed a "goat trail" for about another 30 minutes straight up to the 'summit'. Dad's friend had said that there were 2 ways - the easy way which is good for kids and the harder steeper climb. Well, somehow we got off track and got on the steep climb, but we all survived and the view was incredible! We found the easy trail on the way back down and then found the first store we could to get a drink - as all the water that we brought was frozen and barely melted even in the extreme heat!

Here are the boys on the way through the city...

Mom taking the first set of stairs through the city - and the boys checking her out :)

Everyone taking a rest when we realized that we were about a block off and had to go back down and repeat all of those stairs!

A view of some of the neighbourhoods

The boys on the trail

Zach loved his carrier - and getting carried up :)

View from the utility road, part way up

Everyone hiking up the hill

View from the top - towards the open ocean out the bay

Mom and Zach and La Cruz

Nate and I

Family Portrait

Such nice boys I've got ;)

Posing with Nana Papa and Nee (Zach's way of saying Shawnie)

A nice picture of Mom and Dad

Heading back down

Another family pic. I thought we should submit one to Mountain Equipment Co-op after realizing that both Nate's backpack, the Baby Carrier, Thomas' shirt and hiking shoes and my shorts and hiking shoes are all MEC. We do love that store...

Thomas and Zach waiting for us to catch up

Just like last year everywhere we went people marvelled over Zach. They would all come up and touch his cheek or run their hands through his hair to touch his curls. His hair got so curly there and it is a real novelty to see that, especially in a boy and one with blondish hair, too. When we came down the hill we ended up going right through these people's backyard and they were having a bit of a family get together. The kids all ran up to see and touch Zach - and then the parents came out and even started taking pictures. Dad and I were standing there amazed. Thomas was trying to talk to the kids - they were asking where he was from and such. It was a great moment.

Nate was so exhaused after the hike - but did great! He loves hiking and rock climbing so much and even asked if we could do the hike again!
Zach holding Papa's hand on the bus on the way home.

city of Manzanillo

2008-12-27T16:42:00.000-07:00

Our condo is not actually in the "city" of Manzanillo. That is about a 45 minute bus ride away on the other side of the bay. Manzanillo is a port city - the largest in Mexico - and it is really neat to see all the cargo and container ships. Our first day into Manzanillo there was also a Carnival cruise ship, which is a good and bad thing. It's neat to see the ship, but bad because tourists flood the streets and the prices in all the stores go way up. We spent the afternoon checking out the city, having lunch at the oldest hotel in Manzanillo, The Hotel Colonial, buying shoes for Thomas and Shawn (which takes longer than one would think...) and visiting the local's food and meat market.

Thomas and Zach on the bus to the Market in Santiago

Market in Santiago (the other way from the city of Manzanillo). It's only open on Saturdays and was quite small today because it is after Christmas. Usually it fills up one large city block at least. Didn't buy too much (a pirated dvd of Bolt...shhhh)...

View from the bus of the Port

Some of the boats in Manzanillo's bay

Another view of the boats

Zach running around the town square

One of the big fishing boats

Some boys fishing on the bay - they use pop bottles with string wrapped around - like a kite string. They caught some fish right before this picture - there were so many you could see them down in the water below.

Some of the damage from the last hurricane

Nate and the train

One of the big blue sailfish - and Nate posing to see how big it really is

Nate chasing the pigeons

A nice fountain in the square

Pigeon

A view of the oldest hotel in Manzanillo - the Hotel Colonial
A woman selling maracas on the street. She was there the next day when we went by as well.

This man was also begging on the street - he has had amputated legs.
A woman begging on the street with her child sleeping in a wrap.

View of the local's food market - off the regular tourist path
One of the meat vendors. Nate wasn't too keen on being in this part. There were fish and chicken vendors, too. Interesting that the chicken is yellow here - from their corn diet.

Kayaking and Snorkeling

2008-12-26T15:50:00.000-07:00

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On Boxing Day, Thomas and Shawn and I went on a snorkeling and kayaking trip that Dad bought us for Christmas (Dad was supposed to go with us but his cold was a lot worse and he was going to get checked out by the Doctor) We did the kayaking first, checking out birds on a lagoon. The guide Susan brought her dog Sandy which was so funny - she kept chasing all the birds on the sandbar and then swimming back to us. After a little break we kayaked out of the lagoon into the ocean and over to a reef to do some snorkeling. It was great - we saw so many interesting fish - and Thomas got bit by one! A mother fish protecting her eggs :) We finished up on la Boquita beach and then the three of us went for a seafood lunch before coming home. The beach there was beautiful - volcanic, so black sand with gold pyrite flecks - so we plan on going for another snorkel trip there with Dad and Nate to a shipwreck in the next few days.

Mexican Christmas Dinner

2008-12-25T20:38:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of pictures of our Mexican Christmas Dinner. We had appetizers of hondos y queso y chorizo, shrimp sopes (the picture right above) and then for dinner had cheese and chorizo tamales, beef tacos, garlic and lime shrimp and beans. Then for dessert - Carlota which is a Manzanillo Mexican Limon "Pie".

Christmas Morning

2008-12-25T11:19:00.000-07:00

View of our tree and all the stockings...

Nate trying to get Thomas out of bed. Thomas was awake, but just wanted to bug Nate :)

Zach reading a new book with Papa and Uncle Shawn

Zach really figured out presents and stockings this year. But he threw out his McDonald's gift card looking for more toys!

Zach with a new car

Zach's new boo boo. It's candy and he really didn't like it.

Zach opening his present from Santa, Leapfrog Alphabet magnets

My present in the exchange from Nate. He put it in a princess bag :) I saved the tag...

Thomas took this one of me opening my present from Nate. It's a necklace - purple ribbons and silver beads with a big crystal heart pendant and matching heart earrings. :) He's so cute! We had a tradition of doing a gift exchange here - 100 peso limit and we all go to the market for an hour or so to pick the gifts. It's fun to see what everyone gets.

Nate's gift exchange gift from Thomas - small Mexico boxing gloves. Mom got a nice shirt from Dad, Thomas got a belt and new shirt from Zach, Shawn got a new wallet from Mom, Zach got a toy car and a superman shirt from me and Dad - well he got a hilarious gift from Shawn that is kind of an inside joke. When we got to the market - there was a stand of used shoes there. So Dad joked to us not to get him a used pair of pink boots. So Shawn found him a pair of pink plastic Barbie sized boots and a framed picture of Jesus (because they are everywhere here in these totally ornate gold frames :) It was so funny.

Zach opening a present - Shake and Go Superman Racing Car

Nate trying out his new boxing gloves on Nana

Nate was a bit upset when he opened his gift from Santa, a new watch. But that was because he had written to Santa asking for a new Wall-E leapster game. I guess Santa knew Nana and Papa had bought it for him. He was pretty excited to get it.

Shawn opening the gift from the boys. It's an Oilers cap that was signed by a player - but you don't know which one until you buy it and peel off a sticker. So we all waited to see - and it was Mathieu Garon! Which is great because the man at the store said that lots of the ones that were open before I bought were of Jason Strudwick. He's good but he's no Garon.

Zach got a new puppy from Uncle Shawn and fell in love...

Shawn got a Wii game and Wall-E movie, which they watched right after presents were done.
Zach got some new moveis and was excited to be able to hold movies because we always keep them away from him...

Fiesta!

2008-12-24T23:50:00.001-07:00

On Christmas Eve we were all invited to a Fiesta at Pedro and Veronica's house. They are family of Victor and Leti, who manage the Condo building. Veronica is Leti's sister. In Mexico, when you get to know someone - you get to know their entire extended family. Pedro and Veronica went with us to the orphanage. They decided to sponsor a little 2 year old girl Ruth as they have 2 little boys at home. They used to live in Florida and speak quite a bit of English, too. It is a big thing for them to invite us over to their home and it was so great. Veronica runs a small restaurant out of this house on weekends and her food was incredible! Nate had a great time playing foosball and video games (the big arcade style that take 1 peso/10 cents). Dad couldn't come because he is coming down with a big cold. Victor took the bus with us to La Cruz and then Pedro met us where the bus ended and we rode to his house in the back of his truck. Nate was so mad - we made him ride in the cab with Mom. We got home around 10 - just in time for the boys to open their Christmas pj's and read a story and go off to bed...

(there's only one fiesta picture with my camera because I noticed that the fogginess wasn't in my contacts or the air - I needed to clean my camera!)

Christmas Eve Lunch

2008-12-24T11:02:00.000-07:00

On Christmas Eve Mom and Nate were heading over to Commerical Mall because they have a train that kids can ride on. Thomas and Zach and I walked part way with them - we saw this beautiful tree in full bloom on the side of the street. Then T, Z and I went for lunch at a little stand on the main street for tacos - 10 pesos each (about $1.00) and they were pretty good. Zach loves everything about Mexican food and loves tacos. Then we checked out the mall a little bit and bought a couple of ice creams before heading to Walmart and home for some pool time and a nap.

reading with Papa

2008-12-24T08:25:00.001-07:00

Couldn't resist taking this picture of all the boys reading with Papa. They both look like they were enjoying their paperbacks :)

orphanage

2008-12-23T15:23:00.000-07:00

Mom and Katia

Zach kept stealing all the little girl's waterbottles

Rare photo of me - taken by Nate

Nate checking himself out in a carnival mirror

Thomas teaching a little boy the trumpet

Nate and some of the kids by the Pinata

The nativity set that the Orphanage had out

Shawn teaching the boys how to restring the guitars

We spent this morning visiting one of the local orphanages. Mom and Dad sponsor a girl here, Katia, who is 14 years old. The plan was to buy some ice cream and cookies, 2 pinatas and candy and to bring them to the orphanage to have a bit of a Christmas party for the kids as they didn't have anything planned for them. Mom and Dad and Shawn had stopped by earlier in the week and Shawn spent some time fixing all of their instruments up in the music room. Their music program had been discontinued due to lack of funding and lack of proper teachers. Today Shawn was going to teach a couple of the older boys how to restring a guitar so that they could fix the instruments themselves. Thomas also helped out by showing two little boys how to properly hold and play a few notes on their trumpet. We joked that the orphanage got a lot louder after Thomas had finished. Unfortunately we didn't get the chance to join the kids when they had their ice cream and pinatas, as the organizer planned the day as a sponsors day - kind of building on what they had planned with us as any way to get funding is a big priority and this was an opportunity. But we had a nice morning there playing with the kids and helping out. All of the little girls were just taken with Zach - carrying him around and playing with him. Nate joined in on the playground but was a bit shy with them all. We had a nice talk with him earlier about what an orphanage is and how the boys and girls don't have mommies and daddies and he was concerned that they were all lonely. But I think he felt better to see them all there happy and playing and watching Scooby Doo cartoons, just being normal kids. We got the chance to meet Katia and will go back to visit her again later in the week. Thomas and I both said that we'd love the chance to sponsor one of these kids in the future, but that it isn't time for us right now. It's about $500 US per year and allows them money for school uniforms and expenses, etc. It's about $4000 US per child for everything for the year so many kids get more than one sponsor.
Because of the sensitive nature of the situation, they didn't allow many photos there.

sunset on the Manzanillo beach

2008-12-22T20:12:00.000-07:00

This man does surf fishing - throwing a net into the surf and he caught a lot of small fish, probably 50 or so. Nate came over to check it out - all the man's kids ran over to get the fish out of the net, all wiggling and squirming.

christmas fiesta

2008-12-22T19:06:00.004-07:00

The beach volleyball game...even Zach and Nate were in on the fun!

Zach and Nana enjoying cake. Zach ate 2 pieces!

The kids and Papa with the cake

Zach and Nate trying the pinata

Uncle Shawn was tired after volleyball

The infamous tres leche cake

Tonight we had a Christmas Fiesta here at the condo down by the pool. Mom and Dad invited all of the people that take care of the condo building and their families. It was a lot of fun - we had hamburgers, jicama salad and lots of salsa and chips. They have special buns in Mexico - they are made of a sweeter kind of flour and quite dense. Dad and I took the bus into Santiago to the bakery and bought the buns and a tres leche cake "three milk". It was so funny as they didn't have any way to transport the cake - just a thin plastic tray and no cover. And they took the buns from the oven and into a black garbage bag (they were so hot!). Dad carried the cake carefully up a couple of blocks to the main road and we flagged a taxi. I had to sit with the cake on the way home and barely escaped getting covered in it - the drivers here are a little crazy! It was worth it - the cake was incredible. Not too sweet, tons of cream and a sort of caramel flavour. Afterwards there was a big beach volleyball game and we set up the pinata for the kids to hit. Zach tried his best - Nate hit it a few times. It was a lot of fun!

playing at the beach

2008-12-22T11:39:00.001-07:00

we all spent some time playing at the beach in front of the condo today. It's so beautiful and the waves are smaller right now so the boys could play in the ocean a bit. Some days they get up to 15 feet tall! Zach had a good time exploring everything. He loved playing in the sand but didn't like it when we buried him in it and then washed him off!

morning view from the condo

2008-12-21T09:21:00.000-07:00

this was the view from the condo balcony this morning. so beautiful...

we're here!

2008-12-20T21:17:00.000-07:00

finally here! the humidity was such a change - the stroller felt wet when I picked it up. We got all the way through the customs and when it came time to hit the magic button (red=bag search green= no bag search) we hit red! Thomas totally called it in line- we've been to Mexico way too many times and not had it happen, so this was our time...

Nate was so excited to see Nana and Papa and Uncle Shawn. It's too bad we were late - as it was dark so no sightseeing tonight - but it's nice to be on the ground and starting our vacation.

a few shots from the plane...

2008-12-20T18:14:00.001-07:00

Thomas and Nate watching Wall-E on the plane - typical Westjet, the satellite TV conked out for the last 2 hours of the flight...

I thought this was neat - over El Paso, TX - you can tell you are over a big city, there was exhaust trails from other planes all over the sky...

a cool up close view of the New Mexico landscape

a neat view from the plane - this is over New Mexico - you can actually see where the snow ends...

fun on the plane

2008-12-20T16:07:00.000-07:00

the boys devoured our snacks - good thing we brought some! I had thought that we'd be needing dinner on the plane but with the delay they were hungry right away. We had kept Zachary up at the airport and then gave him some gravol, so he conked out pretty fast - and slept down on the floor by our feet.

goodbye to edmonton, goodbye to cold...

2008-12-20T14:30:00.000-07:00

we'll miss you...

packing light

2008-12-20T08:53:00.000-07:00

2 boys, 2 adults, tons of Christmas presents and everything that Mom and Dad need and forgot...all in 2 suitcases, 3 backpacks with a stroller and carrier... pretty good :)

never a good sign

2008-12-20T08:02:00.000-07:00

ours is the top flight...
We got to the airport at 7:30 this morning only to find out that our flight is delayed! I had called last night and everything was fine. So we're off to have some breakfast at Tim Horton's and then find a place to settle in with the boys until we can check in our luggage at 9:00. At least we were able to get our seats early - and get the front row and the extra room...

test

2008-12-16T22:10:00.001-07:00

testing a post from Thomas...

2007 Edition - Bucerias

2008-12-16T09:47:00.001-07:00

Holmes Family in Mexico [2007 Edition] took place in Bucerias, MX. We rented a condo for our 2 week vacation and were there from December 22 to January 5th.

youtube

2008-12-16T09:19:00.000-07:00

Added in the youtube video link as Thomas got a new HD Video Camera for Christmas (the Kodak Zi6 -very cool...) We're planning on taking lots of videos to share - so you can search for us on youtube using my email lmholmes @ gmail.com or our username tlnzholmes!

only 2 weeks!

2008-12-10T08:53:00.001-07:00

Stay Tuned! We're leaving on December 20th so there will be lots more to come then!