the amazing grace

Yesterday we went back to Canada, but this time by ferry to Victoria, BC.  Our first stop after getting off the ferry was the Parliament Building where we joined in on a tour and learned about some funny Parliament traditions.  One is that whenever a new Speaker of the House is elected, he runs out of the room and the head of the opposition party chases him and drags him back!  This is because in an older day when the Speaker reported to the King, if the King didn’t like what he said then “off with his head!”  After the tour we rented bikes and rode along the coast.  We stopped and ate lunch near the waters edge. It was beautiful!  Then we rode through some of the neighborhoods.  This was fun but challenging due to frustration around navigation issues.  We made it back in time to catch our ferry but not to have dinner at The Fishhook, a restaurant recommended by a bike shop employee.  This was disappointing.

We saw this as we were riding through the neighborhoods…it’s a miniature fairy woodland display in front of a house in Victoria.

It was pretty overcast as we rode on the coast, but very peaceful and beautiful.

Olympic National Park!  Instead of seeing the otters though, we saw this mountain goat!  After our whale watching tour, we took a short hike up Hurricane Hill.  I was so hot and tired on the way up and there was a ton of uphill but getting to the top was worth it.  We spied this goat walking through some trees and followed it until it went down a steep rocky area, where we took this picture of it.  We also saw two mother/child pairs of deer, a rabbit and a few partridges!

This is the view on the way up to where we saw the goat!

On my bucket list for the past 15 years has been to see whales!  Charis and I went on a whaling tour on Thursday 9/15 and loved it.    The sun was out and the sea was uncommonly calm.  The naturalist on board kept saying, “we rarely get a day like this with such visibility….we’re going to see whales!”  By the end of the five hour tour we had seen 15 or more humpback whales and 8 of these were within 100 yards.  We could hear them exhale and their occasional wheezy breathing.  We saw the spouts first and then an unusual number of tail flukes.  Absolutely an amazing time!

This one is just for fun!  Our friend Lisa Orris used to live in Bellingham, Washington and said….”You must go to “The Woods Coffee” on the bay in Bellingham …  So here we are!  It’s timely because we lost the top to Charis’ travel mug so we are getting a souvenir.  The coffee shop is warm with wood and delicious smells and the bay view is on threes sides!  Charis’ mini scone came warmed up!  These details are especially enjoyable after waking early and breaking camp before 8am.

We are hitting the road  now and off to….wait I cant tell you its a mystery!

We are back in the U.S.!  As we were crossing the border on our way into Canada over a week ago, we were disappointed that our passports were not stamped.  On our way back into the U.S. today, we asked if they could stamp our passports.  They sent us inside to the office where they gave us a U.S. stamp.  We still wanted a Canada stamp!  So we went back over the border into Canada and asked for a Canadian stamp.  The man at the border agency said that they didn’t give stamps to Americans!  Finally, after talking for a few minutes, he made an exception and gave us a stamp.  We still had to go back over the border into the U.S.  On our way back through, we accidentally went in the semi truck lane!  The man at the border took an interest in our trip and homeschooling, and instead of being asked if we had any weapons, I was asked what I had learned about buffalo in Yellowstone.  We ended up giving him our website!

Capilano Suspension Bridge Park in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada!

This park was a fun stop!  We walked the suspension bridge over a small canyon and enjoyed the “sway” of the bridge in the wind and with the weight and movement of the people.  Another feature was this cliff walk pictured above that was suspended into the side of the mountain by a single large anchor and multiple cables all leading to the one anchor.  The tree house and tree top walkway was equally impressive in that  it was all suspended by collars around the trees and cables and supports but not a single screw or wound into any of the trees.  The collars are strapped on tight enough to hold up the walkways, but with the ability to be adjusted regularly for growth.  Very “green” and very cool.

Today, on our way to Vancouver, we found our first EarthCache!  An EarthCache is like a geocache but it does not have a physical container to find.  Instead it is the location of an interesting geologic feature.  This EarthCache focused on Mount Tantalus, and included some interesting facts about the formation of different types of mountains.  After reading the info, we answered questions about the area such as how high we thought the peak was and what type of mountain it was.  We think it is a “folded” mountain.  We also walked a few hundred feet down the road to a geocache.

Whistler Olympic Park!  Only the park was closed and we never saw the ski jumps!!! Bummer!   Nevertheless Whistler, British Columbia, Canada is amazingly beautiful!  We rode the Peak to Peak Gondola which is the highest gondola of it’s type in the world and travels  2 3/4 miles from the peak of Whistler Mountain to the peak of Blackcomb Mountain.  We rode in a glass bottom gondola!

This was from the top of Whistler Mountain.  We hiked for over  4  hours on the peaks of both mountains.  There was much more hiking left too, but we were tired!   We discovered mountain lakes and wildflowers and tundra grasses and such peace and beauty. Geocaches too!

Looking down through the glass bottom!  We saw a black bear on the return trip as well.

Look who posed for a picture!  Its a marmot!

Charis is the initiative behind the geocaching we are doing.  Before we left she began to look into it and really wanted to incorporate it into our trip.  I’m so glad because it’s made our exploring richer and even more playful!  This morning as she was discovering this cache, which was hidden in the skeleton of this old abandoned car near Castle Cliffs,  I began to sense the Presence of God in it all.  I was thinking about my friend Dawn who will hear God invite her to look up a word or prompt her to go learn about hawks or something and then one clue at a time she goes with Him on what she calls “treasure hunts.”  Just last week she texted me about one of these prompts that came up as she was praying for me and we went “treasure hunting” together via texts as we volleyed back and forth what we were learning and hearing.  So again I asked Charis this morning if she was open to a “discipleship moment” and she was.  I told her about Dawn’s treasure hunting and how searching out geocaches was reminding me of the way Dawn searches for God’s heart.  I noted that her delight at discovering the treasure was what I watched Dawn experience discovering God.  I believe that God is inviting Charis to to discover Him in this joyful, playful, delightful, treasure hunting way!  I asked if she were interested in going on a God Cache and she said, YES!