Le Grand Voyage

So for those of you who don't know, we took a grand voyage, excuse me, Le Grand Voyage, to visit Amy's brother and father up in the city of Vancouver, Washington which is just north of the Oregon border and the city of Portland.

Originally intending on driving, we found rather inexpensive plane tickets from the city of Sacramento (about 3.5 hours drive north of Coarsegold) to Portland which saved us about 10 hours of driving each way.

The main downside was that the flight there was at 6am, which means we checked out of our hotel at 4am to head to the airport. Sage's first flight was in a Canadian-built Q400, the 70-seat stretched version of the popular Dash-8 aircraft. He slept through most of the flight and seemed to have a good time! Here is a picture after we got to Portland.


Amy's brother Adam and their father met us at the airport and drove us to Vancouver to stay with Adam and his girlfriend Chivonne. She has 2 daughters, aged 3 1/2 and 2, named Azriel and Irie. Boy did they keep Sage busy! He's never slept so well as after being worn out by the two of them. Here they are having a good time.


For some reason, this Friday, everyone had the day off so we hit the road and drove 90 minutes to a lookout point close to Mount St. Helens, which had been closed for almost a year due to fear of volcanic activity and had just recently reopened. Here is a photo of the mountain...clouds covered the top, but you can clearly see the blast crater and the desolate valley below. It was really amazing to see how the eruption that happened 26 years ago still affects the landscape. Mount St. Helens can easily be seen from Vancouver and Portland and Amy's father told me about looking up from playing tennis and seeing what looked like an atomic bomb exploding over the mountain in 1980 while Donna was pregnant with Amy.


Here is Sage meeting his Grandpa Bryan. It was the first time he got up close and personal with a beard and he couldn't help but grab it every now and then!


On the second day there we went for a very scenic drive through the Columbia River Gorge. It is a whole string of State Parks with hiking trails and more waterfalls than I have ever seen in such close proximity. Here is a photo on one of the hikes showing Bryan, Amy with Sage on her back and Adam.


On the Oregon side of the gorge, I got a shot of the river valley from a scenic overlook.


Amy and Sage at one of the many waterfalls we saw along the trip.


And here is what I think is a beautiful and scenic shot of a top of one waterfall.


The next day we spent in the environs of Portland. We stopped for awhile at Washington Park for some playground time. Sage spent it rolling around on the green grass.


We then went on a bit of a city hike, crossing bridges over train tracks and the river to stroll along the waterfront. Here's 'the gang,' Amy and Sage, Chivonne, Azriel and Irie, Bryan and Amy's Aunt Sharon and Uncle Joey bringing up the rear.

Later on we went to visit Amy's grandmother who recently got out of the hospital. Here is Bryan, Aunt Sharon, Sage and Amy.

Sage got a kick out of his Great-Grandma Alice!

The next day was limited as we were flying back in the early afternoon, but we hung out at Clark College where Bryan works and Adam attends classes. Adam took an algebra test and then we headed to the airport.

Amy says I can't put another plane picture on my blog so I guess you'll just have to imagine that we flew back in another Canadian-built plane, a Canadair CRJ-700 Regional Jet. Sage didn't like that flight too much because he had ear problems during descent and did quite a bit of howling. Anyway we drove home, rather tired but overall we had a really great weekend, saw a lot, and even went as far as to title the blog in French.

A long overdue blogging

It has been so long since I've added to this blog. Where do I begin?

Well we are all doing ok. I had a cold for the longest time and thought my nose would never stop running. But, it did. Very happy about that.

My work is going ok. The company I work at has decided to branch out into web design, and I'm more than happy to be taking the helm of that. I've completed my web masterpiece, which is a website for the magazine that my workplace puts out once a month. It's at www.HomeAndRanchMag.com, which has real estate listings. It's all PHP driven (learned the language from scratch to build this site!)

Here's where I work!

One part of my job that I really like is that for 2 days per month, I get to go and shoot photographs for the magazine. I get a list of properties in Fresno to photograph, and I just drive around the city snapping them. Unfortunately Fresno is not known as one of the safest cities in California, so I do take some precautions. As far as firing a gun goes, I know it's an American tradition, but I haven't yet done it. About half a dozen people have offered to take me to a shooting range or just some empty area to try it, but I haven't folded yet. I always joke around...hey I'm Canadian...I don't know what to use a gun for other than to hold up a 7-11!

Sage is growing well, and is now somewhere around 18 1/2 pounds. What a bruiser! He can now flip from his back to his front, and can crawl somewhat using a combination of kicking his big chunky legs and planting his face into the ground. Believe it or not, it does move him a quarter inch each time he does this.



The weather has been really rainy recently. We got an above-average amount of snow last month, and since then it has just poured. It actually snowed so much that it brought hundreds of trees down that weren't used to having so much extra weight on them. Wussy trees anyway, no match for a good ol' Canadian tree!!!

Anyway, of the 31 days of March, it rained on 25 of them. The land all around out house and neighbourhood is now blooming with wild flowers, lupins and wildgrass because of it. Mind you, when all the rain stops, for the most part it won't be back until November. Most of the year in this area the vegetation is all brown and dead...one of the reasons why there is such a forest fire risk up here.

So what have we been up to...a month ago we all drove down to Los Angeles to visit with Amy's best friend Jessica. We visited with her and her boyfriend Peter, and also had lunch with Jessica's sister Stephanie. We hung out for awhile at the Santa Monica Beach, but not long because it was really cold that day. And when I say really cold I mean 12 degrees and windy. Not bad for early March by Canuck standards.

Here are Amy and Jessica and Sage!

The Los Angeles downtown at night (from the parking garage at our hotel)

Speaking of Canuck standards I really miss walnut chocolate crullers at Coffee Time.

But back to the story, what trip to Los Angeles would be complete without a trip to Los Angeles Airport! Got some photographs that I've wanted for a long time, including Qantas' bright red 'Wunala Dreaming' 747.

Sweet!!!!!!

And we're making plans a month from now to head up and visit Amy's brother and father in Vancouver, Washington (right across the river from Portland Oregon.) We were going to drive it (about 13 hours nonstop) but we found a really cheap flight to Portland from Sacramento, so we'll drive to Sacramento (3.5 hours) and then hop on a plane for the rest of the journey. The coolest part? Sage's first flight will be on a CANADIAN MADE AIRCRAFT, the Bombardier Q400...the stretched version of the famous Dash 8. Coming back will also be in a Canadian plane, the Canadair CRJ-700 Regional Jet. Funny, we didn't plan it that way, but I'm not arguing.

Speaking of planes, on Saturday, the 15th, Amy and I celebrated 6 years since my plane crash. We went out for lunch and I drank a really big margarita and got a massive piece of chocolate cake. They don't signify anything, but I got to act like I was all emotional and traumatized by the anniversary to get whatever I wanted that day.

And without further ado, here are some more images of the Sageman for your viewing interest!

He's getting used to the potty!

Sage gets really wrapped up in life sometimes.
Sage from the side...what a head!

Who's the goofy looking one in this picture?

What's up Doc?

Sage sleeping on one of our walks

Guess what Sage got for Easter from Grandma and Grandpa!

Sage with Donna at Easter

That's about it for now, until next time, umm, well just keep out of trouble. Or don't.

Mr. 3 Months

Sage turned 3 months old on Friday! Here are some photos.

(This one HAS to be seen full-sized...click on it!)

Chilling out at a cafe in San Francisco

And because it's my blog, an Air New Zealand 777!

2 Months of Sage

Hey everyone,

Here are some new photos of Sage that I took this weekend after fierce and persistent prodding from 3 out of 7 of Sage's grandparents.

Enjoy!

Here he is looking like a real couch potato. He's even got a remote handy.

Check out this cute shirt we got him!

Here is Sage and Chris having a freaky face contest.

Here we are practicing elimination communication which is used as an alternative to diapers in many cultures. For more information, go here.

Duhhhhh...

Amy thinks he looks like Olive Oil saying 'Oh Popeye!'

Where did that remote go?

How cute!

No more pictures!!!!!

Scenes from Californee

I wanted to post some photographs from the various places we've been since we've been here, and just some nice shots.

First is a shot of Highway 41, the "Southern Yosemite Highway" as it winds through the town center of Coarsegold.


Here is a shot of a foggy morning in our backyard. Yes, this is our backyard...beats a manicured lawn anyday!!!
In this shot the sun sets in the Ponderosa Basin where Amy's parents live. The clouds as you can see hover at a slightly higher elevation than we are.

The moon rises through a gnarled tree one cool winter's night.
We drove up to Millerton Lake Recreation Area which, although pretty much abandoned during the winter months, was still quite scenic.One weekend we all drove north to Sacramento for a party at Amy's sister's place. The riverfront is lined with historic buildings and ships, one of which is this riverboat.

On our way down to San Diego for Amy's aunt's wedding, I of course stopped in my favorite place to watch planes...Imperial Hill overlooking the main runway at Los Angeles International Airport.
San Diego's waterfront is currently sporting a patriotic Model T.
A sailing ship cruising the San Diego Harbor.
The massive bulk of the aircraft carrier USS Midway towers above the water. This ship is now a naval museum.
The sun sets over the Pacific on the beach at Del Mar, just north of San Diego.
Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Sage Chunkmeister

So our dear boy is now well over 12 pounds. He's been gaining something like an ounce and a half every day he's been alive...isn't that amazing? He's really rounding out well. It's rather funny to see his chubby cheeks and double chin (sometimes triple, depending on how his head is)

Here he is!And finally, here he is leading us in a roaring chorus of Row row row your boat.

In other news, After 2 months of being here, I've finally received my employment authorization, and have now taken up a position as a graphic designer at a small publishing company nearby.

Also, we have a new car...after borrowing an old 1992 Ford Explorer with a manual transmission, we bought a 1998 Saturn for a mere 2,500 dollars. It works great, and here's a photo of both before we returned the Explorer this afternoon.

In order to get a California driver's licence, I have to retake the written and driving tests again. I passed the written test (one answer wrong out of 36 though,) and I have the driving test this Friday. That should be fun. One interesting thing is that there are online help tutorials in studying for the written exam, with pictures and multiple choice questions. This one was pretty funny...police assistance my heiney...there might be terrorists on the other side of the hill!

So that's it for now, time to face the barrage of phone calls saying 'more pictures of Sage...'
Sorry for not writing more, it's been a busy weekend...I will put more pictures up soon though.