Eric Bailey's

This was the last night that we camped. It was at a free site in South Dakota. It wasn't much worse than the pay sites we stayed at, but the ground was a fair bit harder and we actually wanted to peg the tents down because of the wind. We did not succeed at pegging the tent very well, but it did not blow away either. We all woke up stiff and sore (I'm not sure that the boys ever wake up stiff and sore) and decided that we would drive all the way through back home after we viewed a couple of places in South Dakota.

In South Dakota we went to the Mammoth dig site, but did not go in (I was feeling really cheap). We did take a picture of the model in the shop. Then we went to the Crazy Horse memorial and paid to go in and learn all about it. Go to my flickr site and I should soon have picture posted of the rock face that they are carving. We did a drive by shooting of the Mount Rushmore, again feeling too cheap and too rushed to spend more time there than just taking a picture. After that we drove to Sioux Falls ate, and drove like crazy back to Canada.

I'll post more pictures and tell more stories about the trip later, The other photos are on Erica's computer because we kept running out of memory (that makes a lot of pictures). These photos on flickr are only the last two days of our vacation.

Well we have been here for a few days. The trip down was crazy, we camped one night and then we slept in the van the second night. After our first night of camping we drove up and saw Mount St. Helens. It was interesting to see and read all that they had made out of the mountain. Funny that such a tragic thing is now a tourist attraction.

We have been to Disneyland once already. We all went on the new Pirates of the Caribean ride. It has two drops instead of just one. I do not like either drop. Greg was not impressed with the drops either, but also he didn't care for the water part of the ride. We also all went on the Haunted Mansion ride. It was better for me.

Greg has seen the specialists and he now has coloured glasses that make the world look like it looks for the rest of us. His colour is blue. It is an interesting process and I might look into how to do that kind of work at least as a side job. It is neat to see people transform just by putting tinted lenses in front of them.

It was fun. We are going again Saturday. We have been to downtown LA and we saw some interesting things. We even saw some stars. Most of the stars were sports people that we didn't know. I suggested that they should wear their jerseys to these events so that they could be recognizable. Erica pointed out someone who look a lot like Sean Penn. He was just walking around in normal clothes, not dressed up like the people attending the awards show. We didn't stop and ask him if it was him or not, but we think it was. I also think that Martin Lawrence was attending these awards, all done up in a tux and all. He had an entourage with him. I guess we could find out, but I'm not into the ESPY's. Maybe sometimes I'll do some google searches from back home and find out or not.

We only have a couple days left but it has been fun. Haaken is enjoying his film camp and is going to make a movie at the end of the week. It will then be edited and put together and then mailed to us. His first short movie.

I'm back home sort of. This is the place I think of first when I think of places that I grew up. I spent time in other cities, but Victoria is stuck deep in my heart. On Sunday I preached again. I have not done that for a while. I enjoyed it and since it was one that I have used before (reworked of course) it was well delivered (for me). The interesting thing is that the church we have met with here the last couple of times has some of the people I grew up wit, but not the location I'm used to seeing. This group doesn't agree with the things the other group is doing (I do agree with what I know about - there may be other stuff I don't know?). I was a nice group who are trying to do with they think is right, but according to what I hear they are sensitive about a couple of issues that I care about (but not in the same way). I still care about the people in this small group. I would like to sometime see the other group, but I don't know when that might happen since when I'm here I go to church with my parents and I like going with my parents.

Today we had a birthday celebration for my mom. Her birthday was always the easiest to remember, as long I can keep straight which comes first, her birthday or Canada Day. We had a nice meal out, we had cake at home and we sat and enjoyed Dr. Who together. A good night all around.

Tomorrow mom is planning to come with us up Island to go see the house with the goats on the roof and the huge trees. My brother sent us on the expedition and I think we will enjoy it. This will give us something to compare to the giant Redwoods of California. Our vacation so far has been fun, even though we did camp outside one night already.