More Canada pictures!

We had a great time in Canada. Here are some more pictures of our activities there.

First up, some of the wildlife. This is a banana slug hanging out on the window of our dorm. Pretty cool, huh?

















Then, Jon called for A.J.'s birthday, and Levi got to talk, too. Does he look a little too grown up for his own good?

















Here's A.J. looking too grown up. His big birthday present was an MP3 player. His favorite song? "Mr. Roboto."

















The boys were fabulous helpers. All my labmates went on and on about how well behaved they were, and how much fun they were to have around. This is A.J. helping Luis weigh and measure some seastars.
























Then, Levi helped by carrying boots after they got rinsed.

















The boys also liked checking out some of the other experiments going on at the research station. In this tank are some dogfish, a small shark.

















We spent a lot of time at the cabin where my labmates were staying. It's nothing fancy, but it does the job.

















The boys loved playing soccer out in the "yard." Notice the high-waters both of them are wearing. We took the worst pants they had, knowing that they would probably get destroyed. And, we were right.

How about some pictures?

And not of the fire, but our vacation! We just spent a couple of weeks on Vancouver Island (you know, that giant island NW of Seattle) with my labmates, helping a few of them with their research projects. I was just unskilled labor, and it was great not to be in charge! I was busy most mornings, but usually had the afternoon to hang with the boys. My boys were not bored in the mornings, however, because the community school was down the road, with a ball field. Every morning, they headed down there to play ball for an hour or so, and then head back to meet me for lunch.

First, some friends of ours that just moved to Ireland (how exciting!) came over the night before the boys and I left for the long drive. We'll miss you guys!

















On the way up, we stopped in Seaside and Astoria, OR. In Seaside, we ran across a re-enactment group spending the weekend as part of the Lewis and Clark expedition sent off to make salt. This is the tent they actually stayed in all weekend. They were a lot of fun.
















And then, we found that Astoria was all prepared for our arrival...with a parade, a regatta, and the grand re-opening of the Astoria Column, which you can climb (and climb, and climb, and climb...and climb some more) to throw off a balsa-wood plane and watch it go a long way. It reopened literally one hour before we got there. See, I told you they knew we were coming.

















While we were in Canada, the boys went fishing with my advisor Carlos and his son Paolo. They did manage to catch dinner for our BBQ, and it was quite tasty. Good job, boys!

















We also spent an afternoon at Brady's Beach, with Paolo and his mom Andrea. This is the boys building a ramp for the tennis ball, before they spent 45 minutes throwing it for a dog to retrieve. We had a great time. More to come later!