Day 7 - Seattle to Abbotsford

We got up a little earlier this morning just to get on the road at a decent hour. We wanted to make it certain places by certain times, but there was only a one hour distance to cover in each instance. So, from Seattle we drove to Burlington for some sights and shopping. They had some great outlet shops in town, and we took full advantage of them. Also, there is a church there with a children's ministry bulding shaped like Noah's Ark - only not quite to scale, just a little smaller. We also went to Target here looking for cheese and ended up buying a few more clothes. Just across the way at the Fred Meyer we picked up 907g blocks of cheese for $5 each. And nothing artificial in it. We bought 10. Score. Does that make us cheese smugglers? Kidding.

After buying a bunch of stuff prior to leaving the U.S., we had to total it all up before crossing the border just to be safe, though we were certain we didn't exceed the new $800.00 per person exemption limit. I had no issues at the border crossing, and even got the guard to smile (gasp!). We drove straight on past the Peace Arch and onto Canadian soil with ease. After that, we took an immediate left hand turn and drove the few blocks to White Rock beach.

We found a public washroom to change in and walked a short distance to the beach. The tide was out, so we had a long walk to the water. About 2/3 of the way out we dropped our stuff on top of a shallow sand bar and headed straight for the water. The kids picked shells along the way.When we were in Seattle, there were only fragments of shells along the beaches we walked. Here, they were thrilled to find whole clam shells, even live clams, while they tried to avoid the seaweed piled there. In fact, Aslynn was so disgusted by the seaweed that I couldn't get her to wade into the water very far without tears. Faith finally convinced her to walk in, to which she responded, "I just love the seaweed now." Fickle girl. It didn't last long. Judah was in the deeper water for a while, but began to get the shivers and headed back to the shallower pools nearer the shoreline. I stayed with him and built a castle that we watched the tide overtake and ruin; Faith and Micah later watched the ocean  reclaim the whole sandbar we had left our belongings on once we had decided to head back and collect everything. The water was SO warm. I didn't expect that. Last time I was at White Rock it was freezing cold, and the only way to warm up was to cover yourself in seaweed!

The last leg of our journey was to Matt and Teresa Guynup's place. It was nice to get there at a decent hour without being too worn out. Judah had displayed a number of behavioural issues in the van and while shopping, and it was good for him to be free and with familiar people for the moment. We got to relax as well, letting the kids play freely and then watch a movie together. When the kids were all in bed, we played some Catan and then headed for bed ourselves. It was a good day all around.

We will see what the kids put down as their favorite moments of today in their journals. It's often been the last things we did and saw. Micah almost forgot about the Museum of Flight yesterday.

- Mark