On the Road Again - Adventures from an Empty Nest

Vancouver First Nations long-boat racers on Burrard Inlet (More pictures below) Vancouver was wonderful. We spent four days visiting and seeing the sights of the city. A highlight was a several-hour walk/sit along the bank of Burrard Inlet on the Saturday of Canada Day Weekend. Several First Nations were holding a day of long-boat (extra long, slim canoe) races, and we got to see several heats, as well as youth races. Paddling these boats for speed in teams of four or more is a grueling, dangerous, impressive task. The crews rowed out maybe half a mile before circling a buoy and coming back. At least four boats capsized on the turn, and getting them righted was no easy feat! Further down the shore, after passing the dog beach full of wet, sandy, gleeful canines and their people, we greeted cousin Melissa’s youngest, Mitchell, who was lifeguarding at the people’s beach. A little further on, we chanced on a citizenship ceremony where about 50 new citizens were taking the oath in English ...

  On the Cleveland Dam in West Vancouver, B.C. We are sleeping in a house for the first time since May. We have reached our ultimate destination: my cousin’s house in West Vancouver, British Columbia, in Canada. We’ve celebrated by playing guitars together, hiking in the beautiful rainforest trails around her house, and talking, talking, talking.  It will come as no surprise to some of you that I was an only child. My cousin Melissa, who is eight years younger, was an only child too, and we bonded during summers spent at our grandmother’s house in Iowa. She is the closest thing to a sister I had growing up, and despite living at extreme opposite ends of the continent, we have remained close over the years. When my mom died, she was the one who jumped on a plane and was at our house within a day, and helped us with all the logistics and planning that happen after a death. This summer, all three of her college-age kids have moved back in with her and her husband, Andy, and it’s ...

It’s Pollinator Week!  June 19-25 is national pollinator week, and we have been celebrating by traveling through five of the top ten honey producing states in the country: North Dakota, Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Idaho. Everywhere we go as we travel the backroads and byways of this part of the country, we see stacks of beehives. Everyone claims their state produces the best honey. Our organizer friends in Montana told of their fight to keep Roundup-Ready GMO crops out of the state in an effort to protect both human and pollinator health.   So celebrate Pollinator Week where you are. Plant a flower. Kiss a bee.    Or better yet, breakfast on toast and honey.      Across the Great American Prairie In South Dakota, I bought a book called The Prairie Traveler, first published in 1859 by U.S. Army Captain Randolph B. Marcy, who had since the 1830s led both military and civilian groups of European Americans across the American prairie in search of...