We didn't even need to bribe anyone with maple cookies

In preparation for our trip to Canada over the weekend, we bought some maple cookies.  Mark and I made up complicated scenarios where we would need to use them to bribe the border crossing guards.  My favorite was Mark's idea.  He said we could say, "We don't know where our passports are.  Maybe they are (cough, cough) in this box of cookies."

Maple cookies seemed like something the border guards would enjoy.

(It's OK if you don't think we're hilarious.  No one around here thought we were as funny as we did either.)

When the bridge on I-5 collapsed earlier in the week, Emma said, "Maybe we're not meant to go."

We've been trying to go since February but we realized our children had expired passports.  We refused to let something small like a collapsed bridge get in our way now though.

Here's the collapsed bridge, taken from the safety of a detour on a newer adjacent bridge:

I'm not sure the picture does it justice.  Thank goodness no one was too seriously injured or killed when it collapsed.  Scary.

We went to Harrison Hot Springs in B.C.  It's a beautiful idyllic spot on a lake.

Amazingly, Mark didn't get wet at this point:

It sort of denied the laws of physics that he managed to stay dry.

We had dinner at a pizza restaurant.  I kept very close watch on Mark, my little Sasquatch.  I didn't want him to return to his people.

Braeden and Emma have woven a tale for Mark that he's actually a Sasquatch and we traded him for Timmy, their real brother who lives with the Sasquatch, poor hairless kid.

Who knows how these things start.

Staying at the Harrison Hot Springs Resort, we stayed in the old wing of the hotel.  It reminded me of the Mountain View Inn in The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary.  I fully expected a mouse on a motorcycle to come racing down the hall wearing a ping pong ball helmet.

(I dislike mice in general but I make an exception for Ralph.  And yes, it's possible I've read that book many times both as a child and as an adult, aloud to my class of third graders and to my own children.)

In the lobby, I told our children to pose in front of the bear for a picture.  Adam said that was dehumanizing and that he had a name.

I meant this bear though.

I promise Braeden knows how to smile.

Everyone loved swimming and soaking in the hot pools and hot tub, heated by the hot springs.  In the morning when I went into the room where he was sleeping to tell Mark we were going to breakfast soon, he took that to mean time to go swimming.  Adam whistled out our window and we called him back.

I felt slightly voyeuristic when I took this shot from my hotel window:

I kind of have weird kids but I like them.

Grandma Geri was, of course, wonderful to have along.  She brought treats and games and I went to sleep and Adam went to the lobby to work and our children and Grandma Geri had a party into the wee hours.

I had been reading in front of the fire while they swam--I swam a little but I like reading in front of a fire.  They stopped and posed for a picture.  What?  You thought Braeden would smile like normal?  Maybe this is the new normal?

We also went to Hope (which it must be said, is an encouraging thing to do) and walked through some incredible tunnels that are there.  They were built originally for a railroad to cross the mountains and it was an unbelievable engineering feat.  Also it is breathtakingly beautiful.

My eyes are kind of at half mast so in case anyone is wondering, no I haven't suddenly become photogenic.  Here's hoping though.  Hope?  In Hope?  See what I did there?

 It was gorgeous!

the rushing water was dizzying and impressive

Never go on trips with anyone you do not love.

Ernest Hemingway 

That is sound advice.  And I love going on trips with people I love.

Especially when I don't have to forfeit my maple cookies.