Next Trip

 We've got 3 weeks of vacation next May-June and we have several choices of what we'll do:

1. Ride Amble on the John Wayne train cross state BUCKET LIST ITEM

2. Go work on Pioche house

3. Travel anywhere and do whatever happens

4. Stay home & save money

5. 

1. I've been wanting to ride Amble (had planned on Joey but that didn't happen) cross the state for eons and now I actually have the means to do it. I've got the horse, she's trained and will get more training before then, I have a job that pays me well enough to afford it, we have the truck and horse trailer and there are the John Wayne Trail folks who put this event on every year. I have two choices, ride or drive her since I've got the covered wagon.

2. If we choose working on the Pioche house it will be that much closer to being livable. We could rent the excavator and get the bathroom, utility room and kitchen removed and a new exterior wall put up. We'd need (guessing) the excavator for 3-4 days at about $300 daily, new exterior siding and the wood to make the walls, building plans, patience and so much more. I don't even know all the stuff needed for this job. You don't just go knocking down sections of a house and not foresee issues. What if we accidently knock down the entire house? 

3. If we choose to travel, I'd like to go see parts of North America that we haven't seen before. Driving along the Trans Canadian Highway might be fun, or all along I-90 from beginning in Seattle to the end in Boston, or travel more of the mid west. The options are endless.

4. Staying home... hhhmmm... We could still go do daily trips, go to Mt Rainier or the Olympics, go on some trail rides. There are so many things we haven't done in our own state. Staying home allows us to repair fences, work on cars, house repairs, visiting family.

5. I could simply leave it up to Lan and see what happens. 

When Is Our Next Vacation?

 Our next vacation is in January 2026, when we will drive down to middle California to meet up with Michelle & Guy, our England friends. They will be on their own vacation, in Cali for a few days after a week in Maui and before they return to Gateshead, England.

They go on a couple very extravagant vacations each year.

Guy is an engineer, and Michelle owns a pub; she's also an interior designer so everything she touches turns to gold. I'd LOVE to have her pick the finishing touches for our Pioche house.

This is their guest bathroom.

A Trip To Whistler, Canada

We've been invited to visit our cousins in Whistler, Canada for Thanksgiving for many years and we were finally able to make it there.

On the way up we stopped at the Britannia Mine and took the tour and it was pretty good. They do a 70 minute live guided tour in a haulage tunnel, then into the big mine building where they have a cute video with things happening inside the building, like the whistle goes off, a large trolly goes up these rails and steam and sparks fly.

This building is huge. They stopped mining here in 1971 and within a couple years they opened it up for tours, mostly for the kids to learn about mining.

They use a lot of the original tools and machinery, this train being one of them.

This is where we came out. I didn't take any photos inside.

After the tour we headed to the Hilton in Whistler for our 2 night stay.

We shared a room with Kari & Eldon; their 'kids' Joli and Jason were both there with their spouses and a bunch of kids.

These are Winter and Anna, Lan and baby Louie.

Louie is dang cute!

There was a bunch of family drama which made me a bit uncomfortable.

Kari is VERY self centered and easily angered and she just couldn't let it go, meanwhile Jasons wife couldn't let it go on her side either.

So Kari had made plans for her birthday with 3 of her friends to go to a resort for Karis birthday. Joli and Gelaine had made plans for a double baby shower since they both had new baby boys but they didn't invite Kari till 2 days before. Kari told them she had plans and she went with her friends, not to the shower so Gelaine was butt hurt and Joli was a little too.

The kids all think Kari is having an affair because she goes off on weekends alone often and never invites any of them. Kari says shes tired of having the little kids coming to her door all the time since Joli and her husband & their 3 kids live on Kari & Eldons farm.

Whatever it is, they all need to get over it. If Kari and Eldon have issues, its up to them to figure it out, not their kids.

We did have a good time, I got to hold the babies, they bigger kids we all super loud and obnoxious, the food was good. I did dishes a lot. 

After we got tired of being there, we left to come home but drove up toward the Olympic Park, which was closed, but we got to enjoy this sign.

It took a couple hours to get to the border and we came right through, then a few more house to get home. 7 hours to get all the way home with stops for food etc.

This is ALWAYS a good thing to see.

Lan wants to go back next year but I'm not so sure about that. Kari is high maintenance, shes a bully to her own kids and their families and the drama isn't how I liked spending my time. My PTO from work isn't easy to earn and wasting it on this crap is no fun.