Rainy Sunday and Monday

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Well its official my daughter tried to do me in. We had a lovely day or I should say the start on Sunday when we started out at the Japanese Gardens. So beautiful, tranquil and completely different from an English Garden. It was very green, sparse and tidy. The trees had been trained using bamboo sticks to help them grow a certain way. There was waterfalls, ponds and two lovely Zen gardens. We walked around for some time drinking in the atmosphere - got Em's gift and went on to the the next thing. Then we went to check out a futon store for Fi, looked very overpriced. Then we made the trek to Astoria, where Fi used to work. Well I thought we would be going in the daytime, but no by the time we set out it was dark and I am a bit funny this way but I hate travelling in the dark to somewhere I dont know and there are no street lights anywhere, it was pouring with rain and there was fog. Took us about 2 hours to get to there. I was getting more and more agitated and concerned that she was taking me into the back of beyond and I was right she was... Nancy, her exboss, built a house on a mountain with a half mile incredibly steep driveway so steep in fact we could not get the truck up. Now you have to remember it was pitch black, no stars even, and we had a dorky flashlight that barely worked. We left the truck at the bottom of the drive and started walking. It took at least 20 minutes to get to the top but felt like two hours. I had to keep stopping and of course was getting quite anxious, no drama there, and kept telling her we were going to die. Oh by the way the reason for the trip to the house was the magnificient view over the Columbia River. Anyhoo, we collapsed in the house when we got there had a cup of tea and went to bed. The house was magnificent built in the Frank Lloyd Wright style but so vast I had to yell at Fi from across the room. So silly we started to laugh. This morning I woke up in anticipation of a beautiful view and of course there was thick fog abounding and we could not see a thing. We decided that it would be good to head back to Astoria so off we went in the pouring rain.

Got to Astoria and had a look around the Maritime Museum which was fascinating told the history of the town including the canneries, coastguard. duck hunting even but all of it extremely interesting. Then we met Monica, another of Fiona's old employers and she took us out to lunch at a restored cannery restaurant - lovely had Clam Chowder home-made delicious. After visiting and laughing for about an hour we set off back to Vancouver, really wet, rainy and quite dangerous. Fi did great I of course hung on to the side of the car the whole way when I did not fall asleep. Took us 2 hours of driving in torrential rain to get back. Have no seen so much rain in years. Wow, its been a brilliant trip and I have enjoyed myself immensely. Too pooped to do anything tonight so staying in to watch tv and eat pizza.