Oh Canada!

At Taylor's first doctor appointment, the receptionist was asking the usual questions to fill out her information.  She got to the question on ethnicity (mentioning I could choose up to 3 origins); I looked down at Taylor's milky-white skin and bright blue eyes and replied,

"Umm... White, Cracker."

I'm pretty sure she's about 50% German and 50% English.  She would have definitely survived the Holocaust (well, maybe not, because I'd hope she'd see the wisdom in her English side and realize how admirably Winston Churchill led his country in what appeared only a losing battle and then be a Jewish sympathizer and help them escape, but alas, I digress from the present topic).

Since Taylor lacks any cultural diversity, Eric and I decided to get started on exposing her to lots of different people and places early in life.

In her short life, she has already spent time in

Auburn, WA

Caldwell, ID

Lehi, UT

Newcastle, CA

Blackfoot, ID

and

Victoria, BC, CA

(Oh, what's that you say?  All of those hip destinations have as much racial and economic diversity as a vanilla waffer?  Hmmm.... next week = Compton.)

Anyway, our trip to Canada ended up being a complete disaster.  We didn't do much planning, so the mantra rang true, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

So we spent about 4 hours in ferry rides and WAY too much money on a hotel in which we got NO sleep as I attempted to prevent any crying all night long. (I cannot imagine how disastrous the trip could have been without Neal and Michelle actually pointing us in the right direction.)

We drove an hour and half to Anacortes where we stayed the night.  We got up early the next morning and caught a 2 1/2 hour ferry to Victoria.  It was a pretty ride, but LONG.

Taylor just lying on the front seat during the ferry ride, listening to her Daddy talk.

Then, we get to Canada and Eric's passport is invalid so they arrest him - JUST KIDDING!

We drove around, looked at some stuff, ate lunch and then decided we'd better just catch another ferry back to Port Angeles after being in BC for only about an hour and a half.  See, the ferries were only running about once a day as it technically wasn't summer yet, so we either had to leave quickly the same day, or stay the night.  While we wanted to just stay (and then could have had a wonderful little vacation), we had bigger problems... and the only explanation I can fathom is this:  

Taylor has been instilled with too much patriotism (if there could even be such a thing) because she basically cried the WHOLE time we were in BC.

Seriously.

So no real pictures, and not a lot of fun for us, until we stepped over the threshold on to the ferry that would bring us home, and suddenly, she calmed down.  

Seriously. 

And then I could swear I kept hearing her briefly humming snippets of "America the Beautiful" (or was that me?).

 This is us on the ferry back to the land of the free and the home of the brave with beautiful Victoria behind us.

Eric and Tay took a little nap on the ferry home.  I'm pretty sure every fellow passenger that walked by stopped dead-in-their-tracks to just gaze at these two sleeping so peacefully, and then would tell me, "Awhhhh... that is SO sweet!" and point them out to everyone else in the vicinity.

While we're on this final ferry I keep asking Eric if he sees anyone official looking so I can ask how long until Port Angeles (because I'm 5 and can't just patiently wait for an undisclosed period of time, I need to know the end game).

Well, after a few minutes of waiting in our little booth, Eric says, "Oh, there's someone you could ask!" just as someone, with a ton of keys jingling from his pocket, zips by us into the next compartment.  I hardly got a look at him, and realize I'll never catch him, so I just settle back down.

Awhile later I see someone with similar jingling keys on the deck outside our window and ask Eric if that is indeed the Authority Figure he saw.  He confirms that this is, indeed, the person Eric views as a credible source of information. 

Behold:

No, your eyes do NOT deceive you.  This is a 13 year old boy on a school field trip.  Yes, you can see he does have a lot of keys jingling from his right pocket, but what you CAN'T see is the whoopee cushion he has in his left hand... NOT KIDDING. 

Moral of the story: if you want Eric to look up to you and view you as some kind of leader, carry keys... lots of keys.  Aside from that, you can do whatever you please.  He'll still respect you.

After that 1 1/2 hour ferry back, we still had about a 2 1/2 hour car ride home.  Seriously, we basically just lived in our car that day.

Needless to say, everyone was exhausted by the time we got home... and was still happy to keep sleeping the next morning...

Sometimes I wonder if Eric thinks time like this actually counts towards his care-taking hours...

So, to sum up, go to Victoria if you have a chance, just DON'T bring Taylor Teichert along... she bleeds red, white, and BLUE!