Sox and I sort of held our breath to see what would happen with Sprout, and sure enough, a soft cry emanated from his room. Sox got up to feed him while I stayed in bed.

For the next 20 minutes or so, the ‘hood was crawling with cop cars doing all sorts of weird things. Some were driving quickly, some slowly, all had lights going, some had sirens, more had a partial siren that was stopped and started at random, and one peeled out around the corner onto Lampson from Bewdley. At one point I heard a car go by and inside I heard a dog barking. They were on the hunt for someone, and they sure seemed serious.

This all turned Yoshi into a basketcase. He burst through the gate at the bottom of the stairs, was quite whiny, curled up in the bedroom on my clothes that were on the floor, and generally was quite stressed.

And as quickly as it all started it ended. I put Yoshi back downstairs, Sprout fell asleep again, and Sox and I hopped back into our bed for some more shut eye. I still really want to know what the hell was going on. Nothing on the news sites this morning, but maybe later today there will be something. I might even watch the news to see if there is anything there about a late night chase.

It took a few years of full time work before these feelings abated. I still think about it when September rolls around, but I no longer feel it is the start of a new year.

Something still occurs around Labour Day though. It still marks the change of the season. Soon after Labour Day I noticed the leaves on the apple tree had started to change. Fall has begun. I can feel it in the air during my morning commute. A cool crisp feeling that isn’t cold (just yet). Fall is here. I’m going to have to start checking out the local parks for changing colors.

I love this time of year too. Fall is my favorite time of year. Mountain biking is best now, photography is excellent, and I love seeing the big change in the scenery. I can still get out of the house and enjoy nature before the real rains set in. There are still plenty of sunny warm days left in this season, and enjoying them is always a challenge. There are too many things to do.

Rewinding now, the drive from Nelson to Penticton was pretty easy. Sprout seems to like the carseat, and spent the time looking out the window, playing with toys, or sleeping. There was very little crying or fussing from him, and that made our lives so much easier.

Once in Penticton we hooked up with the gang got caught up for a bit, then made our way to our motel in Summerland. Our room was nice, very clean, but overpriced for our liking. Free wi-fi though, and I did make use of that.

We had fun in the area. Sox went tubing with the ladies one afternoon while Sprout and I hung out in our motel, we hit the local beaches, checked out the Ironman festivities, watched the underpants run, and had dinner in town. All in all it was a good break.

Then it was race day. We saw the swim start (at 7am), then saw D and T hit the bike course. I was relieved to see that they they survived the swim. It looks very chaotic. Sox and I originally planned to just stay in town the whole time, but last minute we chose to head out on the course with the rest of the gang. That turned out to be a great idea. The 45 minute drive gave Sprout a chance to get a good nap in so he was nicely refreshed.

We saw the boys at the top of Richter, then skooted back to Keremeos to see them at the out and back (Sox and I missed them while getting Sprout out of the car). Sox and I then headed towards Yellow Lake and waited at the side of the road to see them pass. Then we got caught in a 1.5 hours long wait to drive past Yellow Lake. It was brutal. 33 degrees, little shade, and a young child in the car. Thank god for AC. Turns out that the traffic was single lane past Yellow Lake. They would lead the traffic through with a pilot car taking 20-50 cars at a time. Our side the line up was huge. 300 cars easily. The other side had maybe 20. Unbelievable. The organizers could have (or should have) taken more cars from our line up than the other side. That was pretty bad.

Once past Yellow Lake it was pretty much smooth sailing back into Penticton. Sox and I had some food at Vallarta, a Mexican restaurant. It was very, very good. I enjoyed it very much. Then we turned our attention to the run course. There was a lot of people out running already (some of the top pros had already finished), so there was lots of action for Sprout to take in.

We got a call that D and T had made the turn around in OK Falls, and got their expected time of return. Now the wait was on. The big question for me was howl ong to wait before heading back to the Motel. This year was my turn to wake Sprout back so he could sleep, and Sox could stay to watch the very end of the race. I really wanted to see both my friends finish. I got very excited to realize that for both of them a years worth of hard work was coming to fruition. Sprout was doing great so we held out a little longer.

In the end we got to see both the boys cross the line. Shortly after that I packed up and called it a night. Sox stayed to the end, and had fun too.

The next morning we packed up and got ready to leave. I started feeling not quite right, and by the time we got to Penticton was in full blown sick mode. We were having breakfast with everyone at Denny’s (I ordered toast – that should be an indication on how I was feeling) when Sprout was starting to fuss. I decided to take him for a walk around the building. I never made it back to the restaurant. I had to call Sox to come rescue me and Sprout. She took Sprout back to the restaurant, and I waited in the car. The whole drive home I was in the back seat with Sprout, sleeping or resting.

Once in Langley I took another nap, then figured I could eat some dinner. I had about 3 bites of broccoli and had to make a very quick trip to the bathroom. I was so sick for that one day, and then the next day I was fine again. I was thankful for that since we were travelling on the ferries.

Great trip overall. Sprout, Sox and I had a blast a the race, D and T did very well, and we have one more vacation left this year. Can’t wait!

As it turned out we got o Bromley Rock and stopped in for 45 minutes or so. The little guy liked seeing the water and we enjoyed being able to stretch our legs. We ate lunch there, and were lucky enought o snag one of the remaining shaded areas. When we first arrived there were only a couple cars in the lot, but by the time we left it was quite packed. Eating our lunch on the sandy beach was a great relaxer too. Back in the car our next break was in Rock Creek (another 45 minute break out of the car that included milkshakes for us), then we motored on to Nelson.

Our stay in Nelson was heavenly. No major plans, good eats, visiting and fun with family. Sprout got to spend some quality time with his cousin, and we got to introduce his Uncle to Weboggle (sorry about that Auntie).

We went on an awesome (and warm) walk along the Kootenay Canal. At the end of the canal was a power generation plant. I had a great time walking along taking pictures, and Sprout enjoyed being carted around in his new backpack. Sox and I picked it up specifically for the trip.

All my Nelson pics are here.

We also had a picnic lunch at the Lakeside Park, and watched a childrens entertainer for a while. He was having some technical difficulties with his assistant, and was not handling it well (IMO). He seemed a little short with the assistant, and quite frankly was rude to him. Strange.

All too soo we packed everyone and everything into the car again and headed down to Penticton to watch Ironman. While we were in Nelson our stay was very enjoyable and was the right length, yet as we were getting ready to leave I couldn’t help but think it was a short stay. I find those mind tricks very strange.

Nelson was fun, and Sox and I hope that this will become a bit of a summer ritual where the cousins get to visit.

Lots of driving in 10 days.