West Coast trip - Weeks 1 & 2

Mama is joining as 'guest blogger' for the recounting of November - an exciting month! Caden and Mama spent most of the month on the West Coast, with Dada joining us at the beginning (for the Western Society of Naturalists Meeting) and end (for some time at Bodega and with family over Thanksgiving).

Thursday, November 6, we flew into Seattle, met up with Nana Kathy and Boopa Barry, and headed north to...Canada! Unfortunately, the customs official didn't have a stamp to put a first mark on Caden's passport. While Mama and Dada attended the WSN meeting, Nana and Boopa spent time with Caden, watching all the excitement out of our upper story hotel room windows (planes, boats, construction vehicles, etc.) and taking Caden to the pool and on outings around Vancouver.



Saturday, Caden got to ride a bus with Nana and Boopa to the Vancouver Aquarium, where he was especially impressed by the active octopus.

We were all so glad that Nana and Boopa could join us for the long weekend - it will make it hard to ever go back to attending conferences without them!

Sunday, we dropped Dada off at Sea-Tac and spent the night in the Portland area with Auntie Erika and Uncle Brad. Monday, Mama and Caden said 'good-bye' to Nana and Boopa and headed over for a beautiful sunny visit to the Portland Zoo with Amy and Owen.

Caden and Owen had lots of fun together, running up the paths and, here, pretending to be mountain goats (apparently mountain goats 'roar'!).

Mama and Caden spent the next few days at Ama Jo and Adad Bruce's house in Corvallis. Neither of us had spent any relaxed, non-holiday time in Corvallis for several years, so it was great to have time to introduce Caden to some of Mama's favorite spots, including American Dream Pizza and The Beanery.

Also during the week, it turned out that we were in town for the unveiling of OSU's new child beaver mascot, Jr. Benny. The unveiling happened to take place at the Child Development Center, the lab preschool that Ama Jo directs, so I got to attend! I got a t-shirt, stickers, and my picture taken with Jr. Benny (the photo, below, is the result of Mama promising to let me play with a fire truck puzzle if I stood still for a second). To top off the fun week, the next day, Jr. Benny and I were on the front page of The Barometer (OSU's newspaper, see the article here)!

What a fun start to our trip! More about weeks 2 & 3, coming soon!