Who knew?!

Cedar Springs water wheel

One of the four or five lakes at Cedar Springs

"Sister Act"

WOW. Since I last posted, we've been one of the entertainment acts for a western night (150 in attendance!), I've helped lead worship at a retreat, have sang at a sweet women's fellowship I attend on Monday's, and am gearing up to sing at a talent show next Friday, and with a group of robed-gals to do two Sister Act songs at that same Monday group next week! When you ask the Lord to open doors for your gift, He oftentimes swings them really wide!

Jonathan gets to perform at school every week on Fridays. He dresses in black, to honor Johnny Cash, and does a few of his songs. This week he did expand and do a Weird Al song parody of Achy Breaky Heart. He was really the main performer at the western night (I sang Coal Miner's Daughter by Loretta Lynn, Walkin After Midnite by Patsy Cline, God Bless the Broken Road, Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Martina McBride's version) and Jim and I did Praise in the Wilderness by Jim McNeely :) Jonathan performed the balance of the show in two 30-45 minute sets. Jim also did a hilarious lecture on how to "tawk raht." He showed them words like "bob war" for barbed wire... you know the drill.... It was really funny.


The retreat I went to was at a place called Cedar Springs. It is only 5 minutes from our house in Sumas. Gals (and a couple of gentlemen) came from all over BC, Canada and Northern Washington. We did the Sister Act songs there, and led worship three times. Very, very sweet. These pictures don't convey how absolutely gorgeous Cedar Springs is; there are swans in the lake, beautiful well-kept gardens all over the property, and it is nestled in the "foothills" of Sumas.

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Skagit Valley Farm Tour

Saturday we went on the Skagit Valley Farm tour. We could only make it to 5 farms on the tour out of a dozen, but it was wonderful!
(We also went to a farm tour at Cloud Mountain Farms, which wasn't a part of the tour, but they do it the same day).

Cloud Mountain had fruit tasting inside a huge greenhouse. Over 200 varieties of apples, grapes, pears, jams, etc. We bought three pears for $6, but they are the size of small cantaloupes! 5 of us can feast on just one. It was one of our favorites, because the Prozac Mountain Boys bluegrass band were playing in one corner of the greenhouse, and we actually ran into a sweet couple from our church who are berry farmers.

Our next stop was 45 miles away (then we backtracked) to a Dairy Farm. It was too cold to enjoy it much, but we got to see a 5-day-old calf and got a free ice cream bar. (Joshy wanted to milk the artificial cow, but it was just too cold to wait in line) Each farm offered free samples and info; this one had coloring books, rulers, "got milk" pens and "cheese" erasers!

An oyster farm, situated on the ocean, held the most interesting farm items! We never even considered oysters farm animals! Jim liked the generous free samples of clams and oysters, but the rest of us couldn't really stomach it. (although Joseph did try them). They serve them right in the shell! There was a lighthouse made out of oyster shells. (you can see most of this in the pictures; check out the link)
http://picasaweb.google.com/jim.mcneely/20071006_farm_tour
We also got to touch some sea urchins, starfish, and other slimy sea creatures. There were costumed characters, which you can see in the photos. We missed the crab race, but got to talk to the crab lady as she was taking them back to their habitat. Apparently, they got into a wrestling match and tore off some limbs, but they GROW BACK. God is too fun.

On to a Beef Farm where they had Highland cows. The meat samples were delicious, and Jim and Jonathan each bought a shish kebob and the boys split fresh twirled fries (made on a Pampered Chef type potato peeler while we waited!) Joshy rode a pony, and I enjoyed the bagpipe players!
The one picture of me and the fellow with huge earrings was taken because he arrived in a kilt, and wasn't even a part of the farm tour! (The picture apparently doesn't show the kilt; the whole point of the picture. Oh well) I asked him if he wore it all the time, and he said his workplace frowned upon it usually...

By this time, it was way past lunch and we were really hankering for the organic beef cheeseburgers we heard were being served at the Skagit River Ranch. Just a short drive from the other one, it was probably our favorite farm. It was everything you learned about in grade school; it had free range chickens (which we just knew we were going to accidentally run over if they didn't watch out!) pigs, turkeys, 5 day old baby chicks in an incubator!, horses, goats... you know, Old McDonald's kind of farm! We went on a very cold horse-drawn wagon ride to see where the cows are allowed to eat grass which hasn't been sprayed with insecti-or pesticides. WOW. The hamburgers were THE BEST ones I've EVER put in my mouth. I didn't know grass fed beef would have such a different taste. Afterwards, we bought 6 frozen patties for $12 and can't wait to eat them on the grill at some point. If you come visit, I'll make the trip back to get some more. It's worth the drive! (the store is open on Saturday's). Every turkey was already spoken for. I wanted to place an order for Thanksgiving! I'll have to do it earlier next year!

We rounded out our day at another apple farm, and bought several pounds of the sweetest, crispest apples I've ever tasted. I didn't realize there were so many varieties... even though Washington is the apple state! I mean, have you ever heard of Sweetheart, Jonagold, Tsugaru, or Honey Crisp?!! Absolutely yummy. We also got some fresh apple cider, and could have went to a wine tasting, but we were ready to make the 45 mile trip back home, which was just spectacular. The leaves are turning shocking yellow, red, and orange, but there are all the evergreens interspersed in large quantities. We passed several Christmas Trees farms and a couple of Alpaca Farms, which were on the tour, but we didn't stop.

That was our Saturday!!!!!!!!

Vancouver

This weekend we went to Vancouver, BC in Canada. One of the wonderful places there is this Suspension Bridge. It's very touristy, but you get what you pay for! There are people in period dress wandering around, live music, and "first nation" folks giving tours and describing what life was like in the late 1800's.

When you get across the bridge (which makes you feel like you are Indiana Jones, and you pray it doesn't break... which it wouldn't, (I saw all the cables underneath on the other side!) The steps going up and down feel so rickety, though, and the river below is so rocky....Anyway, there are smaller suspension bridges from tree to tree.

You walk from tree to tree which doesn't disturb the ground below. It's really quite fun. You feel like you are in an Ewok Village! It's really beautiful, and there are signs everywhere explaining different aspects about the habitat. There are ponds below, and huge trees everywhere.

Canada and the "first nation" people have this thing about Totem Poles. They even carved one to look like me while I was there. I felt very honored, considering I don't have one drop of any first nation blood in me :) (we call them native americans...)
It was an expensive day, (usually our weekends are free) but really, it was worth every penny. If you come up here, you will have to budget your shekels to visit this place with us. (Of course, if you come visit, you'll have to allow about 17 days to go everywhere we would want to take you, and then you would need a vacation!) That settles it; some of you are just going to have to move up here with us!