Burlington

Paula had spoken to friends from Burlington, which was where we lived in 2001, and we decided to head down to WA in the USA for the weekend. We packed sleeping mats and sleeping bags and headed for the border. It is not worth crossing at the Peace Arch, which is the main border crossing, because it is always busy. . There are several smaller less frequented crossings so we headed inland to Abbotsford. We only had to queue for about 30 minutes. We decided to continue on the back roads, rather than head for the main highway. As we were heading away from the border we could see a few eagles in the bare branches of the trees. As we turned a corner of the road near the Nooksack River we could see several large shapes in the trees ahead. As we got closer we could see more, and counted about 14 eagles in the 3 trees just off the road.

As we got closer to Burlington, Paula and the kids were trying to identify places and things that they knew. It was mid afternoon and we were hungry, so we headed to a favourite haunt from the past - Costco. Here you could get a large slice of pizza for $1.99, and a hot dog with a never-ending cup of soft drink (pop) for $1.50. We wandered through the store tasting the samples, bought a few things, and headed off to our friend's house. They had moved to this house about 4 years ago, so Paula and the kids had not seen it. They live a few kms. out of town , near Allen Elementary, the school that I taught at in 2001.

When we arrived we were greeted by Ian and a friend, who had been practising baseball, and Lucy and Olivia, who were inside. Roger and Patty were in Seattle visiting her brother who is quite sick with cancer. They arrived home a couple of hours later, and there were greetings and hugs all around. Bridget and Lucy headed off at about 9:00pm into Burlington to play "Fugitive". Kids get dropped off a couple of kms. away from a destination and have try to get there without being tagged. Apparently they did pretty well. They almost made it to the destination. We had some wine and beer (probably too much) as we chatted past midnight.

Olivia and a friend who had also stayed the night wanted to cook pancakes for breakfast. Lucy had a volleyball tournament on at the high school, and Ian was heading off for baseball training. We decided to head to the high school to have a look at the volleyball, and then drove out to where we had lived. Bridget and Daniel wanted to try and find the house by themselves. As we got closer they began to recall the drive through the golf course and every corner we turned brought back memories.

We knew that Terry and Carol were not home, but we still stopped and walked around the house, out the back to the golf course, and up to the balcony. They went to the big tree out the back and recalled climbing it. They used to climb to about 5 or 6 mts. above the ground. They wanted to go across the road and surprise Father Richards. We headed up the walkway and Paula and I stayed out of sight. They knocked on the door and waited ...... footsteps, and then he opened the door. He looked at them and they looked back, not saying anything, but huge grins on their faces. Then he realised who they were and was very surprised. He invited us in and we stayed and chatted to him and his wife for nearly two hours.

Bridget wanted to get back home in time to watch the Oscars at 5:00pm, so we headed for the border. We stopped for a while and had a bit of a walk around Edison. Some of the teachers from Allen now teach there, and some of the kids we know go to the school. It is an interesting small town with some great old wooden buidings, and antique, or collectible shops. I can just imagine the saloon with horses tied to a rail out the front instead of the motor bike.

Luckily there was only about a 10 minute wait at the border, and we arrived home just in time to see Hugh Jackman come on stage as the compare of the Oscars.