Kauai Family Vacation

We had a great time in Kauai hiking, kayaking, swimming, snorkeling, boogie boarding, spending time on the beach, at the pool all over the island! We went as far North as the road goes to Ke'e Beach and Kalalua trail head on the Napilli Coast and within miles of the end of the road to the South when we drove up the Waimea Canyon.

Starting up the Kalalau Trail


Wailea River


Secret Falls


Ke'e Beach


Kalapaki Beach


Alex hiding from the paparazzi

More (but still a small selection of the 400+) of our favorite photos are on our Picasa web album here.

2 weeks, 2 hikes, 2 times the fun!

Last week we all went for a hike up the Pacific Northwest Trail (PNT) along Chukcanut Drive to hopefully make it to the Bat Caves, but we started out too late to make it that far. We made good time and did get up high enough to enjoy the view, sat at the bench someone lugged up there for a while and headed back down, great sunny warm January day!




Today we rented snowshoes and drove to Mt Baker. Parking lot was dry concrete so we got all suited up and walked over to the edge of the snow, got our snow shoes on and headed out for another sunny hike. Alex was not enjoying the snow shoe hike as much as the trail hike to the caves, so he and Debbie turned around about 30 minutes into the hike. Jacob and I continued on, but not too far, we went to the base of Table Top Mountain. Everyone had more fun on the deeper snow rather than the cat track we were using to get up higher originally. We all met up at the car and home safe. I think we all had fun, but in different ways.

2008 year in pictures!

It goes so fast, but all these pictures and more bring back such great memories, I say let's do it again in 2009.

Hunting for Eagles in January

From Gervais2008

Manning Park vacation in February

From Gervais2008

Bike to School and Work Day in May

From Gervais2008

Jacob and Alex Ice Sculpting

From Gervais2008

Escape From Alcatraz Vacation in June

From Gervais2008

Glenn Escaped

From Gervais2008

Jacob Clear Lake Triathlon in July

From Gervais2008

Cannon Beach vacation in July

From Gervais2008

Renee and Chris Wedding!

From Gervais2008

Family Camping in August

From Gervais2008

Halloween!

From Gervais2008

Camping in NOVEMBER!

From Gervais2008

Tons of Snow in December

From Gervais2008

Enjoy these, but be sure to check out all the best of the family pictures on our web album at http://picasaweb.google.com/ggtriguy/Gervais2008. If you want to print any of these, you can download from our web album, if that is not a large enough resolution for you, please email me and I can get you the original(s). Happy New Year! and here's to a great 2009!

One horse open sleigh

We left for a walk in the snow up and over the hill to Haggens about 3:30 in daylight and after some dinner and lite shopping we started back in the dark about 5:30 and got home an hour later. I pulled one or two kids at a time and got a great workout.

Mountain biking in the snow!

Note: Additional Pics on Mike's blog

The snow started about 6 pm last night and only came down for a few hours, just enough to allow some mountain biking but deep enough (up higher on Galbraith) to make it tough but still fun.

I took off about 8:10 to meet Mike and John at the Whatcom Falls tennis courts who had left from their side of Bellingham at 8. I got there a bit too early and kept circling the round about just to keep moving and warm. It was 22 degrees when we started out. (25 when I got home 3 and a half hours later).

Finally headed up Galbraith and instantly knew it was going to be a long tough haul, just riding up the switchbacks of the Miranda trail had us walking. yup walking up the lowest trail. We'd stop and regroup every now and again and at our first stop I couldn't drink out of one of my water bottles already frozen up. Once up a bit higher we decided to stick more to the logging roads, but that was still tough as that was where most the snow was and 5 or 6 inches deep to keep you on your toes or else you'd slip out pretty easily.

Made it to the kiosk and rested a bit then off to Cedar Dust and Rock n Roll before riding the pipeline road all the way to Samish Way. We laid the first tracks on Rock n Roll and Pipeline, a bit tough on RnR but the powder was flying on Pipeline. We continued out the other side of Galbraith onto some upper trails of Lake Padden before riding half way around the lake to a trail that took us to Fairhaven and the Taylor dock and the waterfront trail with a fierce headwind all the way into downtown Bellingham.

The guys headed back towards their places and I road through an alley and finally weaved my way to the Railroad trail back up to Lake Whatcom and home and a nice warm cup of Hot Chocolate. I wonder how Debbie knew to have the water already boiling, perfect timing. (The kids had just come in).

Truly a great ride with friends on some of the best trails Bellingham has to offer on such a beautiful day!

BMX racing!

We spent a couple extra days after Thanksgiving at the grandparents so Jacob could try BMX racing at the track in Sumner. They race year round rain or shine at Riverside Park organized by River Valley BMX.

We went out to check out the park on Friday and to give Jacob a chance to ride the track with his 16" 'mini bike' as he calls it and Grandpa's 20" BMX bike. He was faster by quite a lot on the real BMX bike and we spent some time after getting back to the Grandparents to take off the reflectors, chain guard and other stuff they don't allow on the track when racing. Alex had fun running around the track and would 'race' Jacob on foot and he'd cut the course and win every time. I think they both had a great time.

Saturday morning we had a big breakfast and got to the track around 10 for sign ups and allow Jacob some more practice time on Grandpa's bicycle. We got there about 45 minutes too early. Sign up is from 10 to 11 and we had too much time to wait around for them to get everyone registered and announce the moto's. Jacobs cousin Johnathan came and signed up too, so we got some good visiting in while they warmed up. I think Sophia was thinking about trying it after seeing all the other girls who signed up.

Jacob was in Moto 11 and Johnathan in Moto 13. They put kids together based on age and classification. Jacob is 9 and a Novice, but there were not enough 9 year old Novices so they bumped him to the next group and was in the 10 Novice moto. Two nine year olds and one ten year old made up his Moto. Each moto races 3 times at this track gaining points for each race (1st, 2nd, 3rd...) and the one with lowest points after all three races is the winner. Jacob was very excited and convinced he was going to win his moto because the other two in his moto were girls. His first race proved it was going to be tough. He raced hard but finished third. Here is the video:



His second moto was a little better, I think he paced himself a bit better and was up in second place only to get passed in the last rhythm section. Third race he finished second and was very excited about that. One of the girls crashed, but he was just as excited about finishing second.

With three kids in a moto, they give trophies to the top two, but Jacob and Johnathan were not going to go home empty handed... First time racers get an award just for racing. Jacob and Johnathan waited and were called up and got trophies that were almost taller than Alex.



Done in less than 2 hours and everyone had a great time. Grandpa filled the kids up with sugar from the concession stand and it didn't rain, so all in all a great day at the races! I'm sure Jacob will try the races in Mount Vernon next summer. He is saving anything and everything to get a BMX bike for himself. Even selling some of his old video games.

Camping at Cama Beach

Camping in the northwest (for me) has always been limited to June, July or August, mostly July and August, but we just got back from a couple nights at Cama Beach state park on Camano Island about half way between Seattle and Bellingham.

Camping may be a bit generous as we stayed in heated cabins complete with refrigerator and microwave. Cama Beach is a historic site and no cars are allowed down at the cabins, so we unloaded and waited for the shuttle. Debbie and the kids walked down the trail while I waited and waited. Not the best first impression, but as it turned out, the worst part of the trip and all in all not too bad.



Once in our cabin we explored the area a bit and had a Gervais family traditional first day of camping dinner of cold shake-n-bake chicken that Debbie made earlier. After dinner we had the best family game night I can remember in a while, probably due to no TV, no Internet, no outdoor lights, just stayed in the warm cabin and played some games.

Expecting rainy weather, we had a great sunny day on Monday and hiked up to Cranberry Lake and spent lots of time outdoors playing horseshoes, soccer, reading out in the sun and exploring the beach. We also drove over to Camano Island State Park and explored the campground and checked out the beach.



After homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner we settled down, played a little chess, later the kids drew pictures and Debbie and I read books, a nice quiet evening.

Pretty much woke up Tuesday morning, had breakfast and packed and loaded. Stopped at the skate park and Starbucks in Stanwood and home in about an hour after leaving the park. Close, easy and very pleasant camping in the deep deep winter, OK just mid November, but close enough to mid winter for this summer camper.