Closing off with a bit of Severn Lodge

End of summer wrap up is all about Severn Lodge

Mom, Dad and I spent 10 days up in Muskoka, Ontario at Severn Lodge. We have been going to SL for 15 years. Time sure flies when you're having fun =D

We hung out at the waterfront...

Severn Lodge, located on Gloucester Pool

...and saw the bird show...

Turkey Vulture

...and played my new favourite game that Mom taught us, train (I think Dad likes the game just because of the name). 

TRAIN

It was a great vacation right before I head to Roma!! Thank you to the best parents in the world for everything you've done for me. I love you guys!

L-R: Papa Bear, Baby Bear, Mama Bear

I will miss Mom and Dad while I'm in Rome this fall for a term of school. I will also miss the pup very much.

Puppy Bear

I will be keeping a blog while in Rome, though it will not have as many updates because I will be extremely busy with classes and studio. I'll do my best to keep the blog up to date though. I'll post something whenever I can :)

ROME BLOG:

http://jlbeggs8.blogspot.ca/

When in Rome...

...ouver

Vancouver (ouver being the end of "Vancouver")

Last week happenings started out with Chanel, Carol, Kuni, Anna and I seeing Beirut at the Orpheum Theatre on Granville St on Saturday night.

HERE is one of their songs. I took videos during the concert (before I was repremanded for doing so) but they weren't great quality.

Sunday night Randy and I started building a super-awesome-lego-flying-object (a plane to be exact). We started with 499 pieces...

And got it about halfway done by the time we called it quits for the day.

Monday night we were back at it and finished without a problemo :)

My last Tuesday night here at l'autobus was sad. I'm really gonna miss the great group of people I volunteered with :)

DA BUS

Wednesday was gym, Thursday AND Friday I was dealing with my new phone. If I had remembered to bring my receipt the first time I went the problem would have been resolved in one day. But instead, I made two trips to Metrotown mall to get a new battery for my new phone.

Saturday morning my wonderful roommate made me a lovely breakfast (THANK YOU by the way)

Saturday night was FIREWORKS night down at the beach in Kits. Here was the sunset right before the show started :)

Sunday was CULTUS LAKE WATERPARK in a billion degree heat, and on Monday, August 6 I said goodbye to Vancouver. It's been a wonderful 7 months. Some of the best I've ever had.

Though I was sad to be leaving, I was more than excited to come home to my dear parents whom I missed very much!

And yes, they custom made their shirts saying "Jen is Home". I even got one that said "I'M HOME"

I can't thank you guys enough for my warm welcome home. I am so blessed to have you two, goofy as you may be. I love you both so much <3

Freebie?

Which way to the freebie line?

I will admit, I rode the train many times in Amsterdam without a ticket. It took me about 3 weeks to realize that the bus and tram tickets did not include train rides. That was an honest mistake. I was never caught though, thank goodness.

Vancouver's cracking down on fares - I like this poster :)

"C" @ ul

...that's "Seattle" in case it's hard to tell.

Randy and I spent last weekend in Seattle, the city with blue trees.

Seattle, Washington

Seattle was built under the sea level which caused a lot of problems, especially with the sewer system. Twice a day when the tides came in the flow of the sewage would flow back to the houses ...and obviously would create a mess.

In 1889 the city experienced a huge fire which destroyed 25 blocks of the city. In planning to re-build the city, Seattle decided to re-built the city above the sea level to fix the problems it had been facing up until then. And thus, they essentially abandoned the old city and built on top of it. Today, the old city remains underneath the roads and buildings of what is Seattle now. They offer tours of the underground to see what used to be.

Subseattle Tour

Going down...

Seattle Underground Tour

This was an old bar...

Subseattle

An old street - you can see where the windows used to be in the buildings. 

An old street "under Seattle"

Randy and I undergroooooound. 

Subseattle

The underground city was pretty much left as is after the fire. 

Subseattle

The top of this skylight is located along a sidewalk on the current road level. I didn't get a picture from the top, but it looks like clear tiles. The translucent tiles allow light into the underground tunnels which were still used after the fire up until the "top city" was completed.

Subseattle skylight

An Original Water System Pipe. It's kind of weird to think of all the sewage that had passed through that wooden pipe over the years it was in use. 

Subseattle Original Waterpipe

And in the gift shop of the underground tour, we found this... because who doesn't want to look and feel Canadian?!

Canadian, Eh?!

This UUUGLY parking structure is called "The Sinking Ship"

Sinking Ship Parking Garage

Experience Music Project

EMP

From under the ground, we traveled 184m above the ground, to the top of the Seattle Space Needle. 

Seattle Space Needle

And the view was awesome :) We were at the Space Needle just around sunset.

Top of the Seattle Space Needle

Seattle :)

Top of the Seattle Space Needle

Randy and I with Seattle in the back

Top of the Seattle Space Needle

I do apologize to my dear parents for the late blog post. I've been busy going to the water park...

Driving back from the waterpark

And curling...

In the lounge after Curling with CEI

I love you both very much and thank goodness for skype. Technology these days - I was video chatting with my parents who are 4000km away and I took a photograph on my new smartphone and emailed myself the picture from my smart phone onto the computer in which I am typing on now and I will post this message on a blog for my parents 4000km to see.

And yet despite all this amazing technology (magic really) we still get frustrated when the internet connection isn't perfectly perfect and my father laughs at me when my words and mouth are not in sync while skyping.

I love you both <3