Of Fort Langley, Family and Remembrance

We arrived in Fort Langley, BC on Wednesday afternoon. This is the small, quaint village in the midst of Fraser Valley urban sprawl where our daughter, Hannah, lives with her husband and gorgeous two-year-old, Hazel. 

We used to live near here for about a year and a half in 1991-1992 when I was practicing law in downtown Vancouver. We had moved out to Langley to try to find a more affordable place to live with our little family of two children while I finished articling with a downtown law firm and got started in my legal career. Before arriving at Hannah's, I had driven by our old house to show Mark and Nathan.

It was while we were living at this house that Hannah was conceived. Though we moved back to North Vancouver before she was born, Hannah was blessed in an LDS chapel a few miles from here, just down the street from where the LDS temple now stands. Now she lives here. Life is funny.

Holly tree at the edge of Fort Langley Cemetery. 

I've always had a thing about cemeteries.

Nathan and Hazel immediately hit it off with one another.

War memorial, still decorated from the recent Remembrance Day. Nathan found a discarded poppy and put it in his lapel. It brought back memories of when I used to work in downtown Vancouver. As Remembrance Day approached, veterans' organizations would sell artificial poppies for people to wear on their lapel or dress or whatever. These little poppies were a quiet, dignified way people could express their appreciation and remembrance for those had sacrificed. 

Fort Langley Community Hall

We browsed through shops. I resisted purchasing a Christmas ornament because we are going to the Vancouver Christmas Market on Saturday night. :))

Hazel with her two soothers ;).

Our beautiful daughter, Hannah.

Waiting for lunch to arrive

My incredibly gorgeous husband. 

Our amazing son, Nathan.

We are heading into Vancouver today (Friday). It is going to be interesting as I continue to see and share with Mark. Where I attended law school. Where I/we lived here. Where I worked. Where I road the bus to work every day. Where we took the children for walks or to play. Where my children's grandparents are buried. Where so many, many memories lay scattered about, waiting to be gathered and made whole.

Precious Moments On the Oregon Coast

Mark and Hazel share a Pringles moment while Ajax looks on

On Tuesday, we were able to move to a bigger cottage with beautiful views of the ocean. It featured two bedrooms, plus an extra bed in the living room, along with a big kitchen and eating area. Again, Ester Lee quaint. I mean, when was the last time you saw an original glass block shower? And the tile? And dig the faucet above the kitchen sink.

After a late breakfast, we spent most of the afternoon and early evening on the beach. It was a little overcast, but we experienced breaks in the clouds. The wind was so relatively calm that Mark and Nathan weren't able to get the kite up. The next day, however, the day of our departure, it was raining like crazy. We were so, so lucky.

I just *might* have had something to do with Hazel chowing down on Pringles. Maybe.

Uncle Nathan and Hazel

Cary and Hazel

Hannah and I had more time to talk

Meanwhile, the "boys" and Hazel played Bocce ball. Close by ...

... and further away where the sand was firmer. Hazel commuted ...

 ... with her can of Pringles

Eventually, we headed back to the cottage for enchiladas and watching the sunset through the picture window in the living room.

It. Was. Amazing. Beautiful. Fun. Magical. What life is supposed to be like.

To the Oregon Coast

Our party split up on Monday morning: Mark and I headed out to go for a ride in the Willamette Valley while Hannah, Cary, Hazel and Nathan set out later for downtown Portland and then on to the coast. The plan was to meet in Lincoln City late that afternoon.

We rode on a bike path / trail that day that had been recommended on an Oregon cycling website. It was pretty ... but we were enveloped in towering trees most of the time, and that did get a little old after a while. Nevertheless, we got in about 43 miles. 

We have a goal of cycling 1000 miles in July. Mark will probably reach that goal before we head west again later this week to ride in the Marin County Century, but I'll need that 100 miles to reach my goal. Why are we doing this? Because we are headed to France in three (!) weeks for a three-week cycling trip. The first week will be spent on our own in the area of Bourg d'Oisans in the French Alps (see, e.g., here and here), then we will be joining a two-week organized cycling tour from Geneva to Nice. Thus the heavy training all summer. (There are a numbered of archived posts from September 2012 [see bottom right of blog page] about a similar trip we took that year.)

Wheat field in the Willamette Valley

Our destination that afternoon was the Ester Lee Hotel and Cottages, a place Mark and I had stumbled upon in September 2011. We were captivated by this quaint, "retro" place that is on a bluff overlooking the ocean. The beach is just a short walk down a (very steep) hill.

Mark standing in the doorway of our cottage in September 2011. I could never have imagined at that time that we would one day return with my son, my daughter, my son-in-law and my granddaughter.

One of our favorite pictures of us, taken by a couple of lesbians on the beach who were both from
- you guessed it - Utah (Salt Lake and Tooele as I recall)

When we arrived, Hannah, Cary, Hazel and Nathan were settled in their cottage "suite." It had a patio outside that we enjoyed sitting out on that evening. Mark and I got a room in the hotel next door because we had not been able to reserve a place big enough for all of us that night. (We would all move the next day into a bigger, nicer cottage.)

Old postcard showing the patio suites. The Stewart Suite was where the two blue lounge chair are in the foreground.

After getting settled in, Mark and Nathan enjoyed a walk along the beach with the dogs while Hannah and I sat and chatted on the patio outside their room. Below are some pictures that Nathan and Mark took while out for their walk. As is obvious from these photos, we continued to enjoy amazingly good weather while on the coast.

The view of the Esther Lee from the beach

Hannah and Hazel ready to watch the sunset

We had lasagna from Safeway in the Stewart Suite that evening, then sat outside to watch the sunset. It was glorious ...

and magical.