A Pilgrim's Progress

5 months!

PHEW! finally eh?

Well with the popular coming of facebook (i hear some grunts from the crowd already...), we have recently found less of a need to blog, as our photos are published quite regularly there. a picture speaks a thousand words someone said....

anyway, in an effort to revive this blog, I (Darrell) have one question.

If i were to write...who would read?

That must be in blogging 101 syllabus i suspect. who is your audience??

So in order to be considerate of my (potential) readers, I would like to politely request a roll call from all you faithful blog readers out there. frankly i would be shocked to find anyone who is still tuning into this page...but if you are out there. please add a comment and declare your presence on our page.

we would be o so grateful....

O, and not to worry, updates will come....i just need to know who i'm writing to....

Oregon, USA!

This past weekend was LOADS of fun!

We took a road trip to the Oregon coast with Debbie and Darrell's friend John.

We left Vancouver early Friday morning, and for the rest of the day we drove.. and drove. I think it was approx 11-12 hours before we actually arrived at our hotel. Although this time wasn't straight driving. We, of course, had to make a stop at Krispy Kreme donuts, and had to stop to eat at The Cheesecake Factory, among other places.

We then proceeded to take a lot of twisty back roads to Newport, where our hotel is located, as we didn't see the point in having to take the main roads which would make us back track a lot. Short cuts are always full of adventure though!

On day two, we started off by eating an awesome breakfast at the hotel, and then decided that since it was kind of rainy that we would go shopping and to a cheese factory! So, we drove some more, ate some more, and shopped! Oregon is great for shopping because it has no taxes, and the Canadian dollar is to good right now, so we stocked up on some things that we knew we would need and some things that we do need.
And, unfortunately, due to all our shopping, the cheese factory was closed when we arrived. :( So we proceeded back to the hotel, more driving, and arrived just in time for some complimentary hot spiced wine, yum!

On day three, we left for home, more driving. Again, it wasn't straight driving. We stopped in Portland at Powell's bookstore and bought some interesting/needed books. If you ever need a good bookstore to go to, that is the place. It's HUGE, and it has new and used books on the same shelf! And, seriously, it was every book! Then we met up with some friends for lunch, more eating, stopped at krispy Kreme and duty free, and made it back home late Sunday night.

It was an awesome trip just hanging out in the car getting to know each better and bonding over cool and not so cool music.

Thus, to sum up the whole weekend I'd have to say it was very... American, eat, shop, consume!

Britney

This made me laugh a lot. I promise to update soon. DL

Organic Store Wars

Since we've been back in BC, we've slowly been moving away from our local Superstore and extending our patronage to our local organic market. this was first sparked by conversations with friends and family about sustainable and environmentally friendly food. anyway, we've learnt quite a bit about healthier eating to the benefit of our bodies and the planet

i found this video on my friend Dan's website, so i thought i would transfer it over here. I'm pretty sure none of our readers are on his blog!

Enjoy!

DL

Darrell/Cheryl Simpson

Our Time Home in the Maritimes

Once again Darrell and I have arrived back safely from New Brunswick. The occasion this time was my sister's wedding, which went very well! Since we had a full week in the Maritimes we also decided this would be a good time to celebrate Darrell's birthday (which is actually July 20th), as then he could experience our family's birthday customs. For his birthday we also decided to take a trip to PEI (to knock another Canadian province off his list, now all that is left for both of us are Nunavut and the North West Territories!).
Thus, being the visual person that I am, here are some photos from our time home in the Maritimes!

One of the places we went to eat on PEI was famous for its lobster suppers, so we decided to check it out. Basically it was a big hall with tables everywhere. You order before you sit down, so Darrell order 1.5 pounds of lobster and I ordered a roast beef dinner, BUT everything except the main course is All You Can Eat! So here is a picture of Darrell enjoying All He Can Eat Mussels! He ate a whole bucket!

We also visited another resturant famous for its oysters. Here is a photo for a guy preparing Darrell's fresh oysters and then of Darrell eating a raw one and some fried ones (and again, I just had a chicken burger and salad).