Sunday, June 1, 2008

SATURDAYS WITH RIVER

Since our grandson River was about 3, he's been spending a couple of nights a week with us, and Saturday is usually one of them. As it turns out, this very week River is studying early European contact/Hudson's Bay history in school, and chose for this project to research and learn about the SS BEAVER. Although he'd seen the (replica) boat lots of times at Fisherman's Wharf, he had no idea of its historical significance.

So we went on a bit of a historical field trip. First stop, Ross Bay, where the Beaver reportedly anchored the very first time it arrived here in 1835.

We got a little side-tracked watching this dude launch off the beach right beside us ...

Oh, and River is a bit of a rock-hound, too, so he had to fill his pockets with a few very carefully selected stones.

Then we drove along Dallas Road to re-trace the Beaver's first trip into the Inner Harbour ...

But then, as we rounded the bend at Ogden Point, we got distracted again, by this...

And River decided it would be a perfect opportunity to show how close we could actually get to a cruise ship, AND show off his Tae-Kwan-Do tournament medal at the same time!

And the answer to that question is .... about 30'!

Finally, River had to see if his new strength (from all that Tai-Kwan-Do) would help him hold up the ship, and sure enough...

To our delight, as we were walking back to the van after that cruise ship adventure, we stopped to look at a 'Commemorative' kiosk right beside the parking lot, and found this!

Onward we soldiered in search of the facts. Our journey led us next to Point Hope Shipyard, where the replica Beaver is getting some work done in preparation for its role in the 2010 Olympics.

And finally ... home to spend some time with 'Papa' before bed!

How lucky am I, huh?

In knitterly news, I was really hoping to be finished the edging on the test knit shawl today, but SS Beaver fact-finding missions are much more important, don't you think? Today looks a little more promising on the knitting front .... :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lovely day. Love that the history trip had such great distractions.

My boy spent last night with his Granny, too :) He came home with tadpoles and stories of having conquered new trees in the big yard.

-kate

Esther V. said...

We are truly fortunate to have grandchildren....great blog, Marilyn