Mission Possible

Another weekend. Another little adventure! This time Lowell introduced me to some already-known-to-him territory. While I’m at work, Lowell spends part of his days training for the Auckland marathon. The only problemo is that we live on a highway with teeny tiny shoulders, and highway runs are not optimal (or recommended). Lowell discovered a little back route that cuts out like 3km of busy highway. The only catch is that he has to cross a 12-foot wide creek. So what did he do one day? He spent 2 hours constructing a bridge (sans tools).

Here he is repairing his little pride and joy so it’s fit for a lady to cross (me being that lady).

Now he's just showing off...


Aaaaaand he’s across!


Now it’s my turn…

Whew, safe and sound on the winner’s side. Next came an unexpected obstacle. Lowell usually ducks under a fence, skips across an empty horse pasture, then lets himself out of the gate. This time, however, the pasture was not empty. There was a veeeeery curious race horse staring us down (this particular pasture is adjacent to a horse racing track).

(I realize he doesn't look overly curious, nor is he looking directly at us... but he's still an obstacle!)

Lowell glanced around to look for another way to freedom, but there was none to be found.

Eventually the horse turned it’s back and Lowell BOLTED.

Back turned...


Cleared path...


Victory on the other side...

Next I ran across, but the horse really could’ve cared less. STILL… it was exhilarating.

After enjoying a long walk through a cluster of acreages and other homes, Lowell and I returned to the horse/creek obstacle on our way home. But another obstacle awaited… a FARMER WAS WITH THE HORSE. Now, we could’ve easily approached the farmer and let him know what we were doing so he didn’t think we were creepy creepos, but instead we turned and headed in the other direction. Since we weren’t in the mood to walk 3km ON THE HIGHWAY, we hopped on the railroad tracks to see where they would take us.


They took us to the highway… but still cut out a big portion of it.

We did get home, and the invigorating adventure was good for our complexions.

The next day we visited a popular shopping centre and I was completely overstimulated. There were like 12 awesome clothing stores in a row- none of which I’d heard of before! I could’ve spent a billion dollars… but instead I spent NOTHING. It was just too overwhelming- I couldn’t choose. Kind of an all-or-none situation. (Mom, are you proud?)

Shopping without buying anything is exhausting, so we stopped at a coffee shop to have a little sit-down. We randomly chose ESQUIRES! I’m pretty sure it’s a Canadian company, and I’ve never actually seen one outside of Lethbridge. Well, we made ourselves right at home there.

After our shopping trip, we checked out Brown’s Bay (a popular little beach on the East Coast). It was very pretty and tons of people were out with their dogs taking advantage of the beautiful weather. One thing I noticed about EVERY SINGLE DOG OWNER was that they had these long shoe-horn-looking-scoop things. They seem to be all the rage. Do these things even EXIST in Canada? According to my research, they’re called ‘dog ball throwers’ (very original). They have multiple purposes:
1. Reduce arm/shoulder stress when hucking balls.
2. Prevent constant bending down (i.e., back pain).
3. Avoid constant hand-to-slobbery-slime-ball-contact.


Anyhoo, here's the beautiful beach.




Julie out.