More Sight-seeing.

On Saturday, since it was cloudy and rainy, Sherri and I decided to go south to Washington state and visit Lynden, a nice little Dutch settlement. It took us more time to cross the border than it actually took to get there in driving time.

We walked around Lynden for a few hours, had lunch at the Dutch Mothers Restaurant (best croquettes I've ever had!) and then did a little more walking around.

After Lynden, we went further south to Bellingham to find some good used bookstores that someone out here had talked about. We found them (eventually) and it certainly was worth it. The first one we went to was called Henderson's Used Books (it doesn't have a web-page, unfortunately) and it was amazing. Our house could have fit into this store (not height-wise, but space-wise for sure)! Because of the layout and the amount of bookshelves, there were hidden rooms that you woudn't see until you turned a corner or even just walked a few feet further than where you were. We bought a few books (some of which were on my wishlist at Chapters, but are no longer, as I found them cheaper). I wish I lived a lot closer to this store, it's the kind of used bookstore I would go back to once a month or so, just to keep on top of what they have. They had a good philosophy section and a good Biblical studies section.

I bought The Elements of Style by Strunk and White (4th Edition), The Virgin Birth by J. Gresham Machen, The Complete Tales of Peter Rabbit and Friends by Beatrix Potter, and Sherri got a Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment.

After that store, we went across the street to another big used bookstore, Michael's (which does have a website, which you can find here). It was not as impressive, and I didn't find anything that I wanted to buy (but I also didn't have much time, I got in there at about 5:50, and it closes at 6:00). Their Biblical studies section was not near as impressive as Henderson's, and they put their theology under the Christian Philosophy heading. Too bad.

Sherri will put up some pictures of Lynden, but we didn't take that many. There was some neat Dutch-type stuff, but for the rest, it wasn't like being in the mountains or anything, and Bellingham was a typical big city (and a picture of Henderson's wouldn't do it justice!!)

Sight-seeing and Good Reading.

This past Saturday Sherri and I did some more sight-seeing. We were thinking of heading up to Whistler (we hear the drive is worth the trip), but decided to have a relaxed morning, and then do some sight-seeing that was closer by.

So we went to the Othello Quintette tunnels, on the advice of the people we are staying with. These are train tunnels that were cut into a gorge over a river (but I can't remember the name of the river). The gorge is quite deep and steep, so the engineer who decided to put a railway through it had to cut a series of 5 tunnels. The train no longer runs through it, and the tracks have been removed so that it is now a hiking trail. Sherri and I spent about 2 1/2 hours there, walking and taking pictures.

Afterward, we were going to go to the Bridal Veil Falls, but then decided, on the spur of the moment, to head to Hell's Gate. We're glad we did. We spent about an hour driving through the mountains along the Trans-Canada Highway. Just gorgeous. When we got to Hell's Gate, Sherri took the Air-Tram down across the Fraser River, and I hiked to the bottom and took the bridge. But I took the Air-Tram back up, since it was a fairly long hike down, and steep in spots, even though I was walking on a road that the fishery department uses.

Sherri will post pictures eventually. We took lots.

On another note, on Sunday evening I read The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin Jr. which we are borrowing from Uncle Piet and Aunt Fran. This is a book that I would highly recommend. I just read it, so I can't say much about it yet (I'm still digesting it, which shows how good of a book it really is). Last night I started the sequel to it, The Book of Sorrows, also borrowed from Uncle Piet and Aunt Fran, who let us ransack their bookshelves for good reading while we are out West.

A Bigger Oops...

So far, I seem to make my bigger mistakes at Maranatha.

Yesterday afternoon, after the sermon, I went straight into prayer and then collection, completely forgetting that we had to sing Hymn 1A. An elder came up to the pulpit after I announced the collection and informed me, so we sang it then.

Other than that (and the fact that I said 'this morning' in the afternoon service again) things went well.

The text yesterday was 1 John 4:1-3. This week I get to work on Lord's Day 34 of the Heidelberg Catechism, the beginning of the Ten Commandments. Next week I do Lord's Day 35 as I am going to be in Langley in the afternoon service, and if I started my series on Haggai, Maranatha would miss out on the first sermon, which is not ideal.

On Saturday, Sherri and I went to the Vancouver Aquarium. It rained (quite hard) all day, especially when we were out, but that was no big deal. We spent most of our time inside, and then went outside for about 15-20 minutes (with no umbrella) to look at the otters, sea lions, dolphins, and beluga whales. Very neat. I am amazed at the size of the sea lion...I never figured them to be that big, but I've only ever seen them on TV, so I really have no frame of reference. Sherri will post pictures soon.

Now I am going to get to work on my sermon, and try think of any other mistakes that I could make, and then not make them next Sunday...

BC Picture Blog

For those who have been after us for pictures, Sherri has been putting some of them up on a blog here.

Now that I have actually started my internship, there might be fewer pictures, since I am busy with other things. But it will be updated from time to time.

I just hope that it keeps all you folks at home happy....

Just a Quick Note:

Before I get back to some sermon preparation, I just wanted to say that BC is really really cool.

Yesterday, Sherri and I saw two bald eagles. Too bad our camera wasn't handy. But the fact is that we saw them. One of them was flying only about 30 feet above us while we were at Crescent Beach. Really, really cool.

And the fact that there are mountains which you can see as you are driving. They look like you could get there in a couple of minutes, but that is just a matter of scale... hopefully today we will get there.