Darcie and Mandy's Chiropractic business

The other day, Darcie and Mandy had some pictures taken to be used on their website which will be up and running shortly. I thought it'd be a good idea to show some of those pictures for those of you who haven't seen the Chiropractic Clinic Darcie and Mandy purchased together. They decided on the name Creekside Chiropractic. They've done a lot of work to get the business going and have been busy since they took over the practice. Sam is a massage therapist who also works out of the clinic with Darcie and Mandy. Jackie is their amazing receptionist. Last week, Jackie invited us all over for dinner and had a really good time laughing playing MadGab and Catchphrase. MadGab is a hilarious game to watch others play.

Mandy and Darcie with a view of Kalamalka Lake behind them
A view from the front door as you walk in. One of the chiropractic rooms is in the back where you can see the table in it and the other one is to the left. Sam's massage room is also to the left.
Sam, Mandy, Darcie, and Jackie
Sign hanging on the building outside
The clinic from outside

Our trip back home from Toronto

We made arrangements to stay with Uncle Roger and Aunt Terry's place in Calgary - our last stop before arriving in Vernon. While on our trip, Roger told us there was a change in plans and told us to meet him, Terry, Graham, and Nicole at a resort in Canmore instead of their house in Calgary. We'd been staying at cheap motels along the way to save some money so when we pulled into Solara Resort, our mouths dropped. We couldn't believe how nice it was! Not only is Canmore in a naturally beautiful setting but the resort itself was new and had that alpine lodge feeling. We didn't want to leave after seeing our own room that Roger and Terry had paid for us. We were so grateful of them to do that for us. We appreciated it so much! It was great to see Graham again as well who I hadn't seen in 10 years or so as well as meet his wife Nicole. Darcie and I had such a great time - it was the perfect ending before the last day of driving. Thanks Roger and Terry!!
The Rockies - we were glad to see these. It was such a beautiful sunny day driving towards them. What a beautiful view!

The view from Uncle Roger and Aunt Terry's hotel room at the Solara Resort in Canmore, Alberta.

Our trip back home from Toronto, cont'd

This is at the apartment in Toronto, at the beginning of our trip. This is Lexi and Dexter's first few moments in the U-Haul. Lexi handled it better than Dexter as you can see him letting us know how unhappy he was. Within an hour or so they started to get more comfortable and even used the litter box we had in the truck for them the second day.

If they weren't behind our seats or on the dashboard, they were sleeping together on the seat inbetween us. They cuddled a lot and handled the trip very well

All our things we brought back from Toronto fit in this 14 ft U-Haul truck

When we were passing through Manitoba, we probably killed thousands of dragon flys. We couldn't believe how many there were. This one stayed with us for a couple hundred kilometers.

Lexi chillin' on the dash

Emmett's frog prince Halloween costume

Darcie's trip to Smithers

Earlier in the summer, Darcie and Mandy took a trip up to Smithers to visit Mandy's brother AJ and do some fly fishing and hiking while they had some time before purchasing the Chiropractic office they were interested in. They had a great time taking some beautiful hikes and caught their limit of 3 fish each from a river near Smithers. They said there were so many fish they could feel them brushing up against their legs in the water. Darcie almost got hit by one in the face when it jumped out of the water. At one point, a bear joined them on the other side of the river to fish too.

Darcie's trip to Smithers, cont'd

Trip to New York Cont'd

The bull near Wall Street in the Financial District. It's made from copper, just like the Statue of Liberty so in hard to reach places like the top of the bulls back, the copper is starting to turn the light green color. However, there's one spot which I don't think will ever turn green and are probably the shiniest part on the bull, its balls. More people getting pictures touching the balls than any other spot.

I went to Ellis Island while Darcie did some shopping. It was the first stop for literally millions of people immigrating into the United States between the late 19th century till around the 1930's until a new immigration law changed the need of the buildings on the island to something else. It was used for military purposes for a while until it was abandoned in the 50's or 60's and left that way until the late 80's when they refurbished it and opened the island up as a museum displaying the island's rich history and affect it had on the United States. It was incredible to know you were standing where so many people from around the world had stood so long ago unsure of so many things. Above is grafitti workers found on the walls before they started cleaning up the buildings. Over decades of abondonment, the layers of paint had eventually peeled off the walls revealing names, dates, and drawings of people who had once passed through over 100 years ago. The one above either says 1901 or 1907. It was incredible. I was glad I went. There were so many great exhibits, pictures, and artifacts displaying the history of the island with most of it being about when it was used for immigration purposes. There was so much history there - I loved it.

This is the Registry Room where peoples names were written down among 28 or so other things they were asked. In the middle of the floor used to be a set of stairs up to the room which is where doctors would first view the people coming off of the boats from around the world looking for signs of various diseases or ailments people had. If they suspected something, they'd write in chalk on the persons jacket lapel or back and they'd be looked at more carefully at a later time. The displays said most times there were so many people being filtered through the room that they only had about 6 seconds to check people over.

This block of buildings date back to the 18th century. The one on the corner is where George Washington informed military officials at a dinner of his retirement from the military.

Parking garage in Brooklyn. Cars are parked 3 high.

Trip to New York

Darcie and I wanted to go to New York before we headed back to BC so I took a few days off work and we headed down in the car July 7th. We got out of Toronto at 2 o'clock so we missed all the rush hour traffic which was nice. We stopped in Scranton Pennsylvania for the night and drove the rest of the way in the morning. We drove through New Jersey and made our way into Manhattan from New Jersey via the Lincoln Tunnel. We couldn't check in until 3 o'clock so we parked the car and wandered around until is was time to check in. For 4 nights of parking underground, it cost $140 and that was with an internet coupon saving $5 per day. We headed up to Times Square since it was only 8 blocks away from our hotel. We stayed at the same one mom and dad stayed at when they went to New York a couple years ago. We thought the hotel was nice - we had a king size bed (which took up the entire room pretty much) and it wasn't an unreasonable cost, especially with its location. So after being in awe of Times Square, we kept walking north because we knew we'd eventually run into Central Park. On our way, I noticed the sky scraper that manages the Popular Mechanics magazine I've got a subscription too. I knew which one it was because they had a small write up about it when it was being built in the magazine, so naturally I had to go inside and check it out for myself. Yup, just like I remember seeing in the pictures! It was the Hearst building, and they look after the publication of many, many magazines you've probably seen on news stands. So after that, we got to the southwest corner of Central Park which also happens to be where the Time Warner building is and where they televise all things CNN. The park was beautiful. We didn't get too far into it because it's so big and because we figured we should head back to the hotel. On the way, we stopped at Rockefeller Plaza which is a bunch of buildings (21 in all) where they produce more television shows but this time for NBC. Conan used to tape his show there before he went to L.A., SNL is taped there, the Today show taped weekday mornings is taped there plus a myriad of others. After we checked in we went out to find a bite to eat. It had started raining so we bought umbrellas for $5 each (the only time it rained while we were there). It was crazy because immediately after it started to drizzle, guys started selling umbrellas on the streets and people were snatching them up so fast because a lot of people, including us, got caught in the ran and didn't want to get wet so I'm sure they made a lot of money fast. You could tell who had just bought an umbrella because most of them were all the same. Anyway, the guy we checked in with at the hotel told us to check out this thing called the Highline which was a recently converted old elevated train track that winded its way through the streets of the Fashion District. It's about a 30 block walk. They kept the strucure and tracks but added a walkway, benches, seats, and so many plants and trees, it was a beautiful, unique way of walking through the streets without worrying about traffic lights or cars. It was a nice green space added to the "concrete jungle" of New York. We ate dinner on a covered patio while it rained and then took the subway over to Grand Central Station. Again, we were in awe of the beauty, history, size and openess of the station. There's really only one word to describe it - grand. We hung out there for a while, doing some people watching, and then took the subway back to our hotel since Penn Station was right across the street from it. I could write about so many of the things we did and saw and heard and ate while we were in New York but to keep it short, some of the other highlights were going on a hop on/hop off bus tour of Uptown, Downtown, and a night tour which took us through Uptown and Brooklyn. We heard some amazing stories and stats about New York and its history from the tour guides on the buses. We also rode our bikes through Central Park, checked out the Empire State Building, Ground Zero, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Brooklyn Bridge, Broadway Shows, Times Square plus so much more. On Tuesday when we left around noon and got back about 9:30, it was weird to think we woke up in Manhattan and would be going to bed at home. It made us realize how close we really were to New York this whole time. We loved it there, and have nothing but good things to say about it. People were friendly, the streets were clean (by a city the size of New York standards) and we felt safe. We hope we can go back soon - we just have to save enough money for parking.
When Darcie spent a day shopping, I went to Ellis Island, Wall Street & the New York Stock Exchange, walked over the Brooklyn Bridge into Brooklyn and walked around for a little while before heading back over the bridge and taking the subway uptown to meet Darcie at the hotel.

Brooklyn Bridge was the worlds first suspension bridge and at one point, the tallest structure in New York. Here is a beautiful view of the Manhattan skyline in Uptown where the most prominent buildings are the Empire State building, the Chrysler building, and Trump Tower. There is a whole nother skyline downtown as well which is where Ground Zero is. The Twin Towers used to be the tallest buildings in New York, but currently the Empire State building is the tallest. Once one of the Freedom Towers is fiinished, the building being built in replace of the Twin Towers, it will surpass the Empire State building as the tallest in New York.

Here is a view from our hotel room. The main building you see and to the left is the department store Macy's. This specific Macy's is the largest department store in the world - one entire block and 11 floors. It's where the very first escalator was used - which was made out of wood and still runs to this day. See below.
Darcie and I on one of the huge tv screens in Times Square. We're against the right side of the furthest left yellow bubble. I'm wearing a red shirt with one of my hands in the air. If you click the picture it'll go bigger and you can see us better.

Trip to New York Cont'd

Here's some statue we came across while in New York. Not sure what it is, who made it, or what its for but a lot of people were there taking pictures with it so we did too.

Manhattan skyline behind us while at Liberty Island where the Statue of Liberty is

Staten Island Ferry

Darcie and I near Times Square after watching the Broadway show Wicked. It's about the untold story of the witches of Oz. I wasn't sure what to expect but we really, really enjoyed it. The people in these shows are incredible singers and actors. I would've loved to see it again. Oh, and on a side note, I know some of you won't believe me, but Conan O'Brien, his wife, son and daughter went to the same show we were at and sat in the row ahead of us, 5 seats away. It was pretty random.

Times Square at night. So many people, so many lights, so many ads. This picture doesn't do it justice. I always thought the ads were mostly in and around where this picture was taken which is where they drop the ball on New Years. But it's like this further beyond than the camera picks up in this picture as well as far behind us and even on the next street over. It's absolutely crazy. Talk about sensory overload. There's just so many things trying to get your attention. And I've never seen so many cameras in one place at one time. I was trying to find people that didn't have some sort of camera device and it was hard.

Trip to New York Cont'd

Darcie eating a Manhattan pretzel

The building being built is one of the Freedom Towers which is being built next to where the twin towers were. The exact footprint of both of the towers that fell will have square fountains in their place and the two new buildings are being built next to them. When we were walking around the area, it was surrreal to think what had happend there 10 years earlier.

Near ground zero, they have a place dedicated to 9-11 with many items salvaged from the wreckage of the buildings to view. One piece which kind of took my breath away was this one which is a piece of one of the planes that hit a tower.

Here's a steel beam all twisted up which shows you some of the forces that were occurring when the buildings collapsed. Up close, you can see that its 1" thick steel and in the areas where you can see the steel plates bolted together, it's more than 2" thick.

An area where they have pictures collected that were left by loved ones on fences and message boards

Trip to New York Cont'd

The hotel where we stayed, Hotel Pennsylvania. Look at all the yellow taxi cabs!!

In Central Park. We rented bikes for 2 hours so we could see more of the park in a shorter amount of time. One of the highlights of the trip. It's such a large beautiful park. Wish we could've spent more time there.

Central Park

Central Park

Radio City Music Hall. I believe the largest indoor hall, seats 7000 plus people and is where they televise many awards shows throughout the year. You've probably seen the inside of it on an awards show.

Trip to New York Cont'd

Check out how expensive monthly underground parking was near our hotel in Manhattan. To get a reserved monthly parking spot, it's $844.78. To pay for parking a month at a time, and not be gauranteed a spot is $422.39

This is the buiding in the Spiderman movies where the newspaper the Daily Bugle was based out of. It's called a flat iron building because its shape resembles the bottom of an iron. It was made like that because I believe Broadway Ave intersects 5th Ave at that point.

Inside the beautiful Grand Central Station

Late Show with David Letterman sign. The theater was actually broken into while we were in New York and Dave made jokes about it when they did the show on Monday

One of the NBC studio signs in Rockefeller Plaza