Just Little Snipets

My Goodness, I'm getting worse not better. Thank you all who still check in. I'm just going to some little tid bits till we leave to the UK on Friday. Over the last couple of weeks we've had friends from out of town stay, been on a short trip to Naniamo(which is on Vancouver Island), and had been on a short harbour cruise.
Gas (petrol) has dropped down in price to just under a dollar/litre which is the lowest it's been in quite a while. I honestly never thought it would get that low again. Just over a couple of months ago it was over $1.20/litre. The change in weather we've had has kept me from painting. It was our first rain in 41 days, so the summer has been a good one. It is certainly cooler now.
The other weekend we were invited over to Kelly and Davids' place for dinner. They've got a little one Evan, who is about a year and a half. When we arrived Evan was sitting on the floor playing with his toys and we placed Fin down beside him. Finlay thought this was the greatest thing ever. He started laughing, belly laughing and just wouldn't stop. He was laughing so hard he rolled right back, bang his head and still carried on laughing. Evan was really good with him and would come over and share his toys, pat Fin on the head and give him a hug. Finlay had a great time. He really likes other children.
This weekend The Port of Vancouver along with the City of North Vancouver were giving free tours of the inner harbour, talking about it's history and showing of the working aspect of the harbour which most people don't get to see. The trip took about 45 mins and Fin spent most of the time talking to the baby at the next table, never mind looking at all the ships. He really chatted up quite the storm. I think he kind of spooked the other child a little. Dad did him proud by winning a small, stuffed Salty Sam the Seagull toy, by answering a trivia question correctly. Apparently, Salty Sam is the mascot of the port. I'm not a fan of the rats with wings myself but this fellow in his sailor hat is kinda cute(?).
When we were in Nanaimo, Fin and I went for a long walk along a riverside path that took us to a park. It was a great place, there was a rodedendrum(sp) garden(not in blume), a petting zoo(that is only open in summer months) but the duck pond did have ducks. When we got there the ducks were just loittering with intent. Soon enough, someone pulled up and started feeding the ducks. Now that really got Fin's attention. The folks were good enough to throw some feed down in front of where we were sitting so he could get a closer look. He was sitting on my leg leaning as far forward as he could with a big grin on his face.
The other thing that made me chuckle, thinking about that trip to the Island, was how I got him back to sleep after Ella woke up early to go to work. Normally there is some kind of fuss when you lay him down because he knows it usually means nap time. The great thing about our hotel room there was a ceiling fan over Fin's bed. I set the fan on as slow as it would go, pointed it out to Fin before laying him down and he became quite entranced by it and just drifted quietly off to sleep. One for the good guys.