mt B12 - The Terrace Slandard, Wednesday, December 23, | 998 SKEENA. ANGLER ROB BROWN e couldn’t have asked for a better day for a boat ride, The crew maneuvered the big boat up to the dock gently and precisely. The kids were in awe. The kids had ridden on a jet be- fore, but this was their first time aboard a large boat. Jets are something, a fairly hig deal, even, but this giant boat, white and black, shining bril- liantly in the summer sun, was something else. Karen and I fielded all kinds of questions while we waited, The line started moving, The kids fell silent as we bumped down’ the ramp into the ex- haust filled bowels of the ship. I made a mental note of our car deck, then we took the narrow cor- ridor topside and promenaded around the decks, pointing to sea birds, watching the wake, examin- ing the lifeboats that Jenny thought looked like white whales. Grand adventures work up an appetite. We made our way to the cafeteria passing a small room filled where unruly kids scrambled over all manner of musical machinery like monkeys capering over the nuins of an ancient temple deep in the heart of some impenctrable rain forest. Aaron, who was just old enough be left on his own in such a place, panhandled a fist full of coins from me, insistent that he had to lay a beat- ing on Kong or Pong or some such pixelated predatory pile of pixels devised by inscrutable Orientals to get into the pockets of dads through the imaginations of their kids. After a soup and coffee and chips (of course) for Allison aud Jennifer, we moved to a comfort- able alcove with a window facing to starboard to enjoy the rest of our trip through the Gulf Islands free of the wind and worries of kids toppling overboard, Jenny had been clutching a peculiar looking doll since we'd picked up the kids at their mother’s. ‘Where did you get that weird dall?”’ I asked her, tactlessly. “It’s Florian Richard,’ she answered a little defensively. *Tt’s a cabbie, Dad,’’ said Allison in the kind of tone I’m sure animal trainers use to talk to truculent chimpanzees. The only cabbies I knew were the lead-footed fellows I’d flagged down from curbsides when I was in a hurry. ‘‘Cabbies?’’ I said from my darkened place. ' ‘It’s a Cabbage Patch Doll, Dad,”’ said Jenny ‘brusquely hiking down young Florian Richard’s drawers to show me the spot where the little guy’s name was tattooed across the mesh flesh of bis buttacks. “They’re all the rage, Robert,’’ said Karen, then she went on to tell me how these homely dolls du jour shared no names and how each came with its own bio. “Florian wants to be an engineer when he grows up,” Jenny added proudly, “‘but I'm gonna make him want-to be something else.” “‘Maybe the CEO of a multi-billion dollar toy corporation,’’ 1 suggested sarcastically. ‘‘No,”? said Jen, who is and was never com- pletely satisfied with the products of other peoples’ imaginations. ‘‘I think I’ll make him want to be a poet.” With that settled, she gave Florian Richard a tender hug, as I wondered when it was that my kids had discovered they knew more than 1. We found our way back to the car and dis- embarked, In a short time we were in Gibsons, which always struck me as one of the most pleasant little villages on the coast. We conlinued on through Sechelt and fram there to a little campground near Porpoise Bay where we wn- loaded the little green Honda and set up camp. As Karen fine-tuned our temporary home, | took the kids to the beach. Florian and I watched as Jenny, Aaron, and Allison frolicked in the surf like seal pups. After every one was dry, I took them back to camp for outdoor food (hot dogs and chips), then Jenny, Florian, and I went back to the beach with my trout rod. Al the far end of the swimming area was a spot the kids didn’t care for because it was full of weeds. “The trout like spots like this for the same rea- son you don't,”’ I told Jenny, who scemed genu- inely interested in the whole operation. Next, I waded out and threw Tom Murray’s sil- ver muddler out into the brine on the end of a floating line, and began stripping and twitching it back toward us, In short order a good fish thumped my Ely. T brought it to short quickly and gently turned it so that Jenny could sce it . *‘Cutthroat,’’ [ announced. ‘Tt sure is pretty and shiny,”’ said Jenny. After two days we made. the trip back under clear skies. The kids were tanned and had sand between their tocs and in their clothes. Ferry Ride I] was almost as exciting as Ferry Ride I. We zoonied up to the Upper Levels then down to Marine Drive and toward home, laughing and singing and listening to Raffi until we heard a panic stricken little voice from the back seat. ‘Where's Florian Richard?’” wailed Jennifer. Next weck: The Hunt for the Missing Child. ‘TERRACE. STANDARD. CHRISTIANA WIENS S PO RTS _ 638-7283 Winter games lure | top local athletes IT’S THAT time again. Time to present our best of the best, our one and only, B.C. Winter Games team, These lucky athletes will represent our city against a tough host team from Prince Rupert on Feb. 5-7. Four Terracites, Jocelyn De Walle, Leah Kumpolt, Emily Fisher and Olivia Bartsolf were named to the beginner and junior bad- minton teams. While Karen Resta, Mary Louise Crespo, Surinder Dhaliwal and Andrew Blix made the adult badminton team. Ken Gordon, Chuck Cey, Eileen Beridal and Diane Ccy qualified for the masters team. Terrace’s adult mixed volleyball team will be made of eight competitve-league players. Bruce Neid will coach the team. And in the water, Terrace is proud to boast a 14-member waterpolo team headed off by coach Steve Dotto. Sixteen youth swimmers will tackle teams northwest teams with Blueback coach Mike Carlyle at the helm. And John Dando will lead a very competitive masters swim team. One of the team’s star swimmers will be B.C, Senior games star, Joe Mandur. But pool sharks seem to be welcome too as two Terrace competitors, Jack Locke and Ken Dean will also head to the rainy city of Prince Rupert in February, On the ice, four figure skaters, Kimberly Wilcox, Erin Arndt, Kasia Lamb and Carol Kozier have been named on Terrace’s team. Terrace’s junior curling sensation, Aaron Geeraert, Michac! Dams, Ashley Johnson and Carmen Durand will make up the jun- ior mixed curling team. They will be coached by Randy Durand. And John Rilkoff wiil coach the junior youth male team. While Terrace’s men of skill, Danny — O’Brien, Bill Watson, Vic Dean and Bill Van