My 6 year old daughter has a new idol – the British pop phenom Mika and his hit song Lollipop. She watches it over and over on YouTube, and seems like she can never get enough of it. Yesterday I told her “I see that you really like this song. I’ll go ahead and buy you the album”. Her reply puzzled me – “but why, dad, we already have it!” I wasn’t sure what she means, so I said “no, I didn’t buy it yet” to which I replied “but we already have it on YouTube, daddy.”
Ahh, got it.
It never occurred to her that music has to be purchased. And really, why bother when it’s all available online? I guess either we or YouTube or both break some law by playing over and over, but than again maybe not. Since bandwidth is basically free and sites like Pandora and Last.fm stream the music I like, there’s no real reason to buy music anymore except for maybe to help some starving artists.
The interesting part is that I knew all that for a while now, but needed my 6 year old daughter to help me connect the dots…

Well, turns out we where way too ambitious; we didn’t even cross into Oregon. We ended up at the City of Mt. Shasta, at the foothills of Mt. Shasta (duh…). It’s a wonderful little city with a special atmosphere. Lake Siskiyou, next door, is mesmerizing and serene, providing for dramatic views with the snowy mountain at the backdrop. We spent most of our time at the Lake Siskiyou Resort and Campground, celebrated Fourth of July with the locals, and watched the fireworks over the lake. Can’t wait to go back again.

We’re going on a family vacation driving an RV to the pacific northwest. We don’t have any firm plans – just a desire to hit Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Not sure we’ll make it that far though. We’ve been there 10 years ago, and can’t wait to visit again. It was before the age of digital cameras, so the photos are fading away in some old misplaced album. Besides, it should be fun to take the ferry from Port Angeles to the island. I’ll post some pictures when we’re back.