Well ... it's been really busy the last couple of weeks.
I had a really busy two weeks at work when I found out my Grandma Vicki had died out west in BC.
With the stress of work and a upcoming exam followed by that I decided to make my trip out west into a mini vacation on the back end after the funeral. I figured I needed some time to decompress and re-evaluate life.
On the thursday of my flight out west I was working my butt off at work in downtown Toronto all day up until 3pm and then I had to get over to my office and drop off some gear, get changed, have dinner, and catch my 8pm flight.
The flight was ok except that I could not watch TV or anything as the first 6 rows I was sitting in had busted screens. I ended up doing Suduko puzzles for 4 hours. The guy behind me was trying to keep up with how fast I was doing them as he could not figure out how I was doing them like that. I finally got to my aunt and uncles place in BC around 3am Ontario time and finally crashed around 4am as I only had about 6.5 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours. I was pretty screwed up at that point.
I managed to sleep a bit on the friday morning. I went over to my cousin Prescott's place. I figured that his darling wife Linda would be home and she was. We caught up life. She had to get some yard work done so I head off to Cliff Park for a few hours to take pictures of the falls. After that I headed back and went out to dinner with Prescott and the family before heading back to my aunt and uncles place.
Soon it would be saturday morning. I left early in order to head up to Princeton for the wake at Vicki's place as she did not want any kind of funeral services.
I stopped in Hope BC to visit Stacey Gauthier and his family. We were in high school together and head not seen each other since 1983. We spent a few hours catching up before I continued my journey.
I spent a bit of time stopping in various places in Manning Provincial Park to take pictures. I finally arrived in Princeton around 1pm for the festivities. I met lots of various 2nd cousins, etc that I did not know existed. I must admit that the family tree is pretty well screwed up on my mom's side of the family.
The festivities were pretty well starting to break up around 4ish. I decided to head off down to Washington State in order to get a jump on my roadtrip to Montana, I was heading there to meet one of my Flickr photo contacts. Larry does alot of wildlife photography and I told him back in January that I wanted to come out for a photo shoot with him and that he wanted to come out east and do a river trip with me. I got hold of him and asked if he wanted to actually meet up in person. He talked it over with with wife and said sure.
I stopped at the Wallmart in Omak to get a phone card for my Net10 (www.net10.com) US disposable phone card. I was hoping to get a $15 card but they don't sell them. My only option would have been a $30 card until I checked the prices of the phones. Walmart ... you gotta love them price rollbacks ... $19.99 for a new phone with a $30 card included. I ended up getting another phone.
After that I headed off to the Grand Coulee Dam at got there around 9pmish. I managed to get some great night time shots when I was about to leave when a whole bunch of the locals showed up. They informed me that there would be a laser show on the dam starting at 10pm. I stayed to watch the show and it was pretty cool to say the least.
I pushed on and drove for a bit more before I started to get tired. I ended up crashing in the back of the car in my sleeping bag for a few hours before pushing on. I made it to Larry's place in Montana around noon. I spent the afternoon with his wife Dorothy. We went to Costco and she dropped me off at the local river play spot while she continued shopping. I managed to get some pics kayakers playing on Brennans wave. After that it was back to the house where I finally met Larry and his daughter. I managed to get some pics of a hummingbird. Not the greatest but ok. We had a great dinner and came up with the game plan for monday.
We left early monday morning to head over to the Bison range that was about and hour away. We spent the morning / early afternoon taking pictures of bison, deer, antelope, flowers, etc. After that we headed over to Brennans to see if there were any there paddling. There were a couple of people river surfing on the wave. We headed back to Larrys for dinner. Everyone was pretty well bagged and crashed.
Tuesday ended being along day. Plan A was to drive 752 km to North Cascade National Park in Washington State and camp there for the night. I left around 5am after saying goodybye to Larry and Dorothy. The only two places I really want to stop for photos was the Grand Coulee Dam and the North Cascades. I managed to get some great daytime shots of the Grand Coulee. It turns out that this is the highest generating output station in the USA.
I left there and came across the Chief Joseph Dam about an hour away. I was out stretching my legs and reading the sign at the rest stop when I found out that there was a power plant tour at 2pm. I had 30 minutes to go through security and get registered for the tour. I pulled up to the big ass security gate and pushed the button. The guy on the other end was quite surprised I was there for a tour. They opened the gate and I headed toward the guard house when a guy came out and asked me for photo id and then told me where to park my car and wait for my guide.
Soon I was greeted by my guide. I asked her where the others were and she said I was it. It turned out I was the first tour visitor that they have had during the work week in weeks. I guess its not that popular that time of the year. The tour was fantastic. I was able to see extra stuff and was totally amazed with the place. The tour was over and I had to push on. I managed to get to the park around 5pmish. I stopped lots to take pics. It was raining and almost snowing at times. Thats what happens when you go from 300 feet to 5400 feet about sea level. I managed to get some great shots of a bear and some water falls.
I decided not to camp. The weather sucked and it was only about 1 or 2 degrees Celius. Plan A now turned into a plan B drive of 870Km to Burlington, WA where I decided to grab a room for the night.
I slept in a bit on Wednesday morning before heading off to Anacortes and Deception Pass for pictures before heading back up to BC. I stopped at two more Costco's for gas before getting up to the Duty Free at the border. Yes I have a Costco fetish. It's one of my goals to visit as many of them before I die. I found out why Costco has the Kirkland brand. It turns out the first Costco is in Kirkland, WA. I did not have a chance to go to that one as it meant I would have had to travel south towards Seattle and I did not have the time.
I picked up a bottle at the duty free for my cousin. It turns out that they are pretty sticky at the Sumas border crossing for booze. I claimed my bottle plus the bottle of wine I forgot I still had in the trunk from Montana. The lady let me off as I had a good explanation for the second bottle. She was also surprised that I went to Montana and back in three days. I ended up showing here the bear pics as she was interested in them before heading north. I stopped off to pick up an apple pie at another Costco before heading back to Prescott's place around 7pm. We spent some time catching up before I crashed for the night.
Thursday was a crappy weather day. I spent it checking work email and studying for my upcoming exam. I went to Paige's lacrosse game that night. I spent a good part of friday taking pictures at Michael's track and field day. I also managed to get some great shots of Casandra as she did not know I was there taking pics. After that it was back to the house for a bit before I headed off to my uncles for dinner. I managed to get some pics of Alex and Rachel with her friends before heading back to Prescotts.
I got up early saturday and headed up to Squamish area for the day. I managed to get great shots in town, beach area, the spit, and Shannon Falls before heading back to Vancouver. I took some pics at the Lighthouse Park before having a late night dinner with my cousin Mike and his girlfriend Trish. I managed to get back to Prescott's after 11:30pm. The front door was locked and I thought I was going to be scolded like one of the kids for beeing late. Turns out they were all up watching a movie. I watched the last of it with them before going to bed.
Sunday morning was pretty well spent packing up and relaxing. I headed over to my uncles for a visit. My cousin Mike and I went up to Golden Ears Provincial Park before dinner. After dinner it was a movie before heading off to the airport.
The flight was delayed by about an hour and landed in Toronto at 07:30am monday morining. I picked up my luggage and car and headed off to work before heading home to crash. I was pretty well bagged.
Yes it was a busy time out west but it was relaxing for me. I am now in study mode for a Cisco re-certification exam. My three years is almost up and alot of stuff changes. I have done alot of reading over the last two months and it is now crunch time as I have to pass before the 24th of june which means no paddling, pics, etc until it is done.
Pictures can be found here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/
