Day 07 – 27-Sep-2007
I left my cousins place a 6am in order to catch the ferry to the Sunshine Coast. The ride over was nice. I managed to take a couple of pictures as it was foggy and overcast for most of it.
I had breakfast at Molly’s Reach in Gibson. It was pretty cool to actually see this place as I grew up watching the Beachcombers in the 70’s and 80’s.
I headed up to Egmont. I could not find some of the Ontario paddlers that were going to be there. I did the 4km hike wearing my Crocs into the Skookumchuk tidal rapids. I managed to see the whirlpools, etc for the outflowing tide just before noon.
I hung out in the woods for the rest of the day as the other rapid that the paddlers use would not be in until 5:29pm for incoming tide. I spent the afternoon taking pictures of the rainforest and marine life and having a nap under my umbrella as it was raining. By this point I had less than 9 hours sleep in the last 58.
The Skook wave started coming in around 4ish slowly building to its peak. I managed to take some pictures of two paddlers from Colorado as the Ontario paddlers were not around. The pictures were not exactly great quality as it was crappy weather but at least I got some.
I did the 4km hike out and decided to head back to Vancouver as I hand time to make the last Ferry. I managed to get to my other cousins place around 10:30ish. I finally crashed after midnight. I woke up an hour later with my hand still on the mouse as I was waiting for the pictures to upload.
I will be in Vancouver for a few days and then off to the Revelstoke, Glacier, Yoho, Banff - Jasper parks for the rest of my journey.
Link to some pictures
Friday, September 28, 2007
2007 Vacation - Day 12
Day 08 28-Sep-2007 – Day 11 01-Oct-2007
I spent most of my time at my cousin Prescott’s place with his family. I played mister fixit around the house fixing things that were out of Prescott’s area of expertise. Well not exactly on one of the jobs as he is a plumber by trade … I ended up taking a hairball the size of my fist out of his daughters bathtub as the water was draining out very slow. Linda has invited me back next year at the same time. She said she will start making a list and will pay my flight out. We will see about that.
I also had dinner with my aunt, uncle, and cousin from my moms side of the family. I found out from my aunt and uncle that I had relatives in Revelstoke, BC.
I can’t believe how much is has rained over the last few days. At least 50mm of rain a day. I hate the rain and even worse I hate driving in it.
I ended up staying in Maple Ridge one extra day due to the crappy weather in the area I was going.
Day 12 – 02-Oct-2007
I left Maple Ridge at 04:30am and headed east. I was hoping to get at least to Revelstoke by 4pm. I had to make a 180km detour in order to see my last remaining living grandmother in Princeton, BC. I spent a couple of hours visiting and continued my journey.
I stopped in Kamloops at the Costco for lunch. I have been to at least five different ones since I have started my vacation. Addiction is a good thing?!
I stopped to see the Last Spike. This was the last spike of the railway linking the east to the west.
I managed to make it to Revelstoke around 4:30ish. My mom was born here and I thought it would be nice to check the place out. It is a nice little town. I went up to the dam and took a couple of pictures. This is the smaller dam. The larger Mica dam was another 175km up the road but I was not going there.
I found the house my Aunt Shirley lived at. She supposedly held me when I was a baby. It felt kind of strange knocking on someone’s doors and asking if they were home or not. She thought I was a salesman until I explained who I was. I actually got invited in the door without even having to show ID. She filled me in on her family and I filled here in on what was going on with mine. Go figure it turns out we are all dysfunctional. She also lives at the corner of the street named after my mothers side of the family. She invited me out to dinner with her daughter Debbie.
After dinner I continued my journey eastward. I managed to get to Glacier National Park. I decided to grab a room at the Best Western at the bottom of the glacier. It is also just west of Rogers Pass. I hope to get some nice pictures in the morning.
Link to some pictures
I spent most of my time at my cousin Prescott’s place with his family. I played mister fixit around the house fixing things that were out of Prescott’s area of expertise. Well not exactly on one of the jobs as he is a plumber by trade … I ended up taking a hairball the size of my fist out of his daughters bathtub as the water was draining out very slow. Linda has invited me back next year at the same time. She said she will start making a list and will pay my flight out. We will see about that.
I also had dinner with my aunt, uncle, and cousin from my moms side of the family. I found out from my aunt and uncle that I had relatives in Revelstoke, BC.
I can’t believe how much is has rained over the last few days. At least 50mm of rain a day. I hate the rain and even worse I hate driving in it.
I ended up staying in Maple Ridge one extra day due to the crappy weather in the area I was going.
Day 12 – 02-Oct-2007
I left Maple Ridge at 04:30am and headed east. I was hoping to get at least to Revelstoke by 4pm. I had to make a 180km detour in order to see my last remaining living grandmother in Princeton, BC. I spent a couple of hours visiting and continued my journey.
I stopped in Kamloops at the Costco for lunch. I have been to at least five different ones since I have started my vacation. Addiction is a good thing?!
I stopped to see the Last Spike. This was the last spike of the railway linking the east to the west.
I managed to make it to Revelstoke around 4:30ish. My mom was born here and I thought it would be nice to check the place out. It is a nice little town. I went up to the dam and took a couple of pictures. This is the smaller dam. The larger Mica dam was another 175km up the road but I was not going there.
I found the house my Aunt Shirley lived at. She supposedly held me when I was a baby. It felt kind of strange knocking on someone’s doors and asking if they were home or not. She thought I was a salesman until I explained who I was. I actually got invited in the door without even having to show ID. She filled me in on her family and I filled here in on what was going on with mine. Go figure it turns out we are all dysfunctional. She also lives at the corner of the street named after my mothers side of the family. She invited me out to dinner with her daughter Debbie.
After dinner I continued my journey eastward. I managed to get to Glacier National Park. I decided to grab a room at the Best Western at the bottom of the glacier. It is also just west of Rogers Pass. I hope to get some nice pictures in the morning.
Link to some pictures
Thursday, September 27, 2007
2007 Vacation - Day 06
Day 06 – 28-Sep-2007
I left at 4am to drive over to the ferry terminal. I was 5th car in line in my lane. I figured the cost of $14.45 was well worth the price of gas and driving for another few hours to reach my destination for the day of Seattle. I am going to play tourist for the day in the city before heading up to Vancouver.
I think I found POBO or at least his bike. It was beside my car on the ferry. I took some pictures of it but could not wait for its owner to come back.
I managed to get into downtown Seattle at 06:30am. I washed up and put on some clean clothes in order to not look like a country hick.
I spent some time at the Pike Market. I watched the fish being unloaded and the stands being setup. I came across a really neat hot pepper produce stand.
I also managed to take the Underground City tour. Thanks Peter for the suggestion. It was really informative and entertaining.
I managed to head over to Chinatown for a Dim Sum lunch at the House of Hong. The food was excellent. I pigged out but it was worth it.
Well it was getting close to 1:30pm. I figured I should leave and head up to Vancouver before the rush hour traffic started. I managed to get to my cousins place just before 6pm as I had to stop for a 20 minute nap on the way up as I have had less than four hours sleep since the morning of the 25th.
Mike and I went out for dinner at Hons House of Noodles and then for a walk around the marina. Lots of money tied up down there.
I have had a few questions from people on what I am using to take my pictures. It is a Pentax K10D SLR. It is the top of the line Pentax 10 mega pixel camera. It has a full aluminum body and is fairly water resistant. I rarely use a tripod. The only time I have used a tripod is the pictures with me in them. I normally shoot my camera in full manual mode. I am getting really good at hold the camera steady down to 1/6th of a second shutter speed, Sometimes even a 1/30th of a second for really low light situations.
I have officially put 3,000 KM on the rental car since Friday.
Link to pictures
I left at 4am to drive over to the ferry terminal. I was 5th car in line in my lane. I figured the cost of $14.45 was well worth the price of gas and driving for another few hours to reach my destination for the day of Seattle. I am going to play tourist for the day in the city before heading up to Vancouver.
I think I found POBO or at least his bike. It was beside my car on the ferry. I took some pictures of it but could not wait for its owner to come back.
I managed to get into downtown Seattle at 06:30am. I washed up and put on some clean clothes in order to not look like a country hick.
I spent some time at the Pike Market. I watched the fish being unloaded and the stands being setup. I came across a really neat hot pepper produce stand.
I also managed to take the Underground City tour. Thanks Peter for the suggestion. It was really informative and entertaining.
I managed to head over to Chinatown for a Dim Sum lunch at the House of Hong. The food was excellent. I pigged out but it was worth it.
Well it was getting close to 1:30pm. I figured I should leave and head up to Vancouver before the rush hour traffic started. I managed to get to my cousins place just before 6pm as I had to stop for a 20 minute nap on the way up as I have had less than four hours sleep since the morning of the 25th.
Mike and I went out for dinner at Hons House of Noodles and then for a walk around the marina. Lots of money tied up down there.
I have had a few questions from people on what I am using to take my pictures. It is a Pentax K10D SLR. It is the top of the line Pentax 10 mega pixel camera. It has a full aluminum body and is fairly water resistant. I rarely use a tripod. The only time I have used a tripod is the pictures with me in them. I normally shoot my camera in full manual mode. I am getting really good at hold the camera steady down to 1/6th of a second shutter speed, Sometimes even a 1/30th of a second for really low light situations.
I have officially put 3,000 KM on the rental car since Friday.
Link to pictures
2007 Vacation - Day 05
Day 05 – 25-Sep-2007
I ended up getting up at 6am. I knew the girls wanted to hit the trail early. I fired up the jet engine stove and boiled water for drinks and then put the toaster on the stove for waffles. I even heated up the syrup containers in the water. I told the girls I would make them breakfast since they paid for the camping. Beth was out of the tent first as Lauretta is apparently not a morning person. The girls said it was the best breakfast that they had had so far on their trip. We packed up camp after breakfast was done. For me it was easy. Open the car and throw everything in.
I told the girls I wanted to take a picture of them with their packs on for my blog report. Beth asked me for my email and blog address. We hope to keep in touch. I told them to give me a call if they ever come out Toronto way. I also told them the next time I go paddling in South Bend, Indiana I would take a couple of extra days and head over to Chicago to visit.
I went back up to Paradise to take some more pictures of the mountain and other places I noticed from my trip up yesterday. I spent almost two hours but I think it was worth it with the shots I managed to get.
I plotted out my route for my trip to the coast. I tried not to stop too many times as I wanted to be at Kalaloch State Park there for sunset on the beach. I did make a stop just before Pacific Beach. You were allowed to drive up and down the beach. I actually put my feet into the Pacific Ocean for a few minutes but realized afterwards I forgot to take my picture. I was also amused at tsunami warning signs as I have never seen them before.
I made it up to Kalaloch in plenty of time. I managed to have a nap and make some grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. I managed to get some nice shots of the beach and trees as the sun was going down. I was quite happy with the pictures.
The plan was to drive up to the state campground near Forks. I decided to forgo the drive in the early morning fog by driving all the way to Port Gamble which would only be about 10 minutes at the most from catching the Kingston to Edmonds ferry in the morning. I managed to pull into port gamble around midnight. I found a free wireless signal and uploaded my day four blog and pictures. After that I caught a few hours sleep in the car along with all the other people that were pulling with the same idea.
Link to some pictures Link to pictures
I ended up getting up at 6am. I knew the girls wanted to hit the trail early. I fired up the jet engine stove and boiled water for drinks and then put the toaster on the stove for waffles. I even heated up the syrup containers in the water. I told the girls I would make them breakfast since they paid for the camping. Beth was out of the tent first as Lauretta is apparently not a morning person. The girls said it was the best breakfast that they had had so far on their trip. We packed up camp after breakfast was done. For me it was easy. Open the car and throw everything in.
I told the girls I wanted to take a picture of them with their packs on for my blog report. Beth asked me for my email and blog address. We hope to keep in touch. I told them to give me a call if they ever come out Toronto way. I also told them the next time I go paddling in South Bend, Indiana I would take a couple of extra days and head over to Chicago to visit.
I went back up to Paradise to take some more pictures of the mountain and other places I noticed from my trip up yesterday. I spent almost two hours but I think it was worth it with the shots I managed to get.
I plotted out my route for my trip to the coast. I tried not to stop too many times as I wanted to be at Kalaloch State Park there for sunset on the beach. I did make a stop just before Pacific Beach. You were allowed to drive up and down the beach. I actually put my feet into the Pacific Ocean for a few minutes but realized afterwards I forgot to take my picture. I was also amused at tsunami warning signs as I have never seen them before.
I made it up to Kalaloch in plenty of time. I managed to have a nap and make some grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. I managed to get some nice shots of the beach and trees as the sun was going down. I was quite happy with the pictures.
The plan was to drive up to the state campground near Forks. I decided to forgo the drive in the early morning fog by driving all the way to Port Gamble which would only be about 10 minutes at the most from catching the Kingston to Edmonds ferry in the morning. I managed to pull into port gamble around midnight. I found a free wireless signal and uploaded my day four blog and pictures. After that I caught a few hours sleep in the car along with all the other people that were pulling with the same idea.
Link to some pictures Link to pictures
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