Salt Spring Island

Hope everyone is having a great summer so far!  Unfortunately for the 2^nd summer in a row I’ve managed to injure my knee (same thing as last year….retinaculum tear/strain which will probably take a few months to heal although I’m holding out hope for ultimate nationals).   I’m currently doing lots of cycling, squats, and other physio to try and get back to chasing after discs ASAP though.

That’s the bad news.  The good news is that Van has had some amazing weather recently which has been great for beach picnics, disc golf, watching ultimate from the sideline, and general lounging.   As well, Rod and I took the plunge and moved in together to rent a lovely townhouse in central Vancouver. We have a 2^nd bedroom and enjoy guests, so let me know if you are coming to town!  No more uncomfortable sofa-bed!

Over Easter Rod and I joined my family on Vancouver Island and took a day trip to Salt Spring Island.  Salt Spring is the largest of the Gulf Islands and easy to get to with a short ferry ride from Crofton. 

Hammin’ it up while waiting for the ferry.

Killing more time by taking a walk around Crofton.  Crofton is definitely a lumber town.  Everything is sponsored by the lumber industry including this “Paper Way”.

Ferry ride to Salt Spring

Salt Spring has a great Saturday market with artisans and food producers of all types.  Sculptors, knitters, jam-makers, painters, farmers, didgeridoo-hypnotists, you name it.   The only rule is that vendors have to “make it, bake it or grow it” themselves.    There were lots of delicious free samples (e.g. small batch lemon and basil infused goat cheese, deluxe chocolates with suggested wine pairings, and how about the yummy spiced carrot chips being handed out by a nice man with homemade Jesus-sandals).   Parking was a bit of a show-de-gong, but once we got out of our car it was fun.   

Unfortunately I was too busy downing the free samples to snap any pics at the market, but here are a few from the island.

Funky-looking moving garden statues which twirl in the wind.

Colourful peeling bark and smooth sides of an Arbutus tree.

That’s it for now.  Will post again soon with hiking pics from Alberta and BC.

Winter in Vancouver and the North Shore

It’s been downright summer-like, never mind spring recently here in Vancouver, and high-time to post some photos from snowshoeing and other winter stuff I was up to in the last few months.

First though a shot of my family from January I forgot to include in the last post:

I did a few short snow-shoeing trips up Seymour and Cypress.  Hannah, Matt and I had a good snowshoe one crisp morning up to First Peak at Seymour. The red trail markers helped us from getting lost in the winter wonderland.

 

 I also did a solo trip up Hollyburn (Cypress Mountain) which is always pretty breathtaking during an inversion when the city is under a thick layer of clouds below.

Good shot of the Lions (twin mountains) from the peak.  The Lions are a Vancouver landmark; the BC Lions football team and Lions Gate bridge are named after them.

The ubiquitous whiskey jacks (officially the gray jay) were out in full force, boldly trying to steal lunches and whistling and chattering up a storm.

Once the snow was mostly gone I did an early season hike with Allison and some friends up in Lynn Valley (North Van) to Norvan Falls.  The area was logged in the early 1900s and there are plenty of abandoned artifacts along the way including an old logging cart and a rusty bucket.  There was lots of snow which made it pretty slow going in normal hiking boots (I need to invest in microspikes next year), but the beautiful falls were a nice reward. 

In February I had a business trip to Ottawa presenting some interesting stuff to the Canadian Ice Service to help automatically distinguish ice from water in radar images.  After the work part of the trip I enjoyed a fun-filled weekend with Rod’s sister Annie and her partner Grant.  I was lucky and was there the last weekend that the canal was open for skating.  

Annie and Grant hamming it up on the canal: 

I also tried hot yoga for the first time (sweaty but good!) although I managed to embarrass myself at the beginning of the class by walking straight into the floor-to-ceiling glass wall.   They kept it so clean!  Over the course of one weekend I also went to the restaurant Town (delicious blue cheese salad and stuffed meatballs), walked around Byward Market, had drinks at the stalwart pub the Manx,  dinner with my South-American-travel-pal Val and her 3 kids under 3, and finished the whirlwind tour with a quick cross-country ski in the Gatineau Hills.  Thanks Annie, Grant, Alistair, Amy, Val and Mehmet for a great visit!

To finish this post off are a few shots of art from UBC’s museum of Anthropology (highly recommended for a rainy day in Vancouver) and a beautiful ski day.

Bill Reid’s “The Raven and The First Men” (also featured on the old $20 bill). 

Calgary

Sorry for the lack of posts recently.   I’m afraid that Rod and I haven’t had as many adventures of late since he got a concussion in early November.  There isn’t even a good story with heroic, athletic feats to go along with it – he simply walked straight into the edge of a door at an alarming speed one evening.    We’ve been having some quiet evenings since then, but hopefully my partner-in-crime will be back for more adventures this spring and summer.

Here are some pics from my visit home to Calgary in December.   I’ve been to a lot of different places in the world, but I still think Calgary’s Nose Hill park in the winter is beautiful when everything is dusted with frost.   Kiran and I had some good walks, although Christmas Day at -25 degrees was a little much for this soft Vancouverite!

 Tentatively about to venture out on the really cold day…

Looking much more relaxed now that the Chinook had blown in and the sun has come out.

We also made a trip to the Calgary zoo to see the new penguin exhibit.   We went just after the nasty week of -25 degree days and the animals were all pretty excited to stretch their legs.    These King penguins looked dignified until a few of them had troubles with the slippery ice.   Filmed in the wild, these penguin bloopers made me smile too.

 I’m afraid I didn’t get any photos of the other species (Humbolt, Gentoo and Rockhopper), although I do love the rockhopper punk hairdos so much that I wanted to share (source here).

In addition to the penguins we were treated with rare glimpses of a playful, pouncing snow leopard, red pandas, and three juvenile tigers resting just after mealtime.   I love the big kitties.

Fall 2012, BC

It’s February and I’m afraid I’ve got a case of the blahs.  I can’t complain about freezing temperatures and snow like the rest of Canada (or requiring a balaclava whenever I leave the house), but we’ve had a few weeks of general fog/rain here in Van.  Some North American groundhogs predicted an early spring, although there wasn’t much consensus and I think we have a few long grey weeks of winter still ahead of us.

I’ve been enjoying the odd game of winter turf ultimate and the occasional snow shoe as well as too much Island Farms mango ice cream,  lovely sad playlists on Songza, and looking at cat pictures (here is also entertaining).

Time to look back and re-cap some good times this autumn. Photo creds go to a few random ultimate passerbys, Rod, and Sam’s wedding photographers.

I had a great time playing Pumpkin Pull this fall, one of my first tournaments back after my knee injury and my first one sans-brace.   We benefited from all of the competitive players being down in Florida for US Nationals, but were still very happy to have finished a close 2^nd in the A-final on the Sunday.  Since it was Halloween everyone was dressed up and our theme was “It ain’t easy being green”. 

Unfortunately some of us had removed parts of our costumes by the time this photo was taken,  but we had Green Lantern,  a Cuban revolutionary (Dev), Sailor Jupiter (note the awesome cleat coverings Jason made for his costume!), a Green man (a little too tight Pete…), an  M&M and I was Peter Pan (I had a hat but it got too hot by the end of the game).

More Green Man action:

For those of you not familiar with the Green Men, they're Canucks Fans who don skin-tight spandex suits and sit next to the opposing team's penalty box (or not sit; they also like to do hand-stands against the glass and rub themselves against it, much to the distaste of whoever is in the penalty box at the time).  They've been inducted into the ESPN Hall of Fans, but have been asked not to touch the glass.   I'm not sure if they're around for the recently-kick-started 2013 hockey season.  

I also went to Rod’s sister’s wedding.  Rod was a rock star and wowed everyone with a song at the ceremony and then was a charming MC at the reception.  Great job honey!

 

But most important of course are the bride and groom.  I love how happy they both are in this shot!

The cake was pretty classy too.  I’d get one just like this, except I’d have to insist on ice cream cake.  Not sure how much that would set me back at Dairy Queen. 

Quick trip up the gondola at Whistler with some friends visiting from Idaho.  Too bad I didn’t get any good photos of them….

It's starting to get foggy on the West Coast, but that didn’t stop Allison, Hannah and I for a quick hike to Eagle Bluffs. We didn’t spot any eagles but we did see a Momma black bear with two cubs on our hike out.  The zoom on my camera is pretty pathetic and it’s hard to make them out, but it was probably better that way!  

Finally, Rod and I did an energetic hike up Lynn Peak on the North Shore.  The fog closed in while hiking up (the title shot is from this hike) and it felt like something out of Sleepy Hollow.  More sunny snowshoe pics to follow at some point!