Haiku

Fall days

Walks in fog and rain

(sigh)vizi-vest
-Bailey

Eat your hearts out, you poets from Puslinch and Dorian

Vancouver trip-in no particular order

We had a 2-day trip to Vancouver for a baseline MRI for the new doctor.

Had a great trip.

We had to go over to Coal Harbour and look at sailboats of course, and Jimmy Pattison's boat was there - for you Easterners, he owns most of BC, including Save-On Foods, Overwaitea, car dealerships, something about part of the Bank of Nova Scotia etc etc. We stayed at the Sylvia Hotel on English Bay-a heritage building-and a great location. Built I think in 1912, it is surrounded by huge high rises, but is a glory to behold.(http://sylviahotel.com/)

I had to show you the size of the vine branches which cover the hotel-amazing.
The wind got up, the sailboats went home and all that was left were the tankers anchored in the inlet. Click on this one to enlarge and see the lights on the ships
A beautiful Sunday, and many people using the walkways. The bay was full of boats including what looked like a Viking ship, high at both ends with a square red & white striped sail.

Go figure.

What a place to live!!!!

Salmon Cycle

Certainly not a very good picture, but these days, every stream running into the ocean is full of heroic salmon making their way upstream to spawn and fertilize. At Lang Bay Hatchery south of town the creek is divided so some of them go into the building so eggs can be collected then they are sent on their way-

Since many of them are near dead, the gulls, eagles and probably bears are hovering around this food source. Most of the fish we saw today were about 10 lb spring or coho, although news in the paper reported that 2000 fish went upstream there on Wednesday and one was a 50 lb Tyee(chinook).

I haven't gotten fish-wise. Harley was with us explaining fish lore.....

a blustery Sunday

and while checking that our boat was secure, we got to see the

HMCS Vancouver, anchored here before heading north to Campbell River.

The Navy site tells us:

HMCS VANCOUVER is the second of twelve HALIFAX Class Frigates built under the Canadian Patrol Frigate Program. One of the most advanced warships in the world, it was designed primarily as a general purpose frigate, carrying extensive anti-submarine, anti-surface and anti-air defenses systems. In peacetime, HMCS VANCOUVER is capable of employing state-of-the-art technology to carry out a variety of important missions, assigned according to its state of readiness, High or Normal, by Commander Canadian Fleet Pacific. Such missions may include lengthy deployments, Task Group Exercises, Search and Rescue, or Fisheries and Sovereignty patrols. Notwithstanding, no matter what the mission, VANCOUVER is always preparing its teams for the simplest to most complex of scenarios.

So there you go.

If you look closely you will see the crew reboarding from a tender alongside the ship.

It's not a very nice day for them to see Powell River......

Thanksgiving weekend-Victoria Marathon

Our weekend started in Qualicum Beach where June & Mike (June from nursing school) were on vacation. Their son and family live in Coquitlam so they are out here often.

Daughter-in-law, Sue was also running in the marathon.

Derek & Lesley at 7:30 AM just heading out to run 42 km!!! In a Victoria drizzle. 9,000 + runners, if you can imagine the chaos.

Our cheering section at the 40 km mark. They both felt they would need encouragement by then. Those kids yelled their hearts out for everyone. We saw them both pass by, then bundled the gang into the van and headed for the finish line-with about 10,000 others
Lesley at the finish line-we missed Derek. His time was 3:42 and hers was 4 hours even.Amazing.
The next day at Beacon Hill park. I love this picture of Carly-totally carefree, happy-go-lucky. Dad is telling her to sit still which is an impossibility for her. Devon is looking like a little angel (not)- and Jamie seems to be nearly a teenager.
Bailey was glad to get home!!

This weekend

I love this picture-a couple of old geezers solving the problems of the world. That's Marv who can tie every knot in the book (and Ken who can't) on our way back from Texada on Saturday
This is Madeira Park harbour.

Ken had a Lions Club meeting in Pender Harbour, so we took the ferry south of town and I wandered around the area while he was at the meeting.

Bailey & I ate sushi in the gazebo for lunch.

We can't quite figure it out but we think Pender Harbour is a conglomeration of several little settlements lumped together under that name-

including Garden Bay, Madeira Park, Irvine's Landing etc.

Little harbours, and big houses hanging from cliffs. Lots of little islands-it's very pretty.