The thief and The Chief....

Some low-life bottom feeder broke into my car a few weeks back and stole what little was there. Unfortunately, I'd left my camera in the glove box after taking out of my riding pack that day -

Goodby camera.
Goodbye Oakleys.
Goodbye maglite.
Goodbye Ikea pencil? - personally I think it was stolen to order ;-)

Anyway, it's loss kinda of put a dampner on things and what with being rreeeeeaally busy I just havent gotten around to blogging. Well, as the Pointer Sisters would say, I'm back! So here's the first of a few quick blogs to catch up with myself, you, me....whatever!

A couple days after Ma and Tim went home and before I went back to school, Michelle (Mrs Jon) and I nipped down to Squamish so I could finally hike up The Chief. I've talked about it here before so I won't bore you with it again, suffice to say it's a bloodly big lump o' rock, 1000ft high. Random pics:





somewhere up there



















friendly locals at the top














Michelle (Whistler in the distance)

















Howe Sound - thats a long thin inlet that looks more like a lake - the far side is The Sunshine Coast - still mainland












apparently someone broke the world speed record for a windsurfer here as the wind rips nicely between the mountains









On the way back down.

Thanks Michelle, it was cool.....the bloody bigness of the rock that is - the weather was pretty hot!!

Cheers

Ma & Tim part9 - come back soon!

Cheers to you both. Thanks for visiting and come back soon. It's been great to have you here to share a little of my new adventures












Off to Calgary via Banff, Jasper etc













Drive safe

Ma & Tim part8

Ma really wanted to see Whistler. I think this may have been because I spend so much of my time there :-) but whatever the reason it was a great day

...although I did wonder how Ma would cope with the lifts.....






we went up the gondola to the mountain lodge and all was fine. I think the big (bus sized) cable car up Grouse the other day helped her get over any worries she had. Well done Mum.

Then it was the big challenge. The Peak chairlift. As you can see from the pic (left) the peak chair goes up pretty steeply over some scary rocky bits....and actually, I find it the scariest lift at Whistler - by far!!......but I forgot to mention that to Ma!! ;-)










and she made it! No problem, no fuss and we were enjoying the panoramic views from the top. Well done Ma!




(notice the snow)





















Proof! Yay!















'top o' the world!








and she even managed to clamber up onto the olympic thingy for a photo
















here's another view from the top

and another

and another one of Ma :-)



beleive it or not, this is the dreamy powder slope in the winter (check out the pic of "Headwall" from April - about half way down the page)











and then all too soon we headed back down again. Mucho respect to Ma for doing equally well on the way down - despite the fact the lift goes traight over a cliff (eeek!)

unfortunately we hadnt seen any bears but it was a good day never the less.













....but then....what was that? It was a bear, then another!

If you can spot the bear in this photo you can get a mystery prize - and yes, there is one there somewhere!!








just a quick snack of nachos before we head back... (Canadian portions)







and that was Whistler done. Well done Ma for doing so well with the lifts despite your fear of heights. You were brilliant.

Ma & Tim part7

It was "bluebird" today so we headed off to Whistler. Tim decided to chill out at the RV park for the day so it was just Ma and me (did I wear him out moving house? sorry Tim and THANKYOU for helping - you and Ma were both brilliant).


Anyway, on the way to Whistler we went through Squamish which is completly dominated by "The Cheif" a 1000ft lump o' rock - you simply cannot get any idea of how impressive this is until you see it with your own eyes.










tricklying down the end of it (instead of gushing as it usually does) is Shannon Falls, still impressive though. Here's Ma a little way up from the bottom - to give you an idea of scale those tiny trees you can see at the top are full size 50ft trees....


checkout the difference in the water in April







....and onward to Whistler :-)

Ma & Tim part6/Moving Day (Thur 31st August)

Today was moving day. I decided a while back to switch to planB and stay in college for 16 months to complete a Diploma instead of planA to do a Certificate in 8 months so of course, I need twice the money to support myself so economies had to be made, the biggest of which was to move from my own appartment on the North Shore to share a place in Metrotown, Burnaby (Metro-hell as Michelle calls it!?)


Fortunately its a huge apartment and my room is the biggest, plenty of room for a couple bikes....












the TV.....





a desk to work at.....








but, errr, not a sofa!!



Well, it almost fitted. Since then I've done a bit of woodwork on the bed to take a couple inches off it and voila! It fits.



My new home :-)

Ma & Tim part5

To be honest I cant actually remember which day we did this , so lets just call it part 5!

We decided to check out where the RV park was that Ma and Tim would be staying at once I moved apartments. It didnt take long. So we thought we'd have a look at Burnaby Lake just across the street so we parked up and walked along the footpath toward the lake....




and walked.....













and walked.....








and walked.....













and walked........










and finally made it to a huuuuuuuuuuge lilly pond with some ducks. Hmmm.












if you're in the area and have a chance to go here,













DONT BOTHER! unless you like walking ;-)

Ma & Tim day3

Today was going to be at Whistler but unfortunately the weather wasn't playing so we went to sample Stanley Park instead.


They have a really good Aquarium in the park with all sorts of fishy things like Porpoises....











































and sea lions











and Beluga Whales













and jelly fish














and look, I found Nemo













ahhhh, pretty...












....good camera eh!
















we didnt think this Cayman was real - until I took this photo and it the flash made it move (bloody tourists!)










after the aquarium, we took a horse drawn ride around the park, here's some first nation totem poles....










and after that I took us to Prospect pointso we could take in the view from of Lions Gate Bridge from the highest point in the park....

...and we saw SEVEN raccoons! Very cute creatures but they're a bit of a pest so you cant feed them

(Notice how they're inches away from a 200ft cliff!!)





and here's a view of the freeway...err, I mean the bridge




















...and then Ma dissapeared into the trees.....well, one tree. There's quite alot of of trees like this, its where a tree grows on top of an old stump, the stump rots away leaving the bottom of the tree hollow. Kinda cool.

Ma and Tim day2 part2

Obviously we couldn't be happy with seeing only one place today so after a quick lunch in Gastown we met up with Kiyoka and headed to the mountains....


Grouse Mountain to be precise, via the 'skyride' - a cable car to you and me....

it was mums first ride in a cable car (I think) so she was pretty nervous but its like a bus so no too traumatic. Well done Ma.









the view's pretty good up here - you can see Mount Baker in Washington State - mind you, its visible from anywhere in Vancouver on a clear day - well, it was a good view of it from here.

It's a doment volcano y'know - in the same chain as Mt St Helens - sometimes you can see it steaming.... all together now "ooooooooooo"






its a ski hill in winter but in the summer its home to local hikers as well as tourists











here we are trying to keep Ma's mind off the cable car ride ;-)

it was great for me to have Kiyoka and Mum meet - just a shame Aachal couldnt be there too :-(









they have a cool bird show

(yes, feathered variety thank you very much)










although today the falcon wasnt behaving and decided to just sit on top of a building!













oh, and they have two resident grizzly bears too




























if you're in town, check it out