Squamish

On the weekend Mike and I went to Squamish.

We rented a little cabin and brought the dogs.

One of the things to do in Squamish is to hike the Chief.

This is a picture of it here. Rock climbers actually scale the face of it. We saw people with binoculars observing their progress.

We did attempt to hike the chief, but it is very steep and technical. We had the dogs with us and we were afraid that they might break something (other than their necks).

Also Mike chickened out. After the whole summer of hiking the grind he complained that his legs were going to jelly and that it was too hard.

We got high enough to see this water fall.

I'm standing on this little wooden platform over the waterfall.


The chief is in the Stawamus Provincial Park. It looked like a decent campground and the surroundings were beautiful.

If we didn't hate tents so much we may have stayed there.

Also in the park is Shannon Falls. Here I am in front of the falls.





















The dogs really enjoyed having their own bed.

The cabin was pretty nice. A twin, a day bed, a stove and kitchenette for $100 a night.

Right behind the cabin is a river. We could hear it, it was so close.

This place is very popular with anglers and we saw them all day walking by with all their gear on. After seeing one man with a salmon that wend from his waist to his toes we decided to take a peak.

As we watched, fish after fish after massive fish jumped out of the water. It must have been every 10 seconds we'd see on jump. You'd have to be trying not to catch a fish here.

Then we came in and got warmed up by the fire and played Poker.

I won twice! Mike won once!



And of course we had a fire. The whole trip would surely have been for naught if there was no campfire!

Here is mike getting it just right and making the biggest fire he could!

Here is Unos sitting on my lap. Fire or no, he was cold and kept climbing into my lap to get warm.

Tala also had no intention of sitting on the ground. These are definitely city dogs.
Now one thing I liked about this place was that there were a lot of dogs and they were all off leash. Tala and Unos had a great time playing with them.

Mike was getting them all to sit for burnt hotdogs.
Now see that one dog with the green eyes? That is not a dog. What is it? With those green eyes, all the better to see you with my dear!

Yep it's a wolf and it was massive. The owner said it is half timberwolf, half some other kind of wolf. I didn't hear the second half because I was a little stunned. I think she thought she was Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman or something. After the yappy chihuahuas and prancing yorkies of Yaletown, we were dropped into another dimension. That dog beside the wolf was quite large. Bigger than Tala anyway for a comparison in size.
And the grand finale! Mike and his hotrod.

Dad this one is for you. That is (was) someone's nice new crow bar with the price sticker still on.

Mike are you sure you don't want to move back to NB? You look like you came right off the cover of the Zealand Inquisitor.

Just got your GED and ready for the world!

Well, that's it folks. We had a great time roughing it for the weekend. That's enough for me for a while.

Heather in Vancouver

A few weeks ago, Heather came to visit me here in Vancouver.

I didn't realize I hadn't posted the pictures until now.

We had a great time. We had really nice weather while she was here and we did all kinds of different activities.

Here we are her last night out to dinner. Mike is taking the picture.

We rented "gliders" which are basically old fashioned bicycles. They usually have baskets and bells and great big seats.

That was really fun, I'd always wanted to do that when I'd seen the tourists riding them.

We rode down to the seawall at sunset.

We went to Chianatown and Gastown.

Here is Heather at the cowboy boot and hat shop in front of the Gassy Jack Statue.

The owner gave her this hat to wear for the picture, but she did go in and actually bought a nice straw one anyway.

While we were in Gastown, they were having this skateboard and trick bike festival.

They had a couple of blocks cordoned off and were playing music.

It was kind of cool to watch for a bit.

This guy is actually about to wipe out. I don't get skateboarding, it looks like it really hurts.

Heather got a kick out of this sign...









...and I got a kick out of this one.







Heather really enjoyed the seawall. She couldn't get over how gorgeous Vancouver is.

I finally found someone who is as crazy about it as I am.

I tried to tell her, how nice it was but I guess you have see it to believe it.
She also really enjoyed Tala and Unos.

Unos slept with her every night.

I tried to tell her that she could take him home with her, but she wasn't convinced.

We went down to the harbor and watched the sea planes take off.








We went to Chinatown. Here is Heather in front of the Chiantown gates.




I also showed her Canada Place, Stanley Park, English Bay Beach, the Granville Island Market, Dr. Sun Yat Sen Botanical Chinese Garden and the Steam Clock, but there are still many other things for her to do and see. Love ya Heather!