Migratory Byrds

Migratory Byrds

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Bloedel Conservatory + Queen Elizabeth Park

On Thursday, Mum and Dad's second full day here, Finley and I took them to Queen Elizabeth Park and the Bloedel Conservatory. Although I had been to the restaurant in Queen Elizabeth Park before, I'd never walked around the gardens or been into the Conservatory. The latter, a geodesic dome located within the 52-hectare park, was a great place to visit on a hot day! It was cool and lush inside, the flowers were beautiful and exotic, and there were many colourful birds. Photo opportunities galore!






(Dad's photo)

This is called a pitcher plant!

Orchid

Hoya

Coleus



Lily

Orchid









After leaving the dome, we had lunch at Seasons in the Park, which is beside the Conservatory...


(Dad's photo)

Then, we strolled around the gardens and spent a while sitting in the shade under a tree. We were at the park for about 5 hours in total and it was a very nice way to spend a day!

Queen Elizabeth Park and the Bloedel Conservatory in the distance

Looking up at Seasons in the Park from a quarry garden

(Dad's photo)

Miscellaneous July photos

Here are a few photos from July...

22 weeks



23 weeks


Enjoying a pie from the Aussie Pie Guy food truck

23 weeks

Eek!

Stuck!

With Loretta at Symphony in the Park


23.5 weeks - first symphony concert!

Picnic in a park

Another trip to the pool

24 weeks


Grandma and Grandpa (i.e. my parents, David and Wendy) arrived on July 23rd! Here they are fresh off the plane, their first ever trip outside of Australia (they handled it like seasoned travellers - no jet lag!)...

First cuddle with Grandma

First cuddle with Grandpa

It's hard to believe Finley will be 6 months old in a few more days. He's full of energy, wriggles, bounces, smiles, giggles, cuddles, drool and charm... and he's already trying to figure out how to crawl! We're loving every minute with our wonderful little boy!

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Salmon Arm long weekend, Post 2

Continuing on from Post 1...

On Sunday morning, we took the opportunity to take a few nice photos before heading to the meeting just down the road.





After the meeting, we were invited to join one of the families for lunch (we already knew them from when they lived in Vancouver). They were planning to have a buffet brunch at a hotel on the lake... a place Nathan had found out about and thus we were already planning to go there for lunch! So that worked out rather nicely. :)

The lunch crew



Jack

The view from our table

Here are some gorgeous shots of Finley and Aunty Roxy after lunch...



And back in our hotel room...




In the late afternoon we went for another swim, and then had dinner at the inn's restaurant, Table 24. I enjoyed this meal even more than the previous night at Hedi's Bistro. Highly recommend this restaurant... and being able to walk back to our room afterwards was very nice!

The next morning, Monday (i.e. Canada Day, July 1st), Roxy and Nathan needed to leave early to drive back to Calgary. Ben, Finley and I hung out in our room for a while longer before checking out and driving to a lakeside park in Salmon Arm. We had wanted to get pies again for lunch, but the shop was closed due to it being a public holiday, so Ben hunted down some Indian takeout instead. It was an extremely hot day, but our lunch spot beneath a big tree in the park was very scenic.

Naptime




After lunch we set off on the journey home. It ended up taking us 8 hours again, but this was mostly because our car decided to suddenly turn itself off while driving over 100km/hr, so we ended up stuck on the side of the highway for 1.25 hours! It wasn't particularly pleasant to sit a black car in 37 degree heat, with trucks zipping past inches away, no shade, minimal breeze, and a hot sweaty baby (who was quite happy throughout this experience, actually)! However, we all survived, and once the tow truck arrived our car decided to start up again, so we paid his call-out fee and continued on our merry way! Seems our little RX8 had just been complaining about driving up a long hill with the air-con on full blast and the pedal to the floor in such heat. :)

And that was our lovely long weekend in Salmon Arm!