Whistler day trip

On Saturday, August 17th, we headed to Whistler for the day to show Mum and Dad the world famous ski resort, as well as the incredible scenic views along the Sea to Sky Highway during the 1.5 hour drive there and back.

Whistler Village turned out to be extremely packed, as Crankworx, a mountain bike festival, was being held there at the time. We had a yummy Thai lunch at a restaurant overlooking a village square, wandered through the shops, ate some gelato, and ran into two separate groups of our friends from Vancouver!

We didn't take many photos, but here are a couple from Whistler...

Ski runs in the summer

Whistler Village

At Porteau Cove on our drive home...

And looking down at Vancouver from a lookout on Cypress Mountain...

Stanley Park and downtown Vancouver

David and Wendy

Lions Gate Bridge

Point Grey

Working in the Wilds

Things have been pretty busy for me (Ben) at work lately. Part of the reason is that I am heavily involved in a very large project that requires a lot of different input from me; however, one of the upshots of this is that I actually got to go out into the field for 6 days about a month ago. I don't get let out of the office very often, so this was quite exciting! Especially since it was a pretty fun trip, which included...

Flying in helicopters...

Learning what biologists actually do in the field (it seems to involve a lot of sitting down)...

Seeing some great scenery (and hiking down 45 degree slopes of dense bush with great scenery)...

Including lots of pretty flowers...

And some more unusual finds, like a lightning struck tree...

And a dead moose...

But before you get too jealous, it also involved 14 hour days, long weekends that weren't (weren't weekends at all actually), some fairly heavy hiking, very early mornings, and mad dashes to the airport where you take the wrong car and leave half of your belongings behind at the hotel but are very grateful for lovely workmates who pick up behind you and bring it all home again!

Manning Park weekend

On the weekend, we headed out of the city for a relaxing weekend with a few friends. We stayed in a log cabin in EC Manning Provincial Park ("Manning Park"), BC, which is 2.5 hours east of Vancouver.

Heading into the mountains on Friday evening...


The cabin is owned by a workmate of Angharad's (our first visit there was last Canadian Thanksgiving), and is surrounded by mountains covered in tall pine trees and poplars. A beautiful setting!


There were only six of us, and we had a wonderfully relaxing weekend... reading books, playing games, singing, going for walks, cooking up delicious meals, doing Tim Tam Slams, and generally having a very nice time indeed!

Breakfast on Saturday (L-R: Angharad, Juanita, Heidi, Hod, Ben)...


On a walk up the hill from the cabin...






Log cabin loungeroom and fireplace...


Heidi getting some sunshine...


Juanita in the kitchen...


Lunch on Sunday (L-R: Heidi, Anna, Juanita, Hod, Ben)...


Hod tackling a tome...


Angharad, thanks so much for organising it. We're already looking forward to the next Manning Park getaway!

Canadian Thanksgiving

As soon as we returned from our east Canada trip, it was Canadian Thanksgiving time!

After getting home from our trip around 1am on Saturday, October 9th, we had 5 hours' sleep and then hit the road again en route to EC Manning Provincial Park, 3 hours east of Vancouver.

We spent the long weekend (Monday was a public holiday) with many of our Vancouver friends in a log house belonging to a workmate of Angharad's. It was a fantastic 2.5-level house with plenty of space for all 15 of us (plus two babies)!

We lazed around...


Went for walks...



Had a guitar/ violin sing-along...

Read books...

Played games (including teaching our friends "Mao", which we'd just remembered on our trip after not playing it for 2 years)...

Laughed at the babies...

Had another sing...

Ate delicious meals, each one prepared by a different couple/group (Ben and I did a pancake breakfast on Sunday)...


And had an amazing Thanksgiving meal on Sunday night. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, veggies, sweet potato bake, apple pie, pumpkin pie, cream and ice cream (each part supplied by a different couple/group). Yummy!!


All of us on Sunday morning:

Back row: Ben, Tyson, Nicole, Yun Ju, Rosanne (holding Aydin), Angharad, Heidi
Middle row: Gerard (holding Claire), Janelle, Anna, Stuart, Helene, John
Front row: Joel, Shonna

What a fantastic weekend, and what a wonderful group of friends to spend it with!

PS. More photos from Thanksgiving weekend are in our Sep-Oct '10 Picasa album.

Berry bliss

Last Saturday, we went to a "work day" (aka preps) at the nearest convention grounds, 45 minutes' drive from where we live. This was a working bee specifically for people from our area. It was great to meet some more locals and see the grounds where we'll be going mid August.

Ben was working in the dorms and doing some construction on a shed. Lisa and I started off cleaning things in the nursery and then were given the fun task of stuffing foam cushions and mats (apparently called "ticks") into cotton cases that were only just big enough for them. Shonna and Janelle were doing the same with mattresses next to us, which was highly entertaining! By lunch time most of the jobs were finished, so after lunch we ended up with lots of ladies helping with the tick stuffing, and it was done in no time and with lots of hilarity. It was a very enjoyable day!

On the way home, we stopped at Krause Berry Farm in Langley with Lisa, Angharad, Shonna and Juanita. It was a gorgeous day and lots of people were out picking their own strawberries. We were not so energetic, but the others bought some pre-picked berries and other goodies, and we all enjoyed some berry smoothies and shakes on "The Porch"...


Juanita's take-home berry and custard pie - something the farm seems rather famous for...


Lisa's berry burger...