The other blogger posting from Vancouver Island

We picked up our middle son from the airport on Saturday, it was good to see him. We have had a couple touristy days in amongst the ton of work that i have to do.
We went for a drive out to see the Mt Olympia Mountains and the assorted fowl that live down on the coast there..



I had just slightly tapped my lens while it was extended in the helicopter the other week, no more then a tap, but it did in my 18-200 lens, I have sure been missing it while it is fixed. I use it topside just about all the time.

More more birds

We went out to the Souke Pots out toward the west coast of the islands, and they were very pretty. No, I did not climb down! I would have had to come back up!!



My son is just being a goof!

Then like the little fish piggies we have been we went and found some more fish and chips for dinner down at the wharf! There was a cruise ship in and lots of people milling around.

Dinner was not so great, but my mother and I enjoyed the peanut buster parfait at Dairy Queen much more afterwards!



SwimVacation and Promenade (honourable mention only I assure you!) were written up in the Globe and Mail (Canadas National Newspaper for those of you who don't know know! They have a few weeks going out on Promenade this coming winter, with space left open, one Dec 7th to 13th and two in April. They have also teamed up with a Canadian group (for once the Canadian dollar is on the good side!) and the European market to fill these trips, and I think it is a bit like a snowball, it is getting bigger and bigger. Swim Vacation is the name and Swim Vacation is also the web name!
Here is a PDF link to the article.


The yacht still has no internet, they have gotten the royal run around. It started last Friday with them saying the system was just being rebooted and it would be up in twenty minutes. Then it was the weekend, so so much for that! Rich would phone in to talk to a technician and he would have to go through the entire story to who answered the phone before they would agree that yes, he needed a technician. I cannot even believe nor remember all the stories he has been told. It is our fault, it is their fault, they know what is wrong, they don't know what is wrong.
They then attempt to tell him it is because we are using a pyramid to broadcast throughout the boat, (the same pyramid that we bought from them not that long ago for quite a bit of money that they touted as the next great thing for broadcasting! First when it was always messing up they told us they were having problems with it and then they just simply said "we don't support it any more. Only in the islands! After being told that that was the problem they scratched around on the boat to find a computer that had a card slot and went through all hooking it up again to find out that it still does not work and to bring it in. Yeah. Right. Over festival! BUT it will give them a good chance to find out why they are now offering a FASTER CHEAPER SYSTEM THEN THE ONE WE HAVE WITH A "FREE CARD"!
I have an entire collection of internet cards from Boatphone, from over the years, They all cost, well, as much as the overpriced phones we get on island! Hence, not many posts from Lisa.
Richard did phone me all excited today as they were diving the Chikuzen (twice today I might add!) and he had on his wide angle swimming right along with the large Grouper! In fact several of them not to mention the rather large sharks! Harrummppphhh!!