family

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!!

Well I write this as we sit on the ferry that goes between Prince Rupert, up by Alaska down to Port Hardy on the Northern End of Vancouver Island. We had to get up at some awful hour this morning for the all day sightseeing trip down the Interior Passage. Only problem, as luck as the draw has it , the first 6 hours have been very cold, very wet and very foggy. Not seeing much at all, although I suppose that is probably the way it is most of the time.
We had the most spectacular 83 miles of scenery that Bazza thinks he has ever seen going up to Prince Rupert yesterday though! So I have some pictures from there, although, the camera does not do the scenery justice!

Who is that? Ah well, my father again, leading the life of leisure in the back seat! I think he has gotten used to this not driving thing on this trip! Pay back for all the chauffering he does of us around Victoria. Especiallly my husband to Home Depot!

There was a mommy and baby ducks in the pond here.

We did drive into Diana Lake, as Bazza was intrigued as there was swimming signs there. He could not imagine anyone swimming in this cold water, so he had to see. What do you think? Does it look like swimming water to you?

Some Hills

And a lake. I really like the reflections in the lake...

Ah, we are back at Prince George here! With my Aunt and Uncle just before leaving. My aunt fed us more then I feed the guests on the boat, if you can believe that!! I did not think it was possible.

Back on the road again, a little pond

We were amused feeding the Ravens. We were surprised that they are not as sleek and clean looking as what i imagined.

Some more reflections and rivers.



Now this is a very unusual picture, as every time I ask bazza if he wants me to drive some, he firmly declines. Does not care for my driving! So I am fine with that, but he actually asked me to drive this time...an entire three feet up to reach the water hose!

Here is our little lion in the mountains

The Skeena River. There were tons of fishing camps all the way along with people standing in that (chilly) water fishing.

I saw this slug which I thought was very large until my father told me that when we lived on Northern Vancouver Island they would grow to about 7 inches. This one was maybe 3 or 4.

And how bout these raccons, didn't they pose perfectly??

Na, kidding, did not see them, someone sent me the pic!
I am sure there is too much more that signifies Canada then the trains being reflected in the water! My husband tells me that we are supposed to have two moose saying "Welcome to Canada, Eh!" and has been quite disgusted that we have not managed to find him one, although we have found lots of bear that he seems to think are attack animals as well. We saw a little one yesterday with a diamond spot of white on his chest (yes, he was right on the side of the road)

We also saw Eagles, but my zoom lens broke, so I could not get any pictures!



Our trip across Alberta and BC is almost done, and I think we are all looking forward to getting back to Victoria and settling down. So we will talk to you in a few days! Nice the see the BVi is getting some weather that looks like summer there finally!

Well rolling right along here on entires, lets make it three today between us! Richards underwater pictures are getting spectacular! They will blow mine out of the water! I love the turtle with the divers in the background. Yep, definitely sounds like they have been doing a lot of diving this week! We have cute animals of our own!
Here is a deer...

AND we also saw Bears and Elks but I could not get a picture! So we had to settle for cows on the road. I thought I was back in Tortola for a moment, but these cows were looking much healthier then our island cows!

We were out there with just the right light in the evening and I was really wishing that I had my big camera with me for this picture. BUT, my mom had her camera so she took one!

Oh, I am not sure if this counts, but it is the puppy...really thinking that I should be going in the RV to get him cookies!

And then we have fish! But, this fish is on my plate! And very good it was too at Joeys Seafood in Prince george with my parents, and, yes, more relatives, my uncle and aunt, Donnie and Margaret. Donnie is moms younger brother.

Some more country buildings going to ruin up in Peace Country

and a very pretty lake just as we were leaving my aunts place.

My father, cousin and husband in front of my Aunts farm here..

And when we left the farm we all had our picture taken, including the dog, looking for food!

A chance for some one else besides me to have their picture taken at Bijou Falls, I have plenty of myself thank you!

My mom took this great sunset picture where we are south of Prince George.

And I know the crew on the boat will appreciate this and probably think it is Karma. As people know, for someone who never drank coffee I turned out to love ICED COFFEES. Poor Brent would go through withdrawal every time I left the boat as I would make them for everyone daily. Also, a bit of my obsessive/addictive personality coming out, I would always be so scared that I would run out of all these fancy ingredients for our blender coffees that I tended to stock up. As you can tell from this picture. This is what i had in the RV!

A few months ago I quit and it took me two or three days to get over the headache, and i decided that I needed to go through that again, as it makes me jittery, I don't need the calories and I cannot sleep either!! I picked a day about a month ago, and thought, well 3 days and I will be fine. No, not this time! An entire FULL week of withdrawal, headache, grumpiness and just really trying to stay in bed! It was horrible. Really horrible. I still crave it once a day, or when I pass the billion coffee stores out there. Hey, that is probably why Starbucks had to close 600 stores because I stopped drinking this stuff! Anyways, take my advice. Don't get into the super charged espresso iced coffees like I did, It is not worth it!

Therefore, kind me, took all this "stuff" to fob off on my relatives to feed their caffeine addiction!

They look like they are having some great diving times on the boat! I am ALMOST jealous, but we will be back soon enough! Over the last few days we have seen, bears, foxes, elk, deer, and all those other kind of Canadian things besides a MOOSE which my husband really thinks we should see! I have to share some of the great old pictures of some of the old pioneer homesteads up around Hythe. Hythe is in Northwestern Alberta, west of Grande Prairie almost on the BC border and my mother father homesteaded up here back in the thirties. To the everlasting thrill of my husband, we have managed to find another 30-40 close relatives up here that he never knew I had!
I used to spend quite a bit of time up here when I was a kid on the farm, and it has always been a magical place. My aunt still is on the farm, and our RV was parked looking downhill over the pastures watching the cows! It was as peaceful as I remember! these are all down dirt and gravel roads for miles...
This is an old church, a German Mennonite one, where Bazza found a 1917 penny! That was quite exciting...

An old water pump...

Some assorted old homesteads back in the trees

I am sure that we have a chronological picture of all these buildings for the last 50 years that my father has been coming up here, many of these were courtesy of him!

And, definitely the old cars are from him. They are neat, but he can tell me exactly what year and type each one is!

There is always a lot of old vehicles and machinery rusting and being covered over in the back of farms.

How bout this snow sled...It has seen 60,000 miles, had twins delivered in it and it was the only thing that could get into and out of car accidents way back in the thirties a lot of time. This is in the museum at Beaverlodge.

There is a cute dog on the farm. His name is Buddy and he is actually very good, but I am kind of a suck for animals too and I gave him a cookie the first day I was there! Well, Buddy was now my friend! After a day or so of feeding him cookies I thought they probably were not good for him so I bought some dog jerky treats instead! Well, he turned up his nose, left them on the ground and whined and sulked for hours till I gave him cookies! Now this is a farm dog, he lives outside and eats meat or dog food. I tried to tell my aunt he liked chocolate chip cookies best when I left but I don't think she was listening!

My mother kept on telling us that she was taking us over to our cousins to see the Grizzly Bear that had been shot in the back yard. I was thinking "yeah, I have seen bear rugs before mom" but humoring her, as you are supposed to do with parents! Well, it was a bit more then a bear rug! Pretty impressive!!



An old cart left in the trees..

My dad patiently took my husband around with his metal detector to the old homesteads and stood watch. They seemed to find a lot of belt buckles!! BUT not too many pull tabs which is a good thing. A couple old brooches, an old necklaces and a few coins....

This is my cousin Mabel, the "egg girl!" She looks like Girl of the Limberlost and has 150 or so chickens to collect the eggs from every day.

And this is her daughter Sherry and her grandson (see I have more relatives!)

One day we made a special trip out to one of my grandfathers old homesteads. The house was built by my grandmother and her brother in law, with a few add ons over the years!

Still there!

My grandmother planted this break of trees back in 1947. ! Pretty impressive, somehow I don't see me planting trees.

My mom and dad in front of the old garage where she grew up on the property...

And these are just some great pictures of the old barns that were there, well from the 1930's sometime!

I was trying to go for more "mood" photo's here...





I had to specially get my camera to take this picture, it was an old International Truck in the trees that said EDMONTON on the side!

This is my mothers older sister and my cousin Darleen at lunch one day..

Then we went to a good old fashioned jamboree. I got the door prize for being the furthest visitor away! Go figure!! I told Bazza that this was a first to him a country jamboree and he said they had them in Australia, they were just usually around sheep barns!



The band stage

I managed to get mom and dad being more ambitious then us and doing a fancy two step of some king...

Now, this group, "Yesterdays Country" I have a cousin who plays the guitar and sings in there, a cousin who plays the fiddle and the guy in the white hat played at my mother wedding up here 50 years ago!

good thing I am writing all this trivia down somewhere so I remember it!

After we left the jamboree that night I went out to the RV in the Hay field and the light with the bales and the sunset was absolutely spectacular, so I spent some time taking pictures. These are some of them. Different then the BVI, but just as beautiful!









Then a couple younger cousins came over and figured out how to use some special effects on my iphoto booth really quick, so we killed ourselves laughing taking these!
This is my dad...

My parents and I...

And my mom! Strange things happen when you go up to the country!

This morning it was time to Leave Hythe and make our way over to Prince George in BC, where, yes, you guessed it, more relatives! So, that is what we have been up to for the last few days!

Well, I think I have just about enough time to put up some pictures for my family before calling this blog entry a done deal! I am starting to wonder what goes where!! Right now we are way up in Northwestern Alberta on my mothers childhood homestead, and guess what, more relatives for Bazza to meet! But that is getting ahead of the story.
Last weekend we went over to my oldest son's Chads place to see the new place and the kittens! Here they are!! Aren't they cute!!

This one looks like a little wolf to me!

Mom had a heck of a time "herding the cats"

and the saucy little kitten sat right on top of the computer!

My dad tried to catch a nap on the couch but ended up being attacked by their sharp claws and did not want to let him sleep!

We had a good dinner that night though, to celebrate my sons 28th (yeeks) birthday we went out to Ruth Chris's for dinner. We all enjoyed it!

Including apple streusel pie and key lime pie that tasted pretty similar to the ones we make on the yacht!

The next day we went out to spend the evening with Laura and Kevin in Camrose. Laura was a very good friend of mine back when I was about 20. We have only seen each other twice in the last 25 years, but as it is when you know people so well you easily slip into lots of laughter and it was a good evening where Laura cooked ME dinner and lots of giggles!

Tuesday morning we were up on our way to Peace River Country and i will leave this here until next time!