New View

Last week my company moved into a new office. We used to be closer to the centre of downtown but now we're a few minutes' walk west. It wasn't until this week that we got some sun.

Today's autumn colours really wowed me, so here's the view of our 11th floor office (facing west), with Stanley Park, some sea, and distant mountains.

Movember

You've heard of Movember, right? Where guys volunteer to grow a moustache for the month of November to promote mens' health issues? (If not, go here for more.)

I decided to take the plunge this year, as much as I dislike mo's. After the month turned, I let my beard grow a few days, then Sunday morning I shaved, having to remind myself to leave that upper lip alone. (I was, and still am, afraid I'd shave it off accidentally due to a lifetime of habit.) This is me Sunday afternoon.

If you want to track my follicular progress, or maybe donate a few bucks, visit http://mobro.co/michaelnelson3. Me, I can't wait until December to get this itchy lip scarf off of my face.

Lock Down at Sarah's School

Sarah phoned me from school this week, (an unusual occurrence, because the students are not allowed to use their cell phones during the school day), to inform me that she wouldn't be home on time because there was a lock-down at the school. My immediate reaction was to wonder "Why? Was there somebody violent on or near the campus? What was happening?" Sarah seemed just fine and not worried, so I didn't actually feel panicky, but still.

Turns out there was a bear treed in the creek adjacent to the school. The salmon are spawning in many of our local creeks and rivers right now, and lots of dead salmon in shallow water constitutes bear paradise during the time of year when the bruins are all trying to put on some fat in anticipation of a long nap over the winter. I on the other hand am trying to get RID of some fat in anticipation of the winter, but I digress...

Anyway, I sent Mike out this morning with the camera to get some shots of the salmon in our local creeks and here is one picture of a fish that has made its way upstream, presumably fulfilled its evolutionary destiny by spawning, and is now bear bait:

Sarah says she was able to see lots of fish jumping and swimming on their way upstream. She also says that when she runs laps in PE around that side of the school, it is pretty odorous, with all of the dead and dying fish.

Here is a photo taken a few years ago (not by us) of a bear feeding in the Coquitlam River.

Have to say, I LIKE living someplace where I can see the salmon and have to keep an eye out for the bears. Last year, the school had a resident coyote for a few months. It is easy to forget, living so close to the mall, shopping centres, etc, that we are actually living right on the edge of a wilderness that extends for hundreds of miles to the north of us, with only a few cities and towns in the midst of it all.

Nagging

As parents, we've gotten pretty used to nagging Sarah to do things we don't really think about doing ourselves. I don't mean to suggest that Sarah is unique; all children require lots of nagging. But I recently realised just how extensive it can be.

• We nag her to wake up.
• We nag her to go to bed.
• We nag her to eat.
• We nag her to get dressed.
• We nag her to clean her clothes.
• We nag her to clean her body.
• We nag her to brush her teeth.

I mean, it's a pretty comprehensive list, isn't it? Pretty much all of life's basic functions are there.  On further thought, I had to think about what we don't have to nag Sarah about.

• We don't have to nag her to use the washroom. When she has to go, she's pretty good about finding the washroom on her own. Flushing afterwards, she could still use some work on.
• We don't have to nag her to breathe. "Sarah, have you been respirating?" Not really needed.
• We don't have to nag her to speak. We aren't complaining, "Sarah, we wonder what you're thinking right now." That just doesn't seem to happen.

More Improv from Sarah

Sarah just finished another weeklong comedy improvisation camp at Second Storey Theatre. She really enjoyed it. This time she grew her ability to get into a character.

Friday was the show for parents. I didn't take as many pictures this time as my phone insisted on using a flash and I didn't want to be too distracting.

My Island Getaway

I haven't been out of the Vancouver area in a long time ... maybe over a year? So this week I took a few days to enjoy the end of our summer by taking a trip to Vancouver Island.

I started with a day in Nanaimo, staying once again at the lovely Copper Kettle bed and breakfast. I planned to visit my usual haunts, but I started by taking in some of Newcastle Island, which is just opposite much of the city of Nanaimo. It was once a coal mining operation, and the name echoes the coal mining of the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England. Since the 60's it's been a wildlife park. There's a regular ferry service to the island.

It's about 7.5 km to walk around the entire island, so I skipped some of it, heading straight to the lake, then around about 2/3 of the exterior. A highlight for me was Kanaka Bay. The water was really warm there, like Hawaii warm, I'm guessing due to the shallow water and the rock underneath, which must soak up the sun. Several others were enjoying dips, and I got a bit wet myself.

After two hours of hiking on Newcastle Island, I returned to the harbour and walked through downtown. I made my obligatory visit to Fascinating Rhythm, the music store that has such an amazing collection; I keep finding albums I've never found elsewhere, or even knew about (the day's catch: Widescreen by Rupert Holmes).

Then it was off to explore a pub I'd been reading about for over a year, Fibber Magee's, owned by the same people who run another favourite of mine, Fox and Hounds. This occupies the former rail station (I was sad to see that VIA Rail no longer runs trains on Vancouver Island) and just may have the most taps of any pub on the Island. The four taps of Fullers (from London!) are real long-handle pulls - I believe the first time I've seen these outside of England.

Before and during my fish and chips, I enjoyed the Red Brick IPA from Nanaimo's Wolf Brewing, then the Bengal Lancer IPA from Fullers (which I'd never known existed!), and the Heritage Brown Session Ale from Nanaimo's Longwood Brewery, brewed especially for these pubs.

Later I had some Delerium Tremens strong ale from Belgium ... because who knows how long it will be before I see it on tap again?

The next morning I walked back to the ferry terminal and boarded a bus for Tofino, on the western shore of the island. I'd never visited before and was eager to see it.

Travel brings me joy, especially the slow kind, where you don't have to wear a seatbelt. Trains, ferries, and comfy buses like this are a pleasure for me. I plug in my earbuds, sit back and watch the scenery go by. And wow, what scenery. I'd never explored the island beyond Nanaimo and Victoria (and one lovely wintertime train ride between the two), so it was great to get out of the city, to see smaller towns, and to go down a road that's just a thin strip of civilisation in the sheer wilderness.

We passed the village of Coombs and its famous market building with the grass roof and munching goats. We went through Cathedral Grove. We had a rest stop at Port Alberni, which I'd been curious to see some of. And I thought Kennedy Lake was awesome:

The road through this mountainous area was quite narrow and wind-y, with lots of dips and rises. It might be fun in a little sports car, but in a big coach it was a little frightening at times.

Soon we reached the coast, and after a quick stop south to Ucluelet, were arrived in Tofino. The town is at the end of a peninsula, so most places you look, there's ocean and mountains nearby. This is the view from one of the piers.

Here's the mobile visitor information centre.

I had booked a room further back down the peninsula, near Chesterman Beach, about 5k from town. (Apparently the serious surfing is done at Long Beach, about 20k from town.) I'd done some research when planning the trip, and was happy to discover that, though there's just one road (highway, really) up the peninsula, it's paralleled by a multi use path, so I rented a bike in town, and that's how I got around for the rest of my stay.

My first stop was to check out Tofino Brewing and sample their beers. My favourite was their IPA, tasty and strong at 7.5%. Unfortunately they do not sell bottles or cans, only growlers and kegs, so I contented myself with tastes.

Next I went down to my home for the night, the enchanting Emerald Forest bed and breakfast. It's in the forested interior but is a short walk to the beach. I had a nice chat with the hosts, left my bags, and prepared for a visit to the beach itself ...

Chesterman Beach is two crescents of beach with a little island on the tip in between. (I was surprised to find private residences on this little island ... what a bother it must be to bring groceries home!)

I took a few panoramas also ... here's one of one of the two cresents.

I got a good fill of sun and sand, then biked up-peninsula a bit to collect provisions for dinner. Back at Tofino Brewing I got a "growlito", a smaller version of the two-much-beer-for-even-me growler bottle, filled with their IPA. Next I visited a cluster of shops, many selling food without indoor seating: one can eat there on picnic tables, or take it home. At the Wildside Grill I ordered fish tacos, then when asked if I wanted anything else, I paused, looked, asked for a half order of poutine, then changed it to a full order. (Sometimes when I'm traveling, ordering food is like playing blackjack - I keep asking the dealer to hit me until I fold.) Then I got a few chocolates from Chocolate Tofino. Then, back to my room to feast!

After I was done with my imitation of a boa constrictor, I walked back to the beach to stroll and sit and ponder and stroll some more until it was nearly sunset. Back at my room, as darkness fell, I had no trouble falling asleep.

It was a highlight to wake up the next morning, watching the forest gradually lighten around me through the room's big windows. I particularly enjoyed watching a slug slowly traversing the glass roof of the patio just outside. I showered under the outdoor tap - why not? Nadine brought me a tasty breakfast at 7, which I enjoyed while reading news. Then I packed and started booking up-peninsula to return the bike and catch the 8:00 bus - which I made with less time to spare than I'd have liked (should have started earlier!).

The rest of the day was in transit ... a long day that didn't see me getting home until 4. I did have a bit of misfortune as, on part of the bus back to Nanaimo, the parents of a screeching toddler decided to sit with her next to me. (But with my Shure 535s deep in my ear canals, the world disappears.) The trip was filled with beautiful scenery, and with my private soundtrack playing, it was pretty blissfull to watch it go by. I'm continually reminded of the beauty of the region we live in, and consider myself fortunate to be here.

London Olympics

We just finished watching the closing ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics. I was of course over the moon as it celebrated one of my favourite things, English music. Of all the songs played, in both the opening and closing cermonies, I'd collected about four out of five of them already.

It was also a bit bittersweet, as four years ago, in a hotel room in Colchester, we were watching the closing ceremonies from Shanghai as the torch was passed to London just as we were leaving England for Canada. (See our earlier post In Limbo.)

Margo is a Warrior!

Yesterday I participated in the Warrior Dash at Mount Seymour in North Vancouver. This is a 5K race with obstacles scattered throughout the course. The obstacles included an assortment of walls and cargo nets to climb or to clamber over, crawls through muddy water and under barbed wire, etc. I was worried about completing the obstacles which turned out not to be too difficult. I was not worried at all about the 5K, as I figured I would probably walk for a lot of it. What I had not counted on was the entire course being on steep hills, on the hottest day of the year so far. The trudging up hill was challenging to say the least, but I got through it and finished, which was my goal.

Sarah and Mike came to cheer me on and to take pictures:

 Waiting in line for the shuttle up to the mountain

 Just having applied my ultra-cool Warrior Dash eye black

 Ready to race with my knee and elbow wraps and stylish gloves to protect my ladylike fingers and limbs from the crawls and the rope climbs! (With friends Elliot and Gareth)

 Almost to the end of the course here - two more obstacles left

 Jumping over flames! (Very anticlimatic, and this is the one I was worried about!)

 Emerging from the mud pit - again not so much mud, more just dirty water...

 At the finish line

 Wearing my medal, and feeling cooler after a couple glasses of water over the head!

 Sarah modelling my warrior hat

Me, after changing from muddy clothing and collecting my beer!

Views and a Surprise

Yesterday friends took me on a hike at nearby Buntzen Lake. (Living where we do, in the foothills of the coast mountains, there's a lot of nature nearby - Buntzen is a ten minute drive away.) I've visited the lake before and knew of the hiking trail around the lake, but I didn't know about the trails in the mountain ridges on either side. This hike was on the Diez Vistas (Ten Views) trail that follows the top of the western ridge, between the lake and the Indian Arm inlet, giving select views to the west.

I made the suggestion to start our loop in the direction that would have us going south along the ridge, so that the views would get better as we went. So the first half of our hike was going north on the opposite shore of the lake, starting at the south beach.

At the north end of the lake was a small building reminding us that the lake is part of our hydro power generation. There's an underground tunnel connecting Buntzen Lake to nearby Lake Coquitlam (on the other side of the other ridge) and transferring water through the tunnel generates power for us.

After lots of uphills we started passing the designated views. Unfortunately, in the decades since the trail was created, trees that must have been quite small at the time (after logging probably) have grown to obscure many of the ten views. Here is one of the better ones, looking across the inlet to Mount Seymour.

This was the last and best of the views - number 1, as we were going backwards. You can see the arm of Belcarra, Deep Cove, and in the hazy distance, all of Vancouver and the mountains of Vancouver Island behind it.

The hike took us about six hours. I didn't know it at the time but my friends weren't just showing me the trail; they were my minders for the day.

I'd known that Margo had planned a special birthday dinner for me (a few days early, but she and Sarah will be on a road trip on the actual day). My friends had dinner plans but I invited them to hang out for a bit and have a shower. When we arrived there were a lot of balloons on the floor. I was later informed there was one for every one of my years. (That's a decent amount of rubber.) Sarah made this yellow one just for me. She claims the two bits on top are devil horns but they look like ears to me.

As my friends kept hanging around, the penny dropped: this was their dinner destination too, and a houseful of other friends were joining us later. Their job was to keep me out of the way so Margo and Sarah could prepare. It was a lovely surprise and had been planned weeks in advance.

Lots of interesting drinks were carried in, including craft beers brought from Portland and Vancouver Island that are probably not available locally, plus light wines. We blended margaritas later. We snacked on veggies and chips and great homemade dips, then grilled burgers and corn, enjoying them with potato and quinoa salads. Margo had made an amazing cake as well.

I am really appreciative to have such thoughtful and supportive family and friends. It's true wealth.

Hiking the Chief

Yesterday friends took me hiking in Squamish to climb the Stawamus Chief. Squamish is about halfway to Whistler to the north of Vancouver, and the upper end of the Howe Sound, so it's a lovely drive with water to one side and mountains all around.

This is what the Chief looks like from the ground. We ended up at Second Peak, the middle of the three peaks.

I've done a fair bit of mountain hikes in the past, but this was probably the most technical one I've done. I'm more accustomed to switchbacks and having a beaten path to follow. The Chief is actually a granite monolith, so you're almost always on stone. It's also very vertical. With few exceptions, there's no place where you could drop something and expect to retrieve it.

We had occasional light rain and the rock was mostly wet, so I was really concerned about slipping. At one point I joked: Is there any part of this trail where you could lose your footing and not be killed? The rock was actually pretty grippy; the slippery bits were the tree roots occasionally underfoot. But I got pretty spooked in parts. In a few places chains are drilled into the rock to help you climb. The part below (with Elena) wasn't quite so scary as you're between two rock faces, but in some parts you have the gaping void to your side, and they were my least favourite parts.

At the summit, the sheer face is behind me. I was really spooked and could hardly get close to the edge. The view was fantastic though.

 

Here are some panoramas. Elena and Yann are in the second.

 

We came down a different way and got to see this chasm between the second and third peaks, with a slice of Squamish visible.

I got this on the way down to try to capture the verticality. The trail to First Peak is the most accessible, with lots of wooden stairs and steps carved into the rock. (I was awed by the effort that must have taken.) But the Second Peak trail had a fair amount of scrambling like this.

After making our way back down we went to the other reason for our trip, a visit to the Howe Sound brewpub. It's a large, lovely pub and a great place to showcase their award-winning beers. I've been enjoying their more exotic brews (my current favourites are the Total Eclipse of the Hop Imperial IPA and the Gathering Storm Cascadian Dark Ale) but I wanted to sample some of their more standard beers, so here are five smaller samples.

They also had their Pothole Filler Stout on special and so we enjoyed a few pints of that also. It was a great way to end the trip.

News Story of Brain-Dead Teenage Daughter Has Absolutely No Relevance to Our Family

We all had a good laugh at this ...

http://www.theonion.com/video/braindead-teen-only-capable-of-rolling-eyes-and-te,27225/

Vancouver Views

Yesterday I had the day off and so I did a lot of wandering between some favourite places in Vancouver. Zulu Records in Kitsilano, Yaletown, Downtown, the Waterfront, Commercial Drive.

For my money (which is not much), one of the best views in Vancouver is the west side of the Granville Bridge, and I enjoy walking it when I get the chance. You can see a lot of the city's finest features from one spot. You're about ten storeys up so you can see for quite a distance. There's none of the restrictions of office building views - no window frames or glass reflections. And of course it's free and accessible. Just don't drop your camera.

As I was crossing it yesterday I considered the futility of trying to capture the view with a single picture when I realised my phone's camera has a panorama feature which would be a good match for it, so here's that view after all.

If it's unfamiliar, here's a bit of a tour, from left to right. In the left foreground are the sheds of the Granville Public Market and Granville Island. On the horizon you can see some of the mountains of Vancouver Island and the beginnings of the North Shore mountains. There are cargo ships anchored off the coast. There's the lovely Burrard Bridge, a glimpse of Stanley Park, towers of the distant West End, and towers of Yaletown and Downtown, ending in the barely-visible attractions of Granville Street.

Later when I was on the waterfront I took another panorama from the upper plaza of the Convention Centre. The North Shore mountains are better represented, as is Stanley Park on the left and centre.

House Repossession

Our realtor never mentioned this - perhaps he was unaware - but since we moved into our house I've been noticing ... strange ... happenings. Like, I would walk into a room, and a light would be on, and there'd be no one else in the room. Or, I'd leave a tidy room, and come back in a while, and there'd be a pillow on the floor, or a hairbrush on the sofa.

At any rate, today, all day, it seems these ghosts, these poltergeists, are gone.  I can clean the kitchen, come back later, and it's still clean. I can't explain it.

And in unrelated news, Margo and Sarah are out of town for the weekend.

Cleverbot

I recently found a new site called Cleverbot. Apparently it's a robot with actual intelligence. The Cleverbot people apoligize for any bad words and stuff, because Cleverbot learns from that stuff. You Family, freinds, and devoted fans should try Cleverbot. You can insult it, verbal kill it, or just pretend your someone else!

Sarah Gets Silly

Last week was the first week of spring break for Sarah. She spent the week at an improvisational comedy camp at the nearby Second Storey Theatre. We weren't sure how she'd take to it but she enjoyed it a lot. Every night she'd be telling us about the day's activities.

Yesterday afternoon at the end of class, the students put on a show for parents. Here's the troupe introducing themselves.

Warming up ...

In this sketch Sarah and her companion are about to get in a Ferris wheel but they are very concerned about its cleanlinesss, so Sarah is hosing down the seats.

I'm really glad Sarah enjoyed the experience. She's interested in getting further into theatre, and we'll be going to more improv shows as well.

My Favourite Emoticons

(Emoticons are faces, or pictures made of words and simbols. Some you have to look at sideways to see the picture/face.)

:)
:D
>:D
O.O
>.<
-_-

(\(\
(=',')
(")(")

T_T
L.L

Snow!

We rarely get any up here, so even the little bit that graced us the last couple days has been a treat. Sarah even volunteered to shovel the driveway, and actually started and finished it without complaint. Of course, there is a bit more snow forecast, and I suspect her enthusiasm will wane if this becomes a daily chore!

Below, some pics of Sarah and her snowman...