New York: Charmander Visits the Big Apple
As a child I spent many summer breaks and school holidays in New York. It is a big city and can be overwhelming for some. Last year Neil and I had a quick visit to the Big Apple and this year it was time to bring Kai too, and Gili, oh and Charmander. Charmander is a little red character Neil got as a gift from his Maker Lab instructors at Steamoji. They asked him to take photos of Charmander in the big city. Neil carried him in his pocket everywhere and through his eyes we got to enjoy this big, overwhelming, exciting and colorful city. Charmander at the Museum of Natural History Shark exhibit Some of…
Mount Seymour: So Close and So Far
The kids had been asking for a while to experience camping in the snow. It was me that needed more convincing. Eventually I agreed to come along, what’s the worst that could happen? Plus I figured I could probably survive one night in the snow. I have done it before, just not recently… The kids “helped” us pack Our friends who live in Victoria were excited to join, though by foot and not on skis. In retrospect, they should have probably had snowshoes, but they managed. The original plan was to head to Red Heather and camp there by the warming hut. But original plans don’t always work out. We…
Mexico: Let the Good Times Roll
It all started with a wedding. It was sometime in the spring that Gili shared the news that his cousin was getting married in Mexico in November. Mexico, in November? Sure, that doesn’t sound too bad. We were excited for the wedding of course, but November is also our favourite time to get away from gray and rainy Vancouver. So we started thinking how we might combine the wedding with our annual fall cycling trip. YVR, late at night… We left late at night with an elaborate plan to leave our bikes and gear in Cancun during a short five hour layover between our flights. It was a great plan but…
Harrison River: Eagles, Seals, and Sturgeon!
When I bought our inflatable canoe a couple of years ago I had visions of us floating down a rushing river. In the meantime, most of our trips have been on lakes, theoretically more mellow, but in reality at least one was scary too. Finally, on this trip, we got a chance to experience some real “moving water”. The trip down the Harrison River is apparently a classic fall trip in the canoe community, due to the many eagles that can be seen at this time of year, and the fall colours – and it sure delivered! Mid October swim… We left home a bit late, and made a quick…
Olympic Discovery Trail: Ending the Summer on a Positive Note
This summer did not start in the best possible way… In early July while making dinner I managed to cut myself pretty badly, cutting 70% of the way through one of the tendons in my right hand. Of course, after the initial shock of first going to the ER followed by a small procedure a couple of days later, my next question was “can I ride my bike”? The intern who did the procedure looked at me like I had just landed from the moon – “of course not”. I kept asking my physiotherapist the same question and her answer was even worse, maybe in 8-10 weeks, like mid September. …
Marriott Basin: A Failing Memory is a Good Thing
My memory is not as good as it used to be. Probably that’s the way it is for most people. Thinking about Marriott Basin as a possible destination for this weekend, I had the fleeting thought – “weren’t we just there?!” Luckily we have the blog as an electronic replacement for my clearly failing long term memory. It turns out that we visited Marriott Basin three times, always in winter, with the last time being in 2014! So, clearly a re-visit was not a crazy idea. Not that there’s anything wrong with going back to places more frequently. The Wendy Thompson Hut & our tent The drive was long, as…
Chain Lakes Loop: The Perfect Trip
For years I’ve had this trail, the Chain Lakes Loop, at the back of my mind. It’s been there for so long that I don’t even remember how it got there. I’ve even recommended it to other people! This trail has so much going for it – easy access to the alpine, a well maintained trail, sweeping views of tall glaciated mountains, a bunch of lakes, great camping, it’s a loop hike, and in September – no bugs and lots of berries. In my head at least, I labelled it as the “Perfect Trip”. It doesn’t get much better than this! The only downside is that the above has been…
Saturna Island: A Hilly Little Island
The weather over the spring wasn’t ideal to say the least… We got more rainy days than sun and it just felt like the seasons forgot to change. So we were all surprised that for the weekend we had planned to go to Saturna the forecast showed nothing but sun. That was more like it. Heading to Vancouver Island We met another friend and his two boys in Tsawwassen and we all rode together a few kilometers till the ferry terminal. Although we were there with plenty of time, the ferry crew decided to let us wait till they boarded all the cars and only then let us on. Not cool. In Victoria…
- Camping, Hiking & Scrambling, Kayaking and Canoeing, Metro Vancouver & North Shore, Trip Reports, Trips with Kids
Widgeon Creek: The Opening Trip of Canoe Season
It was canoe season once again. Last year we did our first ever overnight canoe trip to Widgeon Creek and decided it would be good as a first time this year as well. The evening before the trip we decided to check some information online and we discovered that the campground was actually marked as closed. Oops. We decided to still go and hope for the best. On the way – photo by Nick M. It was a cool June morning and we met up with friends in the parking lot. Like last year they still hadn’t installed a bathroom in the parking lot which I found very odd (and disgusting).…
- British Columbia (and nearby), Carfree, Cycling & Cycle Touring, Trip Reports, Trips with Kids, Vancouver Island
Vancouver to Chemainus: The Boy Who Biked 72km in a Day
Neil woke up, and exclaimed, “I want to ride the whole way to Chemainus”. We tried to convince him that maybe it would be best to catch the bus part of the way, as we had planned, but he would have none of that. Finally, we decided it would be easier to go along and see what happened. The problem was that we had timed everything based on Maya and the kids catching the bus, so we had to hurry. On the Burrard Bridge We skipped breakfast (?!) and headed straight out, with Kai biking on his own till the Burrard Bridge. There I finally managed to convince him to…
