Monday, June 18, 2007

Skagit Valley = lots of rain

Our most recent trip! Here you have our little home away from home. We took this picture on Friday evening shortly after setting up camp. Those tarps soon became our best friends, as it started to rain Saturday morning and stopped at some time after dinner that evening. Good BC weather. It was only mildly concerning because that river in the background had recently flooded, so there was a risk we'd go for an unplanned swim if things went badly.

(Sarah is in green). Thanks again for the tent, Julien!! It gets so toasty in there with the three of us it's like you're not even camping. Having the river right beside us was très cool.

We went for a walk on Saturday. These, by the way, are the latest spring fashions coming out of Chilliwack. Elegant and functional.

My raincoat leaked - a lot. A good lesson learned for Cape Scott - I need a new raincoat. As we are hiking in for 6 days, I can't afford to get my only sweatshirt soaked on day 2.

Where there's rain, there's slugs. People back east might think they know what a slug is, but they don't. This guy was about as long as my hand, and still smallish, by our standards.

The slugs are gross!! You may remember the ones with the black on them from Nanaimo (you can look through our archives if interested), they don't seem to live on the mainland where we have been so far. Also, Kat, if you're reading this, you would have probably spent about 65 hours looking at the fallen tree we found this guy on. There must have been at least 6 different species of fungus and mosses, bugs, etc. You would love it out here (need we keep reminding you?).

The weather was also very good for 'shrooms. There was a log covered in theses guys.

I love these little mushrooms. We've been trying to get a decent picture of different mushrooms all season. There are so many different things out here than in Ontario (so visit, you bums!).

Maggie knows where the comfort is. But the last thing we were going to do was let a wet dog into our tent.

She stared at the tent for probably about 15 minutes straight. What a suck! I would have let her in if I thought she'd stay on Remi's side ;)

I have no idea what these things are. Most likely a mushroom or a lichen or something, either way they were cool, so I took a picture. On that note, when things are damp and gross, if you don't stick your nose to the ground you won't see anything cool.

I love this picture. We really need to get a book on the various plant/moss/fungus/bug/bird/etc/etc life in BC (*hint*hint* good gift idea!).

On the way out. It stopped raining long enough for us to pack our gear and get most of the way out. Things could have been many times worse, so we're pretty pleased with how it turned out.

If we hadn't had the tarps that my fabulously resourceful and infinitely handsome (can you tell he's looking over my shoulder?) boyfriend rigged up, we would have left first thing Saturday morning!

I'm on a taking-macro-shots-of-flowers kick, so here's a sampling. If you don't know me and print this and sell it, I'll sue you into the ground. On the plus side, I've figured how to resize the pictures, which makes it easier to upload and harder to steal. Take that freeloaders!
Notes on the taxonomy of the above pictures would be welcome. But be specific. Sarah and I are big nerds, so over simplified guesses like "it's a mold" won't do.

Remi & Sarah

Monday, June 04, 2007

Les photos


Après l'arrivé des parent dimanche matin, nous sommes partis directement direction Pemberton, au nord-ouest de Whistler, dans les Rocheuses. Nous sommes resté dans une auberge avec une vue incroyable des montagnes.

Sur le chemin de retour nous nous sommes promener dans une petite foret au bord de la route.

La vue de l'autoroute en rentrant à Vancouver

Une anemone au bord de mer. L'océan autour de Vancouver n'est pas très marrant, il faut vraiment chercher pour trouver quelque chose d'interessant.

Maman, Papa et Maggie admirent la vue

Maggie dans un torrent un peu au nord de Vancouver






La vallée de l'Okanagan. C'est un peu désertique, mais on y trouve de bons vins.










Un lac avec des sels naturels juste à l'ouest d'Osooyoos.

Friday, June 01, 2007

Masson visit

So Remi's parents were here for 12-ish days (?) - something like that anyway, and we dragged them ALL OVER BC :) Except the good part, which is, of course, Vancouver Island. But we made due here on the mainland. We went to Whistler, which was kind of boring for touristing although I'm sure really fantastic for skiing, which we did not do. We also stayed at a B&B in Pemberton. It was gorgeous. That was the first weekend. Then we went to the Okanagan last weekend for some wine touring. We stayed at another B&B in Peachland. Check out the website - http://www.bbcanada.com/1894.html?showpage=2 . The people were really nice and the view was amazing, but the decor was... Well... Look for yourselves. Remi and I spent the night in the lacy bedroom ;) It was great fun though. We spent Saturday wine touring in the area and learned that we LOVE fruit wines (even Alain!). Remi and I didn't actually buy any wine made with grapes! We bought some pear, apple and peach wines. YUM.

Anyway, it was a fantastic visit and Remi should post something more detailed about it later, but here are a few pictures for now ;) OK, I hate blogger and it isn't working, so pictures to come soon!

Thanks for visiting us Ann and Alain!! :)