Christmas Tree!!

 No captions needed.  We're in the Christmas spirit around here though!  Lots of lights; Christmas cards are slowly rolling in...

Happy holidays everyone!

sarah & remi

Seymour

It's that time of year, and the weather was nice this weekend, so we got our trip in to Seymour (see blog below).
There's already a lot of snow, and it's more than enough to have fun, but it will be really awesome when we get another few feet to play with.





More playing on the way up... We only went partway, partly because we didn't have enough time, and partly because I'm still recovering from a bout with the old H1N1 . There were also a bunch of people. Turns out idiot tourists have learned that snowshoeing is fun, and they're crowding up all of our favourite haunts.

This must be at high end of our hike. It always looks tropical in Vancouver from up there (it isn't).

...

You can take the boring well worn path down, or you can keep away from tourists in Lulu pants (not enough buffer from the cold in my books, but who am I to judge style) and see the nicest and best snow. Around here it felt like walking on piles of sugar. Neat.

No tourists here. And lots of fresh snow to slide down.

We totally stage these pictures.

I'm working on a career as a model for a sporting goods store.

From the video below, you'll get an idea about why going down the hill is so much fun...

R

First snowshoe of the season: Black Mountain!

Last Sunday morning Remi and I decided to head out for a snowshoe.  We'd planned on going up Seymour, but they were getting some snow and had four cars in the ditches on the way up.  They were strongly urging winter tires or chains (neither of which we have), so we opted to head out to Cypress instead.

The weather wasn't fantastic, but a break in the clouds gave us a neat view of the city.

We had some company. Whiskey Jacks hoping we'd share our granola bars.

They're a cute little bird and must be pretty smart too!  They came out of nowhere once we arrived and pulled out our snacks!

The hike out is always more fun - and much faster!

We tooled around in the fresh snow on the way out.  Always more fun than following the trail.

Hope all is well with our readers leading up to the holiday season!

Sarah & Remi

Sockeye

About 40 million sockeye decided to return to the Fraser this year. No one quite knows why there were so many, but it was neat for a brief period. On the way home from our last camping trip, we drove over a creek that was totally loaded with them.

Of course, this creek was near an artificial spawning channel, and there were more people than salmon, but we managed to ignore them (and they were too happy to ignore us, with our post-camping smoke smell).

It's neat seeing the fish make their way up the river. Hard to photograph though.

I like this shot.

It wouldn't be complete without a dead fish. Surprisingly, they don't really stink, it's more of an earthy smell. (they do stink)

We've been doing lots, we'll have more eventually.

R

Fall camping!

In mid-October Remi and I finally had the opportunity to do something he's been dying to do (and I've been trying to avoid) for a while: fall camping.  The weather was supposed to be nice and we'd just bought new sleeping bags (down ones that go to minus 11), so I conceded with the proviso that I would murder him if it was too cold.  

We left Saturday morning and headed east to Statlu Lake; a hike we've tried before but failed due to a washed out road.  There is now access from a different logging road up to the lake.

 It was not long before we came to this terrifyingly narrow, wet and slippery bridge suspended about 20 feet over a raging river (video to come).  There was a wire on one side which acted as a handrail and I was worried that Maggie wouldn't make it across alive.  She was cautious (for once) and Remi's lucky she didn't fall in ;)

We didn't take too many pictures on the way in as it wasn't very interesting.  Just woods.  Pretty, but no viewpoints or anything.  This is camp.  Luckily campfires are allowed or we probably would have frozen to death (I am exaggerating, but only slightly).

I'm on clinical rotations now, so I had homework to do.  I bought a Sony Reader, which is the best purchase I've made yet as far as the residency is concerned.  It reads PDF files so I can take journal articles everywhere!!  (insert giant nerd jokes here)

Maggie decided if we were going to drag her out to the wilderness and not let her in the tent as soon as the sun set, she would take my chair instead.

Having survived the night despite an inability to find the warming packs (Remi blamed me but they were later found in his camera bag), we awoke to a beautiful morning.  Unfortunately our campsite was not blessed with any sunshine.  It may get some in the summer when the sun is high, but certainly not this late in the season.  Maggie, as usual, cried before we left camp.

The hike out was lovely.  It was an absolutely gorgeous fall day.

Fall is also fungus season and I've rekindled my love of mushrooms and their kin.  I spent a good deal of time on the way out stopping to snap photos.

I lost my footing at one point (my leg fell into a giant hole below a tree) and instead of hitting the "off" button, I snapped this lovely photo on the way down.  Remi insisted I share ;)

 This is the death-defying river-crossing video, as promised.

Camping season is long over now and we're just waiting for snow on the mountains.  Snowshoeing season is upon us!!

Sarah & Remi

Bike Rides and Farm Tours!

Remi bought me a bicycle for my birthday this year (again out-doing me for gift ideas!!) and we've been out and about as much as we can so far this year.  I'm pretty sure there have been other rides, but I wasn't able to find them in our pictures.  The dragonflies are from a ride we did by the Seymour River.  They were mating and then ended up in the water.  While they dried off, Remi took a few shots.

These last are a couple videos of the Seymour River ride.  We're traveling quite quickly, as the videos clearly show!!

This next one is just our new bike rack.  We're still not sure if it will stay in place on the car, but we're hopeful!

 

The last couple pictures were of Stanley Park.  See the seal!  I spotted it from shore.  Some marine biologist Remi is ;)

 

We went on a farm tour the weekend before last out in Delta.  It was great fun and we picked up some fabulous produce.

I love the farms!!  I think I probably said "I could live out here" about a zillion times.

The last photo is the door of a winery we tried to visit.  We went inside and some woman was already in there talking to the lady behind the counter so Remi and I wandered around the store.  We wandered and wandered and wandered...  All the while the lady behind the counter sounded like she was trying to convince the woman that not all fruit wines were dessert wines and that she should really try some.  I ask you: what the eff was this woman doing at a FRUIT WINERY if she had no interest in fruit wines!!??  Finally she deigned to try some, decided to purchase a bottle and then they chatted for an extended period of time about this woman's upcoming trip to South Africa.  Remi and I finally decided to leave and as we're walking out the door the lady behind the counter says: "Oh, do you need help with something?"  And Remi mutters: "Forget it."  Did she think we were there to admire their decor??  Unbelievable!!  Perhaps we should have told her that we just bought four bottles at the fruit winery down the road and that we're not lowly, unemployed students (or whatever she thought we were) but were actually INTERESTED in wine!!

Ridiculous!!!

Pender Island

Last weekend we headed over to Pender Island, one of the small Gulf Islands, to meet up with some old friends from Guelph.  They were staying in a time-share in a very nice resort right on the ocean and they were nice enough to invite us over!

The ferry ride was very nice.  The weather was beautiful and Remi was able to take some nice pictures.

When we arrived Evan and Kristy greeted us and we went for a bit of a walk to a viewpoint.

Later that day we visited the island's winery.  Very tasty wines - we bought a few bottles :)

The next day it was a bit cloudier but we were still able to get out and enjoy being on the island.  If only there were jobs on these little islands!!  I actually spoke to a gentleman on the ferry who had a place on Main Island where he plans to retired.  Lucky guy!

 

 The second dog there is Kalo and Claire's dog, Shila.  She's a dwarf Siberian Husky!  It's a recessive trait that shows up once in a while in litters.  She's ADORABLE!!  Her and Maggie got along quite fabulously as well.  They played with Shila biting Maggie's paws and ears.  So cute!

We later rented canoes.  Which would have been fun except I am afraid of the ocean and Maggie kept moving around.  I was convince that she was going to tip us.  I cried and called Remi disrespectful of my feelings and demanded to be taken back to shore blah blah blah.  But we survived.  Maggie eventually settled down, but she will NOT be going canoeing with ME ever again.

 

When Remi and I arrived back on shore we waded to a little beach and started this mule deer.  Poor thing!  Maggie was quite fascinated by her!

This is a bruise from our walk the previous day.  I slipped on some wet branches and all my weight came down on this poor leg!  Serious blunt trauma!!  It's been four days and I'm STILL sore walking on it.

The last three pictures are from the ferry ride home.  An overnight just wasn't enough time to fully enjoy relaxing on the island!  It has strengthened our resolve to head over to Bowen Island with our bicycles for a day and to stay-cation on one or a few of the islands in B&Bs.  We need to treat ourselves sometimes, right?


Hope this finds everyone well!  Remember to leave your comments so we know you were here :)

Sarah & Remi