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

Ontariariari-O!

I went back to Ontario to visit my family in Southampton for the last week of August.  Mom and Dad picked me up in London (which was at least a zillion times easier than flying into Toronto, but which had an unfortunate stop over in Calgary at 12:30 AM for an hour...) at the "buttcrack" of dawn.  It was gorgeous and Remi would have LOVED the light, so I took a couple of pictures out of the moving car.  This was the best.

Keenan came over that afternoon, oh, with Kristin ;)  And we played on his bike.  He loves his bike, the swings, the slides and this crazy froggie (picture to come later) in the park near Mom and Dad's place.

It was very hot.  We hit the pool a couple of times.  Keenan was apprehensive at first, but after distracting him by tossing him in the air a few times, we got him to the centre of the pool.  After that, he was kicking away and loving it.

 We also hit the beach.  I love this picture with the Popsicle. He is soooooo serious about it!

Dad creamed me at horseshoes.  It was like 21 to 6 or something.  Pitiful!

This was the end of our main family day.  Ice cream on me :)

On the way back to Mom and Dad's Keenan got side-tracked.  This is the aforementioned froggie.  When they first arrived and we were playing horseshoes he took off and I thought he was running for Grandma and Grandpa who were across the pits.  But he burned right by them and over to the frog ;)

We played some badminton.  Keenan was actually really getting the hang of it.  He would put the birdie on his racket and try to fling it at the net ;)  So cute!

Dad got his plane out but we never went flying.  The hurricane hit the next day.

This was the day we babysat Keenan.  Mom read him to sleep :)

The waves were INCREDIBLE.  I've never seen it like this on Lake Huron!

Fish & Chips tradition :)

It was cold for the rest of my time there.  But we're always outside at Mom and Dad's - unless it's pouring - like it did A LOT in my last few days home.

It cleared up my last night home (Sunday of Labour Day weekend).  One of Kristin's friends came out so we had him take a family photo.  Dad is actually kinda smirking in this one - which is rare!  He either sticks his tongue out or looks angry.  Kind of like Alain with pictures, actually ;)

We went to the park at Port Elgin beach my last night.  There was supposed to be a carnival and fireworks, but it was canceled on account of the crazy winds.  I will admit to sort of Michael Jackson'ing Keenan here (dangling him over the edge), but it's such a cute picture!

Keenan loved to have Mommy swinging with him :)  That's Kristin's friend from high school, Damen

We stayed for the sunset and had ice cream and a train ride before we went back to Mom and Dad's place.  It was a very nice last evening to my trip :)

This picture was a total fluke my last morning in Ontario.  I just love how lazy Rosie is ;)

It was a great trip - very relaxing.  It's actually the first time I've been back to Ontario in the summer since moving to BC.  And I'd like to go back again!!!  Mom and Dad's summer place is soooooooooo nice - it was good to be home :)

Sarah