Sunday, September 28, 2008

What We Did On Our Summer Vacation


Bryson and Dad were invited to hike the west
coast trail. Seven days, six nights, 78km (49 mi)
carrying everything with you,... how could we refuse.
The ferry ride to Nanaimo (famous for bars)
would turn out to be the easy part.









...once we had our directions straight,
we started on the trail that has
something for everyone...





...sandy beach walks



















...regular bridges








...good friends











......shoreline walks


















....the oldest wooden lighthouse in Canada











....lots of ups
















...the loo
















.....the view
(Note the broken off door in the loo photo)
Together they make "The loo with a view!"
I can't remember ever having such peaceful
surroundings while straining to extrude
the excrement from my bowels. (you didn't
dare linger too long over the view without
someone standing gaurd however...surprise!)








I'm not sure Bryson brushed his teeth
the whole trip, but he did have at least
one welcome shower!








...cable car rides

the first half was great, then you had to pull
yourself the rest of the way across.....with a
little help from your friends on the platform.









Home sweet home,


















.....Spectacular flaura, fawna and scenery























































...Ferry rides across deep inlets













.....storm ravaged trail sections







a boo-boo or two,










....a fresh crab feast put on by the kind locals
who operate the ferries.









Shortcuts at low tide....if you are fast enough.











...forested trail







...and downs (or is this one of the ups???)









...and crazy bridges (that no-one ever
bounced you up and down to see if
you would get scared).









All for a picture with the sign post
at the end to say you did it!

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Life without kids.....

A Veterinary Dental Conference was a good "excuse" to get away to Maui. Martins came for awhile too. We all went up to Iao Valley for some site seeing.

Mumsie decided to try golfing. She was good at it. There will be no more "guys only" golf trips after this. (This was her birdie putt after putting her tee shot on the green.)

Then came scuba. This photo is out of order, sorry. More scuba to follow......
Martins came golfing too.

Back to scuba.....A great day for diving. We saw tons of fish, tons of turtles....
an octopus......

and a sea-monster named Gary.
Dad just hanging loose at 60 feet.
Mom came too but was shark bait on the surface.

Dad tried to move in on Bryson's crush......Twilla the surfing coach. But she's too young for him.

Mom did lots of gardening..........
Dad did more golfing..........
And then the old guys tried to kill themselves at Big Beach.
Gnarly wave dude!
He survived to tell the tale.

Then it was Captain Fuzzy and Polly Boy on the Die Hard. We had to be at the Lahaina docks at 3:00 am to catch our deep sea fishing adventure.
We caught a wack of Ahi and one guy even caught a 300 pound bull shark!

Fresh sushimi anyone?
Dad was in Sushi Heaven. Pass the Wasabi. Hey, this is our family in 5 years!